[** Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p.237]
The same reasons had probably made her unpopular in England; and though
her benefactions to the monks obtained her the favor of that order, the
nation was not, in general, displeased to see her stripped by Edward
of immense treasures which she had amassed. He confined her, during the
remainder of her life, in a monastery at Winchester; but carried his
rigor against her no farther. The stories of his accusing her of
a participation in her son Alfred's murder, and of a criminal
correspondence with the bishop of Winchester, and also of her justifying
herself by treading barefoot, without receiving any hurt, over nine
burning ploughshares, were the inventions of the monkish historians, and
were propagated and believed from the silly wonder of posterity.[*]
[* Higden, p. 277.]
The English flattered themselves that, by the accession of Edward, they
were delivered forever from the dominion of foreigners; but they soon
found that this evil was not yet entirely removed. The king had been
educated in Normandy, and had contracted many intimacies with the
natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners.
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