Morcar and Edwin, two brothers,
who possessed great power in those parts, and who were grandsons of
the great duke, Leofric, concurred in the insurrection; and the former,
being elected duke, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who was
commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians.
Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with the
generous disposition of the English commander, endeavored to justify
his own conduct. He represented to Harold, that Tosti had behaved in a
manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced, and no one, not
even a brother, could support such tyranny, without participating,
in some degree, of the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians,
accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their
birthright, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governor
who would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had been
taught by their ancestors, that death was preferable to servitude, and
had taken the field determined to perish, rather than suffer a renewal
of those indignities to which they had so long been exposed; and they
trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another that
violent conduct, from which he himself in his own government, had always
kept at so great a distance.
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