Comic History of England

arold I. and Hardicanute, a pair of unpopular rei

n, a man of great influence and educated to a high degree for his time, able indeed, it is said,

candidate, reigned from

nd together they lure

and Edward-to town,

out Alfred's eyes,

Harefoot" by those who were intimate enough t

dy ever had a more general app

r some weeks he and dyspepsia had it all their own way on Piccadilly. (Report says that he drank! Several times

"KING HAROLD

d thrown into a fen. This a-fensive act showed what a great big broad nature

and his life, he proved an alibi, or spasmodic paresis, or something, and, having stood a compurgation and "ordeal" trial, was released. The historian very truly but inelegantly says, if memory serves the writer

apers, and had not formed or expressed an opinion, and that their minds were in a state of complete vacancy. It was a sort of primary jury, a

n: "ORDEAL"

ut without these he had to stand what was called the "ordeal," which consisted in walking on hot ploughshares without expressing a derogatory opinion regarding the ploughshares or showing

n: DYING BET

In those times it was a common thing for the king or some of the nobility to die between the roast pig and the pork pie

hog cholera thinned out the nobility a good deal

h yoke. "Why wear the Danish yoke," they

nd chosen king. Godwin, who seemed to be specially gifted as a ver

in modern American politics to signify a reluctan

r, as she had failed repeatedly to assist him when he was an outcast, and afterwards the new king placed her in jail (o

of Canterbury was given to a Norman. The See saw how it was going, no doubt, and accepted the position. But let us pass on rapidly to something else, for thereby

DWARD STRIPS EMM

Boulogne and author of the sausage which bears his name, committed an act of violence against the people of Dove

latter, who, with his sons, was compelled to flee. But later he returned, and his

WIN AND HIS SONS F

time when that was just what they needed. An earldom then was not a mere empty title with nothing in it but a blue sash and a scorbutic temperament, but it g

eak of, called home Edward "the Outlaw," son of Edmund Ironside, to succeed to the thron

ed Harold, the heir apparently, to Normandy, and while under the influence of stimulants compelled Harold to swear that he would sustain William's claim to the throne. The wily William also inse

LLIAM COMPELLING

buried in Westminster Abbey, which had

so felt that he could reign easily by beginning modera

Fridays for scrofula, or "king's evil." He also made a set of laws that were an improvement on some of the old ones. He was

OF NORMANDY LEARNS THAT

on line; but other self-made Sax

one, and Harold II. accepted the portfolio. He was crowned at Westminster on the day of King Edward's burial. This infuriated William of

am was! He got down his

ired an outing

parley, and the king told Tostig the best he could do with him. "And what can you give my ally, Hardrada?" queried the astute Tostig. "Seven feet of English ground," answered the king, roguishly, "or possibly more, as Hardrada is rather taller than

upied a double grave on the right-h