Scholarly Info
| Description |
In 1065 Tosti 2 was at the king [Edward 15's] court, dealing with some palace business which had been put on him. Meanwhile, a party of nobles, whom Tosti 2 had repressed with the heavy yoke of his rule because of their misdeeds, conspired against him. The broke into his house, killed those of his knights who were surprised and could not get away, and finally with fire and sword laid waste all his possessions. To give them authority for their savage rashness, they made the younger son of Earl Ælfgar 46 [Morcar 3] their leader and lord, and invited his elder brother [Edwin 33] to join their mad conspiracy, for there was ill will from long-standing rivalry between these boys of royal stock and Earl Tosti 2. Anyone put on the list by any member of that band out of personal enmity was ordered to be killed either by open force or in ambush. Many were slaughtered in the cities of York and Lincoln, in the streets, on water, in woods, and on roads. Whosoever could be identified as having been at some time a member of Tosti 2's household was dragged to the torments of death without trial. The rebels gathered together in an immense body, and, having passed some distance beyond the boundary of the Middle Angles, they came in hostile array to Oxford town. King Edward 15 sent them through messengers goodly orders, to desist from the madness they had begun and receive right and justice for every injury which they could prove against him. But they rejected the conciliatory message, and replied to the king that either he should straightaway dismiss that earl [Tosti 2] of his from his person and the whole kingdom, or he himself would be treated as an enemy and have all them as enemies. And when the most gracious king had a second and third time though messengers tried to turn them from their mad purpose, and failed, he moved from the forests, in which he was as usual staying for the sake of hunting, to Britford, a royal manor near the royal town of Wilton. And when he had summoned the magnates from all over the kingdom, he took counsel there on what was to be done. Not a few charged that glorious earl with being too cruel; and he was accused of punishing disturbers more of desire of their property which would be confiscated than for the love of justice. It was also said, if it be worthy of credence, that they had undertaken this madness against their earl at the artful persuasion of his brother, Earl Harold 3. Earl Tosti 2, publicly testifying before the king and his assembled courtiers, charged him with this; but Harold 3, rather too generous with oaths, cleared this charge too with oaths. When the rebels, after many negotiations with the king through messengers, would not agree, but rather raged more furiously, Edward 15 stirred up the whole population of the rest of England by a royal edict and decided to crush them by force. But because of changeable weather was already setting in from hard winter, it was not easy to raise a sufficient number of troops. Seeing this, Edward 15 fell ill with a sickness of the mind.
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1065 |
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