JUNE 123 



Street. She was the widow of two kings, JEthelred and 

 Cnut, and the mother of two more, Harthacnut and 

 Edward the Confessor. The benefactions of that clever 

 woman to the Old Minster of St. Swithun had secured 

 the goodwill of many of the clergy to her Norman kins- 

 folk ; though Bishop Stigand, the friend of Earl Godwin, 

 remained stoutly English. King Edward, too, though he 

 hated his mother, and avoided Winchester as much as 

 possible during her lifetime, had encouraged the Norman 

 idea consistently, and had hospitably received Duke 

 William, entertaining him in his chief castles. There 

 was, besides, a strong feeling among the clerics of 

 Winchester in favour of the race whose culture, as shown 

 by their literature and architecture, was far ahead of 

 anything hitherto attained in Anglo-Saxon England. 



But the New Minster espoused the national cause 

 against the foreigner. Under their stout abbot JElfwig, 

 uncle of the new King Harold, twelve monks and 

 twenty men-at-arms, well armed, well drilled, and with 

 suitable attendants, marched across the downs to join 

 their king at Hastings. After the decisive battle there, 

 when the victors came to strip the slain, they recognised 

 the monks of the New Minster by their Benedictine dress 

 under the mail a circumstance by no means overlooked 

 by William of Normandy when, amid the plaudits of the 

 brethren of St. Swithun, he set up his Court at ' Guin- 

 cestre.' Not only did he cause his new palace to be 

 built within the precincts of the New Minster, but he 

 deprived the monastery of 20,000 acres of good land. 



The next act of the Conqueror, however, put a severe 

 strain on the loyalty of his adherents in the capital. 

 This was the order for a severe inquisition into the extent 



