It was a fortnight before the doctors were able to state with
any confidence that the young thane was on the road towards recovery, and
still another month before he had gained sufficient strength to be carried
in a litter to London.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE NORTHERN INVASION.
The news of Harold's marriage to Ealdgyth put an end to the demands of
William of Normandy that Harold should take one of his daughters to wife,
and in the complaints that he addressed to all Christendom against Harold
the breach of his promise in this respect was placed far more prominently
than his failure to carry out his oath to be the duke's man. It must have
been evident indeed to all that it was beyond the power of the English king
to keep this oath, obtained from him by force and treachery. He had been
elected by the voice of the English people, and had no more power than the
meanest of his subjects to hand the crown they had bestowed to another.
The breach of this oath, however, served to obtain all the aid that the
church could give to William. Harold was solemnly excommunicated, and the
struggle for which the duke was preparing thereupon assumed the character
of a sacred war. In England itself the Bull of excommunication had no
effect whatever. The great bulk of bishops and clergy were Englishmen, and
thought far more of their king than of any foreign prince or prelate. Even
the bishops and abbots of Norman blood disregarded the commination, and
remained staunch to Harold.
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