Scandinavian-Britain

THE DOWNFALL OF THE DANELAW 167Viking ruler as his father had been the reverse.Soured by ill-health and the spoilt child of an ambitiousand often disappointed mother, king of Denmark inhis " teens " and king of England also at twenty ortwenty-one, he spent his short reign in exactions,quarrels and violent revenges, and died suddenly, asevery schoolboy reads, after drinking at a wedding-feastin Lambeth, 1042. His half-brother Eadward theConfessor reigned in his stead.6. THE DOWNFALL OF THE DANELAW.Eadward's reign was disturbed throughout by astruggle between the Anglo-Scandinavians and theFranco-Scandinavians. The king, half Norman bybirth and wholly Norman by training, failed only bywant of energy to make England as Norman ashimself. On the other side were not merely theDanish and Norse populations of the Danelaw, butthe family of God wine, by Kniit's favour ruler ofSouthern England and the husband of the Danishlady Gyda, sister to jarl Ulf. Ulf had married Kniit'ssister 'Astrid ;their son Svein, nephew by marriage toGodwine, was heir to the throne of Svein Forkbeard.It was only by the promise of succession at Eadward'sdeath that he was induced to forego his claim uponEngland and content himself with the endeavour towin Denmark, an endeavour in which he succeeded.His brother Bjorn became earl of Wessex ;Godwine's