Scandinavian-Britain

1 68 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAINhalf Danish daughter became queen of England;and these examples are only typical of the dividedinterests of a realm consisting of half-a-dozen differentterritories having no common traditions, and inhabitedof themby groups of peoples varying in origin, manynew-comers, and all of them more concerned withpetty aspirations and animosities than with patrioticideals. We do them wrongif we blame theirblindness. "England," in the sense we attach tothe word, as the expression of a national unit, didnot exist.For example, there was nothing to prevent an" Englishman," now that the trade was learnt, fromturning Viking himself, and playing the pirate on hisnative shores. Osgod Clapa, king's " minister," beingexiled, in 1049 returned with a fleet, part of whichattacked Walton-on-the-Naze. Svein, the eldest sonof God wine, at the same time kidnapped andmurdered his cousin Bjorn of Wessex. Harold, thehero of the English, when his family was " under acloud," took refuge in Dublin, and in 1052 came backto ravage Devon, and then, joining his father Godwine,who had brought a fleet from Flanders, attacked Kentuntil the king yielded and reinstated them. ^ElfgarLeofric's son, Harold's rival, imitated him twice over(1055 and 1058), regaining his earldom with the helpfirst of Irish Danes, and finally with a great fleet ofNorse from the Isles. But the most characteristicand unscrupulous of these English Vikings wasTosti, son of Godwine, whose fatal adventure shooknot only the Danelaw but the whole fabric of Anglo-