De miserabili morte Godwini comitis.
Godwin's Treachery
Godwin exploited King Edward's trusting nature, abused his power, and conspired to isolate the king from his supporters.
But since we have happened once again to speak of Godwin, I think it worth recording how the avenging wrath of divine judgment paid him the wages of his betrayals, and exacted the penalty for that detestable crime he had committed against the king and his brother, while the people looked on. For he, exploiting the king's straightforward nature, was doing many things in the kingdom against right and wrong, relying on his own power, and he often tried to sway the king's mind to go along with his wickedness. In the end his cunning went so far that he worked to destabilize, by fraud, deceit, and manipulation, nearly all the king's relatives and friends — both the bishops and the clergy of other ranks, and the laymen too — whom he had brought over or summoned from Normandy, believing that everything would go his way if only the king, stripped of his key supporters, had to rely solely on his counsel.
The King's Patience
King Edward bore Godwin's wickedness with restraint, entrusting vengeance to God's justice.
But Edward, making the best of the moment, the occasion, and his religious commitments, held it all in check and gave himself to the duties of God's service, proclaiming that God's justice would avenge such great wickedness on the part of the earl, and at times even saying as much directly to Godwin himself.
The Fatal Banquet
At a royal feast, an ironic exchange between Godwin and the king led Godwin to invoke divine judgment on himself with a morsel of food.
Then on a certain day that was being celebrated among the people, when the king was seated at his royal table with Godwin present, while they were dining one of the servants stumbled rather violently over someone's foot and nearly fell, but the other foot, moving forward with a steady step, set him back upright again without any harm done. When several people were talking among themselves about this, and congratulating each other that one foot had come to the aid of the other, the earl remarked as if in jest: "That's a brother helping a brother, and one man coming to another's rescue in a time of need." And the king said to the earl: "My friend would have done the same for me, if Godwin had allowed it." At these words Godwin was deeply shaken, and putting on a thoroughly gloomy expression, he said: "I know, O king, I know — your heart still accuses me over the death of your brother, and you still think those who call me a traitor, whether yours or his, are not to be disbelieved. But let God, who is aware of all secrets, be the judge, and may He make this morsel I am holding in my hand pass through my throat and keep me unharmed, since I am guilty of no betrayal against you and have no part in your brother's death on my conscience."
The Traitor's End
Godwin choked on the very morsel he had used in his oath and died, as the king and onlookers witnessed divine vengeance fulfilled.
He had spoken, and was bringing the morsel to his mouth, when he pulled it as far as the middle of his throat. He tries to draw it inward, but he cannot; he tries to push it out, but it sticks fast. Soon the passages through which breath was being drawn are blocked, his eyes roll back, and his arms grow stiff. The king looked at him dying miserably, and perceiving that divine vengeance had closed in on him, he addressed those standing by: 'Drag out,' he said, 'this dog.' His sons ran forward, and dragged him from under the table into the bedchamber, where after a short while the end that was appointed for a traitor overtook him.
Read the original Latin
Sed quia iterato sermonem incidimus de Godwino, inserendum arbitror quemadmodum eum proditionum suarum donatum stipendiis divini judicii ultrix ira consumpserit, detestandique facinoris quod in regem fratremque ejus commiserat, populo spectante ipsam quam meruerat poenam exsolverat. Ille enim simplicitate regis abutens, multa in regno contra jus et fas pro potestate faciebat, et ad suae iniquitatis consensum saepe regis animum inclinare tentabat. Tandem cousque ejus processit astutia, ut omnes fere regis cognatos et amicos quos de Normannia vel adduxerat vel vocaverat, tam episcopos quam aliarum dignitatum clericos et laicos, fraude, dolo, circumventione de patria perturbaret, credens sibi cuncta pro votis [successura] si necessariis nudatus amicis suis tantum uteretur rex consiliis. At Edwardus pro loco, pro tempore, pro religione cuncta dissimulans divinis vacabat obsequiis, Dei justitiam tantam ducis ultum iri malitiam praedicens, aliquando etiam illud ipsum ipsi Godwino non tacens. Die itaque quadam quae populo celebris habebatur, cum rex, praesente Godwino, mensis regalibus assideret, inter prandendum unus ministrorum in obicem aliquem immoderatius uno pede impingens pene lapsum incurrit, quem tamen pes alius recto gressu procedens iterum in statum suum nihil injuriae passum erexit. De hoc eventu pluribus inter se loquentibus, et quod pes pedi subvenerit gratulantibus, comes quasi ludendo intulit: «Sic est frater fratrem adjuvans et alter alteri in necessitate subveniens.» Et rex ad ducem: «Hoc, inquit, meus mihi fecisset si Godwinus hoc permisisset.» Ad hanc vocem Godwinus expavit, et tristem admodum praeferens vultum: «Scio, ait, o rex, scio, adhuc de morte fratris tui tuus me accusat animus, nec adhuc eis aestimas discredendum, qui me vel ejus, vel tuum vocant proditorem; sed secretorum omnium conscius Deus judicet, et sic bucellam hanc quam manu teneo guttur meum faciat pertransire et me servet illaesum, sicut nec tuae proditionis reus, nec de fratris tui nece mihi conscius existo.»
Dixerat, et buccellam inferens ori, usque in gutturis medium protraxit. Tentat interius trahere, nec valuit; tentat emittere, sed haesit firmius. Mox meatus quibus ducebatur spiritus occluduntur, evertuntur oculi, brachia rigescunt. Intuetur rex infeliciter morientem, et ultionem sentiens in eum processisse divinam, astantes alloquitur: «Extrahite, inquiens, canem istum.» Occurrunt filii, protractumque de sub mensa thalamis inferunt, ubi post modicum debitum proditori sortitus est finem.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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