her children by Æthelred, whom she had not seen
since their boyhood, and to have concentrated her
love on her younger children by Cnut. When
the sentence of the Witenagemot, therefore, drove
her from Winchester, she took refuge not in Nor-
mandy, which was now backing the Ætheling Ead-
ward, but in Flanders. Her temper was active as
of old. From "Baldwin's land" her messengers
again pressed Harthacnut to strike a blow for his
heritage; and in the winter of 1039 he sailed to
Flanders to devise plans with his mother for a great
invasion, and returned to the north at the opening
of spring to put himself at the head of the fleet
which he was preparing. But death had already
removed his rival. In March, 1040, Harald Hare-
foot died at Oxford, and was carried to Westminster
for burial. When Harthacnut touched at Bruges
with his fleet he was met by the news that the
English Witan had chosen him for their king; and
in the following June he landed peacefully at Sand-
wich, with the fleet of sixty vessels which had been
gathered for the conquest of the kingdom. The
fierce vengeance of the young sovereign, it may be
of Emma, tore up his predecessor's body from its
resting-place and flung it into a fen. Godwine
again found himself in hard straits. He had to
clear himself by solemn oath of the charge of be-
trayal of Ælfred brought against him by Archbishop
Æfric. All memory of the stand he had made for
the succession of Harthacnut was lost in the fresher
memory of his submission to Harald. But costly
gifts enabled him to retain his earldom through
Harthacnut's reign. The two years of the young

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