SOURCE: "Havelok the Dane: A Thirteenth-Century Handbook for Princes," Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies, Vol. LI, No. 4, October, 1976, pp. 602-23.

[In the following essay, Staines contends that Havelok the Dane is primarily an idealized biography of a ruler perfectly embodying the best kingly characteristics, and that the author's political motive in writing the tale was to advise the king of the wishes of his subjects.]

The thirteenth-century English romance of Havelok the Dane is unique among the medieval accounts of Havelok's career because it is more than a retelling of Havelok's life. Whereas many romances rework traditional material to offer yet another episodic narration, the English romancer turns to the Havelok story because it offers interesting parallels to the contemporary political situation which he can develop in the course of his narration. Two earlier versions of the story, the account in Gaimar's L'Estoire des Engleis and the Lai d'Haveloc, do present straightforward narrations of Havelok's rise from banished heir to the Danish throne to king of Denmark and England. Havelok the Dane, however, adapts and expands its source material in order to create a portrait of the growth and education of the ideal king. By seeing the correspondences between the world of Havelok and Edward I's England and incorporating them into his version of the Havelok tale, the poet creates a romance which is a mirror of thirteenth-century political life and a portrait of the ideal king delineated from the point of view of the lower classes. This portrait emerges as a warning to the thirteenth-century English monarchy of the needs and the demands of the lower classes.

After the Norman Conquest the folk tradition of Havelok flourished in England. Here was a vivid example of the male Cinderella motif, the young orphan deprived of his kingdom and unaware of his regal parentage. When the English romancer came to employ the Havelok tradition, he found a story which had been the subject of frequent poetic reworkings. Before we can properly approach the remarkable portrait of the hero of the English romance, we need to survey the presentation of Havelok in the romance's analogues. Then we will be able to comprehend more fully the uniqueness of the English romancer's reworking of his material.

The earliest account of the Havelok story appears in Geffrei Gaimar's L 'Estoire des Engleis, an Anglo-Norman chronicle history written between 1135 and 1140. Gaimar was writing an Anglo-Norman translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a sequel to his translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the course of his translating, he moved to Lincolnshire where he became acquainted with the local legends concerning Havelok; unwilling to omit such an interesting story from his history, he placed it shortly after the death of Arthur. During the reign of Arthur's nephew Constantine, two British kings, Adelbert and Edelsie, strengthened their friendship through Adelbert's marriage to Orwain, Edelsie's sister. Adelbert's early death put his daughter Argentille in her uncle's power; in order to obtain Argentille's inheritance, Edelsie married her to Havelok, his lowly cook.¹

Gaimar describes the young cook in detail. First of all, Havelok is physically attractive:

Mes mult esteit bel vadletun;
Bel vis aveit e beles mains,
Cors eschiwid, süef e plains,
Li suen semblanz ert tut tens liez,
Beles jambes ot e bels piez.²
(104-108)

(He was a very handsome young man. He had a fine face, good hands, a graceful body, sweet and smooth. His expression was always cheerful. He had fine legs and good feet.)

His exceptional strength complements his handsome physique; he can overpower and defeat any groom in the household. Gaimar notes that the cook never fights merely for the sake of victory; indeed, he is happiest when he and his opponent embrace in mutual esteem. Between the nobility and the cook exists an uncommon bond of respect:

Pur ço qu'esteit si bien amez
E si preisiez e si loez,
N'aveit francs hum en la meisun,
Si Cuaran en voleit dun,
Ke ne lie dunast volentiers.
(137-141)

(On account of this, he was so well loved, respected, and praised that there was no free man in the household who, if Cuaran wanted a gift, would not give it to him willingly.)

Havelok's generosity eclipses the kindness of the knights: "Quanqu'il aveit, trestut dunot / Mes nule rien ne demandot" (When he had anything, he gave it all away, but he never asked anyone for anything). In his employment, Havelok is assisted by his two supposed nephews, who are of a noticeably inferior rank. Though he is of low estate, the cook, according to Gaimar, comes of "gentil lif."

After the seemingly ignoble marriage of Argentille and Havelok, Gaimar focuses upon the naivete and immaturity of the protagonist. On their wedding night, Havelok did not know what to do; as soon as he came to bed, he fell asleep. During the night Argentille sees a flame in her husband's mouth and becomes frightened when Havelok is able to offer no explanation. Bewailing the dishonor in which they live at the court, she decides that they should visit his relatives. An always passive and obedient husband meekly replies: "Jo f[e]rai co que vus volez, / La vus merrai, si vus loez" (I will act in whatever way you wish. I will take you there if you wish).

When the couple visits his relatives in Grimsby, Kelloc, the daughter of Grim, Havelok's supposed father, feels obliged to tell Havelok his true lineage; she fears, however, that if he learns it, he will also learn what great harm may come to him. Like Gaimar, Kelloc has serious reservations about his maturity: "II nen est mie si savant, / Qu'il saced cuvrir sun talent" (He is not wise enough that he knows how to hide his desire). When Kelloc does disclose the truth, she advises him to return to Denmark; in addition, she prepares his provisions and arranges all the details for the journey. As he assumes the course of destiny his royal parentage demands of him, Havelok remains an almost wholly passive individual.

In Denmark, Havelok and his companions stay at the home of Sigar, the faithful steward of Havelok's father. In an attempted abduction of Argentille, Havelok shows his superior strength by killing two of his opponents, disabling three others, and cutting off the hand of the remaining villain. For their own protection, Havelok and his company flee to a nearby church where they defend themselves by hurling stones at the attackers. When Sigar arrives, he regards Havelok with amazement: "A sun seignur si resemblot / Que quant le vit, tel pitied ot / Qu'a mult grant paine pot parler" (He resembled his lord so much that when he saw him he took such pity on him that he could speak only with great difficulty). Because of the resemblance, Sigar stops the fighting and listens to Havelok's account of his lineage. The following night, he sees the flame in Havelok's mouth, a further proof of royal blood. One final test remains; Havelok must blow his father's horn, which can be sounded only by the Danish king or his rightful heir. A magic ring of infinite power awaits the man who can blow the horn. Declaring openly that he has never blown such an instrument, Havelok refuses even to make an attempt. Forcefully prodded by Sigar, he reluctantly agrees to try the horn; his immediate success leads to Sigar's acknowledgement of Havelok as his lord. In five days, forty thousand men are assembled to support the heir; the wicked king is soon defeated and Havelok is proclaimed king.

In the final episode of Gaimar's account, Havelok openly defies Edelsie to return to Argentille her proper possessions. Edelsie's refusal leads to war. In the subsequent battle, Havelok's success depends solely upon a clever military scheme devised by his wife. Fifteen days later Edelsie dies and the barons offer the English kingdom to Havelok, who rules for the next twenty years.

Gaimar's Havelok is a markedly royal figure whose nobility has been submerged but not destroyed by his lowly upbringing. Gaimar carefully observes a distinction between the nobility and the common people. At Edelsie's court, Havelok and his assistants are not of the same natural nobility; Havelok is united with the nobles in kindness and generosity. Even amid menial occupations true nobility asserts itself. In this early nascent rendition of the male Cinderella motif, Havelok's ignorance of his true identity complements the strain of passivity in his character to create a protagonist who never assumes active command of his own destiny.

In the latter half of the twelfth century an anonymous writer retold this story of a princely figure in a humble disguise. He may have reworked Gaimar or reworked Gaimar's lost source.³ Whichever he did, his poem, the Lai d'Haveloc, follows the general pattern of Gaimar's story. But it imposes a courtly tone: the author adds courtly details and employs the Breton lai framework. And—what is most important for our purposes—he presents the hero in a different manner.

In this second Anglo-Norman version the background story, the tale which explains how a prince came to appear in the guise of a cook, is not left as a mystery to be discovered; it is introduced at the very beginning of the story. In the final days of his war with King Arthur, Gunter, Havelok's father, fears for the safety of the royal family and entrusts his wife and son to Grim, a baron. Aware of the ruthless ambitions of Gunter's enemies, Grim flees to England to protect the prince. During the sea voyage, a pirate attack leaves Havelok motherless. When the survivors reach England, the always wary Grim takes a final precaution: "Grim li ot fet changer sun nun / Ke par tant nel con[e]ust l'um" (Grim had made him change his name so that, because of this, no one would know his identity).⁴

The emphasis in the Lai falls on Havelok's role as heir to the throne. Not only does Grim depart from Denmark for Havelok's safety, but he sends him away from Grimsby because he believes the town is not the proper place for a prince's education. Grim's final exhortation attests to Havelok's kingly calling: "A tote gent te fai amer" (Make yourself beloved by all people).

Havelok's employment in Alsi's court leads to his marriage to Argentille, the king's niece. Havelok's strength is continually stressed because the union of Havelok and Argentille depends upon Alsi's oath to her dead father that she will marry the strongest man in the realm. Therefore, the poet reports Havelok's many feats of strength. Ten of the strongest men cannot withstand him; twelve men cannot lift the burdens Havelok alone can bear.

At the court, however, Havelok's kindness does not create a bond of friendship between Havelok and the nobility; because of his generosity the nobles "Le teneient entr'els a sot, / De lui feseient lur deduit" (thought him a fool and made fun of him). The English court is more wicked than its counterpart in Gaimar. Alsi is a more shameful villain; his manipulation of the marriage secures his own position and he takes a demonic delight in thinking of the shame Argentille will face as the "queen of kettles."

These details give the second Anglo-Norman version a more refined tone; in this courtly account the naive innocence of Gaimar's betrothed Havelok is absent. On their wedding night, Havelok and Argentille have great shame of each other, but the reason is now quite different; Havelok is ashamed of the flame in his mouth. In time they do come to love each other, though Havelok still remains ignorant about the meaning of the flame. In a scene absent from Gaimar's version, Argentille visits a hermit who explains the flame as a sign of Havelok's royal lineage; the hermit prophesies the great future that this young couple will have as king and queen. Consequently, Argentille insists that Havelok learn his true identity by returning to Grimsby; an acquiescent Havelok willingly obeys her request.

The narrative follows the general structure of Gaimar's account. Only in the final episode does the character of Havelok become more clearly defined. Here Havelok's concern for his men appears. In the campaign against Hodulf, the Danish ruler, Havelok takes pity on his supporters; lest they be killed in the fighting, he issues a personal challenge to his opponent. When Hodulf is killed, his people ask Havelok for mercy and the noble Havelok offers immediate pardon to all. The subsequent episode, Havelok's return to England, is now motivated only by Argentille's petitioning that her territories be recovered. In the battle against the English, Havelok becomes distressed about his men's safety:

Aveloc fu mult irascuz
Pur ses homes k'il ot perduz;
Od ses Daneis s'en fust alez,
E a sa navie returnez,
Si la reine li suffrist.
(1055-1059)

(Havelok was very angry about the men he had lost. He would have gone back with his Danes and returned to his fleet if the queen would have allowed it.)

Grim sent Havelok into the world to "aprendre sens a aveir quere" (attain wisdom and seek profit); Havelok has become a mature individual capable of powerful action and selfless thinking. Less passive than his counterpart in Gaimar, he is now a regal figure whose education among the common people has made him aware of the obligations demanded of a monarch on behalf of his subjects. In the Lai, this awareness is reflected primarily, indeed solely, in the concern of Havelok as a military leader for the lives of his men.

Opening in Denmark instead of England, the Lai expands the roles of Havelok and Argentille into greater prominence than they received in Gaimar. Their new importance can be partially attributed to the natural difference between an historical chronicle and a Breton lai. In addition, however, Havelok has grown as a literary figure; he is now less passive, less naive, a prince showing evidence of understanding his own regal position.

Both versions of the Havelok tale seriously question the propriety of calling Havelok a hero. Though he does exhibit extraordinary strength, though he does perform deeds of strength and valor, though he does display fortitude and greatness of soul, he remains basically a passive individual. A hero is essentially a man who desires to accomplish some good deed, a man who conceives of himself as having a specific role to play in this world. Whatever qualifying traits apply to a hero, he must reveal some degree of activity, some degree of conscious commitment, in his attempt to accomplish his aspiration. Though there is a movement from Gaimar to the Lai whereby Havelok does become a more active individual, there still exists a strain of passivity in his character. If Grim had not had faith in Havelok's ultimate return to the Danish throne, Havelok might well have remained in Grimsby. Thus Grim's faith seems to substitute for Havelok's as yet undeveloped sense of responsibility and mission in life. This element of passivity is a trait which the English romancer must subsume within the total character of Havelok if his protagonist is to emerge as a hero.⁵

The thirteenth-century English version of the Havelok story differs markedly from these Anglo-Norman accounts. There are similarities in proper names, in physical descriptions, and in certain actions, yet the deliberate intention underlying the poet's reworking of the tale significantly alters the presentation of Havelok. The English romancer may have known the Anglo-Norman versions or he may have known only their ultimate source.⁶ Whatever his source may have been, however, he employed the material to make the romance genre the vehicle for the depiction of an ideal king; more importantly, at the same time he made this depiction the vehicle for a critical overview of the contemporary political situation and the desires and complaints of the lower classes. For the moment, let us study the kinds of incidents and descriptions that now surround Havelok. Then, when we return to study Havelok within the full context of the poem, we will be able to see clearly the particular kind of hero the romancer is creating.

Havelok first appears in the fatal meeting with his protector Godard. In order to secure the throne for his own posterity, Godard decides to kill Havelok and his two sisters. Havelok's reactions to this treachery are those of any young boy in such a dilemma; horrified at the thought of his own death, he begs his assailant to spare his life. Havelok is quite clearly a "seli knaue." There is no trace of imposing regality in his pleading; his is the voiced desperation of a young boy who has already witnessed the brutal slaughter of his two sisters. His plea does momentarily affect Godard, who finds himself assenting to the boy's wishes: "þer was mirácle fair and god, / þat he þe knaue nought ne slou, / But for rewnesse him with-drow." Through active entreaty of his loathed enemy, Havelok saves his own life.

Godard's pity is short-lived. He commands Grim, a fisherman, to drown the child. Before the drowning can take place, however, Grim and his wife see the light in Havelok's mouth. The light is only the first revelation of his true identity. On his shoulder is a birthmark which indicates his royal lineage. In contrast with the preceding scene, Havelok's power is now inborn; his own person should and does command respect and submission. Whereas a pleading Havelok caused Godard to forego his slaughtering, Grim respects Havelok's identity:

  Þis ure eir
Þat shal [ben] louerd of Denemark,
He shal ben king, strong and stark;
He shal hauen in his hand
Al Denemark and Engeland.
(606-610)

After Grim's family arrives in England, Havelok perceives the burden his presence adds to Grim's impoverished household. As soon as Havelok realizes that he must work for his livelihood, the poet begins to develop Havelok's innate nobility. A reasonable and responsible boy, Havelok displays a wholesome attitude to labor:

It is no shame forto swinken;
Þe man þat may wel eten and drinken
[Þar] nouht ne haue but on swink long;
To liggen at hom it is ful strong.
(799-802)

Without any regard for his royal background, he joins Grim's family in their work and excels at every menial task he undertakes. Later, confronted with the possible starvation of his family, Grim advises Havelok to go to Lincoln to earn a living.

The poet carefully enumerates the many lowly jobs which Havelok willingly and successfully accomplishes in assisting Bertram, the earl's cook. The cook listens attentively to the distinctly lower-class occupations Havelok can perform (911-920); Havelok's extraordinary strength and his ingratiating personality gain him immediate employment. In his delineation of Havelok's. abilities, the poet pauses to note his serene temperament:

Of alle men was he mest meke,
Lauhwinde ay, and bliþe of speke;
Euere he was glad and bliþe,
His sorwe he couþe ful wel miþe.
(945-948)

In contrast to the situation in the Lai but similar to the episode in Gaimar, the people at the court do not think Havelok a fool; his generosity, his kindness, and his strength win their respect. The cook feels such pity for his assistant that he finds "clobes, al spannewe" for him. The poet completes this portrait with his personal comment:

It was neuere man Oat yemede
In kineriche, Þat so wel semede
King or cayser forto be,
Þan he was shrid, so semede he.
(975-978)

In Lincoln as in Grimsby, Havelok continues to display his strength. He is taller than "Þe meste þat þer kem." In wrestling, he can overthrow any opponent. Yet for all his strength, he is "softe"; despite a man's cruelty to him, he "no hond on him with yuele leyde." Such physical excellence and self-control are surpassed only by his moral purity, a trait not mentioned in earlier versions of the story:

Of bodi was he mayden clene;
Neuere yete in game, ne in grene,
With hire ne wolde [he] leyke ne lye,
No more þan it were a strie.
(995-998)

The English Havelok is a distinctly active and unselfish individual, not only the victim of certain situations, but also the instigator of many of the plot developments. Except for his departure from Grimsby, which is prompted by Grim, and his conveniently forced marriage to Goldeboru, Havelok is a free-thinking and self-motivated man. The journey back to Grimsby is prompted neither by a dream nor by wifely insistence. In great detail, Havelok surveys his situation after his marriage; realizing their shameful plight at the court, he decides that they should go to Grimsby.

During their first night at Grimsby, Goldeboru sees the flame in her husband's mouth and the golden red cross on his shoulder. An angel's voice speaks a prophecy reminiscent of Grim's outburst: "He shal ben king, strong and stark, / Of Engelond and Denemark." Havelok's simultaneous dream of conquering all of England and Denmark also underlines the theme of the destined role that has fallen to Havelok. Goldeboru's eagerness to begin their trip to Denmark enkindles Havelck's nascent ambition. Yet before they embark, Havelok observes simple religious practices: he prays to God that he will avenge the murder of his sisters; he says the rosary; he leaves an offering on the altar. Havelok's religious piety is another trait mentioned only in this version of the tale.

From the time when Havelok reaches Denmark, the poet's emphasis falls not on Havelok as the strong man but on Havelok as the noble king. The entire episode at Ubbe's castle indicates this shift in stress. As always, Havelok excels at his vocation, which is now that of a merchant. Yet the noble Ubbe instinctively recognizes Havelok's worth: "Betere semede him to bere / Helm on heued, sheld and spere, / kanne to beye and selle ware." Reminiscent of the earlier scene in Grim's cottage, the episode is significant because no supernatural signs as yet inform Ubbe of Havelok's lineage; Ubbe is rightly puzzled that the merchant is so "hende." With the subsequent recognition through the flame and the birthmark, Ubbe displays proper loyalty to his prince by assuming the role of dutiful and helpful subject; he assembles all the barons from the surrounding areas to pay homage to their true lord.

With the restoration of Denmark to peace and harmony, Havelok returns with his forces to England to regain his wife's lawful possessions. Unlike the Anglo-Norman accounts, the English romance does not make Goldeboru's insistent pleas the basis for this final expedition. An actively zealous monarch capable of forming his own decisions and acting upon them, Havelok sets out to restore justice to his wife's homeland. In a further distinction from earlier versions, Havelok's battle with Godrich, the English usurper, includes his admiration for his opponent's manly prowess and strength; he appreciates those particular qualities the poet has already associated with Havelok himself. In a display of magnanimity, Havelok offers to pardon Godrich if the usurper restores the kingdom. Havelok's kindness has no effect on the thoroughly evil traitor.

The final episode of the poem is the description of the homage England pays to Havelok and Goldeboru. Since the country rightly belongs to his wife, Havelok refuses to pass judgment on Godrich; he surrenders his victim to his wife for sentencing. Moreover, he refuses to accept the fealty of the English people until they have accepted and acknowledged his wife as their lawful queen. As an exemplary leader of military forces, Havelok rewards his faithful followers and punishes his opponents. As an ideal ruler of the country, he makes the necessary arrangements for a good government. With such preliminary details ratified, he leaves for the coronation in London.

If this dissected view of the protagonist formed the entire extent of his characterization, the English romance's Havelok would emerge as a fuller delineation of his counterpart in the Anglo-Norman accounts, though with emphasis put on those qualities in his character which make him an ideal ruler. The poet, however, employs extensive character contrasts to deepen his presentation of Havelok as the ideal king.

The opening section of the poem (26-337) provides the proper frame for Havelok's introduction. The first part of the frame is an extended eulogy of Athelwold, Goldeboru's father. Though the poet does outline the peaceful conditions in England during Athelwold's reign, he is more explicitly concerned with the nature of the monarchy.⁷ The harmony of the kingdom is a direct reflection of its ruler; the presentation of Athelwold is a portrait of a unique, indeed ideal, monarch. Athelwold receives the homage of all his subjects:

Him louede yung, him loueden olde,
Erl and barun, dreng and thayn,
Kniht, [and] bondeman, and swain,
Wydues, maydnes, prestes and clerkes,
And al for his gode werkes.
(30-34)

The love and respect all classes offer to Athelwold are the most important features of the portrait because they are the direct result of his actions as king. As a military leader, Athelwold is strong and fearless, exceptionally agile as a horseman and remarkably powerful in battle. As his country's political head, he is a stern and hard monarch; he is both the wise king who creates good laws and the strict monarch who enforces them. By his legislation, he returns his country to a state of prelapsarian perfection. Thieves and traitors meet their deaths through his fervent and faultless justice. England is cleansed to such a degree that merchants can travel freely throughout the country with no fear of robbery. Athelwold's justice and legislation are complemented by his generosity; to the poor and the needy his home is always open. Moreover, his generosity is an outgrowth of his religion: "He louede god with al his miht, / And holi kirke, and soth, and riht." For these reasons,

Panne was Engelond at ayse;
Michel was svich a king to preyse,

Þat held so Engelond in grith!
Krist of heuene was him with.
He was Engelondes blome.⁸
(59-63)

The portrait of Athelwold is an idealization which will be realized in the fully matured Havelok. As soon as Havelok is hired by Bertram, the poet echoes his initial praise of Athelwold by describing Havelok:

Him loueden alle, stille and bolde,
Knihtes, children, yunge and olde;
Alle him loueden þat him sowen,
Boþen heye men and lowe.
(955-958)

Like Athelwold, Havelok commands the homage of all classes. Furthermore, he merits the respect that is rightfully due to him. In every example of fealty to Havelok, his subjects pledge themselves willingly and happily, realizing that Havelok is not only their king but also a man worthy of the respect of his regal position. Havelok the Dane becomes, therefore, a study of the growth and development of Havelok into the kind of king Athelwold represents. Havelok's strength and generosity have already been discussed; indeed, he seems to have all the qualities of the ideal ruler. Like Athelwold, he is religious, selfless, and just to his subjects. Moreover, the final test of the good king is the state of his realm; the attitude of his subjects at the end of the romance is indicative of the national harmony Havelok creates for them.

The poet, then, reworked the Havelok tale to make his protagonist the embodiment of the ideal qualities of a good king. But he did this from a particular point of view and addressed himself to a particular audience: the lower classes.⁹ The importance of the audience in this study cannot be underestimated: the delineation of Havelok is partially determined by the audience. Havelok is unmistakably a regal heir; he epitomizes nobility. His innate regality, however, is neither an exclusive nor an overbearing display of superiority. His rise to his rightful position is a journey through the life and ways of the lower classes exemplified by Grim and his family and by Bertram and his associates. Havelok becomes an able member of the mercantile class and of the servants of the court. In this respect, it is especially significant that the Havelok of the English romance, unlike his Anglo-Norman counterparts, is always aware of his true parentage. His knowledge does not lead him to lament his inferior surroundings nor does he disdain his lowly life. Apparently without hope of regaining his proper position, Havelok remains content to work amid the lower members of society. Only when fate offers the possibility of reclaiming his kingdom does Havelok rise to heroic stature in his clearly-defined mission.

When Havelok assumes his regal office, the poet looks at court society from the outside; there is no extended glimpse of court life, no description of the life of the nobility. Even the initial presentation of English royalty does not emphasize the life at court, but focuses attention on the peaceful country Athelwold provides for his people. Athelwold's selfless goodness wins the respect of all his subjects; he merits their obedience without demanding it by force. After his death Godrich transforms England into a terrified body of citizens subject to him and forever "at his cri, / At his wille, at his merci." Against this background of subjection the homage of Grim to Havelok is even more effective. As a member of the royal family, Havelok receives the kind of obedience Godrich attempts to obtain through force. And the poet emphasizes the love shown by Grim and his family to the prince. If this love were solely the consequence of his regal nature, the poet would have created an artistic plea for the doctrine of absolute monarchy and hereditary succession. The romance shows, however, that such love is justified by the character and by the actions of Havelok.

At the end of the romance, in a scene without parallel in the analogues, Havelok dispenses justice by suitably rewarding his faithful followers, the lowly characters who assisted him in his youth. Remembering the kindness of Grim and his family, he gives Gunild, Grim's daughter, to the Earl of Chester in marriage. Levive, Grim's other daughter, is betrothed to Bertram, the cook. And Bertram, who befriended Havelok when he left Grim's household, is knighted and presented with the earldom of Cornwall and all the land that Godrich held. Athelwold was "large, and no wiht gnede"; Havelok is now described as "large and nouht chiche." In this happy ending, the lower-class people receive high honors from their king. Yet even now Havelok remains basically the young, noble, generous lad whose strength they admired and whose character they respected. Though supernatural elements distinguish Havelok as a member of the royal family, the poet examines Havelok's personal claim to the honor his birth demands.

From the moment when he begs a cup of ale before beginning his tale, the romancer develops the portrait of a prince who is not isolated in his royal throne; Havelok becomes a king both of the people and for the people. His education makes him conscious of the needs and problems of his subjects. His accession to the throne heralds the return of a time when merchants wander freely, when the hungry receive food at the king's table, when the king recognizes his primary commitment to the needs of his people.

Havelok the Dane is not primarily an adventure nor a series of adventures; it is first and foremost an idealized biography cast in the form of a tale of action. The biography concentrates, not on the most exciting moments of Havelok's life, but rather on those episodes which delineate most clearly the poet's conception of the ideal king. His conception represents a concrete illustration of contemporary attitudes to the monarchy and the good qualities of a king which would win the admiration of the lower classes are strongly emphasized. The portrait of Havelok becomes an analogue to depictions of the proper ruler in political and legal treatises, in political songs, and in the chronicles.

The lower-class attitude to the monarchy, shaped by the general medieval concept of the true prince, finds full expression in John of Salisbury's Policraticus, the earliest detailed examination of politics in medieval England. Written in the middle of the twelfth century, the Policraticus "represents the purely mediaeval tradition unaffected by ideas newly borrowed from classical antiquity. It is the culmination, in their maturest form, of a body of doctrines which had developed in unbroken sequence from patristic literature in contact with the institutions of the earlier Middle Ages."¹⁰ The discussion of the monarchy begins with an explicit contrast between a prince and a tyrant:

Est ergo tiranni et principis haec differentia sola vel maxima, quod hic legi obtemperat et eius arbitrio populum regit cuius se credit ministrum, et in rei publicae muneribus exercendis et oneribus subeundis legis beneficio sibi primum vendicat locum.¹¹

(There is this single and major difference between a tyrant and a prince, that the latter obeys the law and rules his people by its judgment, seeing himself as its servant. Through the law he makes good his claim to the foremost and chief place in the operation of the state's affairs and in bearing its burden.)

The subsequent description of a prince corresponds to the presentation of Havelok in the English romance. A prince works for the welfare of his subjects¹²; he is the protector of the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed¹³; he is the provider for the lower classes.¹⁴ Though the central concern of a prince is the welfare of his people, he must also know the proper manner of judgment. First of all, a prince must be a God-fearing individual, since the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.¹⁵ A good ruler must always be aware of wise counsel, since an effective ruler profits from the wisdom and the experience of his advisers.¹⁶ Lastly, the ideal prince must temper his justice with mercy.¹⁷

As the traits of the ideal prince of the Policraticus conform closely to the poet's delineation of Havelok, John of Salisbury's discussion of a tyrant corresponds to the briefer sketches of Godard and Godrich; indeed, just as the Havelok poet places the two traitors in contrast with Havelok, so the Policraticus discusses the nature of a tyrant to show the contrast with its preceding discussion of a prince.¹⁸Havelok the Dane, however, does not support the conclusion of the Policraticus that tyrannicide is a valid, often necessary, action by a tyrant's subjects.¹⁹ Though the barons might well support John of Salisbury's arguments in favor of tyrannicide, the lower classes, the audience of the English romance, would tend to hate the possibility of tyrannicide which, for them, would mean further civil disruption.

Though written a century later than the Policraticus, Henry of Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinis Angliae follows closely John of Salisbury's treatment of the proper prince, though Henry's legal training asserts itself in the greater emphasis placed on the monarch as law-giver. In his analysis of the tyrant, however, Henry rejects the validity of tyrannicide; he believes that a tyrant's subjects must trust God who will eventually punish the tyrant and annihilate his rule.²⁰ The subjects of Godrich and Godard follow Henry's position in foregoing any revolutionary tactics against their wicked rulers; consequently, Havelok becomes the natural agent of God to end the tyrant's rule. The re-establishment of harmonious rule in both Denmark and England is a complete delineation of perfect rule by a proper prince which accords with the theories of John of Salisbury and Henry of Bracton.

The conception of the prince outlined in these legal and political treatises finds a further theoretical presentation in a popular song, The Battle of Lewes, written shortly after its titular event.²¹ Though an elaborate presentation of the principles which stood behind the barons' opposition to Henry III, the song also sets forth a detailed statement of the popular conception of a good ruler. For the anonymous author, the ideal king must be a God-fearing man: "Omnis rex intelligat quod est servus Dei" (Let every king bear in mind that he is a servant of God). In the affairs of the realm, the king must be a servant and an administrator of the law."²² As an administrator, the ruler must be merciful and compassionate; in this regard he must seek and heed the advice of his counsellors.²³ Such a delineation of the ideal ruler is exalted; the monarch, "Vir prudens and humilis" (a prudent and humble man), becomes a leader of outstanding wisdom, virtue, and understanding:

Principis contere non est, sed tueri;
Principis obprimere non est, sed mereri
Multis beneficiis suorum favorem,
Sicut Christus gratiis monium amorem.
(725-728)

(It is not the part of a prince to bruise, but to protect; neither is it the part of a prince to oppress, but rather to deserve the favor of his people by numerous benefits conferred upon them, as Christ by his grace has deserved the love of all.)

The Battle of Lewes emphasizes fear of God, respect for the law, mercy, and an abiding commitment to the welfare of the people as the most important qualities of the good ruler. It is significant, then, that this poem, a reflection of the anti-monarchical outlook of the mid-thirteenth century, embodies the same principles for the behavior of the ruler that are found in the more theoretical discussion of the monarchy. The poem becomes a testimony to the general acceptance and understanding of the principles enunciated in the more formal fashion of John of Salisbury and Henry of Bracton. And Havelok the Dane represents the kind of ruler who would be willingly and eagerly accepted by the pro-baronial author of The Battle of Lewes, even though the author of the romance has made his ideal king embody these principles in such a way that Havelok wins the respect, not only of the barons, but, more importantly, of the lower classes.

In their depiction of Edward I, the chronicles of the period presented a portrait of an ideal ruler who often becomes the personification of these same noble qualities of the good prince and, at the same time, a further analogue to the portrait of Havelok by the English poet. The social climate of the second half of the thirteenth century needed and demanded a popular hero who would restore peace and stability to the country. In the pages of the medieval chronicles, Edward became the popular ideal of the good king.²⁴

At the time of the coronation of Edward I in 1274, England was suffering many of the social problems depicted in Havelok the Dane after Athelwold's death and prior to Havelok's accession to the throne. The country was full of thieves: "Rarus aut nullus in Anglia fuit tutus, eo quod terra visplionibus erat plena" (There were few or no places in England which were safe, because the whole country was filled with night robbers).²⁵ Laws seemed to favor the rich; the poor were always the oppressed.²⁶ The system of justice was corrupt; many royal officials violated the code of conduct they were supposed to represent. Immediately after his coronation, therefore, Edward began to correct the many abuses and injustices that had become part of his country's governing structure. He ordered a survey of every county to determine the degree to which the king's rights were being endangered by his subjects and to learn about all illegal activities of his royal officials. The result of the survey, the Hundred Rolls, presented a vivid and sorry account of the problems of the period and formed the basis of many of the statutes passed in succeeding years. In the Statutes of Westminster of 1275, Edward enunciated his purpose: "First the King willeth and commandeth, That the Peace of Holy Church and of the Land, be well kept and maintained in all points, and that common Right be done to all, as well Poor as Rich, without respect of Persons."²⁷ The Statutes imposed a series of penalties for royal officials who violated their authority. Despite Edward's efforts, however, the corruption of officials seemed to continue into the fourteenth century.²⁸

Such correspondences between the England of Edward I and Havelok's world are complemented by some striking similarities between the two rulers. Like Havelok, Edward was, a prince of immense strength and physical prowess. One chronicler commended him as "magnae probitatis viro" (a man of great prowess) and "in armis strenuus et pulcherrimae juventutis" (a man mighty in arms and in the flower of youth).²⁹ As a warrior, Edward admired the manly virtues of courage and strength, even when they belonged to his enemies. On one occasion, he challenged Adam Gurdun to a single combat; the boldness and bravery of his opponent prompted the victorious Edward to apply cataplasms to Gurdun's wounds and to treat his defeated opponent as a friend.³⁰ Compassion and clemency became frequent attributes in the depictions of Edward. When describing the submission of John of Vesci to Edward in 1266, one chronicler depicted the prince "cujus inaestimabilis et universa semper contra transgressores extitit misericordia" (whose incalculable and general sympathy always extended towards wrongdoers).³¹ In the following year, Edward attacked the plunderers in the Isle of Ely; "misericordia motus" (being moved by pity), he granted them peace, even though they were his enemies.³²The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds might well have been referring to Havelok when it called Edward "si alter Salomon in monibus agendis suis hactenus strenuus, magnificus et gloriosus" (up until this time, in all actions energetic, generous, and triumphant like another Solomon).³³

In Havelok the Dane, the hero's humane understanding is a product of his religious piety. The medieval chronicles also draw attention to Edward's spirituality and his devotional practices. It was his habit to have masses offered as an expression of his gratitude for divine assistance in his military campaigns. He went to the Holy Land to fight the infidels. The chronicles testify again and again to his continual observance of feast days and other religious celebrations. Though his laws did tax the clergy with increasing severity, he always remained very generous in his contributions to the establishment and maintenance of religious edifices. Havelok vowed to establish "Al for Grim, of nionekes blake / A priorie to seruen in ay / Iesu Crist til domesday"; Edward's most famous contribution was the founding of the Cistercian abbey of Vale Royal in fulfillment of his earlier vow to God for protection in a storm.³⁴

Before becoming king, both Edward and Havelok experienced a long period of regal apprenticeship. As an exiled prince, Havelok has to win the respect of his former subjects and regain his rightful throne. As a young prince, Edward had to defend his father's monarchy against the barons. In the baronial wars during the sixties, Edward took command of the royal forces and defeated his opponents. Despite the fact that his father remained on the throne for another seven years after the barons' defeat, Edward seemed to be king in all matters except the title. He pursued the vestiges of the rebellion and restored the realm to peace. Only when England was restored to peace did Edward organize his crusade to the Holy Land. Before he came to the throne, he was a man of unlimited experience in military and political affairs; the turmoil of mid-thirteenth-century England offered him an education not dissimilar to the practical problems Havelok faced in his quest to regain his rights.

After becoming king, both Edward and Havelok revealed themselves to be intelligent and merciful kings; both were lawgivers who consulted parliament for its advice. Edward began the practice of calling parliament to assist him in his administrative and legislative decisions. From the time of his coronation until his departure for France in 1286, he summoned parliament at least twice every year and he continued this practice, except when wars prevented it, after his return in 1289. Moreover, he followed de Montfort's practice of admitting to parliament representatives of towns in addition to the lords, the major clergy, and the knights of the shire.

The final similarity between the world of the romance and Edward's career is the sternness of the kings as it asserts itself in their harsh treatment of traitors. Godard is flayed alive and hung; Godrich receives a more severe sentence:

And demden, him to binden faste
Vp-on an asse, swiþe un-wraste,
Andelong, nouht ouer-þwert,
His nose went unto þe stert,
And so [un]-to Lincólne lede,
Shamelike in wicke wede—
And hwan he [come] un-to þe borw,
Shamelike ben led þer-þoru,
Bisouþe þe borw, un-to a grene—
Þat þare is yete, als y wene—
And þere be bunden til a stake,
Abouten him ful gret fir make,
And al to dust be brend riht þore.
(2820-2832)

Though Derek Pearsall is correct in referring to "the scrupulously detailed punishment of the traitors at the end" as an example of the poet's respect for law and order,³⁵ it should be noted that the English romancer is singularly brief in this regard in contrast to the chroniclers' descriptions of similar punishments decreed by Edward. All contemporary chroniclers described Edward's severe treatment of inveterate traitors in his campaigns against the Welsh. Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, was beheaded; his head was taken to London and placed on display at the top of the Tower of London.³⁶ A more severe judgment awaited his brother David. As a traitor to the king, David was drawn to his place of execution by horses; as a murderer, he was hung; as a consequence of his sacrilege in committing his crimes on Palm Sunday, he was disembowelled; as a consequence of plotting the death of the king, he was quartered. The manner of David's execution may have served as a basis for the treatment of Godrich. Moreover, Edward did not pass judgment on David; he summoned a parliament at Shrewsbury to judge the case and form a verdict. The sentence, as in the verdicts against Godard and Godrich, represented the agreement of the king and his advisers.³⁷ In contrast to the Anglo-Norman versions of the Havelok story where Odulf, the counterpart of Godard, dies in battle and Edelsie, Godrich's counterpart, dies shortly after Havelok's return without suffering any punishment, the English romancer introduces punishments for the two traitors similar in severity to the punishments Edward was bestowing on those leaders who were disturbing the peace of his country.

The chronicle accounts of Edward I and their similarities to the presentation of Havelok by the English poet suggest the true distinction of this Middle English romance. Though the portrait reflects discussions of the good ruler found in writings of the period, the originality of the English poet lies, not only in his imposition of the contemporary philosophy of kingship on the Havelok tale, but also in his adaptation of the story to the social climate of his time. The employment of the Havelok story, the continual focus on the nature of the king's governing power, the deliberate choice of a particular audience, such factors suggest that the English romancer turned to the Havelok story because it offered an interesting and valid analogue to governmental problems of the late thirteenth century. Aware of the affinities between events in the Havelok story and the contemporary political scene, he did not set out to create a political allegory; he did intend, however, to adapt the story according to the social problems of his generation. Out of this mixture of a local legend and the political reality of his time the poet created a portrait of the ideal king which is at the same time a subtle commentary on the late thirteenth century. The general similarities between the world of the romance and the late thirteenth century extend, finally, to the figure of their kings. The romancer saw the parallels that existed between Havelok's world and the world of Edward I and he created a portrait of the ideal king which becomes an analogue to the presentation of Edward in the chronicle accounts of his reign.

The chroniclers' presentation of the popular ideal of kingly virtue embodied in their figure of Edward I suffered a series of blemishes as the century drew to a close. Havelok is the ideal king who brings a lasting peace to his country in the world of romance; Edward is the king of a real country where Havelok's prelapsarian perfection can never reach its complete realization. The later years of Edward's reign were filled with severe personal and political disappointments for the king. In 1290, his wife died. The final decade of the century witnessed the beginning of the wars with Scotland, and the remaining years of Edward's kingship were an unending and futile attempt to impose a forced unity between England and Scotland. In addition, Edward began to see that the dissolute behavior of his sop Edward did not bode well for the quality of the reign of Edward II.³⁸

Even though the political turbulence of Edward's later years prevented his reign from assuming the perfect harmony of Havelok's united realm, both the Havelok poet and the chroniclers shared a similar conception of an ideal king: a man of intelligence and compassion, strictness and mercy, fear of God and love of the nation and its inhabitants. One final similarity relates the English Havelok to Edward I. The romance depicts its hero as a man of striking physical appearance and exceptional strength. When Ubbe first meets him, he notices "Hu he was wel of bones maked, / Brod in þe sholdres, ful wel schaped, / þicke in þe brest, of bodi long." At Lincoln, Havelok towers over his peers:

Was Hauelok bi þe shuldren more
Þan þe meste þat þer kam:
In armes him noman [ne] nam
Þat he doune sone ne caste;
Hauelok stod ouer hem als a mast.
Als he was heie, al[s] he was long,
He was boþe stark and strong;
In Engelond [was] non hise per
Of strengþe þat euere kam him ner.
(982-990)

Edward I, nicknamed "longshanks" because of his long legs,³⁹ was a man of similar appearance and strength. One contemporary chronicler described him:

Elegantis erat formae, staturae procerae, qua ab humero et supra communi populo praeeminebat.… Brachiorum ad proportionem corporis flexibilis productio, quibus vivacitate nervica nulla erant ad usum gladii aptiora: pectus ventri praeeminebat, tibiarumque longa divisio, equorum nobilium cursu et saltu, sessoris firmitatem prohibuit infirmari.⁴⁰

(He had a fine figure, tall in stature, by which he towered over the common people from his shoulder and above.… The length of his arms was in the proper proportion to his body; no sinews were better fitted to the use of the sword. His breast projected forward from his stomach; the length of his legs kept him from being unseated when he raced or jumped noble horses.)

This point of close similarity, their unusual height, suggests, finally, that the romancer may have intended his portrait of the ideal king to be a reflection of and a compliment to his own monarch.⁴¹

The similarities between the romancer's presentation of Havelok and the chroniclers' depiction of the career of Edward I are a final indication of the romancer's conscious adaptation of the materials of the Havelok story to present a portrait of the ideal king modeled both on the Havelok of local legend and on the thirteenth-century understanding of the ideal king. Contemporary reality and legendary history unite in this late thirteenth-century account of the Havelok tale.⁴²

Havelok the Dane is a unique treatment of the Havelok story and a significant employment of the romance genre. It reworks the materials of the Havelok tale, not to offer a further retelling, but to make Havelok's career the embodiment of the ideal king from the point of view of the lower classes. Havelok is an earlier version of Shakespeare's Prince Hal, though Shakespeare's hero undergoes his lower-class education by choice, not by necessity; for both Havelok and Hal, education outside the court offers an understanding of the problems of the king's lower-class subjects.

The romancer adapts the story so that Havelok is no longer the passive protagonist of the Anglo-Norman accounts; he is now a hero, the ideal king, the embodiment of those virtues designated by other writings of the period as the qualities of the true prince. By seeing the parallels between the world of Havelok and Edward I's England and incorporating and expanding them into his version of the Havelok tale, the poet creates a romance which is both a portrait of the ideal king and a mirror for princes offered from the point of view of the lower classes. The distinctly thirteenth-century portrait does become a handbook for princes, a guide to lower-class attitudes to the monarchy and a commentary on the interest and demands of this segment of society. As a reflection of the lower-class conception of the ideal king, the romance speaks ultimately to the king himself. By creating his romance for this particular audience, the poet focuses on the qualities of the good king which win the respect and love of the audience. As a consequence, the poem also stands as a guide for the proper behavior of the wise monarch, as a lesson for the king who is willing to heed it. Havelok stands as a servant of God and as a servant of his people. He is stem to the traitors who disturb the peace of his country; he is generous to all the members of the lower classes who support his kingship. Not isolated but a part of his people, not selfish and aloof, but compassionate and understanding, Havelok is the monarch as he should be.

The dissimilarities between Havelok's everlasting peace and Edward's beleagured later years are a painful reiteration of the ultimate difference between the world of Havelok the Dane, a romance, and the reality of late thirteenth-century England.

Notes

¹ In the two Anglo-Norman versions of the Havelok tale, Havelok is also called Cuaran; the second name does not appear in the Middle English romance. For a discussion of the significance of the alternate name, see Charles W. Dunn, "Havelok and Analf Cuaran," Franciplegius: Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honor of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr, ed. J. B. Bessinger, Jr., and R. P. Creed (New York, 1965), pp. 244-249. For consistency, I refer to the protagonist solely by his name of Havelok. Though both Anglo-Norman versions spell Havelok with a final V instead of a 'k,' I follow the Middle English spelling with the final 'k.'

² All quotations from Gaimar are from Alexander Bell's edition of L'Estoire des Engleis (Oxford, 1960).

³ H. E. Heyman, Studies on the Havelok-Tale (Upsala, 1903), concluded that the Lai represents another adaptation of the lost source of Gaimar's account. Edith Fahnestock, Study of the Sources and Composition of the Lai d'Haveloc (Jamaica, New York, 1915), concluded that the Lai was a carefully polished reworking of Gaimar. In his edition of Le Lai d'Haveloc and Gaimar's Haveloc Episode (Manchester, 1925), Alexander Bell developed Fahnestock's theory and concluded that the Lai is "undoubtedly derived in the main from Gaimar's version of the Havelok story" (p. 51).

⁴ All quotations from the Lai d'Haveloc are from Bell's 1925 edition.

⁵ The Lambeth Interpolation of the Havelok story need not be included here. This eighty-two line abridged outline of the story occurs only in the Lambeth MS of Robert of Brunne's translation of Peter de Langtoft's Chronicle. The Interpolation is a short, straightforward, and blunt description of Havelok's life; it offers no exceptional traits of character or of his life that separate him from his Anglo-Norman counterparts. In "The Lambeth Version of Havelok," PMLA 15 (1900), 1-16, E. W. Putnam showed that it is a third account derived, like the other two, from a lost French source. In addition, there are short accounts of the Havelok tale later in composition than the English romance and derived from the more complete versions found in Gaimar, the Lai, or the English romance; for a complete classification and discussion of them, see Heyman, Studies, pp. 109-138.

⁶ In the first edition of the romance, The Ancient English Romance of Havelok the Dane (London, 1828), the editor, Sir Frederick Madden, dated the manuscript of the romance "about, or a few years previous to, A.D. 1300" (p. lii) and suggested a date of composition between 1270 and 1290. In the most recent edition, the second revised edition of W. W. Skeat's edition (Oxford, 1963), the editor, K. Sisam, accepts Skeat's conclusion about the dating: "The first draft of the poem must surely have been composed earlier than 1300; but how much earlier it is impossible to say. That the dialect was, in the first instance, that of Lincolnshire, is consistent with the fact that we can still detect the characteristic suffix -es of the pres. s. indicative … and the pl. suffix -e" (p. xxv). Skeat's statement about the romance's source still holds true: "It is scarcely possible to determine the relation of the French versions to the English poem; nor, on the evidence of a single complete manuscript, can the earlier history of the English poem be demonstrated" (pp. xix-xx). All quotations from the romance are from Sisam's revised edition.

⁷ In "Structure and Characterization in 'Havelok the Dane'," SPECULUM 44 (1969), 247-257, Judith Weiss sees the poet's central concern as "the land and its rulers." Though my study does not disagree with her article, I regard the poet's primary, indeed sole, concern as the nature of the ideal king.

⁸ Another example of Athelwold's excellence is the subtle distinction between his death and the death of Birkabeyn. On his death-bed, Athelwold assembles his barons to obtain proper guidance regarding his young daughter and the future of the realm. In Denmark, when Birkabeyn realizes that he is about to die, he summons priests and monks to give him the sacraments; then he proceeds to take thought for his realm. In contrast, the "good" Athelwold assembles his barons and resolves the political implications of his death before he takes thought for himself.

⁹ Among the features of the romance which suggest its lower-class audience are the complete absence of any love scenes between Havelok and Goldeboru, Havelok's practical fears regarding his marriage with the regal Goldeboru, the poet's enumeration of Grim's actions in preparing to set sail for England (699-713), the catalogue offish (751-759), the enumeration of Havelok's menial occupations (911-920), and the poet's careful depiction of Havelok's final rewarding of his lowly companions and supporters.

¹⁰ John Dickinson, "The Mediaeval Conception of Kingship and Some of its Limitations, as Developed in the 'Policraticus' of John of Salisbury," SPECULUM 1 (1926), 308. This article was incorporated into the long and thorough introduction to Dickinson's translation of the Policraticus (New York, 1927). Further discussion of John of Salisbury's theory of kingship may be found in R. W. and A. J. Carlyle, A History of Mediaeval Political Theory in the West (New York, 1950), 3:136-146; 4:330-341.

¹¹Policraticus 4.1. All quotations are from C. C. J. Webb's two-volume edition, Ioannis Saresberiensis Episcopi Carnotensis Policratici (Oxford, 1909).

¹²Policraticus 4.3: "Se non sibi suam vitam sed aliis debere cognoscit, et eam illis ordinata caritate distribuit" (He knows that he owes his life not to himself and his own ends, but to others, and allots it to them in proper charity).

¹³Policraticus 5.6: "Eo, inquit, quod liberassem pauperem, pupillum, et periturum; et consolatus sum cor viduae. In his enim maxime principalis claret auctoritas quae a Domino instituta est ad iniurias propulsandas" (The reason, he says, is that I had set free the poor man, the orphan, and him who was about to die; and because I consoled the heart of the widow. For in such acts the nature of the authority of the prince reveals itself chiefly.)

¹⁴Policraticus 6.20: "Debent autem obsequium inferiora superioribus quae omnia eisdem vicissim debent necessarium subsidium providere. Unde Plutarchus ea dicit in omnibus exequenda quae humilioribus, id est multitudini, prosunt" (Superiors in their turn owe it to their inferiors to provide them with all things needful for their protection and succor. Therefore Plutarch says that that course is to be pursued in all things which is of advantage to the humbler classes, that is to say, the multitude).

¹⁵Policraticus 4.7: "Sapientia parit et firmat principatum; atqui initium sapientiae timor Domini" (Wisdom institutes and strengthens the government of a prince, and the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord).

¹⁶Policraticus 5.6: "Impossibile enim est ut salubriter disponat principatum qui non agitur consilio sapientum" (It is impossible for a prince to administer properly who does not act on the counsel of wise men).

¹⁷Policraticus 4.8: "Meditatur ergo iugiter sapientiam, et de ea sic iustitiam operatur, quod lex clementiae semper est in lingua eius; et sic clementiam temperat rigore iustitiae, quod lingua eius iudicium loquitur" (So he must ceaselessly ponder wisdom, and by its assistance he does justice in such a way that the law of mercy is always on his tongue. Thus he tempers mercy with strict justice so that his tongue speaks only justice).

¹⁸Policraticus 7.17: "Et quanto quis potentiae cupidior est, tanto eas facilius expendit. Cum vero potentiam nactus est, erigitur in tirannidem et aequitate contempta naturae et conditionis consortes inspiciente Deo deprimere non veretur.… Dicitur autem quia tirannus est qui violenta dominatione populum premit" (The more a man lusts after power, -the more lavishly he spends for the sake of it. But when such a man does attain to power, he exalts himself into a tyrant, and, spurning equity, does not fear, in the sight of God, to humiliate the equals of his rank and nature.… It is said that a tyrant is one who oppresses a whole people by rulership based on force).

¹⁹Policraticus 3.15: "Porro tirannum occidere non modo licitum est sed aequum et iustum. Qui enim gladium accipit, gladio dignus est interire. Sed accipere intelligitur qui eum propria temeritate usurpat, non qui utendi eo accipit a Domino potestatem" (To kill a tyrant is not merely lawful but right and just. For whosoever takes up the sword deserves to perish by the sword. And he is understood to take up the sword who usurps it by his own rashness and who does not receive the power of using it from God).

²⁰De Legibus, f. 5b-f. 6: "Igitur non debet esse maior eo in regni suo in exhibitione iuris, minimus autem esse debet, vel quasi, in iudicio suscipiendo si petat. Si autem ab eo petatur, cum breve non currat contra ipsum, locus erit supplicationi, quod factum suum corrigat et emendet, quod quidem si non fecerit, satis sufficit ei ad poenam, quod deum expectet ultorem. Nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare, nec multo fortius contra factum suum venire" (There ought to be no one in his kingdom who surpasses him in the doing of justice, but he ought to be the last, or almost so, to receive it, when he is the plaintiff. If it is asked of him, since no writ runs against him, there will be opportunity for a petition, that he correct and amend his act; if he does not, it is punishment enough for him that he waits for God's vengeance. No one may presume to question his acts, much less contravene them). The quotation is from the four-volume text edited by George E. Woodbine (New Haven, 1915-1942) and the two-volume translation by Samuel E. Thorne (Cambridge, Mass., 1968). For a detailed analysis of Henry of Bracton's legal theory, see Ernst Kantorowicz, The King's Two Bodies (Princeton, 1957), pp. 143-192. In "Bracton on Kingship," English Historical Review 60 (1945), 136-176, Fritz Schulz studies Bracton's conception of a prince and notes the indebtedness to John of Salisbury.

²¹The Political Songs of England, ed. and trans. Thomas Wright (London, 1839), pp. 71-121.

²² "Nam quid lege rectius qua cuncta reguntur, / Et quid jure verius quo res discemuntur?" (For what is more just than law, by which all things are ruled? and what more than justice, by which all things are administered?).

²³ "Ergo quales quaerat / Princeps, qui condoleant universitati, / Qui materne timeant regnum dura pati" (Let a prince seek such counsellors as may condole with the community, who have a motherly fear lest the kingdom should undergo any sufferings).

²⁴ With their tendency to see characters as either good or bad, the chronicles tended to exalt the figure of Edward I by removing some of the failings noted by other writers. "A Song of the Times," a song popular shortly after Edward's accession, finds injustice and poverty throughout the country (The Political Songs of England, pp. 133-136). Edward's foreign wars and his long battle with Scotland produced further songs against his reign (cf. "Song of the Husbandmen" and "Song on the Scottish Wars," The Political Songs of England, pp. 148-152, 160-179). Such signs of popular dissatisfaction with Edward's reign only show that his true character was more complicated than the accounts of the chronicles frequently suggest.

²⁵ Matthew of Westminster, Flores Historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series (London, 1890), 3:10.

²⁶ In "Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia," Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series (London, 1866), 3:251, the chronicler noted: "Proceres regni Angliae in pluribus locis, propter regis impotentiam, pauperes opprimebant; nec fuit ex parte regis qui justiciam faceret tribulatis" (The nobles of England, because of the king's weakness, were oppressing the poor in many places. There was no one to give justice to the oppressed in the king's name). In "A Song of the Times," The Political Songs of England, p. 47, the poet commented: "Omnes fere divites nimis sunt avari; / Pauper pausa possidens debet depilari, / Et ut ditet divitem rebus spoliari" (Almost all the rich men are too avaricious; the poor man, who possesses little, must be robbed and spoiled of his property to enrich the wealthy).

²⁷The Statutes of the Realm (London, 1963), 1:26.

²⁸ In a popular song of the beginning of the fourteenth century, "A Song on the Times," The Political Songs of England, p. 197, the poet lamented the corruption of the king's officers: "Thos kingis ministris beth i-schend, / To riɜt and law that ssold tak hede, / And al the lond for t'amend, / Of thos thevis hi taketh mede. / Be the lafful man to deth i-broɜt, / And his catel awey y-nom; / Of his deth ne tellith hi noɜt, / Bot of har prei hi hab som."

²⁹ Matthew of Westminster, 3:484; 3:19.

³⁰ For a complete account of the episode, see Matthew of Westminster, 3:10.

³¹ "Chronicon Vulgo Dictum Chronicon Thomas Wykes," Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series (London, 1869), 4:198.

³² Matthew of Westminster, 3:16.

³³The Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds, ed. Antonia Gransden (London, 1964), p. 118.

³⁴ For an account of Edward's relationship with the Abbey, see The Ledger-Book of Vale Royal Abbey, ed. John Brownhill (Chester, 1914), pp. 2-8.

³⁵ Derek Pearsall, "The Development of Middle English Romance," Mediaeval Studies 27 (1965), 99.

³⁶ Accounts of Llewellyn's death may be found in Matthew of Westminster, 3:57; "Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia" 3:292-293; Nicholas Trivet, Annales, ed. Thomas Hog (London, 1845), p. 305; Florence of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, ed. Benjamin Thorpe (London, 1849), 2:227; Bartholomew of Cotton, Historia Anglicana, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series (London, 1859), p. 162; Henry Knighton, Chronicon, ed. J. R. Lumby, Rolls Series (London, 1889), 1:276-277; Walter of Guisborough, Chronicle, ed. Harry Rothwell (London, 1957), p. 221; Chronicon de Lanercost, ed. Joseph Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1839), p. 112.

³⁷ The fullest account of David's sentence and execution may be found in "Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia," 3:293-294; other accounts include Matthew of Westminster, 3:58-59; Nicholas Trivet, p. 307; Florence of Worcester, 2:229-230; Bartholomew of Cotton, p. 164; Henry Knighton, 1:277; Walter of Guisborough, p. 221; Chronicon de Lanercost, pp. 112-113. In "Riding Backwards: Theme of Humiliation and Symbol of Evil," Viator 4 (1973), 153-176, Ruth Mellinkoff offers an interesting historical analysis of the treatment of traitors which includes a discussion of Godard and Godrich.

³⁸ I have restricted my discussion of Edward I to contemporary accounts of his career. Modern biographies also depict Edward in a manner which shows some of the affinities between his life and the career of Havelok. See Augustus Clifford, The Life and Reign of Edward I (London, 1872); T. F. Tout, Edward the First (London, 1893); John E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901); F. M. Powicke, King Henry III and Lord Edward, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1947); L. F. Salzman, Edward I (London, 1968).

³⁹ The first recorded use of Edward's nickname is found in The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, ed. Thomas Wright, Rolls Series (London, 1868), 2:284. It is significant that the English romance, alone of all the early versions of the Havelok story, describes Havelok as long-legged.

⁴⁰ Nicholas Trivet, pp. 281-282.

⁴¹ The lower classes might well know very little about their king, though a detail such as unusual height would probably be a part of their limited knowledge.

⁴² The similarity between Havelok and Edward suggests a further means of dating the poem. Since Havelok the Dane praises the happy marriage of Havelok and Goldeboru, I would suggest that, in view of the possibility that the poem was intended as a compliment to Edward I, the poem was written no later than 1290, the year of the death of Edward's first queen. Furthermore, after David's execution, Edward traveled to Lincoln where he held a small parliament in February, 1284 ("Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia," 3:305). Though this brief stay in Lincoln was not a full gathering of councillors and representatives, the two references to parliaments in the poem (1006, 1179) may refer to this previously unnoted parliament; in "Parliaments Held at Lincoln," Englische Studien 32 (1903), 319-320, W. van der Gaaf failed to include this meeting. Moreover, the manuscript in which the romance survives suggests that the poem was originally part of the repertory of a wandering minstrel: "The original manuscript from which Havelok was copied had twenty lines to the page (Zupitza in Anglia, vii. 155); the same may be inferred for this copy of Horn from the transposition of 0 1462-81. It is therefore probable that both poems were copied from the same manuscript, and that of a format such as a wandering minstrel would possess" (King Horn, ed. Joseph Hall [Oxford, 1901], p. ix). Thus Havelok the Dane may have originated as part of the festivities in Lincoln at the time of the 1284 parliament. Its lower-class audience may reflect its inclusion as entertainment for the townspeople or for some of the king's retinue. I would conclude that these considerations suggest that the poem was composed about 1284, a date in keeping with the linguistic evidence in the poem (see n.6 above).