[THE INDUCTION.
“The iust rewarde for so vile an offence dothe proue,” quothInquisition, “thisCanutusto bee both a wise and a worthy prince.” “Yea,” saideMemory, “yf he had liued amongst those pratling poetes which made so muche tattle ofHectorandHercules, certaynely he should not haue been inferiour vnto eche of them. ThisCanutuswas king at one time of foure kingdomes: as forEnglande, andScotland, andNorway, he held them by conquest: by birth he was the kyng ofDenmarke: yea, he so demeaned himselfe, that duryng his lyfe all these foure kingdomes honoured him with the honoure due vnto a natiue king. But not long after his death, that good king, saintEdmunde the Confessour, obtayned agayne the rule ofEnglande, but chiefely through the helpe of his nepheweWilliam, duke ofNormandy, to whom, for that after his death he by lineall descent was next, he promised the crowne ofEnglande, if that he dyed without issue.” “Howe chaunced it then,” quothInquisition, “that the duke made such sharpe warre vpponHarolde, for the obteynyng thereof.” “Howe dyd it chaunce?” quothMemory, “that is necessarie too be knowne, for that chaunce dyd not onely destroy theDanes, but it brought bothHaroldeand theEnglishmento confusion: and although nowe our idle houres be spent, tyme and our affayres doo call vs from the further hearing these men’s complayntes, yet let vs, as we may, heare what thysHaroldewyll saye: hys story wyll furnishe our woorke with a fit conclusion. And for the better vnderstanding of this man’s matter doo you imagine that you see this king comming from the conquest of theDanes, euen sweating in hys armour, to saye, as followeth.”]