died in April 1016. Cnut opened his campaign against Edmund Ironside by sailing round to the Thames and besieging London.⁹¹  Edmund retired to Wessex; and several battles followed in the west, after which Cnut returned to resume the siege of London but was driven by Edmund into Kent and defeated at Otford.⁹²  He then retired to Sheppey, and moved into Essex, where at the battle of Ashingdon he ‘won him all the English nation.’⁹³  In the subsequent division of England between Cnut and Edmund, Kent as part of Wessex was assigned to Edmund, but his death, 30 November 1016, left Cnut sole king.⁹⁴ Under his system of government by earls⁹⁵  Cnut at first retained Wessex in his own hands,⁹⁶  but about 1020 he handed over its government to Godwin, who held it for the next thirty years. Godwin is sometimes described as ‘earl of Kent,’ but there is no satisfactory evidence for this separate earldom.⁹⁷
   In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Sandwich was the scene of a large muster of ships in 1045 on a threat of invasion by Magnus of Norway which came to nothing.⁹⁸  In 1048 two Norse buccaneers went there with 25 ships and ravaged the place, but were beaten off at Thanet.⁹⁹  Next year Edward again had a strong fleet at Sandwich ready to support the emperor Henry against Baldwin of Flanders.¹ On this occasion Swegen, Godwin’s eldest son, who had been exiled, came to ask for the restoration of his earldom; this was opposed by Harold and Beorn, and Swegen murdered Beorn and again fled the country.²
   In 1051 a remarkable outbreak occurred at Dover which ultimately led to the fall of Godwin. When Count Eustace of Boulogne, the king’s brother-in-law, stopped at the town on his way home from a visit to the English court, the high-handed way in which his men, according to continental custom, set about arranging for quarters for the night, led to an affray with the townsmen, in which about twenty men were killed on each side. Eustace hastened to the king at Gloucester and told the story in his own way, and Edward at once ordered Godwin to punish Dover. But the earl ‘was loth to mar his own country,³ and demanded a fair trial for the townsmen.⁴ His refusal led to the outlawry of himself and his sons, and they took refuge with Baldwin of Flanders and proceeded to get ready a fleet with which to return and compel a reversal of their outlawry. During their absence William of Normandy visited England, and probably saw the fortifications at Dover which he was afterwards so anxious to secure.⁵
   Godwin’s expected attack was guarded against by a fleet of 40 ships at Sandwich under earls Ralph and Odda. On 22 June 1052 he sailed from the mouth of the Yser, put in at Dungeness, and moved on to meet the Sandwich
   ⁹¹ Ibid. 1016.
   ⁹² Ibid. and Flor. of Worcester, Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.) i, 177. Florence says that Edmund was prevented from following up his success by the treacherous advice of Eadric, but this seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the Chronicle (Plummer, Two Sax. Chron. ii, 197).
   ⁹³ Ibid.                        ⁹⁴  Ibid.                              ⁹⁵ See J. R. Green, Conq. of Engl. ii, 139.
   ⁹⁶ Angl.-Sax. Chron. sub anno 1017.                ⁹⁷ See Freeman, Norm. Conq. i, 450, 469.
   ⁹⁸ Ang1.-Sax. Chron. sub anno 1045 (1046).    ⁹⁹ Ibid. 1046 (1048). 
   ¹ Ibid. 1049.               ² Angl-Sax. Chron. sub anno.
   ³ Ibid. sub anno 1048. The story is told in great detail in MS. E, on which see note 8o, p. 277.
   ⁴ Will, of Malmes. Gesta Reg. (Rolls Ser.) ii, 119.
   ⁵ Flor. of Worcester, Chron. (Engi. Hist. Soc.) i, 207.