Godwine, however, bidden without the least legal proof of offence, to visit with all the horrors of fire and sword, was not long in choosing his course.  Official duty and public policy, no less than abstract justice and humanity, dictated a distinct refusal.  Now or never a stand was to be made against strangers, and the earl demanded a legal trial for the burghers of Dover.

But there were influences about Eadward which cut off all hope of a peaceful settlement of the matter.  Eustace probably still lingered about the king, and there was another voice ever at the royal ear, ever ready to poison the royal mind against the people of England and their leader.  It was the voice of a foreign monk, Archbishop Robert.  Godwine and three other earls summoned their followers and demanded the surrender of Eustace, but the frightened king sent for the Northern Earls Siward, Leofric, and Ralph, bidding them bring a force strong enough to keep Godwine in check.  Thus the northern and southern sections were arrayed against each other.

There were, however, on the king’s side, men who were not willing to see the country involved in civil war.  Leofric, the good Earl of Mercia, stood forth as the champion of compromise and peace, and it was agreed that hostilities should be avoided and that the witenagemot should assemble at Michaelmas in London.

Of this truce King Eadward and his foreign advisers took advantage to collect an army, at the head of which they appeared in London.  Godwine and his son Harold were summoned to the gemot, but refused to appear without a security for a safe conduct.  The hostages and safe-conduct were refused.  The refusal was announced by Bishop Stigand to the earl as he sat at his evening meal.  The bishop wept; the earl sprang to his feet, overthrew the table, leaped on his horse, and, with his sons, rode for his life all that night.  In the morning the king held his witenagemot, and by a vote of the king and his whole army, Godwine and his sons were declared outlaws, but five days were allowed them to get out of the land.  Godwine, Swegen, Tostig, and Gyrth, together with Gytha and Judith, the newly-married wife of Tostig, set sail for Bruges in a ship laden with as much treasure as it would hold.  They reached the court of Flanders in safety, were honourably received by the count, and passed the whole winter with him.

Two of Godwine’s sons, however, sought another refuge.  Harold and his younger brother Leofwine determined on resistance, and resolved to seek shelter among the Danish settlers in Ireland, where they were cordially received by King Diarmid.  For the moment the overthrow of the patriotic leaders in England was complete, and the dominion of the foreigners over the feeble mind of the king was complete.  It was while Godwine dwelt as an exile at Bruges, and Harold was planning schemes of vengeance in the friendly court of Dublin, that William the Bastard, afterwards known as William the Conqueror, paid his memorable visit to England, that visit which has already been referred to as a stage, and a most important one, among the immediate causes of the Norman Conquest.