Then King Athelwold summoned his earls and barons, from Roxborough to Dover, to come and take counsel with him as he lay a-dying on his bed at Winchester.  And when they all wept sore at seeing the King so near his end, he said, “Weep not, good friends, for since I am brought to death’s door your tears can in nowise deliver me; but rather give me your counsel.  My little daughter that after me shall be your queen; tell me in whose charge I may safely leave both her and England till she be grown of age to rule?”

And with one accord they answered him, “In the charge of Earl Godrich of Cornwall, for he is a right wise and a just man, and held in fear of all the land.  Let him be ruler till our queen be grown.”

Then the King sent for a fair linen cloth, and thereon having laid the mass-book and the chalice and the paton, he made Earl Godrich swear upon the holy bread and wine to be a true and faithful guardian of his child, without blame or reproach, tenderly to entreat her, and justly to govern the realm till she should be twenty winters old; then to seek out the best, the bravest, and the strongest man as husband for her and deliver up the kingdom to her hand.  And when Earl Godrich had so sworn, the King shrived him clean of all his sins.  Then having received his Saviour he folded his hands, saying, “Domine, in manus tuas;” and so he died.

There was sorrow and mourning among all the people for the death of good King Athelwold.  Many the mass that was sung for him and the psalter that was said for his soul’s rest.  The bells tolled and the priests sang, and the people wept; and they gave him a kingly burial.

Then Earl Godrich began to govern the kingdom; and all the nobles and all the churls, both free and thrall, came and did allegiance to him.  He set in all the castles strong knights in whom he could trust, and appointed justices and sheriffs and peace-sergeants in all the shires.  So he ruled the country with a firm hand, and not a single wight dare disobey his word, for all England feared him.  Thus, as the years went on, the earl waxed wonderly strong and very rich.

Goldborough, the King’s daughter, throve and grew up the fairest woman in all the land, and she was wise in all manner of wisdom that is good and to be desired.  But when the time drew on that Earl Godrich should give up the kingdom to her, he began to think within himself—­“Shall I, that have ruled so long, give up the kingdom to a girl, and let her be queen and lady over me?  And to what end?  All these strong earls and barons, governed by a weaker hand than mine, would throw off the yolk and split up England into little baronies, evermore fighting betwixt themselves for mastery.  There would cease to be a kingdom, and so there would cease to be a queen.  She cannot rule it, and she shall not have it.  Besides, I have a son.  Him will I teach to rule and make him king.”

So the earl let his oath go for nothing, and went to Winchester where the maiden was, and fetched her away and carried her off to Dover to a castle that is by the seashore.  Therein he shut her up and dressed her in poor clothes, and fed her on scanty fare; neither would he let any of her friends come near her.