The payment of Danegelt at the accession of Harthacnut (A.D. 1040),(67) probably touched the feelings, as it certainly did the pockets, of the Londoners, more than any other event which happened during this period.
Upon the sudden death of Harthacnut (A.D. 1042), who died in a fit "as he stood at his drink,"(68) the choice of the whole nation fell on Edward, his half-brother--"before the king buried were, all folk chose Edward to king at London."(69) The share that the Londoners took in this particular election is not so clear as in other cases. Nevertheless, the importance of the citizens was daily growing, and by the time of the accession of Edward the Confessor, the City was recognised as the capital of the kingdom, the chief seat for the administration of the law, and the place where the king usually resided.(70)
In early Saxon times the witan had met in any town where the king happened at the time to be; and although theoretically every freeman had a right to attend its meetings, practically the citizens of the town wherein the gemót happened at the time to be held, enjoyed an advantage over freemen coming from a distance. Alfred ordained that the witan should meet in London for purposes of legislation twice a year.(71) Athelstan, Edmund and Edgar had held gemóts in London, the last mentioned king holding a great gemót (_mycel gemót_) in St. Paul's Church in 973.
During the reign of Edward the Confessor, at least six meetings of the witan took place in London; the more important of these being held in 1051 and the following year. By the gemót of 1051, which partook of the nature of a court-martial, Earl Godwine was condemned to banishment; but before a twelve-month had elapsed, he was welcomed back at a great assembly or _mycel gemót_ held in the open air without the walls of London.(72) The nation had become disatisfied owing to the king's increasing favour to Norman strangers, but the earl desired to learn how stood the City of London towards him, and for this purpose made a stay at Southwark. He was soon satisfied on this point. "The townsfolk of the great city were not a whit behind their brethren of Kent and Sussex in their zeal for the national cause. The spirit which had beaten back Swend and Cnut, the spirit which was in after times to make London ever the stronghold of English freedom, the spirit which made its citizens foremost in the patriot armies alike of the thirteenth and of the seventeenth centuries, was now as warm in the hearts of those gallant burghers as in any earlier or later age. With a voice all but unanimous, the citizens declared in favour of the deliverer; a few votes only, the votes, it may be, of strangers or of courtiers, were given against the emphatic resolution, that what the earl would the city would."(73) Having secured the favour of London his cause was secure. That the citizens heartily welcomed the earl, going forth in a body to meet him on his arrival, we learn also from another source;(74) although, one at least of the ancient chroniclers strongly hints that the favour of the citizens had been obtained by bribes and promises.(75) The earl's return was marked by decrees of outlawry against the king's foreign favourites, whose malign influence he had endeavoured formerly to counteract, and who had proved themselves strong enough to procure the banishment of himself and family.