career was less remarkable than that he should have so long continued
the possessor of a power and state in reality more than regal. 

But, as has been before implied, Godwin's civil capacities were more
prominent than his warlike.  And this it is which invests him with
that peculiar interest which attracts us to those who knit our modern
intelligence with the past.  In that dim world before the Norman
deluge, we are startled to recognise the gifts that ordinarily
distinguish a man of peace in a civilised age. 

His father, Wolnoth, had been "Childe" [100] of the South Saxons, or
thegn of Sussex, a nephew of Edric Streone, Earl of Mercia, the
unprincipled but able minister of Ethelred, who betrayed his master to
Canute, by whom, according to most authorities, he was righteously,
though not very legally, slain as a reward for the treason. 

"I promised," said the Dane king, "to set thy head higher than other
men's, and I keep my word." The trunkless head was set on the gates
of London.