A.D. 1066.] CORONATION OF HAROLD. and a letter under his seal, to Michael emperor of Constantinople, requesting that the seven sleepers might be shown to the messengers of Eadward king of England. The emperor graciously received the ambassadors of England, who had come from such distant parts, and commanded that the aforesaid seven sleepers should be shown to them ; whereupon, finding that everything relating to the holy sleepers agreed with what king Eadward had declared in England, and having presented their gifts, they gave God thanks, and returned home. ' Chastity of king Eadward. Concerning this most holy king, we must not omit to mention, that he never either lost his own chastity, or injured that of any woman. Nevertheless he had a queen named Edith daughter of earl Godwin, as has been said before, whose mind was stored with all liberal knowledge, but she evinced little understanding in secular matters. The king treated her as his wife, but in such sort, that he neither abstained from her bed, nor had any carnal knowledge of her. Whether he acted thus from hatred of her father, a convicted traitor, and all her family, which he prudently concealed for a time, or from love of chastity, is uncertain ; but the presumption is strong, that the pious king was unwilling to beget successors from the stock of a traitor. * Coronation of king Harold, and his victory over the king of Norway. Eadward, the most holy king of England, being dead, as has been said before, the nobles in the realm were in doubt * Matthew Paris inserts here the following prologue. The Prologue of Matthew Paris. Of chronography, that is the arrangement of dates, we will first speak in answer to envious disparagers, and to those who deem our labour to be useless; afterwards we will, in the present prologue, describe and briefly lay open the cause of events to well-wishers, and those who expect, nay, demand it of us. Por our accusers say, " Why is it necessary to commit to writing the lives or deaths of men, and the different events of the world, or to perpetuate in writings the prodigies connected with various events 1" Let them leam what the philosopher says, " Inasmuch as every man is naturally desirous of acquiring knowledge," and " A man without learning and a recollection of past events sinks into the dulness of an animal, and