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Birth:          ABT 1022 of Wessex
Death:          14 Oct 1066 Battle of Hastings
Cause of Death: killed in battle
Burial:         Waltham Abbey, Essex

Notes
also of Isle of Thanet, Kent
not married to Edith (per the clergy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson
Harold Godwinson (1022 – 14 October 1066), often called Harold II, was the last 
Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066[1] until his death at 
the Battle of Hastings on 14 October, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the 
Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England. His death marked the end of 
Anglo-Saxon rule over England.

Harold was a powerful earl and member of a prominent Anglo-Saxon family with ties to 
Cnut the Great. Upon the death of Edward the Confessor in January 1066, the 
Witenagemot convened and chose Harold to succeed; he was crowned in 
Westminster Abbey. In late September, he successfully repelled an invasion by rival 
claimant Harald Hardrada of Norway before marching his army back south to meet 
William the Conqueror at Hastings some two weeks later.
Family background[edit]

Harold was a son of Godwin (1001–1053), the powerful Earl of Wessex, and of Gytha 
Thorkelsdóttir, sister-in-law of King Cnut the Great of England and Denmark. Gytha's 
brother was Ulf the Earl, who married Cnut's sister Estrith (c. 1015/1016). This made 
Ulf the son-in-law of King Sweyn Forkbeard[2] (died 1014); Ulf and Estrith's son would 
become King Sweyn II of Denmark[3] in 1047. Godwin was the son of Wulfnoth, 
probably a thegn and a native of Sussex. Godwin began his political career by 
supporting King Edmund Ironside (reigned April to November 1016), but switched to 
supporting King Cnut by 1018, when Cnut named him Earl of Wessex.[4] Godwin 
remained an earl throughout the remainder of Cnut's reign, one of only two earls to 
survive to the end of that reign.[5] On Cnut's death in 1035, Godwin originally 
supported Harthacnut instead of Cnut's initial successor Harold Harefoot, but 
managed to switch sides in 1037—although not without becoming involved in the 1036 
murder of Alfred Aetheling, half-brother of Harthacnut and younger brother of the later 
King Edward the Confessor.[6] When Harold Harefoot died in 1040, Harthacnut 
became King of England and Godwin's power was imperiled by his earlier involvement 
in Alfred's murder, but an oath and large gift secured the new king's favour for 
Godwin.[7] Harthacnut's death in 1042 probably involved Godwin in a role as 
kingmaker, helping to secure the English throne for Edward the Confessor. In 1045 
Godwin reached the height of his power when the new king married Godwin's daughter 
Edith.[8] Godwin and Gytha had several children – six sons: Sweyn, Harold, Tostig, 
Gyrth, Leofwine and Wulfnoth; and three daughters: Edith of Wessex (originally named 
Gytha but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor), 
Gunhild and Ælfgifu. The birthdates of the children are unknown, but Sweyn was the 
eldest and Harold was the second son.[9] Harold was aged about 25 in 1045, which 
makes his birth year around 1020.[10]

Powerful nobleman

Edith married Edward on 23 January 1045 and, around that time, Harold became Earl 
of East Anglia. Harold is called "earl" when he appears as a witness in a will that may 
date to 1044; but, by 1045, Harold regularly appears as an earl in documents. One 
reason for his appointment to East Anglia may have been a need to defend against the 
threat from King Magnus the Good of Norway. It is possible that Harold led some of 
the ships from his earldom that were sent to Sandwich in 1045 against Magnus.[11] 
Sweyn, Harold's elder brother, had been named an earl in 1043.[12] It was also 
around the time that Harold was named an earl that he began a relationship with 
Edith, who appears to have been the heiress to lands in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and 
Essex, lands in Harold's new earldom.[13] The relationship was a form of marriage that 
was not blessed or sanctioned by the Church, known as more Danico, or "in the 
Danish manner", and was accepted by most laypeople in England at the time. Any 
children of such a union were considered legitimate. Harold probably entered the 
relationship in part to secure support in his new earldom.[14]

Harold's elder brother Sweyn was exiled in 1047 after abducting the abbess of 
Leominster. Sweyn's lands were divided between Harold and a cousin, Beorn.[15] In 
1049, Harold was in command of a ship or ships that were sent with a fleet to aid the 
German Emperor Henry III against Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, who was in revolt 
against Henry. During this campaign, Sweyn returned to England and attempted to 
secure a pardon from the king, but Harold and Beorn refused to return any of their 
lands, and Sweyn, after leaving the royal court, took Beorn hostage and later killed 
him.[16]

When in 1051 Earl Godwin was sent into exile, Harold accompanied his father and 
helped him to regain his position a year later. Then Godwin died in 1053, and Harold 
succeeded him as Earl of Wessex (the southern third of England). This arguably made 
him the most powerful figure in England after the king.

Harold also became Earl of Hereford in 1058, and replaced his late father as the focus 
of opposition to growing Norman influence in England under the restored monarchy 
(1042–66) of Edward the Confessor, who had spent more than 25 years in exile in 
Normandy. He led a series of successful campaigns (1062–63) against Gruffydd ap 
Llywelyn of Gwynedd, the ruler of Wales. This conflict ended with Gruffydd's defeat 
and death in 1063.

Harold in northern France[edit]

In 1064, Harold apparently was shipwrecked at Ponthieu. There is much speculation 
about this voyage. The earliest post-conquest Norman chroniclers report that King 
Edward had previously sent Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, to appoint as his heir 
Edward's maternal kinsman, William of Normandy, and that at this later date Harold 
was sent to swear fealty.[17] Scholars disagree as to the reliability of this story. 
William, at least, seems to have believed he had been offered the succession, but 
there must have been some confusion either on William's part or perhaps by both men, 
since the English succession was neither inherited nor determined by the reigning 
monarch. Instead the Witenagemot, the assembly of the kingdom's leading notables, 
would convene after a king's death to select a successor. Other acts of Edward are 
inconsistent with his having made such a promise, such as his efforts to return his 
nephew Edward the Exile, son of King Edmund Ironside, from Hungary in 1057.[a] 
Later Norman chroniclers suggest alternative explanations for Harold's journey: that he 
was seeking the release of members of his family who had been held hostage since 
Godwin's exile in 1051, or even that he had simply been travelling along the English 
coast on a hunting and fishing expedition and had been driven across the Channel by 
an unexpected storm. There is general agreement that he left from Bosham, and was 
blown off course, landing at Ponthieu. He was captured by Guy I, Count of Ponthieu, 
and was then taken as a hostage to the count's castle at Beaurain,[18] 24.5 km up 
the River Canche from its mouth at what is now Le Touquet. Duke William arrived 
soon afterward and ordered Guy to turn Harold over to him.[19] Harold then apparently 
accompanied William to battle against William's enemy, Conan II, Duke of Brittany. 
While crossing into Brittany past the fortified abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, Harold is 
recorded as rescuing two of William's soldiers from quicksand. They pursued Conan 
from Dol-de-Bretagne to Rennes, and finally to Dinan, where he surrendered the 
fortress's keys at the point of a lance. William presented Harold with weapons and 
arms, knighting him. The Bayeux Tapestry, and other Norman sources, then record 
that Harold swore an oath on sacred relics to William to support his claim to the 
English throne. After Edward's death, the Normans were quick to point out that in 
accepting the crown of England, Harold had broken this alleged oath.

The chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote of Harold that he "was very tall and handsome, 
remarkable for his physical strength, his courage and eloquence, his ready jests and 
acts of valour. But what were these gifts to him without honour, which is the root of all 
good?"

Due to a doubling of taxation by Tostig in 1065 that threatened to plunge England into 
civil war, Harold supported Northumbrian rebels against his brother, Tostig, and 
replaced him with Morcar. This strengthened his acceptability as Edward's successor, 
but fatally split his own family, driving Tostig into alliance with King Harald Hardrada 
("Hard Ruler") of Norway.

Reign as King[edit]

At the end of 1065 King Edward the Confessor fell into a coma without clarifying his 
preference for the succession. He died on 5 January 1066, according to the Vita 
Ædwardi Regis, but not before briefly regaining consciousness and commending his 
widow and the kingdom to Harold's "protection". The intent of this charge remains 
ambiguous, as is the Bayeux Tapestry, which simply depicts Edward pointing at a man 
thought to represent Harold.[b] When the Witan convened the next day they selected 
Harold to succeed,[c] and his coronation followed on 6 January, most likely held in 
Westminster Abbey; though no evidence from the time survives to confirm this.[21] 
Although later Norman sources point to the suddenness of this coronation, the reason 
may have been that all the nobles of the land were present at Westminster for the 
feast of Epiphany, and not because of any usurpation of the throne on Harold's part.

In early January 1066, hearing of Harold's coronation, Duke William II of Normandy 
began plans to invade England, building 700 warships and transports at Dives-sur-Mer 
on the Normandy coast. Initially, William could not get support for the invasion but, 
claiming that Harold had sworn on sacred relics to support his claim to the throne after 
having been shipwrecked at Ponthieu, William received the Church's blessing and 
nobles flocked to his cause. In anticipation of the invasion, Harold assembled his 
troops on the Isle of Wight, but the invasion fleet remained in port for almost seven 
months, perhaps due to unfavourable winds. On 8 September, with provisions running 
out, Harold disbanded his army and returned to London. On the same day Harald 
Hardrada of Norway, who also claimed the English crown[d] joined Tostig and 
invaded, landing his fleet at the mouth of the Tyne.

The invading forces of Hardrada and Tostig defeated the English earls Edwin of 
Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September 
1066. Harold led his army north on a forced march from London, reached Yorkshire in 
four days, and caught Hardrada by surprise. On 25 September, in the Battle of 
Stamford Bridge, Harold defeated Hardrada and Tostig, who were both killed.

According to Snorri Sturluson, before the battle a single man rode up alone to Harald 
Hardrada and Tostig. He gave no name, but spoke to Tostig, offering the return of his 
earldom if he would turn against Hardrada. Tostig asked what his brother Harold would 
be willing to give Hardrada for his trouble. The rider replied "Seven feet of English 
ground, as he is taller than other men." Then he rode back to the Saxon host. 
Hardrada was impressed by the rider's boldness, and asked Tostig who he was. Tostig 
replied that the rider was Harold Godwinson himself.[22] According to Henry of 
Huntingdon, Harold said "Six feet of ground or as much more as he needs, as he is 
taller than most men."

Battle of Hastings[edit]

On 12 September 1066 William's fleet sailed from Normandy.[e] Several ships sank in 
storms, which forced the fleet to take shelter at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme and to wait 
for the wind to change. On 27 September the Norman fleet finally set sail for England, 
arriving, it is believed,[by whom?] the following day at Pevensey on the coast of East 
Sussex. Harold's army marched 241 miles (386 kilometres) to intercept William, who 
had landed perhaps 7,000 men in Sussex, southern England. Harold established his 
army in hastily built earthworks near Hastings. The two armies clashed at the Battle of 
Hastings, at Senlac Hill (near the present town of Battle) close by Hastings on 14 
October, where after nine hours of hard fighting, Harold was killed and his forces 
defeated. His brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were also killed in the battle, according to 
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[23][non-primary source needed]

Death

The notion that Harold died by an arrow to the eye is a popular belief today, but this 
historical legend is the subject to much scholarly debate. A Norman account of the 
battle, Carmen de Hastingae Proelio ("Song of the Battle of Hastings"), said to have 
been written shortly after the battle by Guy, Bishop of Amiens, says that Harold was 
killed by four knights, probably including Duke William, and his body dismembered. 
Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman histories, such as William of Malmesbury's Gesta 
Regum Anglorum and Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum recount that Harold 
died by an arrow wound to his head. An earlier source, Amatus of Montecassino's 
L'Ystoire de li Normant ("History of the Normans"), written only twenty years after the 
battle of Hastings, contains a report of Harold being shot in the eye with an arrow, but 
this may be an early fourteenth-century addition.[24] Later accounts reflect one or 
both of these two versions.

A figure in the panel of the Bayeux Tapestry with the inscription "Harold Rex 
Interfectus Est" ("Harold the King is killed") is depicted gripping an arrow that has 
struck his eye, but some historians have questioned whether this man is intended to 
be Harold or if Harold is intended as the next figure lying to the right almost supine, 
being mutilated beneath a horse's hooves. Etchings made of the Tapestry in the 1730s 
show the standing figure with differing objects. Benoît's 1729 sketch shows only a 
dotted line indicating stitch marks without any indication of fletching, whereas all 
other arrows in the Tapestry are fletched. Bernard de Montfaucon's 1730 engraving 
has a solid line resembling a spear being held overhand matching the manner of the 
figure to the left. Stothard's 1819 water-colour drawing has, for the first time, a 
fletched arrow in the figure's eye. Although not apparent in the earlier depictions, the 
Tapestry today has stitch marks indicating the fallen figure once had an arrow in its 
eye. It has been proposed that the second figure once had an arrow added by over-
enthusiastic nineteenth-century restorers that was later unstitched.[25] Many believe 
this, as the name "Harold" is above the figure with an arrow in his eye. This has been 
disputed by examining other examples from the Tapestry where the visual center of a 
scene, not the location of the inscription, identifies named figures.[26] Further 
evidence is that an arrow volley would be fired before the Norman cavalry charge. A 
further suggestion is that both accounts are accurate, and that Harold suffered first 
the eye wound, then the mutilation, and the Tapestry is depicting both in sequence.
[27]

Burial and legacy[edit]

The account of the contemporary chronicler William of Poitiers, states that the body of 
Harold was given to William Malet for burial:

The two brothers of the King were found near him and Harold himself, stripped of all 
badges of honour, could not be identified by his face but only by certain marks on his 
body. His corpse was brought into the Duke's camp, and William gave it for burial to 
William, surnamed Malet, and not to Harold's mother, who offered for the body of her 
beloved son its weight in gold. For the Duke thought it unseemly to receive money for 
such merchandise, and equally he considered it wrong that Harold should be buried as 
his mother wished, since so many men lay unburied because of his avarice. They said 
in jest that he who had guarded the coast with such insensate zeal should be buried 
by the seashore.[28]

Another source states that Harold's widow, Edith Swannesha, was called to identify 
the body, which she did by some private mark known only to her. Harold's strong 
association with Bosham, his birthplace, and the discovery in 1954 of an Anglo-Saxon 
coffin in the church there, has led some to suggest it as the place of King Harold's 
burial. A request to exhume a grave in Bosham church was refused by the Diocese of 
Chichester in December 2003, the Chancellor having ruled that the chances of 
establishing the identity of the body as Harold's were too slim to justify disturbing a 
burial place.[29] A prior exhumation had revealed the remains of a man, estimated at 
up to 60 years of age from photographs of the remains, lacking a head, one leg and 
the lower part of his other leg, a description consistent with the fate of the king as 
recorded in the Carmen. The poem also claims Harold was buried by the sea, which is 
consistent with William of Poitiers' account and with the identification of the grave at 
Bosham Church that is only yards from Chichester Harbour and in sight of the English 
Channel.[30]

There were legends of Harold's body being given a proper funeral years later in his 
church of Waltham Holy Cross in Essex, which he had refounded in 1060. Legends 
grew up that Harold had not died at Hastings but instead fled England or that he later 
ended his life as a hermit at Chester or Canterbury.[31]

Harold's son Ulf, along with Morcar and two others, were released from prison by King 
William as he lay dying in 1087. Ulf threw his lot in with Robert Curthose, who 
knighted him, and then disappeared from history. Two of Harold's other sons, Godwine 
and Edmund, invaded England in 1068 and 1069 with the aid of Diarmait mac Máel na 
mBó (High King of Ireland).[f] They raided Cornwall as late as 1082,[citation needed] 
but died in obscurity in Ireland.

Marriages and children[edit]

For some twenty years Harold was married More danico (Latin: "in the Danish 
manner") to Edyth Swannesha and had at least six children with her. The marriage 
was considered Harold's mistress by the clergy.[g]

According to Orderic Vitalis, Harold was at some time betrothed to Adeliza, a daughter 
of William, Duke of Normandy, later William the Conqueror; if so, the betrothal never 
led to marriage.[32]

About January 1066, Harold married Edith (or Ealdgyth), daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of 
Mercia, and widow of the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Edith had two sons—
possibly twins—named Harold and Ulf (born around November 1066), both of whom 
survived into adulthood and probably lived out their lives in exile.[citation needed]

After her husband's death, Edith fled for refuge to her brothers, Edwin, Earl of Mercia 
and Morcar of Northumbria, but both men made their peace with King William initially 
before rebelling and losing their lands and lives. Edith may have fled abroad (possibly 
with Harold's mother, Gytha, or with Harold's daughter, Gytha). Harold's sons, Godwin 
and Edmund, fled to Ireland and then invaded Devon, but were defeated by Brian of 
Brittany.[h][citation needed]

Parents
____ Godwin (ABT  992 - 15 Apr 1053)
THORKELSDOTTIR Gytha (Thyra) (ABT  997 - ABT 1069)

Siblings
OF SUSSEX Druella (ABT 1013 - )
GODWINSSON Harold II (ABT 1022 - 14 Oct 1066)

Marriage To ____ Edith "Swanneshals" ("Swan neck") (ABT 1025 - ABT 1086)
    m.  

Notes


Children by ____ Edith "Swanneshals" ("Swan neck") ABT 1025 - ABT 1086
OF WESSEX (HARALDSDOTTIR) Gytha (Gyda) (ABT 1053 - 1097)

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