King Harold Godwinson ENGLAND, II

   Other names for Harold were ENGLAND King and WESSEX Earl.

   Ancestral File Number: B19S-5H.

   General Notes:

Earl of WESSEX 1053-1066, King of ENGLAND Jan-Oct 1066, Last Saxon King of ENGLAND.

Not Married Eadgyth Edith.

Killed in Battle ofHastings Oct 1066.

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Harold II Earl of Wessex King of England Jan- Oct 1066, Mistress =1 Eadgyth Swan Neck, Mar =2 (2) Ealdgyth Widow of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Killed at Battle of Hastings Oct 1066."

The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes, Elizabeth Longford, 1991, Oxford Univ Press, pxviii: "Saxons and Danes Genealogy: Harold II(1066)."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co p155:
"Fate played startlingly into the hands of the Norman Duke. On some visit of inspection, probably in 1064, Harold was driven by the winds on to the French coast. The Count of Ponthieu, who held sway there, looked upon all shipwrecked mariners and their gear as treasure-trove. He held Harold to ransom for what he was worth, which was much. The contacts between the Norman and English Courts were at this time close and friendly, and Duke William asked for the release of King Edward's thane, acting at first by civil request, and later by armed commands. The Count of Ponthieu reluctantly relinquished his windfall, and conducted Harold to the Norman Court. A friendship spring up between William and Harold. Politics apart, they liked each other well..."
p156: "...[Harold] was honoured and knighted by William. But the Duke looked forward to his future succession to the English crown. Here indeed was the prize to be won. Harold had one small streak of royal blood on his mother's side; but William, through his father, had a more pointed or at least less cloudy claim to the Island throne.This claim he was resolved to assert...He invited Harold to make a pact with him whereby he himself should become King of England, and Harold Earl of the whole splendid province of Wessex, being assured thereof and linked to the King by marriage with William's daughter.
"All this story is told with irresistible charm in the tapestry chronicle of the reign commonly attributed to William's wife, Queen Matilda, but acutally designed by English artists under the guidance of his half-brother, Odo, Bishop of Baueux. It is our course the Norman version, and was for generations proclaimed by their historians as a full justification- and already even in those days aggressors needed justifications- of William's invasion of England...It is provable however that Harold swore a solemn oath to William to renounce all rights or designs upon the English crown, and it is likely that if he had not done so he might never have seen either crown or England again.
"The feudal significance of this oath making Harold William's man was enhanced by a trick novel to those times, yet adapted to their mentality. Under the altar or table upon which Harold swore there was concealed a sacred relic, said by some later writers to have been some of the bones of St Edmund..."
p157: "...Harold, liberated, was conducting the government of England with genuine acceptance and increasing success. At length, in January 1066, Edward the Confessor died, absolved, we trust, from such worldly sins as he had been tempted to commit. With his dying breath, in spite of his alleged promise to William, he is supposed to have commended Harold, his youn, valiant counsellor and guide, as the best choice for the crown which the Witan, or Council could make. At any rate, Harold, at the beginning of the fateful year 1066, was blithely accepted by London, the Midlands, and the South, and crowned King with all solemnity in Westminster Abbey.
"This event openedagain the gates of war. There had been a precedent in France of a non-royal personage, Hugh Capet, becoming King; but this had been strongly resented by the nobility, whose pride, common ideas, and sentiments were increasingly giving the law toWestern Europe. Every aspiring thane who heard the news of harold's elevation was conscious of an affront, and also of the wide ranges open to ability and sword. Moreover, the entire structure of the feudal world rested upon the sanctity of oaths...
"At this very moment the Almighty, reaching down from His heavenly sphere, made an ambiguous gesture. The tailed comet of `hairy star' which appeared at the time of Harold's coronation is now identified by astronomers as Halley's Comet, which had previously heralded the Nativity of Our Lord; and it is evident that this example of divine economy in the movements for mundane purposes of celestial bodies might have been turned by deft interpretation to Harold's advantage. But the conquerors have told the tale, and in their eyes this portent conveyed to men the approaching downfall of a sacrilegious upstart...
"Harold of England was thus faced with a double invasion from the north-east and from the south. In September 1066 he heard that a Norwegian fleet, with Hardrada and Tostig on board, had sailed up the Humber...and encamped near York at Stamford Bridge. He now showed the fighting qualities he possessed. The news reached him in London, where hewas waiting to see which invasion would strike him first, and where. At the head of his Danish household troops he hastened northwards up the Roman road to York...His rapidity of movement took the Northern invaders completely by surprise. Within five days of the defeat of Edwin and Morcar, Harold reached York, and the same day marched to confront the Norwegian army ten miles from the city.
"The battle began. The Englishmen charged...The greatest crash of weapons arose. Hardradawas hit by an arrow in the throat, and Tostig, assuming the command, took his stand...In this pause Harold offered his brother peace, and also quarter to all Norsemen who were still alive; but `the Norsemen called out all of them together thatthey would rather fall, one across the other, than accept of quarter from the Englishmen'...nearly all were killed. The victorious Harold buried Hardrada in the seven feet of English earth he had scornfully promised him, but he spared his son Olaf and let him go in peace with his surviving adherents...Though the Battle of Stamford Bridge has been overshadowed by Hastings it has a claim to be regarded as one of the decisive contests of English history. Never again was a Scandinavian army able seriously to threaten the power of an English king or the unity of the realm.
"At the moment of victory news reached the King from the South that `William the Bastard' had landed at Pevensey..."
p162: "...Harold and his house-carls, sadly depleted by the slaughter of Stamford Bridge, jingled down Watling Street on their ponies, marching night and day to London. They covered the two hundred miles in seven days. In London the King gathered all the forces he could...Remaining only five days in London, Harold marched out towards Pevensey, and in the evening of October 13 took up his position upon the slope of a hill which barred the direct march upon the capital.
"The military opinion of those as of these days has criticised his staking all upon an immediate battle. The loyalty of the Northern earls, Edwin and Morcar, was doubtful. They were hastening south with a substantial reinforcement, but he could not be sure which side they would join. Inthe event they `withdrew themselves form the conflict'...Duke William's was essentially a cavalry force assisted by archers, while Harold had nothing but foot-soldiers who used horses only as transport...King Harold had great confidence in hisredoubtable axe-men, and it was in good heart that he formed his shield-wall on the morning of October 14. There is a great dispute about the numbers engaged. Some modern authorities suppose the battle was fought by five or six thousand Normanknights and men-at-arms, with a few thousand archers, against eight to ten thousand axe- and spear-men, and the numbers on both sides may have been fewer. However it may be, at the first streak of dawn William set out from his camp at Pevenseyresolved to put all to the test; and Harold, eight miles away, awaited him in resolute array."
p164: "...There remained, as the dusk grew, only the valiant bodyguard who fought round the King and his standard. His brothers, Gyrth and Leofwine,had already been killed. William now directed his archers to shoot high into the air, so that the arrows would fall behind the dhield-wall, and one of these pierced Harold in the right eye, inflicting a mortal wound. He fell at the foot of theroyal standard, unconquerable except by death, which does not count in honour. The hard-fought battle was now decided...
"...The dead king's naked body, wrapped only in a robe of purple, was hidden among the rocks of the bay. His mother in vain offered the weight of the body in gold for permission to bury him in holdy ground. The Normand Duke's answer was that Harold would be more fittingly laid upon the Saxon shore which he had given his life to defend. The body was later transferred to Waltham Abbey, which he had founded. Although here the English once again accepted and bowed in a new destiny, yet ever must the name of Harold be honoured in the Island for which he and his famous house-carls fought indomitably to the end."

The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England, Antonia Fraser, 1975, Alfred Knopf, p25: "Harold II, c1022-66..."

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981, Micropaedia, Vol III, p799, Edward the Confessor Saint:
"...Edward succeeded to the throne in 1042 and quickly seized the property of his mother, who had plotted against his accession. Nevertheless, for the first 11 years of his reign the real master of England was Godwin, Earl of the West Saxons. Edward married Godwin's daughterEdith in 1045, but by 1049 a breach had occurred between the two men. In 1051 Edward outlawed the Godwin family and dismissed Edith. During this period Edward was rapidly losing popularity by giving foreigners- particularly Normans- high positions in his government. Hence in 1053 Godwin and his sons were able to gather large forces against the King. They forced Edward to restore their lands, and they exiled many of his foreign favourites. Upon Godwin's death in 1053 his son Harold became the dominant power in the kingdom. It was Harold rather than Edward who subjugated Wales in 1063 and negotiated with the rebellious Northumbrians in 1065. Consequently, Edward on his deathbed named Harold as his successor even though he allegedly had already promised the crown to William. William killed Harold at the Battle of Hastings, Sussex, in October 1066, and two months later he ascended the throne..."

From Alfred to Henry III 871-1272, Christopher Brooke, 1961, Norton Library History of England, p64:
"...Another Englishman, Godwin, who became Earl of Wessex, owed his position to his loyal service to Cnut. (Godwin's sons in due course became earls also of Northumbria, East Anglia, and the home counties, and the most famous of them, Harold, was to be the last of the Old English kings)..."
p83: "...In [Edward Confessor's] early years the most powerful of the earls was Godwin of Wessex, the king-maker: the man who had secured the succession of Harold I to Cnut, and probably played a part in Edward's own succession. He and his family dominated the south of England and ruled the King; Godwin's daughter Edith, was married to Edward... But Edward was supported by the earls of Mercia and Northumbria in this crisis, and by skillful manoeuvering he forced the family of Godwin into exile- all save Queen Edith who was sent into enforced retreat among the nuns of Wherwell..."
"Before 1052 was over, Earl Godwin had managed to return and dictate his terms to the King. These included the restoration to the family of their earldoms and to the Queen of her place at court. The brief spell of personal government was over. Godwin himself died in 1053, but his earldom and his standing passed to his eldest surviving son, Harold...
"...Harold, however, was undoubtedly the first man in the kingdom, the `under-king' as one writer calls him, the leader of the English army. Necessity or circumstances had led to something like a true reconciliation between Edward and his wife's family. It may even be that Edward had partly reconciled Harold to Duke William's succession. For some reason now past explaining Harold crossed the Channel in 1064, was captured by the Count of Ponthieu, and rescued by William. Then followed the mysterious arrangement so graphically portrayed in the Bayeux Tapestry. Duke William somehow found the opportunity to cajole or compel Harold into an oath, sworn on the relics of Bayeux Cathedral, to support William's claim to the throne.
"The crisis of 1066 came swiftly and with only the slightest of warnings. At the end of 1065 the King was known to be dying, and the vultures began to collect. Three men were knownto have the ambition to be king: Harold Hardrada of Norway, William of Normandy, and Harold of Wessex. What happened in the King's court at Christmas we shall never know. But in the end he designated Harold of Wessex as his successor; and on the day after the King's death (6th January 1066) Harold was duly accepted by the magnates and crowned. We do not know what caused the King to change his mind. Either he or those about him must have reckoned that the confusion of the country, the uncertain state of Northumbria, and the threatened invasion of Harold Hardrada, demanded a king who could instantly command the allegiance of a great part of England.
"Their calcuations were very nearly justified. In his brief reign Harold revealed his skill, determination, and generalship to the full. He is first recorded at York in the early months of the year. Then in May he dealt with an attack by his brother, Tostig, on the south-east coast. This raid was presumed by Harold to be the precursor of an invasion from Normandy and he mobilised all the military and naval resources at his disposal to meet an attack by William. But these forces could not be held in readiness indefinitely. Early in Sep[tember the militia was disbanded, and the ships were moved towards London- many of them being lost on the way. Before the end of the month both Harold Hardrada (now in alliance with Tostig) and William of Normandy had landed in England.
"The Norwegian camefirst, and somehow achieved surprise. Earl Edwin and earl Morcar gathered an army against him, but were checked in a violent battle at Fulford. From now on Harold of England had to rely on his own resources. He was in the south, organising thedispersal of the militia, when the news was brought to him of the Norwegian landing. He marched north with great rapidity, and fell on the enemy before they could have expected him at Stamford Bridge, near York. Three hundred ships or more brought the Norwegian host to England; twenty-five sufficed to take away the survivors of Fulford and Stamford Bridge. Both Tostig and Harold of Norway were among the slain. Harold of England had won a great and decisive victory. The threat whichhad humg over the country for twenty years was removed, and rebellion from within his family had been scotched. Harold might well look forward to the fruit of so great a victory: to the prestige of a great warrior and the unquestioned obediencewhich had been the lot of Athelstan and Cnut after their victories. Afew days later he learned of the landing of William of Normandy..."
"The battle of Hastings was fought on Saturday, 14th October, sixteen days after William's landing, nineteen days after the battle of Stamford Bridge. The campaign was extraordinarily rapid. After the briefest of pauses Harold hurried south. He left himself no time to collect a substantial army; but apparently marched into Sussex with his ownand his brothers' housecarles, such thegns as had been able to answer his hasty summons and the local levies of the immediate neighbourhood. Nobody has ever explained his haste; had he waited, he could have collected a far larger army. He may have doubted the loyalty of the couthern counties; he may have wished to protect his own estates, so many of which lay near Pevensey and Hastings. We do not know what intelligence he had; nor do we know how large a force William had landed. William was reinforced very soon after the battle; it may be that he had landed only a part of his army and that Harold calculated on pushing it into the sea before reinforcements came. It is probable in any case that Harold underestimated the Norman stength, and that his great victory in the north had made him over-confident."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch I, p13:
[1067] "...The possessions of Harold's family and of all those who had fallen in the battle with him were at once confiscated, and these seem to have sufficed for the present needs...These confiscated lands the king bestowed on the chiefs of his army..."

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ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.11 B19S-5H Harold II King of ENGLAND.

   Marriage Information:

Harold married Eadgyth Edith.

   Marriage Information:

Harold also married Queen Ealdgyth Mercia ENGLAND, daughter of Earl Alfgar MERCIA, III and Princess Alfgifu ENGLAND, about 1063-1064 in , Wessex, England. (Queen Ealdgyth Mercia ENGLAND was born about 1034 in , Mercia, England and died after 1086.)