King Harold II’s Life. The Last Crowned King of Orthodox England
Who was he? He was son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and Gytha Thorkelsdottir, sister-in-law of King Canute, King of England and Denmark. He was born in the year 1022 to die on the 14th October 1066, on Senlac Ridge in Sussex, as the last crowned King of England, to die at the hands of a French-Norman, the Duke of Normandy. A usurper who usurped his own liege lord the King of France, Normandy is a kingdom of France from the very beginning and where it is today, a part of France, and where the Duke of Normandy is buried! Where he belongs, William ‘the Bastard’.
Harold’s father was believed a native Thegn of Sussex and his mother of a Danish chieftain, the Danes/Jutes have been a part of England from the very beginning. Harold’s father, Earl Godwin supported King Edmund ‘Ironside’ but switched allegiance to King Canute who on victory named Godwin as Earl of Wessex, on passing we must remember that King Edmund was murdered by one of his earls, Earl Eadric Streona who had switched sides to King Canute at a pivoted point, on telling King Canute what he had done to his liege lord, King Edmund ‘lronside’ he was quickly dispatched, would you want a traitor in your ranks causing disharmony. King Canute had King Edmund buried next to his father in Glastonbury Abbey. Back to Earl Godwin with this title it laid the foundation of the Godwin family and its great influence. Harold’s father was implicated in the death of Prince Alfred who was invited over to England, he being the brother of the future King Edward ‘the Confessor’ which did not endure him to the Godwins, but with the weave of life King Edward later married Edith, Earl Godwin’s daughter.
Harold became Earl of East Anglia around this time of this marriage, 1045, Earl Harold began a relationship with Edith ‘Swan-neck’, they married in what was known as ‘in the Danish manner’ which was not blessed by the Church, Edith appears as heiress to land adjoining to Earl Harold, it was most probably an arrangement to secure his new earldom position, but they lived together as man and wife having several children. Harold went to the aid of the German Emperor Henry III in 1049, whilst his elder brother Sweyne returned to England to ask the king to overturn his exile, he was exiled because he had abducted the Abbess of Leominster, his lands being given to Harold and Beorn, this was refused so he abducted Beorn and murdered him.
Earl Godwin was exiled in 1051 and Harold went with him and helped him to regain his father’s position and took this title on the death of his father in 1053, thus making him the most powerful man in England bar the king, he campaigned for the king, defeating the Welsh King in 1063. Then in 1064 the year of intrigue with Earl Harold shipwrecked in France and taken prisoner by the Count of Phonthieu, Guy I, who handed him over to the Duke of Normandy when he arrived and took him hostage, it’s nor really known why he came to France if he was going there at all! did a storm blow his ship over? or was it to ask for release of family members who had been there since the exile of the Godwins in 1051? But the Duke took full advantage of this unlooked for situation, getting Earl Harold under duress to swear allegiance to his claim to the throne of England, Earl Harold may have sworn but this meant nothing it was the Witenagemont, the parliament of the day who decided the next King of England, looking for the man who is most able to fulfil this important role, no one has the authority to say otherwise, even the king can only suggest someone to take on the crown. Harold fought in the Duke’s army, any allegiance was for that situation only, no more, he was released sailing back to England, to face another family problem of his brother Tostig who was replaced by Mocar after he had doubled the taxation in Northumbria and thus causing a near civil war, unfortunately Tostig on being exiled became allied with King Hardrada, King of Norway.
King Edward ‘the Confessor’ passed away on 5th January 1066 as Epiphany was about to be celebrated, with all the Witenagemont being there because of this, Earl Harold was Crowned King of England the following day on the day of Epiphany on the 6th, whereas, the Duke of Normandy with his wayward threat and the threat of his brother Tostig who had been ravaging English coastal towns, had the army on standby but be late summer they were disbanded mainly to get the harvest in on entering London on 8th September to find that Tostig with King Hardrada had landed with an army at the mouth of the Humber and then defeated Earl of Mercia and Mocar of Northumbria at the Battle of Fulford near York on 20th September, King Harold marched the army to York in four days and caught King Hardrada at Stamford Bridge and after a hard fought battle completely defeated them, killing Hardrada and Tostig.
ln the meantime the Duke of Normandy had sailed from Normandy after the wind had kept the fleet pinned to the coast – or did he wait so Hardrada played his card first coming from Norway – and landed his fleet at the Roman fort at Pevensey on 28th September which became his base. He then ravaged the countryside just like what his forebears had done, as he organized his army for battle, on the hearing this King Harold again forced marched the army back to London, to Waltham Abbey as he was the patron given this by King Edward ‘the Confessor’ and so got ready for the next battle. After another strenuous effort in four days, he had not the entire English army with him as needs must press, so setting off to meet the usurper a man who was no more than a warlord and acted as such, but he had the papal banner given to him by Hildebrand the pope of the reformed Church and the duke was the leader of the storm-troopers who enforced the new church. King Harold being excommunicated had to move fast, otherwise his soldiers may not fight, he being trapped between hell and high water, the meeting was on Senlac Ridge in Sussex on the road to Hastings. The battle which the town is now named as such on the A2100 at the junction where the road goes off to pass the railway station, here the last crowned King of England was killed with most of his Thegns who would have fought to the end in defence of their king and with this England would change forever. Many English went abroad after this, many to Constantinople with warriors entering the Varangian Guard. The Church was changed with the new Roman Catholic Church which had broken from Orthodoxy in 1054 which the English Church did not follow being Orthodox and the Duke bringing over feudalism where everyone was under the man above so the king had all the power, like a warlord would have. He even placed the crown of England on his own head and had allowed his troops to butcher people outside Westminster Abbey whilst he crowned himself, but this is another story, another history of the English which is never heard of today, as someone quoted…
“With cold heart and bloody hands
now rule the English lands.”
King Harold II Family’s Fate
Author Geoff Boxell
After the battle of Hastings/Senlac Ridge, William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy. (mother was a tanners daughter) sent William Mallet, who had befriended Harold when he was Earl of Wessex to find Harold’s body. Mallet identified it with the help of Harold’s hand fast wife, Edith ‘Swan Neck’, by the marks on his body (probably tattoos). Despite an offer by Harold’s mother, Gytha, to buy the body for its weight in gold, William had it buried under a cairn overlooking the seashore. To quote the French-Norman chronicler, William of Jumieges: ‘It was, said in mockery to be appropriate to leave him as keeper of the shore and sea which he had sought to defend in his insanity.’
No doubt William did not wish Harold’s grave to become a focus for English devotion. Later, if the tradition and records of Harold’s personal church, Holy Cross Waltham Abbey in Essex are true, William relented and the body taken and reburied in front, of its high altar. In 1120 it was moved to a nave as the number of pilgrims was becoming an embarrassment to England’s new nobility. When the abbey was dissolved in Henry VIII’s time the church was considerably reduced in size and the nave demolished. The assumed site of Harold’s body now lies in the church grounds. (the memorial is sited in front of the high altar in the apse).
Recently there have been claims that Harold was in fact buried in the Godwin family church at Bosham, Chichester Harbour, West Sussex. The claims mainly come from the finding of bones and hair in a grave near the altar that date from the period. The bones and hair colouring match Harold’s. However, as, Harold’s father, Godwin, and Harold’s cousin, the murdered Beorn, were both buried there, it is more likely to be either of their bodies, rather than Harold’s. There is not much known of the fate of King Harold II family after 1066.
Of his hand fast wife, Edith (Swan neck), nothing further is written, and no legends are told of her fate. The Godwin family did have ties with the nunnery at Wilton, Wiltshire, where Harold’s daughter, Gunnhild was after the Conquest/Crusade, and she may have retired there. Alternatively she may have retired to the nunnery of St Omar in Flanders, France. His wife, Queen Alditha, gave birth to King Harold’s son, Harold at Chester in 1067. The revolts against William, now self-crowned King of England, led by Alditha’s brothers, Edwin and Morcar, led to William’s nightmare winter march from Yorkshire in the winter of 1069/70 that led the brother’s defeat at Stafford, the fall of the Chester and the harrowing of land about. Alditha fled with her infant son to Dublin, and disappeared from recorded history.
King Harold’s mother, Gytha had earlier held out against the French-Norman invaders when, during William’s return to Normandy in 1069, she fortified and held Exeter in Devon, the fourth largest city in the land. When William returned, he faced many revolts led by local English leaders, but it was to Exeter that he first turned. The mid winter siege lasted 18 days and a large part of the French-Norman army perished in the process. The city finally capitulated when the expected support from local thegns did not eventuate. Whether King Harold’s sons by Edith, Godwin, Edmund and Magnus, were present is not recorded, Gytha fled before the surrender and sailed with Harold’s daughter Gytha and his sister Gunnhild to the island of Flatholme in the Bristol Channel.
The setback at Exeter did not curb Harold’s cubs and they went to Dublin with their huscarls to seek aid from King Harold’s friend, King Diarmait, in the summer 1068 they were back with a force of Dublin Norse mercenaries. They attempted to make Bristol their base, but the locals proved to be unsympathetic, so they were forced to try and take it by storm. The reason for their resistance may have been a fear of William’s known wroth, or a dislike of the Hiberno-Norse mercenaries rather disloyalty to the Godwin family. The city held, and the brothers sailed off with the booty they had taken from surrounding countryside. They landed in Somerset near land that had been held by the Godwins for years, they might have intended to raid the Taunton mint. The local Fyrd led by Eadnoth Staller met them, Eadnoth had been a loyal supporter of their father but after his death at Senlac had submitted to William. The battle was hard fought with big casualties on both side and Eadnoth’s death. It is thought possible that Magnus Haroldson also died on the battle field as he was never heard of again. There is, however, at St John in Lewis, East Sussex, an inscription dated from the time that records the presence of a Magnus a prince of the royal northern race. As Sussex was the homeland of the Godwin clan it may be that Magnus, possible crippled, spent his remaining life there as a anchorite.
Godwin and Edmund were back the following year of 1069 with a fleet of 60 ships. Their attempt to retake Exeter was foiled by the French-Norman garrison in their newly built castle and strengthened city walls. Frustrated, the brothers raided Somerset and Cornwall. Rounding Lands End they headed for the Godwins holdings of Nettlecombe, Dorset and Landfold Budville, Wiltshire. The lack of local opposition made the brothers incautious and they were caught and defeated by a large French-Norman force under Count Brian. In the battle and subsequent heavy losses and only a remnant returned to Ireland.
The failure of the Haroldsons to re-establish a base in England caused Gytha and the family with her on Flatholme to seek refuge with Count Baldwin VI of Flanders. Baldwin and Godwin kin were tied by the marriage of Tostig Godwinson to Baldwin’s aunt. Judith. Whilst Gytha and her daughter Gunnhild entered the nunnery of St Omar, where Gunnhild died in 1087 after performing many good works the brothers Godwin and Edmund journeyed to the court of their cousin, King Swein of Denmark.
Swein had already made an attempt on claiming the English throne for himself lending aid to both Earl Waltheof and the northern thegns, and Hereward the Wake in the fens. In the confusion following Swein’s death 1074 all track of the brothers is lost and they are heard of no more. Their sister, Gytha, had been sent by Swein before his death to marry the Russian Prince of Smolensk, Vladimir Monomkh in Kiev.
The marriage proved fruitful and Gytha gave Vladimir a large brood of offspring, possibly as many as eight sons and three daughters. Gytha died on 7th May 1107 before her husband had achieved the pinnacle of his power as Grand Prince of Kiev. Their eldest son was Msistislav known to the Norse world as Harold. This Russian Harold had a daughter, Ingibiorge. She had a son who became King Valdemar of Denmark.
Another of King Harold’s daughters by Edith, Gunnhild, was a nun at Wilton. She may have fled there after the defeat at the Battle of Hastings/Senlac Ridge, but more likely she had sent their originally to be educated by her aunt, King Edward the Confessor’s wife Edith (sister of Earl Harold), had been. Initially she remained there as a refugee from the French-Normans, using the veil as her protection with her was Edith, Edgar Athelings niece (daughter of St Margaret of Scotland who was married to the King of Scotland, she being a princess of the House of Wessex), later to be wife of King Henry I of England. Gunnhild may have sought refuge from the French-Normans, but later they seem to have used the nunnery as a prison to prevent her from being involved in any threat to their power. The threat and controversy did in fact arise, but from a Breton rather than an English source. Alan the Red, Earl of Richmond abducted Gunnhild in August 1093.
Alan had been given lands that had belonged to Edith Swan neck. Alan must have felt that, being married, though maybe only in the hard fast manner to Edith’s daughter, would help him gain the co-operation of the locals. Gunnhild seemed happy with the arrangement, whilst living with Alan the Red she defied the attempts of Anslem, Archbishop of Canterbury, to get her back to the nunnery, saying that she had never formally taken the veil. Anslem later found out that she had in fact taken vows. Meantime Alan the Red had died and Gunnhild had taken up with her brother and successor, Alan the Black! Despite the strong he used in trying, yet again to unsuccessfully get Gunnhild to return to being a nun, Anslem remained very respectful acknowledging her noble and royal lineage.
The French-Normans had early on captured King Harold’s other son of Edith, Ulf. He spent the whole of the reign of King William I in prison. His uncle Wulfnoth Godwinson, who had been one of the hostages taken by Archbishop Robert of Normandy following the return of the Godwin kin to power in England during 1052, had spent his life from then until his death in 1094 as a prisoner. Despite being included in the amnesty of the dying King William I, Wulfnoth had continued a prisoner under William II (William Refus). Ulf was more fortunate and gained his freedom as a result of the same amnesty. William I’s eldest son, Robert Curthoe who had been given Normandy as his inheritance, knighted him. His later fate is unknown for certain, but many think he fought with Robert in the First Crusade.
King Harold son, Harold by his Queen Alditha, was born in 1067 after his father’s death. When Chester fell to William I, Alditha fled to Dublin taking Harold with her. Ultimately young Harold journeyed to Norway. Here, so the chronicler William of Malmesbury tells us, he was received well by King Magnus. The reception we are told, was the result of King Harold’s mercy to Magnus after the defeat of the Viking army at Stamford Bridge. Harold next appears amongst the followers of King Magnus off the Isle of Anglesey. Here a battle was fought against the French-Norman earls of Shrewsbury and Chester. A great historical irony was Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury being killed by an arrow!
Of young Harold no more is known, However, there were many tales that told that King Harold had survived the Battle of Hastings/Senlac Ridge. One of these, the Norse saga, Jatvorbar, has King Harold as a hermit living near Chester. It says that it was there that King Harold spoke to King Henry I, a fact attested to by two Latin chroniclers. It may well be the hermit King Harold that Henry I spoke to was in fact Harold Godwinson.
If you can remember back to middle school history class you might remember that the current English Royal family traces their descent from William I (the Conqueror/Crusader whose liege lord was the king of France). Through the marriage of William’s son Henry I to Edith the niece of Edgar Atheling (son of Edmund Ironside) they are also descended from the Royal House of Wessex, and thus the old king of the English. However, through their decent from Volemar of Denmark, both Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, have the blood of King Harold II, last king of the English also flowing through their veins!
Web-site of Geoff Boxell