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Portrait of Harold II

Monarchs · Norman & Angevin

Harold II

c. 1022–1066

House of Godwin — the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king

In office: 1066

Earl of Wessex and the most powerful man in England under Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson was chosen king by the witan and crowned on 6 January 1066, the day after Edward's death. In September he destroyed a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge, killing Harald Hardrada and his own exiled brother Tostig, then marched south to meet Duke William of Normandy in Sussex, where he was killed on 14 October. His reign lasted about nine months and ended the Anglo-Saxon monarchy.

How to spot them

  • ▸Son of Earl Godwin and brother of Queen Edith; Earl of Wessex from 1053
  • ▸The oath sworn in Normandy, later used to brand him a perjurer
  • ▸Stamford Bridge and then the march south; killed in Sussex, by tradition with an arrow in the eye
  • ▸The last English king to die in battle on English soil; his standards were the Fighting Man and the Wessex dragon

In the reign

A victory at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire over a Norwegian king and the king's own exiled brother (1066)

25 September 1066: Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson both fell.

A forced march of some 250 miles from Yorkshire to Sussex in under three weeks, fighting two great battles at either end (1066)

Stamford Bridge on 25 September, Hastings on 14 October.

The first coronation held in the newly consecrated abbey at Westminster, on the day of his predecessor's funeral (1066)

6 January 1066 — the abbey has held every coronation since.

An oath sworn over holy relics in Normandy, afterwards cited by a duke as proof of perjury (c. 1064)

Sworn at Bayeux or Bonneville after a shipwreck left him in the hands of Guy of Ponthieu.

Promotion to the earldom of Wessex on his father's death, making him the greatest magnate in the kingdom (1053)

He had held East Anglia since 1045.

A campaign that killed Gruffudd ap Llywelyn and broke the last native ruler of all Wales (1063)

Gruffudd's head was sent to the English king; Harold later married his widow, Ealdgyth of Mercia.

The last king of England to be killed in battle on English soil (1066)

By tradition he was struck in the eye; later sources say he was hacked down by Norman knights.

Quick-fire facts

  • •He was elected by the witan and crowned on 6 January 1066, probably by Ealdred, archbishop of York
  • •His long-standing partner was Edith Swanneck (Ealdgyth Swanneshals); his queen was Ealdgyth of Mercia
  • •His sister Edith was queen to Edward the Confessor
  • •His brother Tostig, earl of Northumbria, was exiled after a rebellion in 1065 and joined Harald Hardrada
  • •He waited on the south coast through the summer of 1066, then stood his army down in early September for want of supplies
  • •Tradition says his body was buried at Waltham Holy Cross in Essex, the church he had refounded in 1060
  • •A later legend made him survive the battle to live as a hermit at Chester
  • •Battle Abbey in Sussex was founded on the battlefield, its high altar reputedly on the spot where he fell

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources