Harold II of England

Harold Godwinson then Harold II of England (1022 - October 14th 1066) was the last of the Saxon kings of England. It reigns between the January 5th and the October 14th 1066. He dies in the Bataille of Hastings.

Genealogy

Harold is the son of Godwin, the powerful count of the Wessex, itself wire of Wulfnoth Cild, thegn (obsolete title of nobility) of the Sussex, and married twice. The first marriage of Godwin binds it to Thyra Sveinsdóttir (994 - 1018), a girl of Sven I^er, king of Denmark, Norway and England, and its second with Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, grand-daughter of the legendary Swedish Viking Styrbjörn Starke like with-tooth-blue back-small-girl of Harold, king of Denmark and from Norway, father of Sweyn Ist Of this second marriage are born two wire, Harold and Tostig Godwinson, and a girl, Edith of Wessex (1020 - 1075) which will become the wife of Edouard the Confessor.

Beginnings

Fact count of the Eastern England in 1045, Harold accompanies Godwin in its exile in 1051, then the assistance to restore its position later one year. Died of Godwin in 1053, Harold succeeds to him as count of the Wessex (which at the time represents a third of the England), becoming thus the most powerful man of England after the king.

In 1057, Harold becomes also Count de Hereford, and replaces his/her father in the opposition to the growing Norman influence which prevails under monarchy saxonne restored (1042 - 1066) by Edouard the Confessor. This last passes more than one quarter century in exile in Normandy.

Harold covers glory in a series of campaigns (1062 - 1063) against king de Gwynedd, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, which conquered all Wales. The conflict is completed with the death of this last, killed by its own soldiers in 1063. Towards 1064, Harold marries Aldith, girl of the count de Mercie and widow of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. She gives him two wire (probably twins) called Harold and Ulf. They survive until the adulthood, and probably finish their life in the exile. Harold also has several illegitimate children of its famous mistress (her wife according to the Danish law), Ealdgyth Swanneck ( Edith-with-neck-of-swan , also called Edith-the-Juste ).

In 1064, Harold makes shipwreck with Ponthieu, and is delivered to the court of the duke Guillaume of Normandy (known as bastard the , the future Guillaume I^er the conqueror ). That Ci regards as the successor of Edouard the Confessor, this last not having had of child, and obtains from Harold the oath to provide him its support to the crown of England. Guillaume would have forced Harold to swear vassalage to him, but only deferred action would have revealed to him that the box on which this oath had been fact contained crowned relics. Harold is estimated released then of this oath, made by the trick, but Guillaume obtains from the pope his excommunication. After the death of Harold, the Norman ones do not hesitate to insist on the fact that Harold is perjury by accepting the crown of England. The chronicler Vital Orderic written: “This English was very large and elegant, remarkable for his physical force, his courage and his eloquence, his jokes sharp and his acts of bravery. But what was these gifts without honor, which is the root of all that is good? ”

The fight for the crown - a court reigns

In 1065, Harold puts as regards rebel of Northumbrie against his brother Tostig, the latter having decided to relieve it with the profit of Morcar. This action enables him to be placed well ahead like probable successor of Edouard, but also divides his own family into forcing Tostig to seek an alliance with the king Harald Hardråde (with-reign-severe Harald III of Norway).

With died of Edouard the confessor the January 5th 1066, Harold declares that this last promised the Crown to him on its bed of death. The Witenagemot (the assembly of notable which directs the kingdom) approves its crowning, which takes place the following day.

However, the country is invaded, on the one hand by Harald Hardråde of Norway, and other by Guillaume of Normandy which proclaims that the Crown was promised to him at the same time by Edouard (probably in 1052) and by Harold, following its shipwreck with Ponthieu. Harold offers to his/her Tostig brother a third of the kingdom. According to Henri de Huntingdon (author of a History of the invasions of England in 1135), Harold answers Tostig which requires of him what the king of Norway would receive: “Six feet of ground, or even as much as it will be necessary for him, since it is larger than the average. ”

In September 1066, Harald Hardråde and Tostig invade what would correspond to Yorkshire of today, and demolish the counts Edwin de Mercie and Morcar de Northumbrie the September 20th with the Bataille of Fulford, close to York. They nevertheless are beaten, and killed by the army of Harold, 5 days later, with the Bataille of Stamford Bridge.

In three days, Harold forces its army to go 240 miles to intercept Guillaume, who unloads with probably 7000 men in the Sussex in the south of England, the September 29th. Harold must put in all haste its army in garrison close to Hastings and make build fortifications. The two armies clash with the Bataille of Hastings, close to town of Battle, the October 14th. Harold is killed, and its army put in rout. According to the tradition and such as described the Tapisserie of Bayeux, it is of an arrow in the eye that Harold loses the life. His/her brothers Gyrth and Leofwine are also killed in the battle. That Harold was actually killed in this way remains dubious, because the death of an arrow in the eye is traditionally associated, at the time of the Middle Ages, with the perjury. One makes come the mistress from Harold, Edith Swanneck, to identify the body, which it only makes using a mark of known birth of it (the face of Harold being destroyed). According to a Norman source, the body of Harold is buried on a cliff overhanging the beaches saxonnes, but it is more probable than it is rather with the church of Waltham Holy Cross, in Essex, than it restored in 1060.

To become of its family

The illegitimate girl of Harold, Gytha of Wessex, marries Vladimir II Monomaque, large prince de Kiev, in front of the ancestor of the dynasties of Galicie, Smolensk and Yaroslavl, from which descend Modeste Moussorgski and Peter Kropotin. Consequently, the Russian orthodoxe Church recognizes Harold like martyr, and makes of October 14th its feastday.

Ulf, like Morcar and two others are released by king Guillaume on his bed of death, in 1087. It joined Robert Courteheuse (Robert II, the son of Guillaume of Normandy), which it adoube, and one is unaware of its to become after this last event. Two of his/her elder half-brothers, Godwine and Magus, on several occasions try to invade England in 1068 and 1069 with the assistance of Diarmait mac Mail Na mBo, king de Leinster. They plunder the county of Cornouailles until in 1082, then die in an obscure way in Ireland.

The heroic worship

A worship with the heroism of Harold starts about the 12th century, with a legend of the time telling that Harold survived the battle, spent two years in Winchester to recover from its wounds, then travelled to Germany where it spends long years to rove like pilgrim. Once become old man, it would have returned to England to live there like hermit in a cellar close to Dover. Whereas it is with the anguish, it confesses that if it has indeed the name of Christian, it is in fact born Harold Godwineson. There exist many versions of this legend, but they have little to do with reality.

To the 19th century, the play Harold , written by Alfred, Lord of Tennyson (1876) and the novel Last off the Saxon Kings of Edouard Bulwer-Lytton (1848), brings an renewed interest. Rudyard Kipling writes a history entitled off The Tree Justice (1910), which describes how an old man, actually Harold, is brought in front of Henri I^er. E.A.Freeman writes a serious book of history, History off the Norman Conquest off England (1870 - 1879) in which Harold is presented like a large hero. With the 21e century, the reputation of Harold remains related, as it always was, to the subjective sights as for legitimacy of the conquest Norman.

Harold is venerated as a saint in the British orthodoxe mediums in spite of the fact that it was catholic.

Family tree

See too

Simple: Harold Godwinson

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