Edward the Confessor died in January of that momentous year, sparking a scramble for the throne between Harold Godwinsson and William of Normandy. It probably didn’t help matters that during his reign Edward had named both of them to succeed him.
Edward (1003-1066) was troubled by the Godwinssons (or Godwinesons, or possibly Godwinsons - consistent spelling was not a feature of the Eleventh Century) throughout his reign. And he spent a great deal of time working to restrict the power of Godwin (or Godwine) who was the Earl of Wessex, and Harold’s father.
The Two Heirs of Edward the Confessor
Edward had spent much of his early life exiled in Normandy, while the Danish King Canute (or Cnut, or even Knut) ruled England - but not the waves - until the Saxon line was restored following the death of the great Dane and his sons.
The Confessor was then forced to spend the first decade of his rule in thrall to Godwin, whose power extended across southern England, and without whose support Edward could never have hoped to control the kingdom.
No doubt Edward resented this. And when he briefly gained the upper hand over the Godwin clan in around 1051, that resentment, along with the years he had spent in Normandy, led him to make the fateful decision to make William his heir.
Edward, however, whilst famously pious, was a weak leader. And the Saxon family Godwinsson, this time headed by Harold, soon re-asserted their authority, and it was Harold who dominated the south of England for the remaining years of Edward’s reign. And just before the Confessor made his final confession, it was Harold who he named as his successor.
Harold Godwinsson - the Last English King?
Succession to the throne in Eleventh Century England could be a complicated matter, even if a natural heir existed, which, after the death of the childless Edward, it did not. The right to choose the new king lay with the Witan, the king’s council. A council which in 1066 included not just Harold, but his brothers as well.
The job of the Witan was less to choose the rightful candidate, than to choose the right candidate, that is, the man they felt most suitable for the role. And although Harold had once sworn an oath to support William, his family clearly thought the Norman was not up to the task, and Harold was effectively elected King of England after Edward’s death.
Harold has been described as ‘The Last English King’ which seems to take a rather right wing stance on immigration. And even if we count the houses of Normandy and Plantagenet as Normans, Henry Tudor and his descendants as Welsh, the Stuart’s as Scottish, and representatives of Hanover, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and even Windsor as German, we are still left with the Yorkists and Lancastrian’s.
Besides, if we are to regard William’s son, born in England and later to become William II, as a foreigner, Harold himself is on somewhat shaky ground, being only two generations removed from his own Danish ancestors.
William the Conqueror, the Norman Pretender.
In fact, while the Battle of Hastings is sometimes depicted as the defeat of an Anglo-Saxon by a Norman, it could almost be regarded as an all-Scandinavian affair. William, like the Godwinsson’s was descended from Danes, for Normandy itself was founded by a Viking named Rollo around the beginning of the Tenth Century.
William, whose sobriquet before he became the Conqueror was William the Bastard, was known for his filthy temper. Indeed when the denizens of the rebellious fortress of Alencon taunted him with the above appellation, they had their hands and feet lopped off for their cheek.
But he was also a very determined man, and a talented general. And despite having a weak claim to the English crown he persuaded both Edward and Harold - however briefly - to endorse him. Harold’s claim was perhaps even worse. He was Edward’s brother-in-law, but only because Godwin had ‘convinced’ the Confessor to marry into his family. So when Harold took the throne and became the second English King of 1066, it was only a matter of time before William would act.
Sources
The Enigma of Hastings (London Publishing, 1974) Edwin Tetlow
The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England (Book Club Assoc, 1975) Ed. Antonia Fraser
