The invaders thus had the distinct disadvantage of being without their mail armour coats - they had left them in their camp following the victory celebrations after Fulford Gate. This also meant that they were often seen as a threat to the man wearing the crown – especially Edward the Confessor – and suffered exile as a result.Harold was born around 1022/3 to Godwin and his wife, Gytha Thorkelsdottir. I assume, with a moniker like that, that she was quite beautiful. Harold Godwinson (c. 1022 – 14 October 1066), often called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. There is a tradition, from the monks of Waltham Abbey, of Edith bringing Harold’s body to them for burial, soon after the battle. The Norman warriors were motivated by the promise of booty and lands in the conquered territory but they were also paid by William during the summer preparation period. The majority of her estates lay in Cambridgeshire, but she also held land in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk; in the Domesday Book, Eadgifu held the manor at Harkstead in Suffolk, which was attached to Harold’s manor of Brightlingsea in Essex, and some of her Suffolk lands were tributary to Harold’s manor of East Bergholt.While it is by no means certain that Eadgifu is Edith the Swan-neck, several historians – including Ann Williams in the Oxford Database of National Biography – make convincing arguments that they were. Ealdgyth of Mercia was the daughter of Alfgar, Earl of Mercia, and granddaughter of the famous Lady Godiva and, according to William of Jumièges, very beautiful. Gytha and her nephew, Swein Estrithson, King of Denmark, arranged the marriage of the younger Gytha to the prince of Smolensk and – later – Kiev, Vladimir II Monomakh.Edith and Harold’s sons fled to Ireland with all but one living into the 1080s, though the dates of their eventual deaths remain uncertain. Harold’s 11-year-old daughter, Gunhilda, was being educated at Wilton Abbey in 1066.
Harold Godwinson, or Harold II (c. 1022 – October 14, 1066) was the last of the Anglo-Saxons to be crowned King of England - Edgar Ætheling (c. 1051 – c. 1126) was to be his successor after the Battle of Hastings, by the proclaimation of the Witan, but was not crowned. Harold’s army took up position on a low rise, ‘hammer-head ridge’, which was protected on the sides by woods and in front by a stream and marshy ground. It was at this point that the depleted number of the best-trained troops, the housecarls (following the Battle at Stamford Bridge), must surely have been a telling factor. They had four children together. Even their names, Eadgifu and Eadgyth, are so similar that the difference could be merely a matter of spelling or mistranslation; indeed, the Abbey of St Benet of Hulme, Norfolk, remembers an Eadgifu Swanneshals among its patrons.What we do know is that by 1065 Harold had been living with the wonderfully-named Eadgyth Swanneshals (Edith the Swan-neck) for twenty years. Gytha’s nephew, Sweyn Estrithson, would eventually rule Denmark as king.
He was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, but his grave is now lostOf Edith the Swan-neck, there is no trace after Harold is interred at Waltham Abbey. The Norman cavalry was then sent in but was hampered by the terrain and slope so that they, too, were repelled by the Saxon shield wall. Like William, Hardrada was prepared to press his claim through force, and he amassed an invasion fleet which sailed to England in September 1066 CE.Hardrada’s fleet numbered around 300 ships and his army around 12,000 men.