2 Harold’s power proves decisive

6 JANUARY 1066

Edgar Ætheling was perhaps 14 years old when Edward the Confessor died. Young though this was, some previous kings had been younger. So it may be that the crowning of Earl Harold on 6 January, the day of Edward’s funeral, was nothing less than the successful completion of a coup d’état.

The man who was now king had spent his life in close proximity to the throne. Harold’s father, Godwin, Earl of Wessex, had apparently grown powerful while Cnut of Denmark was king of England (1016– 35), acquiring an earldom and many plum (formerly royal) manors. After Edward the Confessor succeeded in 1042, Godwin’s power grew further. As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports, Godwin was “exalted so high, even to the point of ruling the king and all England, and his sons were earls and the king’s favourites and his daughter was married to the king”. This, then, was the uniquely glittering family into which Harold was born and which, after Godwin’s death in 1053, he was to lead.

In the early 1060s Harold proved himself an able general, repeatedly defeating the forces of the Welsh king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn until the latter was assassinated and his head sent to Harold. Harold was well travelled, having visited Rome, Flanders, Germany and Normandy where, according to later Norman historians, he is said to have fought valiantly in a campaign against the Bretons and pledged to support William’s claim to the English throne.

Wealthy, talented and well connected, Harold was perfectly positioned for a leading role in public life, and the death of the childless Edward placed the English nobility in a difficult position. Should they accept the claims of a foreign duke, who would certainly bring his own men to England? Look to the boy Edgar? Or crown one of the most powerful men in England – perhaps one of the few who had actually fought a battle (there had been very few engagements involving the English since 1016)? It may have seemed that there was really no choice to be made.