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King Edward's death on 5 January 1066 [9] [c] left no clear heir, and several contenders laid claim to the throne of England. [11] Edward's immediate successor was the Earl of Wessex , Harold Godwinson, the richest and most powerful of the English aristocrats and son of Godwin, Edward's earlier opponent.
Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 [1] until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman Conquest. Harold's death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. He was succeeded by William the Conqueror. Harold Godwinson was a member of a prominent Anglo-Saxon family with ties to Cnut the Great.
The Battle of Fulford was fought on the outskirts of the village of Fulford, [1] just south of York in England, on 20 September 1066, when King Harald III of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada, [a] a claimant to the English throne and Tostig Godwinson, [b] his English ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar.
Tostig Godwinson, brother of Harold, made a series of attacks in the north of England in early 1066 that may have been the beginning of a bid for the throne, but after defeat at the hands of Edwin and Morcar and the desertion of most of his followers he threw his lot in with Harald Hardrada, who invaded northern England in early September. [9]
William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson.
The childless Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066. His fifteen-year-old great-nephew, Edgar Ætheling, had the strongest claim to the throne. Nevertheless, Harold Godwinson, earl of Wessex and leader of the powerful Godwin family, claimed Edward promised him the throne.
Even if Harold was descended from Æthelred I, it would not have given him a hereditary claim to the throne according to the rules of royal succession in later Anglo-Saxon England. Eligibility was confined to æthelings, that is throne-worthy princes of the royal house. In earlier Anglo-Saxon times, eligibility depended on descent from the ...
William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England in support of his claim to the English throne at the end of September 1066. Having defeated King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October, William conducted a destructive campaign to subdue the south-east of England, which by early December had forced the surrender of the English nobility, the Witan, and their elected but uncrowned ...