3 – Harold II – (1066)
Harold Godwinson was England’s last Anglo-Saxon king. Born into royalty in the House of Godwin, Harold was always likely to reach the upper echelons of power. He became Earl of East Anglia in around 1045, and two years later, he received additional land when his cousin, Sweyn, was exiled. Harold became Earl of Wessex in 1053 which ensured he was possibly the second most powerful person in England.
He had to wait over a decade to become the most powerful, but it occurred on January 5, 1066, when King Edward the Confessor died. Edward had fallen into a coma and did not name his successor. He allegedly woke up for a brief period and handed Harold the role of protecting the kingdom and his widow. There is more than an element of doubt over what really happened. Even the Bayeux Tapestry does little to shed light on the issue; all it shows is Edward pointing at a figure that looks like Harold.
Duke William II of Normandy claimed that Harold had promised the crown to him. Once he heard that Godwinson was the new king, he built 700 warships and transports as he prepared for a massive invasion. Harold brought an army to the Isle of Wight, but when the invaders hadn’t arrived after seven months, the king was forced to disband the army and return to London. William’s fleet finally set sail on September 12, and the timing was extremely fortunate as another invading force arrived just before William. Harold defeated the first invasion at Stamford Bridge but lost a large portion of his army.
As a result, he was unable to defeat William and was killed at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. While there is doubt over the exact nature of Harold’s death, we know it was brutal. He was probably hit in the eye or the head with an arrow. Historians now believed that once Harold was on the ground, a group of at least four Norman soldiers hacked off his limbs and then his head.