Harold's family

Chester emerged from the Dark Ages as a place of some importance. Exactly how it did this is a matter of some conjecture, and events at Chester in 900 are discussed in another article. Edward the Elder died at Farndon. The Battle of Brunanburh was most likely fought nearby. Edgar the Pacific used it as an important naval base. The family of Leofric and his son Ælfgar had an important power-base here.

By 1066 Chester was a prosperous town with a population of perhaps 2,500-3,000. Rendering a farm of £45 and three timber of marten pelts (i.e. 120 skins), together with an additional payment from the moneyers, it was assessed as a half hundred including the adjacent townships of Handbridge, Newton by Chester, 'Lee' (Overleigh and Netherleigh), and 'Redcliff', expressly said to be 'outside the city' but taxed with it. The city had its own laws and customs, administered by its hundredal court, over which presided 12 judges or doomsmen (iudices civitatis) drawn from the men of king, earl, and bishop, and liable to fines payable to the king and earl for failure to attend. The judges have been regarded as evidence of Scandinavian influence on the city's institutions and equated with the 'lawmen' (lagemen or iudices) of certain boroughs in the Danelaw. There is, however, no indication that they enjoyed the same status as the lawmen, who had extensive properties and judicial privileges. Indeed the laws of Chester, which were recorded in Domesday Book in exceptional detail, suggest that, as in other western towns dominated by a great local magnate, the status of its citizens was comparatively low. They were obliged to pay 10s. on taking up land in the city, and were also liable to heavy fines for failure to pay gavel or rent and for other misdemeanours.

Harold Godwinson traditionally has an association with Chester through the probable myth that he was the initial hermit who inhabited the Hermitage. Another important link to Chester is that the lands which became associated with the Earldom of Chester were to a significant extent - about 30% - those which had previously belonged to Harold.

The story of the family of Harold Godwinson did not end with the battle fought near Hastings in 1066 and has some actual historical links with Chester. In addition, these various traditions which are often in contradiction say something about the process by which the historical record is formed.

Family Background
Harold was a son of Godwin (c. 1001–1053), the powerful Earl of Wessex, and of Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, whose brother Ulf the Earl was married to Estrid Svendsdatter (c. 1015/1016), the daughter of King Sweyn Forkbeard (died 1014) and sister of King Cnut the Great of England and Denmark (and according to tradition Knutsford). Ulf and Estrith's son would become King Sweyn II of Denmark in 1047.

Godwin, Harold's father


Godwin was the son of Wulfnoth, probably a thegn and a native of Sussex. Very little else is known for certain of the ancestry of the Godwins. According to the twelfth-century chronicler John of Worcester, Godwin was the son of a Wulfnoth who was the son of Æthelmær, brother of Eadric Streona, both sons of an otherwise unknown Æthelric. However this appears to be impossible in terms of dates and may be an attempt to link Godwin to Eadric Streona simply because Streona had such a poor reputation. It is from John of Worcester’s chronicle that we know what happened to some of Harold Godwinson’s family in the aftermath of the Conquest. Whether there is any bias in John of Worcester's account is an interesting question. John originally worked under the instructions of Bishop Wulfstan the last surviving pre-Conquest bishop, the only English-born bishop after 1075 and had been a confidant of Harold Godwinson, who helped secure the bishopric for him.

Godwin began his political career by supporting King Edmund Ironside (reigned April to November 1016). The location of Edmund's death is uncertain though it is generally accepted that it occurred in London, rather than in Oxford where Henry of Huntingdon claimed it to be in his version of events, which included Edmund's death from multiple stab-wounds whilst he was defecating on a privy. Geoffrey Gaimar narrates a similar occurrence with the weapon being a crossbow; but with a number of other medieval chroniclers, including the Encomium Emmae Reginae, not mentioning murder, it is thought Edmund's cause of death may possibly have been caused by wounds received in battle or by some disease. It is certainly possible, however, that he was murdered. Godwin was probably too young to have been involved in any murder, but the murder followed shortly after Edmund had been betrayed by Eadric Streona at the Battle of Assandun (1016), so even if Godwin was not involved, he was exposed to political treachery at an early age. If fact this was not the first instance of treachery in the young Godwin's life - in 1008, King Æthelred the Unready ordered the construction of a fleet, and the following year 300 ships assembled at Sandwich, Kent to meet a threatened Viking invasion. There Brihtric, another supposed brother of Eadric Streona, brought unknown charges against Wulfnoth before the king, (unjustly according to John of Worcester). Wulfnoth then fled with twenty ships and ravaged the south coast. Brihtric followed with eighty, but his fleet was driven ashore by a storm and burnt by Wulfnoth. After the loss of a third of the fleet the remaining ships were withdrawn to London, and the Vikings were able to invade Kent unopposed. Æthelred almost certainly confiscated Wulfnoth's property as a result. Just what John of Worcester is trying to say when he recites this complex family feud is not clear.

Godwin had switched to supporting King Cnut by 1018, when Cnut named him Earl of a part of Wessex and he became one of the select few signing Cnut's charters. Godwin had survived Cnut's purge of English nobles and remained an earl throughout the remainder of Cnut's reign, one of only two earls to survive to the end of that reign. It appears that Godwin helped Cnut in crushing a rebellion in Denmark (between 1019 and 1023) and was rewarded by being made first Earl of Devon and later, Earl of the whole of Wessex. Eadric Streona was not so fortunate as soon after Cnut gained the throne he was disposed of, premanently.



On Cnut's death in 1035, Godwin originally supported Harthacnut instead of Cnut's initial successor Harold Harefoot, but managed to switch sides in 1037 — although not without becoming involved in the 1036 murder of Alfred Aetheling, half-brother of Harthacnut and younger brother of the later King Edward the Confessor. Alfred Ætheling had landed on the coast of Sussex with a Norman mercenary bodyguard, possibly at the invitation of Godwin, and attempted to make his way to London. However he was betrayed, captured by Earl Godwin of Wessex, and blinded; he died soon afterwards. In 1929 the remains of 223 soldiers, whom excavators identified as Normans based on their stature, prominent skulls and slender leg bones, were found on the prominent hillside immediately west of Guildford's centre. They were bound and had been executed. The grave has been dated to c. 1040 and is generally believed to provide some physical evidence of the slaughter of the Norman mercenary bodyguard.

When Harold Harefoot died in 1040, Harthacnut became King of England and Godwin's power was imperiled by his earlier involvement in Alfred's murder, but an oath and large gift secured the new king's favour for Godwin. Harefoot had been buried in Westminster Abbey but his body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen bordering the Thames when Harthacnut assumed the throne. After some postumous adventures he was reburied but there are conflicting accounts as to where. There were suspicious circumstances about the death which has been attributed to "a mysterious illness", possibly poison. Harthacnut's death in 1042 probably involved Godwin in a role as kingmaker, helping to secure the English throne for Edward the Confessor. Harthacnut's death is also not without suspicious circumstances. The young king, aged something like 24, was at a wedding in Lambeth, probably where the Archbishop's Palace stands today. The groom was a wealthy lord called Tovi the Proud while the bride was Gytha, daughter of the courtier Osgod Clapa. The happy occasion, recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles as 8 June 1042, soon turned to tragedy. According to this account, Harthacnut rose to toast the bride and groom but never completed his speech. He:


 * "died as he stood at his drink, and he suddenly fell to the earth with an awful convulsion; and those who were close by took hold of him, and he spoke no word afterwards".

One theory is that he was very possibly poisoned and the person with most to gain from his death was Earl Godwin.

In 1045 Godwin reached the height of his power when the new king, Edward the Confessor married Godwin's daughter Edith. It was around this time that a great rivalry started to grow between the Godwins of Wessex and the house of Leofric of Mercia, who had a major power base at Chester. In several charters, such as one in 1043 (founding Coventry Abbey), Leofric is referred to as the "comes" (count) of Chester. Bradshaw, in his "Life of St Werburgh" refers to him as the Earl of Chester (stanza 176) who made important donations to St Johns (stanza 175) and the "Minster of St Werburgh" (later the Cathedral}.



Like Harthacnut, Edward was never convinced of Godwin’s innocence, a fact which added to the increasing distrust and conflict between the king and his most powerful earl in the first ten years of Edward’s reign. Indeed, when the Godwin family and Edward quarrelled ias part of the crisis of 1051, it was Edward’s demand to have his (dead) brother returned to him that made Earl Godwin realise there would be no rapprochement; the earl sailed into exile in Flanders with his family.

Godwin and Gytha had several children—six sons: Sweyn, Harold, Tostig, Gyrth, Leofwine and Wulfnoth; and three daughters: Edith of Wessex (originally named Gytha but renamed Ealdgyth (or Edith) when she married King Edward the Confessor), Gunhild and Ælfgifu. The birthdates of the children are unknown, but Harold was the second son, Sweyn being the eldest. Harold was aged about 25 in 1045, which makes his birth year around 1020.

Godwin's Death
On 15 April 1053 Godwin died suddenly, after collapsing during a royal banquet at Winchester. According to one colourful account by the 12th-century writer Aelred of Rievaulx, the old chestnut of murder came up and Godwin tried to disclaim responsibility for Alfred Ætheling's death with the words:


 * "May this crust which I hold in my hand pass through my throat and leave me unharmed to show that I was guiltless of treason towards you, and that I was innocent of your brother's death!".

He swallowed the crust, but it stuck in his throat and killed him. However, this appears to be no more than Norman propaganda, contemporary accounts indicating that he just had a sudden illness, possibly a stroke. According to the Abingdon version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the year 1053:


 * "On Easter Monday, as he was sitting with the king at a meal he suddenly sank towards the footstool bereft of speech, and deprived of all his strength. Then he was carried to the king's private room and they thought it was about to pass off. But it was not so. On the contrary, he continued like this without speech or strength right on to the Thursday, and then departed this life."

Given the number of sudden deaths associated with the royal household the possibility that Godwin was poisoned cannot be excluded.



Sweyn
Sweyn Godwinson (Old English: Swegen Godƿinson) (c. 1020 – 1052), also spelled Swein, was the eldest son of Earl Godwin of Wessex. There is some evidence suggesting that Sweyn claimed to be a son of King Canute, but his mother indignantly denied this and brought forth witnesses to his parentage.

Tostig
Tostig Godwinson (c. 1023/1028 – 25 September 1066) was an Anglo-Saxon Earl of Northumbria. After being exiled by his brother, Tostig supported the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada's invasion of England, and was killed along with Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

Gyrth
Gyrth Godwinson (Old English: Gyrð Godƿinson; c. 1032[1] – 14 October 1066) was the fourth son of Earl Godwin, and thus a younger brother of Harold Godwinson. He went with his eldest brother Sweyn into exile to Flanders in 1051, but unlike Swegen he was able to return with the rest of the clan the following year. Along with his brothers Harold and Tostig, Gyrth was present at his father's death-bed.

Gurth is traditionally said to have died at the Battle of Hastings.

Leofine
Leofwine Godwinson (c. 1035 – 14 October 1066) was the fifth son of Earl Godwin. When the Godwin family was exiled from England in 1051 he went with Harold to Ireland, where they were sheltered and helped by Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, King of Leinster. He would have returned with the rest of the family the following year, but was not present at the death-bed of his father in April 1053.

Wulfnoth
Wulfnoth Godwinson (1040-1094) was the sixth son of Godwin. Wulfnoth was given as a hostage to Edward the Confessor in 1051 as assurance of Godwin's good behaviour and support during the confrontation between the earl and the king which led to the exile of Godwin and his other sons. Upon Godwin's return to England at the head of an army a year later, following extensive preparations in Ireland and Flanders, Norman supporters of King Edward, and especially Archbishop Robert of Jumièges fled England. It is likely at this point that Wulfnoth (and Hakon, son of Svein Godwinson, Godwin's eldest son) were spirited away by the fleeing archbishop, and taken to Normandy, where they were handed over to Duke William of Normandy. According to Historia novorum in Anglia by English historian Eadmer, the reason for Harold's excursion to Normandy in 1064 or 1065 was that he wished to free Wulfnoth as well as his nephew Hakon. To this end he took with him a vast amount of wealth, all of which was confiscated by Count Guy I of Ponthieu when Harold and his party were shipwrecked.

However, Harold's reasons for travelling to the continent are not clear, and there are other reasonable explanations, not the least of which was a sounding out among continental magnates of a response to his own intention to ascend the English throne at one point, given Edward's advanced age and lack of heir. Wulfnoth was not released until 1087, by the dying King William I in an amnesty. He was only freed briefly, before King William II Rufus took him to confinement in England. Of course, there are many other explanations of Wulfnoth's enduring captivity. Even following William's victory at Hastings (1066) over Harold and crowning as King of England in London later that year, England's pacification remained uncertain. William may have held Wulfnoth as hostage against a resurgence of a remnant of Godwinson power. Wulfnoth stayed in sometimes comfortable, if not enviable, captivity in Normandy and later in England, and died in Winchester in 1094, still a prisoner.

Wives and Children
For some twenty years Harold was married more danico (Latin: "in the Danish manner") to Edyth Swannesha and had at least six children with her. She was considered Harold's mistress by the clergy.

According to Orderic Vitalis, Harold was at some time betrothed to Adeliza, a daughter of William the Conqueror; if so, the betrothal never led to marriage.

About January 1066, Harold married Edith (or Ealdgyth), daughter of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia, and widow of the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Edith had one son, named Harold, probably born posthumously. Another of Harold's sons, Ulf, may have been a twin of the younger Harold, though most historians consider him a son of Edyth Swannesha. Both these sons survived into adulthood and probably lived out their lives in exile.

After her husband's death, Edith fled for refuge to her brothers, Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria, but both men made their peace with King William initially before rebelling and losing their lands and lives. Edith may have fled abroad (possibly with Harold's mother, Gytha, or with Harold's daughter, Gytha). Harold's sons, Godwin and Edmund, fled to Ireland and then invaded Devon, but were defeated by Brian of Brittany.

Harold's Children
Harold Godwinson's defeat and death at Hastings were a disaster for his family, especially since the surviving Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot in London responded by electing as king not one of Harold's sons but Edgar Ætheling, a great-nephew of Edward the Confessor and son of Edmund Ironside. Edgar's brief "reign" – he was never actually crowned – ended when William the Conqueror reached London in December 1066. The new regime thus established was dominated by the most powerful surviving members of the English ruling class: Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, Ealdred, Archbishop of York, and the brothers Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria. The commitment of these men to Edgar's cause, men who had so recently passed over his claim to the throne without apparent demur, must have been doubtful from the start. The strength of their resolve to continue the struggle against William of Normandy was questionable, and the military response they organised to the continuing Norman advance was ineffectual.

Magnus
Magnus (fl. 1068) was, in all likelihood, driven into exile in Dublin by the Norman conquest of England, along with two of his brothers, and from there took part in one, or perhaps two, expeditions to south-western England, but with little military success. They probably cost him his life.

Harold
Harold (fl. 1067 – 1098) was driven into exile by the Norman conquest of England, and found refuge at the court of the king of Norway. Harold was probably born posthumously in Chester, where his mother had fled to escape the advancing army of William the Conqueror.

What came next?
The earls of Chester from 1070 to 1232 were guaranteed a prominent place in English history by their landed estates, which placed them among the leading aristocracy of the realm whatever roles they chose to play, whether as faithful or rebellious subjects of their lord the king, or as  peaceable friends or ruthless enemies of their neighbours the Welsh. The heart of the earldom was the city of Chester, which gave the earls the dignity of their title and contained the abbey of St. Werburgh, their first monastic foundation in England and usual place of burial.

Related Pages

 * Chester in 900:
 * Ælfgar:
 * Hermitage:
 * Gherbod the Fleming:
 * Earls of Chester: