Harold

by Ian W. Walker

  5. Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, Parts II and III, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 18–23 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, Chapter 1 for possible sources of land.

  6. EHD I, No. 129, pp. 593–6 for this will. EHD I, No. 51, pp. 468–9 for a thegn’s minimum estate of 5 hides.

  7. DB Sussex entries, Williams, Land and Power, pp. 176–7, Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 29–31, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 164–205 for Sussex.

  8. Lawson, Cnut, p. 188 for Godwine’s position under Cnut. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 39–42 and Mack, ‘Changing Thegns’, pp. 375–87 for Cnut’s actions.

  9. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 89–90, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 169–91, Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 19–23 and Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 175 for these earldom lands.

  10. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills, pp. 22–5 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 42–7 for these bequests. Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseiensis, ed. W.D. Macray (London, 1886), p. 129. Williams et al., Dark Age Britain, pp. 8, 9, 12 for these nobles. VER, p. 33 for Folkstone.

  11. Sawyer, A-S Charters, Nos 970 and 1022 for these grants. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 90–5 and Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 112–14 for the royal demesne. DB Gloucestershire, 1: 63 for Woodchester.

  12. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills, pp. 84–7, Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 173–4 for Harold in East Anglia.

  13. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 76, 91, 96–8, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 181–91 for the lands in East Anglia. The Waltham Chronicle, ed. L. Watkiss and M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1994), pp. 25–7 for Athelstan.

  14. The relevant DB Suffolk, Essex, Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire entries, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 273–9 for Edith’s lands. DB Cambridgeshire shows Harold in possession of land valued at £36 only.

  15. ASC C 1049, ASW, Nos 78 and 79, pp. 345–6 for Beorn.

  16. Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 181–2, 184–91 and relevant DB Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire entries for Harold’s men. DB Essex, 34: 28 for Wulfric. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 179 for Leofwine of Bacton. DB Norfolk, 30: 16 and Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 179–80 for Eadric the Steersman. DB Suffolk, 6: 92 for Stanwine.

  17. DB Essex, 30: 16 for Leighs, WC, pp. 25–7 and Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 243–9 for Ansgar. DB Suffolk, 6: 92 and Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 283–302 for Eadric of Laxfield. EHD II, No. 187, pp. 903–4 for this bequest and DB Norfolk, 35: 16 for Fritton. EHD II, No. 189, pp. 905–6 and No. 184, pp. 901–2 for these bequests.

  18. ASC C/D/E 1051 and 1052.

  10. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 177 for Gytha. DB Hampshire, 31: 1 for Polhampton. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 174–5, Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 89–90 and Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, Part III for Harold in Wessex.

  20. ASC C 1053, Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 98, 102, Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 44–9 for retention of supposed comital estates. Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 102 speaks of lands ‘likely’ to be so and Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 174 of lands ‘presumably’ so. DB Suffolk, 3: 55 for Gyrth. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 41–2 for the disruption resulting from the Danish conquest.

  21. Appendix Two for Ralph’s earldom but Williams, ‘King’s Nephew’, pp. 327–43 for a different view. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 172, Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 40–4 and Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 179–81 for Harold’s lands. Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 89 and Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 174–5 for possible comital holdings.

  22. DB relevant entries and Clarke, English Nobility, relevant entries. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 180 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 95 for these men.

  23. DB Kent, p. 20, DB Dorset, 27: 2, Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 237–8, Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 180–1 for these men.

  24. VER, p. 33 and DB Gloucestershire, 1: 63 for this story and Whitelock, Beginnings, pp. 87–8 for the curse. However, it should be noted that King Edward himself held the lands of Berkeley in 1066 as noted in DB Gloucestershire, 1: 15. Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, pp. 73–8, Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 181–2, Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 84–6, and E.A. Freeman, A History of the Norman Conquest of England, 6 vols (Oxford, 1870), Vol. II, pp. 542–2 for these cases. DB Cornwall, 4: 21 and ASW, pp. 275–76 DB Wiltshire, 23: 7. DB Dorset, 1: 30. DB Surrey, 2: 3, and DB Kent, p. 20 for these phrases.

  25. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, p. 182 and DB Worcestershire, App V, G14, 15, 17 and 20 for seizures of land from the bishopric of Worcester by Leofric and his family and followers. DB Kent, p. 20, DB Dorset, 19: 14, DB Sussex, 10: 63, DB Surrey, 2: 3, DB Hertfordshire, 1: 1, DB Herefordshire, 2: 8, 19: 8. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 189–92 for cases of the misappropriation of church land by Normans including Odo Bishop of Bayeux, King William’s own half-brother.

  26. Fleming, Kings and Lords, pp. 84, 170 for the view that Harold seized this estate before Edward’s death. ASW, pp. 275–6 and Lawson, Cnut, p. 149 for these lands as a personal gift by Cnut to Duduc his priest, who subsequently became Bishop of Wells and on his death bequeathed them to the bishopric. ASW, No. 71, pp. 284–5, DB Kent, p. 20, DB Herefordshire, 2: 8. Clarke, English Nobility, pp. 169–91 for these statistics.

  27. Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, p. 88, DB Essex, 30: 16 and DB Suffolk, 16: 35, 36: 8 and 16 for Scalpi. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 178–9, DB Middlesex, 8: 3, DB Hertfordshire, 17: 13 and DB Essex, 28, 1 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 86 n. and p. 170 n. for Gauti. Davies, ‘Lands of Harold’, p. 83 and DB Gloucstershire, 1: 66 for Tofi. DB Berkshire, 1: 45 for Brihtward and DB Surrey, 5: 27 for Leofgar.

  28. DB Surrey, 6: 5 for Pyrford, VER, p. 8, ASC D 1063, JW 1064 for the spoils of Harold’s Welsh campaign and Stevenson, Malmesbury – Before the Conquest p. 216 for the spoils of Stamford Bridge.

  29. DB Essex, 1: 26. ASC C/D/E 1056 for Leofgar.

  30. WP, p. 224 (38) and William of Malmesbury – A History of the Norman Kings, tr. J. Stevenson (Lampeter, 1989), pp. 19–20 for the banner. WC, p. 33, Wilson, Bayeux, pls 3–6 and 27–31. VER, p. 21 and JW 1040 record equivalent gifts of fully equipped ships presented by Godwine to King Hardecnut and King Edward. VER, p. 87 and ASC D 1063 for the Welsh spoils and ASC D 1065 for the hunting lodge.

  31. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 182–4 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 51 for Harold’s grants. VER, p. xlix n. and William of Malmesbury – De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, ed. N.E.S.A. Hamilton (London, 1870), pp. 182–3, Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 51 n. The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, ed. W.T. Mellows (London, 1949), p. 70, Barlow, English Church, p. 60 n. Williams, ‘Land and Power’, pp. 183–4 for details.

  32. WC, pp. 3–27. Three Lives of the Last Englishmen, tr. M. Swanton (London, 1984), pp. 5–10. Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 57 for the history. Swanton, Three Lives, p. 5 for the miraculous cure. WC, pp. 33–7, Swanton, Three Lives, pp. 7–8, E.C. Fernie, ‘The Romanesque Church of Waltham Abbey’, JBAA, CXXXVIII (1985), pp. 48–87, P.J. Huggins, K.N. Bascombe and R.M. Huggins, ‘Excavations of the Collegiate and Augustinian Churches, Waltham Abbey, Essex 1984–87’, Archaeological Journal, CXLVI (1989), pp. 476–537, and P.J. Huggins, K.N. Bascombe, and R.M. Huggins, ‘Excavations at Waltham Abbey, Essex 1985–1991: Three Pre-Conquest Churches and Norman Evidence’, Archaelogical Journal, CXLIX (1992), pp. 282–343 for the church buildings. I am grateful to Miss Dinah Dean for pointing out this last article.

  33. WC, pp. 27–38 and Swanton, Three Lives, p. 8 for the staff. WC, pp. 29–31 and relevant DB entries for these lands. S. Keynes, ‘Regenbald the Chancellor’, Anglo-Norman Studies, X (1988), pp. 201–3 and R. Ransford, Early Charters of the Augustinian Canons of Waltham Abbey, Essex 1062–1230 (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. xxiii–xxlv, 3–4 for a genuine source behind the later copy of Edward’s confirmation charter of 1062. WC, p. 33 for these gifts and Swanton, Three Lives, p. 8 for the looting of many of them by William. VER, pp. 112–15 for Edward’s gifts to St Peter’s at Westminster. M.E.C. Walcott ‘Inventory of
Waltham, Holy Cross’, TEAS, 5 (1873), p. 261 and Fleming, Kings and Lords, p. 57 n. 32 for the inventory.

  34. WC, pp. xliii–xlviii and Swanton, Three Lives for their preservation of Harold’s memory into the thirteenth century. Compton, Harold, p. 31 for these place-names.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1. ASC C/D 1065.

  2. ASC D 1051, ASC C/E 1049, WJ, p. 171 and WP, p. 10.

  3. ASC C/D/E 1052, VER, p. 45.

  4. ASC C/D/E 1016 and 1057, Stafford, East Midlands, p. 127.

  5. ASC C/D 1054, JW 1054, Barlow, Edward, pp. 215–16. T. Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056 (Harlow, 1991), p. 255, Z.J. Kozstolnyik, Five Eleventh-Century Hungarian Kings (New York, 1981), p. 75.

  6. ASC C/D/E 1055, JW 1055, VER, p. 49, ASC D 1054.

  7. Maund, Ireland, pp. 133–8, Orderic Vitalis – The Ecclesiastical History, ed. M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1969), Volume II, Books III and IV, pp. 138, 216. DB Warwickshire, 6: 5. ASC C/D/E 1055.

  8. ASC C/D/E 1055, JW 1055, ASC C 1056, JW 1056.

  9. ASC C/D/E 1055, JW 1055, Maund, Ireland, pp. 134–5, Brut y Tywysogyon – Peniarth Ms 20 Version, tr. T. Jones (Cardiff, 1952), p. 14, Williams et al., Dark Age Britain, pp. 145–6, Maund, Ireland, pp. 64–8, D. Walker, Medieval Wales (Cambridge, 1990), p. 17. DB Herefordshire, 1: 49.

  10. ASC C/D/E 1055, JW 1055.

  11. ASC C/D/E 1055, JW 1055, VER, p. 51, C.N.L. Brooke, The Church and the Welsh Border in the Central Middle Ages (Woodbridge, 1986), pp. 10–11, 92–3 for the loss of Archenfield to Gruffydd, which I would date after the 1055 raid, rather than 1056. DB Cheshire, B7 for the lands beyond the Dee being given to Gruffydd by King Edward, no date is given for this, although 1055 is possible, 1058 would seem the more likely time.

  12. ASC C/D 1056, JW 1056, ASC D 1049.

  13. ASC C/D 1056.

  14. ASC C/D/E 1056, JW 1056 record his death (C and D mistakenly naming him Cona) and both D and E have the return of Edward the Exile as their next entry. C has no further entries until 1065. Reuter, Germany, p. 255, Kozstolnyik, Hungarian Kings, P. Grierson, ‘A Visit of Earl Harold to Flanders in 1056’, EHR, LI (1936), pp. 90–7, VER, p. 53.

  15. N. Rogers, ‘The Waltham Abbey Relic-List’ in Carola Hicks (ed.), England in the Eleventh Century (Stamford, 1992), pp. 165–6.

  16. ASC D/E 1057. ASC p133 note 6 for this death as one of the unsolved mysteries of the period followed by Douglas, William, pp. 71–2, Brown, Normans, p. 126, and Stenton, A-S England, p. 571.

  17. VER, pp. xxvi–xxvii, lxvi. and N. Hooper ‘Edgar the Atheling: Anglo-Saxon Prince, Rebel and Crusader’, Anglo-Saxon England, 14 (1985), p. 202 for a later tradition that Edward commended Edgar to the magnates as his heir. ASC D 1066.

  18. ASC D/E 1057, JW 1057. VER, p. 51 suggests Gyrth may have initially received only Norfolk, because of his youth. He presumably gained all of East Anglia over time. DB Middlesex, 9: 1 for Harold, son of Ralph. Appendix Two for the fate of Ralph’s earldom, and Williams, ‘King’s Nephew’, pp. 331–9 for an alternative view.

  19. Maund, Ireland, p. 138 places the marriage around 1057. Stenton, A-S England, p. 575, Stafford, Unification, p. 93, Loyn, Norman Conquest, p. 66, Douglas, William, p. 172, F. Barlow, The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216 2nd edn (London, 1988), p. 70, Barlow, Edward, pp. 193–4 for varying views on whether or not any scheme existed on the part of Godwine’s family to oust Leofric’s family from power.

  20. ASC D 1058, JW 1058, Jones, Brut – Peniarth, p. 14, Stokes, Tigernach 1058, DB Yorkshire, 1L1 for Amounderness, DB Cheshire, B7 for lands beyond the Dee. It is possible that Aelfgar received part of the spoils since DB Oxfordshire, B1 records him as earl before 1066 but this shire is more likely to have come into his hands on the death of Earl Ralph in 1057.

  21. Ransford, Early Charters, pp. xiii–xxiv, 3–4. WC, pp. xxxviii–xliii, 31–9.

  22. ASC D 1061, JW 1061, VER, pp. 34–7 and Swanton, Three Lives, p. 103 for Tosti’s visit to Rome and Simeon of Durham – A History of the Kings of England, tr. J. Stevenson (Lampeter, 1978), 1061 for Malcolm’s raid.

  23. ASC 1058, Swanton, Three Lives, p. 104, ASC D 1063, JW 1063, ASC 1065 for this raid.

  24. ASC D 1063, JW 1063.

  25. VER, p. 87. (By permission of Oxford University Press)

  26. ASC D/E 1063, JW 1063, VER, pp. 65, 87–8, Gerald of Wales – Journey Through Wales/Description of Wales, tr. L. Thorpe (Harmondsworth, 1978), p. 266.

  27. ASC D/E 1063, JW 1063–4 and Jones, Brut – Peniarth, p. 15. MacAirt and MacNiocaill, Ulster 1064 names the murderer. Stafford, Unification, pp. 95, 121, K.L. Maund ‘Cynan ap Iago and the Killing of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn’, CMCS, 10 (1985), p. 65.

  28. DB Cheshire, B7 and Brooke, Welsh Border, pp. 11, 93 for the restorations and ASC C/D 1065 for Harold’s conquests. R.R. Davies, The Age of Conquest: Wales 1063–1415 (Oxford, 1991), p. 26, Walker, Medieval Wales, pp. 18–19, Barlow, Edward, p. 212, Thorpe, Gerald of Wales, p. 266 and Johannis Saresberiensis Episcopi Carnotensis Policratus, ed. C.C.J. Webb (London, 1909), pp. 19–20.

  CHAPTER SIX

  1. Wilson, Bayeux, pls 25–6.

  2. WJ, pp. 159–61, WP, pp. 100–14 [4–6] for the Norman version of events and Bosanquet, Eadmer, pp. 6–7 for an alternative version.

  3. WJ, pp. 159–61, ASC D 1063 and ASC C/D 1065, JW 1064 records Gruffydd’s death in 1064 but this appears to be an error. Douglas, William, pp. 174–5, 178–9.

  4. WJ, pp. 159–61, WP, pp. 100–6 [4–5]. See Table 4 below. Douglas, William, pp. 174, 410, Bates, William, pp. 40–1. VER, p. 79.

  5. VER, p. 51.

  6. VER, p. 51, Douglas, William, pp. 174–5, Bates, William, pp. 41–2.

  7. Wilson, Bayeux, pp. 201–12 and pl. 17, and Bernstein, Mystery, pp. 116–23 and pl. 1.

  8. Thus Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 8 and WJ, pp. 161, 263 in Orderic Vitalis’ later additions to William’s text. Wilson, Bayeux, pl. 17, DB Buckinghamshire, 4: 21 for a reference to Harold’s ‘sister’, Aelfgyva.

  9. Wilson, Bayeux, p. 117, Bernstein, Mystery, p. 19, Stenton, Bayeux, p. 178. WJ, pp. 161, 263 in Orderic Vitalis’ later additions to William’s text. I would reject the opinion that the Aelfgyva scene is merely a reference to a well known scandal, as every other picture in the Tapestry is essential to the story and therefore this one also must be related.

  10. Stevenson, Malmesbury – Before the Conquest, p. 214. Wilson, Bayeux, pls 5–6.

  11. WJ, p. 161, WP, pp. 100–2 [4], Wilson, Bayeux, pl. 7.

  12. Bosanquet, Eadmer, pp. 6–7. A. Williams, The English and the Norman Conquest (Woodbridge, 1995), pp. 165–8, R.W. Southern, St Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 229–40 and R.W. Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 404–21 for Eadmer and Christ Church. Barlow, English Church, p. 74 n.1 for the view that it was Aethelric I, an earlier Bishop of Sussex rather than this Aethelric, who supplied Eadmer with his information on St Dunstan. This appears unlikely since this man had died in 1034 and neither Eadmer nor his intermediary Aethelred/Nicholas prior of Worcester (for whom, see E. Mason, St Wulfstan of Worcester, c. 1008–1095 (Oxford, 1990), pp. 221–22), who died in c. 1125 and 1124 respectively, can realistically have met him. Williams, The English, p. 159 n.19.

  13. Bates, William, pp. 61–2, Douglas, William, p. 176 and Stenton, A-S England, p. 577.

  14. WJ, p. 165, WP, p. 150 [7] and Wilson Bayeux, pls 35–7 for the need to construct a fleet and WP, p. 148 [6], 156–8 [8] for the barons reluctance to invade and the disparity between the duchy and kingdom.

  15. WJ, p. 161, WP, pp. 100–2 [4] and Wilson, Bayeux, pl. 7 for Harold’s capture and WP, p. 102 [4] for the prevalence of hostage-taking for ransom among the French.

  16. WJ, p. 161, WP, p. 102 [4] and Wilson, Bayeux, pls 10–14, WP, p. 102 [4] for the importance of Harold and his reception in Normandy. Douglas, William, p. 176 for William’s ‘opportunity’ and Bates, William, p. 61 for this ‘masterly stroke’.

  17. Wilson, Baye
ux, pls 18–26, and WJ, p. 161, WP, pp. 100–14 [5–6] Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 7 for the suggestion that Harold was duped.

  18. WP, pp. 106–14 [5–6], Wilson, Bayeux, pls 18–24 and Douglas, William, pp. 177–9.

  19. Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 7, WP, p. 230 [38] and Stevenson, Malmesbury – Before the Conquest, p. 214 all mention this proposed marriage. Chibnall, Ecclesiastical History, pp. 119–313 and Douglas, William, pp. 174, 410, Bates, William, p. 40 for Count Walter. Bates, William, p. 61 and Douglas, William, p. 177 concede Harold’s danger. WJ, p. 161, WP, pp. 102–6 [4–5] and Wilson, Bayeux, pls 25–6 for the oath. EHD I, No. 49, p. 460 for oaths. D. Rollason, Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989), p. 191. Swanton, Three Lives, p. 100 for Wulfstan.

  20. WJ, p. 161, WP, pp. 102–6 [23], Wilson, Bayeux, pls 25–6.

  21. WJ, p. 161, WP, p. 176 [11] for the use of Harold’s perjury as motivation. WP, p. 114 [6], Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 6 for Wulfnoth.

  22. WP, p. 114 [6], Wilson, Bayeux, pls 24–5, Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 8 and Stevenson, Malmesbury – Before the Conquest, p. 216.

  23. VER, p. 81 and WP, pp. 172 (30) and 148 (26).

  24. Stafford, Unification, p. 97 for this possibility, VER, p. xxiii for the suggestion that this work was compiled in order to justify the succession to power of the Godwine brothers. If this is correct, then the dating of the work around 1064–5 suggests the possibility that the Vita Eadwardi itself may also be evidence for this new view on Harold’s part.

  25. Wilson, Bayeux, pl. 28, ASC C/D 1066, Bosanquet, Eadmer, p. 8. Wilson, Bayeux, pl. 28 shows Edward apparently remonstrating with Harold but as usual leaves us guessing about the reasons.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  1. VER, p. 59. (By permission of Oxford University Press)

  2. VER, p. 77.

  3. W.E. Kapelle, The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and its Transformation 1000–1135 (London, 1979), pp. 87–9, Stenton, A-S England, p. 571, Barlow, Edward, pp. 234–9.