History of Anglo-Saxon England

For the academic journal of this name, see Anglo-Saxon England (journal).

Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of henry aka boss when he run the chines empire. that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Anglo-Saxon is a general term referring to the Germanic peoples who came to Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries, including Angles, Saxons, Frisii and Jutes. "Anglo Saxon" also refers to the language spoken at the time in England, which is now called Old English, and to the culture of the era, which has long attracted popular and scholarly attention.

Anglo-Saxon England until the 9th century was dominated by the Heptarchy, the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex. In terms of religion the kingdoms followed Anglo-Saxon paganism during the early period, but converted to Christianity during the 7th century. Paganism had a final stronghold in a period of Mercian hegemony during the 640s, ending with the death of King Penda in 655.

Facing the threat of Viking invasions, the House of Wessex became dominant during the 9th century, under the rule of Alfred the Great. During the 10th century, the individual kingdoms unified under the rule of Wessex into the Kingdom of England, which stood opposed to the Danelaw, the Viking kingdoms established from the 9th century in the North of England and the East Midlands. The Kingdom of England fell in the Viking invasion from Denmark in 1013, and was ruled by the House of Denmark until 1042, when the Anglo-Saxon House of Wessex was restored. The last Anglo-Saxon king, Harold Godwinson, fell at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Historical context

Main articles: Sub-Roman Britain and End of Roman rule in Britain

As the Roman occupation of Britain was coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army, in reaction to the barbarian invasion of Europe. The Romano-British leaders were faced with an increasing security problem from sea borne raids, particularly by Picts on the East coast of England. The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries (known as foederati), to whom they ceded territory. In about AD 442 the Anglo-Saxons mutinied, apparently because they had not been paid. The British responded by appealing to the Roman commander of the Western empire Aëtius for help (a document known as the Groans of the Britons), even though Honorius, the Western Roman Emperor, had written to the British civitas in or about AD 410 telling them to look to their own defence. There then followed several years of fighting between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. The fighting continued until around AD 500, when, at the Battle of Mount Badon, the Britons inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons.

Sources

There is a wide range of source material pertaining to Anglo-Saxon England.

There are literary sources:

• Historians in the Middle Ages
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a series of documents that charted Anglo-Saxon history from the mid-fifth century until 1066 (although one version extends till 1154). These were commissioned during the reign of Alfred the Great in the 9th century.

Escomb Church, a restored 7th century Anglo-Saxon church. Church architecture and artefacts provide a useful source of historical information.

Other written sources include:

• Law codes. For example, there were four sets that originated in the seventh century; the first three were issued by the Kings of Kent: Æthelberht I, Hlothhere, Eadric and Wihtred: the Law of Æthelberht, the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric and the Law of Wihtred. The fourth was that of Ine of Wessex.
• The Charters were a series of legal documents that were primarily (although not exclusively) grants of land to individuals by the kings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
• Biographies, hagiography, letters and poetry.
• Domesday Book. Although compiled in 1086, after the Norman Conquest, one of its functions was to ascertain who held what land and the taxes due under Edward the Confessor.

Non-literary sources include:

• Archaeology. Anglo-Saxon settlement can be traced by following burial patterns and land usage.
• Architecture
• Toponymy
• Numismatics
• genetics

Migration and the formation of kingdoms (400–600)

Main article: Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

See also: Migration period

2nd to 5th century simplified migration patterns.

Map of Briton settlements in the 6th-century.

There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the 14th Legion in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in AD 43. There is a hypothesis that some of the native tribes, identified as Britons by the Romans, may have been Germanic language speakers although most modern scholars refute this.

It was quite common for Rome to swell its legions with foederati recruited from the German homelands. This practice also extended to the army serving in Britain, and graves of these mercenaries, along with their families, can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period. The migration continued with the departure of the Roman army, when Anglo-Saxons were recruited to defend Britain; and also during the period of the Anglo-Saxon first rebellion of AD 442.

If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which eventually merged to become England were founded when small fleets of three or five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the Sub-Roman British, and conquered their lands. As Margaret Gelling points out, in the context of place name evidence, what actually happened between the departure of the Romans and the coming of the Normans is the subject of much disagreement by historians.

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain can be seen in the context of a general movement of German people around Europe between the years 300 and 700, known as the Migration period (also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung). In the same period there were migrations of Britons to the Armorican peninsula (Brittany and Normandy in modern day France): initially around AD 383 during Roman rule, but also c. 460 and in the 540s and 550s; the 460s migration is thought to be a reaction to the fighting during the Anglo-Saxon mutiny between about 450 to 500, as was the migration to Britonia (modern day Galicia, in northwest Spain) at about the same time. The historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded what is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. He suggested a mass immigration, fighting and driving the Sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the western extremities of the islands, and into the Breton and Iberian peninsulas. The modern view is of co-existence between the British and the Anglo-Saxons.

Discussions and analysis still continue on the size of the migration, and whether it was a small elite band of Anglo-Saxons who came in and took over the running of the country, or a mass migration of peoples who overwhelmed the Britons.

After the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons by the British at the Battle of Mount Badon in c. AD 500, where according to Gildas the British resistance was led by a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus, Anglo-Saxon migration was temporarly stemmed. Gildas said that this was "forty-four years and one month" after the arrival of the Saxons, and was also the year of his birth. He said that a time of great prosperity followed. But, despite the lull, the Anglo-Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire; while the West Saxons founded a kingdom in Hampshire under the leadership of Cerdic, around AD 520. However, it was to be 50 years before the Anglo-Saxons began further major advances. In the intervening years the Britons exhausted themselves with civil war, internal disputes, and general unrest: which was the inspiration behind Gildas's book De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain).

The next major campaign against the Britons was in AD 577, led by Cealin, king of Wessex, whose campaigns succeeded in taking Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath (known as the Battle of Dyrham). This expansion of Wessex ended abruptly when the Anglo-Saxons started fighting amongst themselves, and resulted in Cealin eventually having to retreat to his original territory. He was then replaced by Ceol (who was possibly his nephew): Cealin was killed the following year, but the annals do not specify by whom. Cirencester subsequently became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom under the overlordship of the Mercians, rather than Wessex.

Heptarchy and Christianisation (7th and 8th centuries)

Main articles: Northumbria, Mercia, Offa of Mercia, Heptarchy, and Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

By AD 600, a new order was developing, of kingdoms and sub-Kingdoms. Henry of Huntingdon (a medieval historian) conceived the idea of the Heptarchy, which consisted of the seven principal Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Anglo-Saxon England heptarchy

Map of Britannia Saxonica.

Anglo-Saxon and British kingdoms c.800 AD

The four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England were:

• Wessex
• East Anglia
• Mercia
• Northumbria, including sub-kingdoms Bernicia and Deira

Minor kingdoms:

• Kent
• Sussex
• Essex

Other minor kingdoms and territories

• Isle of Wight, (Wihtwara)
• The Meonwara The Meon Valley area of Hampshire
• Surrey
• Kingdom of the Iclingas, a precursor state to Mercia
• Lindsey
• The Hwicce
• Magonsæte
• Pecsæte
• Wreocensæte
• Tomsæte
• Haestingas
• Middle Angles

At the end of the 6th century the most powerful ruler in England was Æthelberht of Kent, whose lands extended north to the Humber. In the early years of the 7th century, Kent and East-Anglia were the leading English kingdoms. After the death of Æthelberht in 616, Rædwald of East Anglia became the most powerful leader south of the Humber.

Following the death of Æthelfrith of Northumbria, Rædwald provided military assistance to the Deiran Edwin, in his struggle to take over the two dynasties of Deira and Bernicia in the unified kingdom of Northumbria. On the death of Rædwald, Edwin was able to pursue a grand plan to expand Northumbrian power.

The growing strength of Edwin of Northumbria forced the Anglo-Saxon Mercians under Penda into an alliance with the Welsh King Cadwallon of Gwynedd, and together they invaded Edwin's lands and defeated and killed him at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. Their success was short-lived, as Oswald (one of the dead King of Northumbria, Æthelfrith's, sons) defeated and killed Cadwallon at Heavenfield near Hexham. In less than a decade Penda again waged war against Northumbria, and killed Oswald in battle during AD 642. His brother Oswiu was chased to the northern extremes of his kingdom. However, Oswiu killed Penda shortly after, and Mercia spent the rest of the 7th and all of the 8th century fighting the kingdom of Powys. The war reached its climax during the reign of Offa of Mercia, who is remembered for the construction of a 150 mile long dyke which formed the Wales/ England border. It is not clear whether this was a boundary line or a defensive position. The ascendency of the Mercians came to an end in AD 825, when they were soundly beaten under Beornwulf at the Battle of Ellendun by Egbert of Wessex.

Whitby Abbey

Christianity was introduced into the British Isles during the Roman occupation. The early Christian Berber author, Tertullian, writing in the third century, said that "Christianity could even be found in Britain." The Roman Emperor Constantine (AD 306-337), granted official tolerance to Christianity with the Edict of Milan in AD 313. Then, in the reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (AD 378-395), Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It is not entirely clear how many Britons would have been Christian when the pagan Anglo-Saxons arrived. There had been attempts to evangelise the Irish by Pope Celestine in AD 431. However, it was Saint Patrick who is credited with converting the Irish en-masse. A Christian Ireland then set about evangelising the rest of the British Isles, and Columba was sent to found a religious community in Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. Then Aidan was sent from Iona to set up his see in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne, between AD 635-651. Hence Northumbria was converted by the Celtic (Irish) church.

Bede is very uncomplimentary about the indigenous British clergy: in his Historia ecclesiastica he complains of their unspeakable crimes, and that they did not preach the faith to the Angles or Saxons. Pope Gregory sent Augustine in AD 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons, but Bede says the British clergy refused to help Augustine in his mission. Despite Bede's complaints, it is now believed that the Britons played an important role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. On arrival in the south east of England in AD 597, Augustine was given land by King Æthelberht of Kent to build a church; so in 597 Augustine built the church and founded the See at Canterbury. He baptised Æthelberht in 601, then continued with his mission to convert the English. Most of the north and east of England had already been evangelised by the Irish Church. However, Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained mainly pagan until the arrival of Saint Wilfrid, the exiled Archbishop of York, who converted Sussex around AD 681 and the Isle of Wight in 683.

It remains unclear what 'conversion' actually meant. The ecclesiastical writers tended to declare a territory as 'converted' merely because the local king had agreed to be baptised, regardless of whether, in reality, he actually adopted Christian practices; and regardless, too, of whether the general population of his kingdom did. When churches were built, they tended to include pagan as well as Christian symbols, evidencing an attempt to reach out to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, rather than demonstrating that they were already converted.

Even after Christianity had been set up in all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, there was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, particularly over the date on which Easter fell and the way monks cut their hair. In AD 664 a conference was held at Whitby Abbey (known as the Whitby Synod) to decide the matter; Saint Wilfrid was an advocate for the Roman rites and Bishop Colmán for the Irish rites. Wilfrid's argument won the day and Colmán and his party returned to Ireland in their bitter disappointment. The Roman rites were adopted by the English church, although they were not universally accepted by the Irish Church.

Viking challenge and the rise of Wessex (9th century)

Map of England in AD 878 showing the extent of Danelaw

Main articles: Danelaw, Viking Age, and Alfred the Great

Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, raiders and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian, plundered western Europe including the British Isles. These raiders came to be known as the Vikings; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. The first raids in the British Isles were in the late eighth century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth).

The walled defence round a burgh. Alfred's capital, Winchester. Saxon and medieval work on Roman foundations.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that the holy island of Lindisfarne was sacked in AD 793. The raiding then virtually stopped for around forty years; but in about AD 835 it started becoming more regular.

In the 860s, instead of raids the Danes mounted a full scale invasion; and 865 marked the arrival of an enlarged army that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army. This was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army. Within ten years nearly all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell to the invaders: Northumbria in 867, East Anglia in 869, and nearly all of Mercia in 874-7. Kingdoms, centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex was able to survive. In March 878, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred, with a few men, built a fortress at Athelney, hidden deep in the marshes of Somerset. He used this as a base from which to harry the Vikings; and in May 878 he put together an army formed from the populations of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, which defeated the Viking army in battle at Edington. The Vikings retreated to their stronghold, and Alfred laid siege to it. Ultimately the Danes capitulated, and their leader Gunthrum agreed to be baptised, and also to withdraw from Wessex. The formal ceremony was completed a few days later at Wedmore. There followed a peace treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, which had a variety of provisions, including defining the boundaries of the area to be ruled by the Danes (which became known as the Danelaw) and those of Wessex. The Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands and the whole of the South (apart from Cornwall, which was still held by the Britons), while the Danes held East Anglia and the North.

After the victory at Edington and resultant peace treaty, Alfred set about transforming his Kingdom of Wessex into a society on a full time war footing. He built a navy, reorganised the army, and set up a system of fortified towns known as burhs. He mainly used old Roman cities for his burhs, as he was able to rebuild and reinforce their existing fortifications. To maintain the burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system known as the Burghal Hidage. These burhs (or burghs) operated as defensive structures. The Vikings were thereafter unable to cross large sections of Wessex: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a Danish raiding party was defeated when it tried to attack the burh of Chichester. The burhs, although primarily designed as defensive structures, were also commercial centres, attracting traders and markets to a safe haven; and they provided a safe place for the king's moneyers and mints too.

A new wave of Danish invasions commenced in the year 891. This was the beginning of a war that lasted over three years. However, Alfred's new system of defence worked, and ultimately it wore the Danes down: they gave up and dispersed in the summer of 896.

Alfred will also be remembered as a literate king. He or his court commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was written in Old English (rather than in Latin, which was the language of the European annals). Alfred's own literary output was mainly of translations, though he wrote introductions and amended manuscripts as well.

English unification (10th century)

Edgar's coinage

Main articles: Æthelstan and Edgar of England

On Alfred's death in AD 899, his son Edward the Elder succeeded him. Alfred's son Edward, and his grandsons Æthelstan, Edmund I and Eadred, continued the policy of resistance against the Vikings. From AD 874-879 the western half of Mercia was ruled by Ceowulf II, who was succeeded by Æthelred. In 886/887 Æthelred married Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd. When Æthelred died in AD 911, his widow administered the Mercian province with the title "Lady of the Mercians". As commander of the Mercian army she worked with her brother, Edward the Elder, to win back the Mercian lands that were under Danish control. Edward and his successors made burhs a key element of their strategy, which enabled them to go on the offensive. Edward recaptured Essex in AD 913. Edward's son, Æthelstan, annexed Northumbria, and forced the kings of Wales to submit; then, at the battle of Brunanburh in 937, he defeated an alliance of the Scots, Danes and Vikings to become King of all England. But it was not only the Britons and the settled Danes who disliked being ruled by Wessex: so did some of the other Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Consequently, the death of a Wessex king would be followed by rebellion, particularly in Northumbria. But in 973 Alfred's great-grandson was crowned King of England and Emperor of Britain at Bath. On his coinage he had inscribed EDGAR REX ANGLORUM ('Edgar, King of the English'). Edgar's coronation was a magnificent affair, and many of its rituals and words could still be seen in the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953, though in English rather than Latin.

The presence of Danish and Norse settlers in the Danelaw had a lasting impact; the people there saw themselves as "armies" a hundred years after settlement: King Edgar issued a law code in AD 962 that was to include the people of Northumbria, so he addressed it to Earl Olac and all the army that live in that earldom. There are over 3,000 words in modern English that have Scandinavian roots. Also, more than 1,500 place-names in England are Scandinavian in origin: for example, topographic names such as Howe, Norfolk and Howe, North Yorkshire‎ are derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill, knoll or mound.

England under the Danes and the Norman conquest (978–1066)

Two years after his coronation at Bath, Edgar died while still only in his early thirties. He left two surviving sons, Edward (the eldest) and his half-brother Æthelred. Edward was crowned king, at Kingston; but three years later he was assassinated by one of his half-brother's retainers, with the assistance of Æthelred's stepmother. Hence Æthelred II was crowned, and although he reigned for thirty eight years, one of the longest reigns in English history, he earned the name "Æthelred the Unready", as he proved to be one of England's most disastrous kings. William of Malmesbury, writing in his "Chronicle of the kings of England" about one hundred years later, was scathing in his criticism of Æthelred, saying that he occupied the kingdom, rather than governed it.

Viking longboat replica in Ramsgate, Kent

Just as Æthelred was being crowned, the Danish King Gormsson was trying to force Christianity onto his domain. Many of his subjects did not like this idea; and shortly before 988, Swein, his son, drove his father from the kingdom. The rebels, dispossessed at home, probably formed the first waves of raids on the English coast. The rebels did so well in their raiding that the Danish kings decided to take over the campaign themselves.

In 991 the Vikings sacked Ipswich, and the fleet made landfall near Maldon in Essex. The Danes demanded that the English pay a ransom, the English commander Byrhtnoth refused; in the following Battle of Maldon he was killed, and the English easily defeated. From then on the Vikings seem to raid anywhere at will; they were contemptuous of the lack of resistance from the English. Even the Alfredian systems of burhs failed. Æthelred seems to have just hidden, out of range of the raiders.

By the 980s the kings of Wessex had a powerful grip on the coinage of the realm. It is reckoned there were about 300 moneyers, and 60 mints, around the country. Every five or six years the coinage in circulation would cease to be legal tender and new coins were issued. The system controlling the currency around the country was extremely sophisticated; this enabled the king to raise large sums of money if needed. The ability to raise large sums of money was needed after the battle of Maldon, as Æthelred decided that, rather than fight, he would pay ransom to the Danes in a system known as Danegeld. As part of the ransom, a peace treaty was drawn up that was intended to stop the raids. However, rather than buying the Vikings off, payment of Danegeld only encouraged them to come back for more.

The Dukes of Normandy were quite happy to allow these Danish adventurers to use their ports for raids on the English coast. The result was that the courts of England and Normandy became increasingly hostile to each other. Eventually, Æthelred sought a treaty with the Normans, and ended up marrying Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy in the Spring of 1002, which was seen as an attempt to break the link between the raiders and Normandy.

Then, on St Brice's day in November 1002, Danes living in England were slaughtered on the orders of Æthelred.

In the summer of 1013, Sven Forkbeard, King of Denmark, brought the Danish fleet to Sandwich, Kent. From there he went north to the Danelaw, where the locals immediately agreed to support him. He then struck south, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy (1013–1014). However, on 3 February 1014 Sven died suddenly. Æthelred, capitalising on Sven's death, returned to England and drove Sven's son, Cnut, back to Denmark, Cnut abandoning his allies in the process In 1015, Cnut launched a new campaign against England. Edmund fell out with his father Æthelred, and struck out on his own. Some of the English leaders decided to support Cnut rather than Æthelred, so ultimately Æthelred retreated to London. Before there was an engagement with the Danish army, Æthelred died and was replaced by Edmund.

Cnut's dominions.

The Danish army encircled and besieged London, but Edmund was able to escape and raised an army of loyalists. Edmund's army routed the Danes, but the success was short-lived: at the battle of Ashingdon the Danes were victorious and many of the English leaders were killed. However, Cnut and Edmund agreed to split the kingdom in two, with Edmund ruling Wessex and Cnut the rest. The following year (1017 AD) Edmund died in mysterious circumstances, probably murdered by Cnut or his supporters, and the English council (the witan) confirmed Cnut as king of all England. Cnut divided England into earldoms: most of these were allocated to nobles of Danish descent, but he made an Englishman earl of Wessex. The man he appointed was Godwin, who eventually became part of the extended royal family when he married the king's sister-in-law. In the summer of 1017, Cnut sent for Æthelred's widow, Emma, with the intention of marrying her. It seems that Emma agreed to marry the king on condition that he would limit the English succession to the children born of their union. Cnut already had a wife known as Ælfgifu of Northampton who bore him two sons, Svein and Harold Harefoot. However it seems that the church regarded Ælfgifu as Cnut's concubine rather than his wife. As well as the two sons he had with Ælfgifu of Northampton, he had a further son with Emma, who was named Harthacnut.

When Cnut's brother, Harald II, King of Denmark, died in 1018 Cnut went to Denmark to secure that realm. Two years later, Cnut brought Norway under his control and he gave Ælfgifu of Northampton and their son Svein the job of governing it.

One of the outcomes of Cnut's marriage to Emma was to precipitate a succession crisis after his death in AD 1035. The throne was disputed between Ælfgifu's son, Harald Harefoot, and Emma's son, Harthacnut. Emma supported her son by Cnut, Harthacnut, rather than her sons by Æthelred. Her son by Æthelred, Edward, made an unsuccessful raid on Southampton; and his brother Alfred was murdered on an expedition to England in 1036. Emma fled to Bruges when Harald Harefoot became king of England; but when he died in 1040 Harthacnut was able to take over as king. Harthacnut quickly developed a reputation for imposing high taxes on England. He became so unpopular that Edward was invited to return from exile in Normandy to be recognised as Harthacnut's heir, and when Harthacnut died suddenly in 1042 (probably murdered), Edward (known to posterity as Edward the Confessor) became king.

Edward was supported by Earl Godwin of Wessex, and married the earl's daughter. However, this arrangement was seen as expedient, as Godwin had been implicated in the murder of Alfred, the king's brother. In 1051 one of Edward's in-laws, Eustace, arrived to take up residence in Dover; the men of Dover objected, and killed some of Eustace's men. When Godwin refused to punish them, the king, who had been unhappy with the Godwins for some time, summoned them to trial. Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was chosen to deliver the news to Godwin and his family. The Godwins fled rather than face trial.It is thought that at this time Edward offered the succession to, his cousin, William (duke) of Normandy; William (also known as William the Conqueror, William the Bastard, or William I) did eventually become the king of England. The Godwins threatened to invade England and Edward is said to have wanted to fight, but at a Great Council meeting in Westminster Earl Godwin lay down all his weapons and asked the king to allow him to purge himself of all crimes. The king and Godwin were reconciled. The Godwins thus became the most powerful family in England after the king. On Godwin's death in 1053, his son Harold succeeded to the earldom of Wessex; Harold's brothers Gyrth, Leofrine and Tostig were given East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. Tostig was disliked by the Northumbrians for his harsh behaviour and was expelled to an exile in Flanders, in the process falling out with his brother Harold, who supported the king's line in backing the Northumbrians.

On 26 December 1065, Edward was taken ill He took to his bed and fell into a coma; at one point he woke and turned to Harold Godwinson and asked him to protect the Queen and the kingdom. On 5 January 1066 Edward the Confessor died, and Harold was declared king. The following day, 6 January 1066, Edward was buried and Harold crowned.

Although Harold Godwinson had grabbed the crown of England, there were others who laid claim, primarily William, Duke of Normandy, who was cousin to Edward the Confessor through his aunt, Emma of Normandy. It is believed that Edward had promised the crown to William. Harold Godwinson had agreed to support William's claim after being imprisoned in Normandy, by Guy of Ponthieu. William had demanded and received Harold's release, then during his stay under William's protection it is claimed, by the Normans, that Harold swore a solemn oath of loyalty to William.

Harald Hardrada ('The Ruthless') of Norway also had a claim on England, through Cnut and his successors. He had, too, a further claim based on a pact between Hathacnut, King of Denmark (Cnut's son) and Magnus, King of Norway. Tostig, Harold's estranged brother, was the first to move, according to the medieval historian Orderic Vitalis, he travelled to Normandy to enlist the help of William, Duke of Normandy, later to be known at William the Conqueror. William was not ready to get involved so Tostig sailed from the Contentin Penisula, but because of storms ended up in Norway, where he successfully enlisted the help of Harold Hardrada. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle has a different version of the story, having Tostig land in the Isle of Wight in May 1066, then ravaging the English coast, before arriving at Sandwich, Kent. At Sandwich Tostig is said to have enlisted and press ganged sailors before sailing north where, after battling some of the northern earls and also visiting Scotland, he eventually joined Hardrada (possibly in Scotland or at the mouth of the river Tyne).

Section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing Harold being killed at Hastings

According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle (Manuscripts 'D' and 'E') Tostig became Hadrada's vassal, and then with 300 or so longships sailed up the Humber estuary bottling the English fleet in the river Swale and then landed at Riccall on the Ouse on 24th. September. They marched towards York, where they were confronted, at Fulford Gate, by the English forces that were under the command of the northern earls, Edwin and Morcar, the battle of Fulford Gate followed, on 20th September, which was one of the most bloody battles of medieaval times. The English forces were routed, though Edwin and Morcar escaped. The victors entered the city of York, exchanged hostages and were provisioned. Hearing the news whilst in London, Harold Godwinson force-marched a second English army to Tadcaster by the night of the 24th., and after catching Harald Hardrada by surprise, on the morning of the 25th. September, Harold achieved a total victory over the Scandinavian horde after a two day-long engagement at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Harold gave quarter to the survivors allowing them to leave in 20 ships.

Harold would have been celebrating his victory at Stamford Bridge on the night of 26/27 September 1066, while William of Normandy's invasion fleet set sail for England on the morning of 27 September 1066. Harold marched his army back down to the south coast where he met William's army, at a place now called Battle just outside Hastings. Harold was killed when he fought and lost the Battle of Hastings on 14th October 1066.

The Battle of Hastings virtually destroyed the Godwin dynasty. Harold and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were dead on the battlefield, as was their uncle Ælfwig, Abbot of Newminster. Tostig had been killed at Stamford Bridge. Wulfnoth was a hostage of William the Conqueror. The Godwin women who remained were either dead or childless.

William marched on London. The city leaders surrendered the kingdom to him, and he was crowned at Westminster Abbey, Edward the Confessor's new church, on Christmas Day 1066. It took William a further ten years to consolidate his kingdom, any opposition was suppressed ruthlessly, and in a particularly brutal incident known as the 'Harrying of the North', William issued orders to lay waste the north and burn all the cattle, crops and farming equipment and to poison the earth. According to Orderic Vitalis the Anglo-Norman chronicler over one hundred thousand people died of starvation. Figures based on the returns for the Domesday Book estimate that the overall population of England in 1086 was about 2.25 million, so the figure of one hundred thousand deaths, due to starvation, would have been a huge proportion of the population.

By the time of William's death in 1087, those who had been England's Anglo-Saxon rulers were dead, exiled or had joined the ranks of the peasantry. It was estimated that only about 8 percent of the land was under Anglo-Saxon control. Nearly all the Anglo-Saxon cathedrals and abbeys of any note had been demolished and replaced with Norman style architecture by AD 1200.

See also

• Anglo-Saxons for Anglo-Saxon culture and society.
• Anglo-Saxon architecture
• Anglo-Saxon monarchs
• Anglo-Saxon warfare
• Anglo-Saxon polytheism
• England in the Middle Ages
• Kingdom of Cornwall
• Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
• States in Medieval Britain
• Staffordshire Hoard
• Timeline of Anglo-Saxon England

References

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External links

• Internet Medieval Source book
• C. P. Biggam's Anglo-Saxon Studies: A Select bibliography
• Anglo Saxon Era - articles about the period
• Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England