The main characters of my novel existed; I have merely invented some of the ‘bit parts’ and added colour and animation. One practical problem was with their Saxon names, often similar or the same, or with spelling unfamiliar to a modern reader. I decided to use a variety of spellings to differentiate between characters sharing the same name – for example the three ‘Edith’s’: Edith, Harold’s sister; Edyth, his concubine; and Alditha his formal wife – as I have also used Edward and Ædward, Godwine and Goddwin. Canute – of turning the tide fame – is the more well-known spelling, but ‘Cnut’ the more correct, and as he will be a central character in my next novel devoted to Queen Emma, I considered he ought to be so honoured.
We know that Queen Edith, Harold’s sister, never had a child and that later writers declared Edward to be intentionally celibate. This seems unlikely as it was the duty of a king to provide heirs who would become ‘throne-worthy’. It was never written that Edith was barren, with the blame put openly on her, therefore it seems more probable that the truth was shielded: that Edward was either impotent or homosexual. I have not used King Edward’s later title
– the Confessor – as this was not applied until his politically manufactured canonisation in 1161.
Some minor dates I have slightly altered to fit the convenience of narrative. For instance, Tostig was more probably married in 1052. His wife, Judith, I have placed as sister to William’s wife. Some authoritative works place her as Mathilda’s step-aunt, but as I needed my characters to be similar in age, a sister fitted better.
With a story that covers more than twenty years, it is difficult to know how or where unobtrusively to indicate the passing of years. Within the narrative is clumsy and artificial; as chapter headings, a risk of reading as a chronology. I believe the majority of readers wish to know where and when the action is happening, but without being distracted. I hope the eventual compromise is a suitable solution.
Specific dates mentioned within the narrative are actual known dates as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and similar documents.
Most sources imply that Ædward the Exile returned to London by mid-April 1057, but some believe it was later in the year – whatever the date, the event happened: Ædward died within a few days of reaching England before ever seeing Edward. The question remains, however, did he die of natural causes or not . . .? His son Edgar was hastily declared King after Hastings, but was, as Harold and the Council had feared, too young to be an effective leader against a man like William. He was forced to capitulate to the Duke when London surrendered late in 1066. Edgar returned to Normandy with William in 1067, probably not by choice. He did eventually attempt to raise a rebellion, but it was too late, the Normans were too firmly entrenched. His sister Margaret fled to Scotland, where she married King Malcolm and later became canonised as Saint Margaret. Their daughter married William’s son, Henry I of England.
There is no substantial evidence that Harold was descended from Cerdic through Alfred the Great, nor, of course, that he was the mythical King Arthur’s son, but I wanted some small and tenuous link with my Arthurian trilogy and this one suited nicely.
For those readers who are interested in the details of what is real and what is imaginary: Swegn did abduct the Abbess from Leominster Abbey and did murder his kinsman; Godwine and his family were exiled but clawed their way back into favour as I have described it; Harold did surprise Gruffydd at Rhuddlan at Christmas. I have invented the location of Harold’s manor house, but he definitely founded Waltham Abbey after being taken ill and Edyth, his concubine, was forced to identify his mutilated torso after the great battle. His mother pleaded with William to exchange his remains for their weight in gold. The Duke refused.
As for Harold’s resting place, that remains open to conjecture and personal preference. William ordered his remains to be buried by the sea – that is all we know for certain. Waltham Abbey lays stout claim to his body, as does the marked place of the high altar at Battle Abbey. The skeleton of a man’s headless torso placed in an unmarked but expensive coffin was discovered beneath the floor of Bosham Church in 1954. Some say this was Godwine’s body – but he was buried at Winchester with public honours. And even if his body was placed at Bosham, why in an unmarked grave? Earl Godwine died in his bed at Winchester, three days after suffering a mortal seizure having declared his innocence of murder before God. Harold was hacked to pieces on the battlefield. With apologies to my local town of Waltham Abbey, I believe that it is, Harold’s body that rests at Bosham. His mother, Countess Gytha, remained there a while before she fled abroad – and Bosham is, after all, by the sea . . . perhaps poor William Malet just did not have the time to go back to Hastings to bury a body; perhaps he took a bribe from a wealthy Countess instead? Who knows?
Harold was the first English King to be crowned in Westminster Abbey, though William, arrogantly declaring Harold’s anointing as king void, later claimed that accolade for himself when he was crowned there on Christmas Day 1066.
My interpretation of the battles may be open to debate – but here again I would emphasise that this is a novel, although my ideas are based on the theories of those with a far greater historical knowledge and intellect than I possess. I have merely woven opinion into a story. With regard to sea battles: the Vikings were the most experienced and skilled seamen ever to have sailed the waters of this world. Trade ships and merchantmen were deepdraughted, slow-moving sailing ships – but the sleek, narrow-keeled longship, the true dragon ship, was manoeuvred by skilled oarsmen. William had to wait for the wind because the majority of his ships were merchant craft, relying on sail not oar. There is plentiful evidence that seafarers of this time were perfectly able to fight from shipboard. The English of Harold’s time remained closely connected to their Danish sea ancestry, and had a worthy fleet of ships. Harold’s own grandfather was renowned as a sea pirate. Remembering that the surviving accounts of William’s invasion of England were written by the Normans, we have no information on or details of what went wrong. We can only ask questions and guess at the answers. Did William make sail earlier than was admitted? We know that many of his ships were destroyed somewhere between Dives and Saint Valéry, and that he had the bodies of dead sailors buried in secret so as not to spread alarm. Why? We are told that the damage was caused by bad weather – but was it? If storms were the cause, why not just give reassurance that they would wait for a fair wind? The advantage of being a novelist is that the original story can be unravelled and re-spun to a different pattern, using the very same yarn. Eadric the Steersman did exist – he was one of the few men immediately banished into exile by William after the conquest.
The use of cavalry at Stamford Bridge was highly probable. Horses must have been ridden on Harold’s incredible march north; infantry could not have maintained that pace and fought immediately upon their arrival and the widespread historians’ declaration that the Saxons only fought on foot is nonsense. If this was so, why was the explicitly bred warhorse so highly valued? There are many instances of such horses being left to beneficiaries in wills. Any old nag could be used as transport. So why did Harold not fight William on horseback at Hastings? Ann Hyland, in her excellent work The Medieval Warhorse, suggests the most likely reason: the forced march north, and back again, took its toll on the horses; many had been killed on the battlefield in Yorkshire and of those remaining, many were probably lame or exhausted.
One other argument for the Saxons being able to fight on horseback is their perfect ability to fight against cavalry. The men in Harold’s shield wall knew very well how to defend against a cavalry charge. Using an axe to take off a horse’s head with one blow is not something that you discover by accident during the heat of battle!
After 1066, most references to King Harold were obliterated or ignored. His title in the Domesday Book, for instance, reverts to Earl Harold. Queen Edith surrendered Winchester to William, who subsequently gave her full respect as a king’s widow. She died in 1075. Alditha was given no suc
h similar honour. She gave birth to a son, Harold, at Chester some time after Hastings; she may have remained there, or returned to Wales. Neither she nor her son or daughter is mentioned again.
Harold’s mother eventually fled to Flanders; his brother Wulfnoth remained in captivity in Normandy for over thirty years
– he was never to return to England. Harold’s sons by Edyth tried to raise a rebellion, but were repulsed and fled abroad – William was either too feared or had settled himself too tightly to be dislodged. One son, either Edmund or Magnus, was killed during a raid, probably on Bristol. Ulf, the youngest, was imprisoned by William.
Harold’s daughter Gunnhild remained at Wilton Nunnery and Gytha (I have called her Algytha to differentiate her from her grandmother) travelled, possibly with her surviving brothers, to Smolensk to marry the Russian prince Vladimir, who in essence became the first Tsar of Russia. Their first-born son was known in the Danish world as Harold. She died on 7 May 1107. Her greatgrandson was King Vlademar I of Denmark, from whom the present queens of Denmark and Great Britain are descended. Elizabeth II, therefore, carries the blood of Harold in her veins, as well as Duke William’s.
Eustace de Boulogne’s grandson made an attempt at invading England, but failed. Eventually Bishop Odo turned against William
– as did Robert, the Duke’s eldest son. William died alone in 1087 and was buried within his abbey at Caen – his corpulent body bursting open as the attendants attempted to squeeze it into the stone coffin.
As for Edyth Swann hæls, she had apparently remained in possession of much land when the Domesday Book was compiled in 1085–6, but where she lived, where she went . . . we do not know.
One last matter of conjecture: was Harold killed by an arrow in his eye? The evidence for this is based upon a scene in the Bayeux Tapestry: the wording ‘here Harold is killed’ extends above a soldier with an arrow apparently in his eye, and also over a man falling from a sword wound to his leg. Which one is meant to be Harold? I do not support the arrow theory on the grounds that such a terrible wound would more likely kill a man outright, either through shock or by piercing into the brain, and we do know that Harold, although mortally wounded, continued to fight until he was decapitated.
1066 is known as the Norman Conquest, but it is worth remembering that although William had himself crowned king, and while most of the male English aristocracy were replaced by Normans, the ordinary English – the Saxons – remained English. England was ruled by Normans but never became Norman – if that had happened, we would be speaking French, not English . . .
Writing is the art of turning imagination into reality – Harold was our last English king. I have written what I imagine to have been his story.
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