Harold

by Ian W. Walker

  The most crucial period in the growth of the family lands was undoubtedly when King Cnut was seeking loyal servants among the English nobility, following his conquest of England and the death of his rival, Edmund ‘Ironside’. Cnut had disposed of a large number of the old English nobility, whom he apparently considered, for one reason or another, untrustworthy. As a result, a great deal of their land fell into his hands for redistribution among men he did trust. One of these trusted men was Godwine. It has been said that Godwine, in Cnut’s time, was not ‘the colossus’ he was to become in Edward’s years. Indeed, the Domesday Book indicates that the lands held by his sons in 1066 were vastly extended beyond those he held himself during Cnut’s reign. However, if Godwine were not the greatest noble of Cnut’s later reign, it is difficult to explain his position at the head of the witness lists of Cnut’s diplomas from 1023 onwards, his ability, initially, to hold southern England against Harold ‘Harefoot’, or his initial attraction as an ally for Edward.8

  What benefits did Godwine receive, therefore, from Cnut’s redistribution of lands? Undoubtedly the main benefit was through his appointment as earl, which brought him lands associated with this office. Thus Godwine appears to have gained lands as a result of his initial appointment as earl over the central shires of Wessex in 1018, perhaps including the comital lands of Aldermaston in Berkshire, Over Wallop in Hampshire and Southwark in Surrey. Similarly, when Earl Godwine’s authority was extended in 1020 to include Western Wessex, he thereby gained many lands in the western shires, probably including such estates as Puddleton in Dorset, Moretonhampstead in Devon and Old Cleeve and Brompton Regis in Somerset. Finally, when Godwine succeeded to authority over Kent, perhaps around 1023, he probably gained the associated earldom lands in that county, such as Fordwich and Dover. All these comital lands were probably ultimately acquired as part of Godwine’s expanding office of Earl of Wessex and came directly as royal grants from Cnut following their seizure from his predecessors. It was these lands which provided Godwine with the necessary wealth and power to allow him to carry out his duties as earl. They were not lands owned by Godwine and could not be bequeathed to his family but were official lands in the king’s gift and would be passed on to the next Earl of Wessex.9

  In addition to these estates probably associated with the office of earl, Godwine also benefited directly from royal patronage. The Chronicle of Ramsey states that a number of English nobles ‘relinquished the hereditary right of posterity and succession . . . to the Danish military followers of the king’ and Godwine, through his marriage to Gytha in 1020 or 1023, had joined these Danish followers. Therefore, he probably gained a number of estates, which had been forfeited by disgraced noble families, through private grants from King Cnut as a reward for his loyal service. There are a number of examples of lands once held by old families, which subsequently fell into the hands of Godwine and other new men. In many of these cases the links between the loss by old families and the acquisition by new men are unclear but it should be stressed that this does not mean that any improper appropriation was necessarily involved. Indeed, it is clear in some instances that the way in which such lands came into Godwine’s hands was entirely conventional. For example, it has been suggested that, in one case, Atheling Athelstan’s will was overturned, resulting in an estate at Chalton in Hampshire passing to Godwine. In fact, this estate had been bequeathed to King Aethelred himself and as part of the royal demesne could then be granted to Godwine by a later king, though whether Edmund, Cnut or Edward is unknown. In another instance, Ealdorman Aethelweard’s sister, Aelfgifu, bequeathed a number of estates, including Haversham and Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, to the king and to the Old Minster at Winchester respectively. The former estate was probably then quite properly granted from the royal demesne to Godwine by Cnut. The position of the latter estate is less clear because it came into the hands of the Church. It may have been appropriated by Cnut or even granted to him by the Old Minster and subsequently re-granted to Godwine, either by Cnut himself or possibly by Edward. Alternatively, it may have come into Godwine’s control directly through a similar deal with the Old Minster as that which was construed between the earl and Christ Church, Canterbury, and which brought him control of Folkestone in Kent. In the same way, Ealdorman Aelfheah bequeathed the estates of Faringdon, Berkshire and Aldbourne, Wiltshire, to his brother, Ealdorman Aelfhere, and both of these subsequently passed to Godwine. Aelfhere was succeeded in 983 by his brother-in-law, Aelfric Cild, who was then dispossessed by King Aethelred in 985, his lands passing into royal hands to be granted, probably by Cnut, or by Edward, to Godwine. It is important to note that when estates found their way from one family to another we usually have no record at all of how this occurred. However, it seems clear that in the cases we have considered, such evidence as is available usually points to the king as the agent of the transfer.10

  A few examples of such transfers survive and these provide some confirmation that many of the estates which came into Godwine’s hands were granted to him by King Cnut. One such transfer concerns Polhampton in Hampshire, recorded in a rare surviving diploma of 1033. Other lands undoubtedly came as grants from King Edward, who sought to foster Godwine’s support early in his reign. Sandford-on-Thames is representative of these, granted to Godwine by a surviving diploma of 1050. Similar royal grants probably lay behind Godwine’s possession of estates at Chalton and Catherington in Hampshire and Angmering, Rotherfield and Hastings in Sussex, all of which had formerly been part of the royal demesne. Godwine is also known to have purchased some of his lands, for example Woodchester in Gloucestershire, which he bought from Azur and gave to his wife.11

  These and similar acquisitions made Godwine a well-established and powerful landholder in southern England, with extensive estates throughout Wessex. As one of Godwine’s younger sons, Harold could expect to inherit a portion of his father’s lands. Indeed, this may have been the source of many of his Sussex estates, some of which may even have been granted to him by his father during the latter’s lifetime. However, that Harold should surpass his father in wealth and power to the extent that he did was unusual and we must now consider how this came about.

  Harold probably began to gather a significant landholding of his own only after he had been appointed Earl of East Anglia by King Edward in 1044 or 1045. Harold’s appointment to this earldom resulted from his father’s alliance with and his sister’s marriage to King Edward in January 1045. This appointment to an earldom, and those of his elder brother Swein and cousin Beorn, represented the second great extension of the family’s lands. It provided Harold with the opportunity to establish a power base, independent of his father, and to gain directly from the profits of royal service. The appointment made Harold the deputy of the king in East Anglia, collecting taxes, presiding over courts, enforcing royal decisions and grants, and defending the region. In order to carry out this wide range of duties, Harold was granted extensive estates to provide him with the necessary resources. These lands may have included many of those previously held by Thorkell the Tall, when he was the earl of the region under Cnut, but unfortunately we have no direct evidence of this. As earl, Harold received a third of the royal profits from court fines and customs dues, another significant source of income. Harold’s extensive powers as earl also meant that many less powerful men and women sought his protection and support, often by way of gifts and bequests such as those presented by Lady Wulfgyth, her son, Ketel, and Thurstan, son of Wine (see p. 71). These people and many others like them sought Harold’s protection for themselves and their lands and in return acknowledged him as their lord. Domesday Book records large numbers of men in his former East Anglian earldom who still acknowledged Harold as their lord in 1066 and had probably done so since he was earl there.12

  The lands granted to Earl Harold through his earldom were not the only lands that he gained, although it is true that they were the basis of his power in eastern England. In 1066, long after he had surrendered the
earldom of East Anglia, he still held lands valued for tax at £406 in the counties of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Huntingdon and Cambridge. The Domesday Book entries do not reveal exactly when these lands came into Harold’s possession, but it seems likely that the bulk of them passed to him during the period of his rule as earl in this region. It is also probable that most of this land came into Harold’s control not because of his position as earl, but through private grants from his new brother-in-law, King Edward. Although there is no specific evidence of this, the subsequent retention of these lands by Harold does indicate that they were not related to his position as earl. They probably represented King Edward’s endowment of his new brother-in-law and included former royal properties like Brightlingsea, Writtle, Lexden, Lawford and Newport in Essex, and Necton in Norfolk. The intention behind this fairly widespread alienation of royal demesne was probably to provide Harold with the resources necessary to defend his earldom from the contemporary Scandinavian threat, but perhaps also to win over his loyalty. The strategic location of a number of Harold’s estates in Essex strongly suggest that defence was a priority among the reasons for his tenure. It was probably also at some point during his tenure of the East Anglian earldom that Harold was granted a number of estates forfeited by Athelstan, son of Tofi the Proud, including land at Waltham in Essex, Hitchen in Hertfordshire and Lambeth in Surrey, valued at £140 in total. It is also possible that Harold may have purchased some of the lands he held in East Anglia, though we have no specific examples of this.13

  It was probably as part of the need to foster support in his new earldom that Harold, at around this time, had contracted a marriage with Edith ‘Swan-neck’, also known as Edith the Fair. She brought wide lands valued for tax at £366 in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, to her husband’s support. This support was undoubtedly of considerable assistance to Harold, particularly the extensive lands held by Edith and the large number of men commended to her in Cambridgeshire, a county where he himself had relatively few of either.14

  Harold seems to have added to his East Anglian estates following the forfeiture of his brother Swein in 1047, since when Swein sought restoration in 1049, Harold and his cousin Beorn opposed this declaring that ‘they would give up to [Swein] nothing that the king had given them’. Although Swein was eventually, temporarily, restored a year later, Harold no longer raised any objection and so may either have retained the lands he had gained from Swein’s forfeiture or, more probably, he received compensation from the estates of his murdered cousin Beorn. Unfortunately, we have no direct information about where these estates lay but the fact that Earl Beorn held authority in Hertfordshire, and so perhaps lands as well, may provide a clue. It is possible that it was at this point that Harold began to extend his landholdings into Hertfordshire and the surrounding shires; by 1066 he held extensive lands in this area but never, as far as we know, the authority of earl.15

  In this way Harold gradually became one of the most powerful landholders in eastern England and, as such, attracted a considerable following. It is fortunate that the Domesday Book entries for the counties of Harold’s East Anglian earldom preserve fairly full records of such commended men, who included some forty-five named men and one woman, and many unnamed, with land valued at around £230 in all. These individuals included Wulfric the Priest, who held 14 acres of land valued at 5s at Plunkers Green in Essex; Uhtred, who held 2 estates of 4 carucates valued at £6 in total at Houghton and Newton in Suffolk; Ordgar, who held 2 estates of 6 hides valued at £12 in total at Sawston and Harston in Cambridgeshire; and the single named woman, Aelflaed, who held 3 estates of 6 carucates valued at £14 in total at Wickham Skeith, Stonham and Willisham in Suffolk. In one instance, we are supplied with an example of the kind of circumstances which led such men to seek Harold’s support. Stanwine of Peasenhall in Suffolk sought Harold’s support during the outlawry of his previous lord, Eadric of Laxfield. Stanwine subsequently returned to Eadric’s patronage, presumably after the latter’s restoration but with Harold’s permission. In addition to these freemen and minor thegns, Harold also sought and obtained the adherence of more important men. These included Leofwine of Bacton, who held extensive lands, in Suffolk and Essex from the king. Leofwine, in common with a number of other significant local landowners, although a royal thegn, was also commended to Harold for his estate at Bacton and so was, to an extent, Harold’s man as well. Another of these prominent local men was Eadric the Steersman, a royal thegn and the commander of a royal ship, who held his estate at Blakeney in Norfolk in commendation to Harold.16

  Other men greater than these also sought Earl Harold’s favour, some even presenting him with gifts or bequests to secure this, while he in turn issued rewards for service. Ansgar the Staller made a gift to Harold of his estate of Leighs in Essex, 2½ hides valued at £4. Ansgar was a royal staller and a very powerful man, holding extensive estates throughout eastern England valued at £447 and with men commended to him holding lands valued at a further £205. Ansgar’s gift was perhaps made in return for Harold’s support for the retention of his other remaining lands after his father Athelstan’s forfeiture, noted above, or for the recovery of some of his father’s lost lands. In turn, Harold presented the Leighs estate to Scalpi, his huscarl, as a reward for service. A lady named Wulfgyth bequeathed an estate worth 8s at Fritton in Norfolk to Harold. In turn, he appears to have passed this land to one of his local supporters, Eadric of Laxfield, who held it in 1066. Harold’s link to Eadric seems clear from his fostering of Eadric’s men during the latter’s exile, as indicated by the example of Stanwine of Peasenhall. Eadric was another powerful local lord with extensive estates in Norfolk and Suffolk valued at £191 and with men commended to him holding lands valued at a further £224. These powerful lords must have provided key supporters for Earl Harold. Similarly, lesser men also sought Harold’s favour with gifts; Lady Wulfgyth’s son, Ketel, bequeathed a half estate at ‘Moran’ in Norfolk to Harold, while Thurstan, son of Wine, bequeathed him a half mark of gold.17

  It was by such grants and bequests that these people and many others hoped to secure the support and protection of Earl Harold. In return, the support of such local men permitted Harold to govern his earldom and to raise forces from it, for example, to join the royal fleet in 1049, and to support his father, initially, during his dispute with King Edward in 1051. In the latter case, however, Harold’s authority proved insufficient to hold the loyalty of these men in the face of an open confrontation with the king. This reveals the latent strength of the king’s position in disputes with his earls. The king was the lord of all royal thegns and could summon them to his aid and although commended to other lords they would normally obey their king, as happened in 1051. The exception came, perhaps, in cases where such men believed that an injustice had been done; when this happened they might well withhold their support as they did in 1052.

  It is clear that Earl Harold had already become a wealthy and powerful man as Earl of East Anglia and his forfeiture, along with that of the rest of his family, in 1051–2 was therefore a disaster of unprecedented proportions. It put Harold in much the same position as his father had been back in 1009. Godwine, having already recovered from such a position once, was perhaps more confident about his ability to do so a second time. In contrast, this crisis probably brought home to Harold the need to avoid such a situation arising again, and he resolved to maintain a close relationship with the king. It was fortunate for Harold that his downfall proved transient and that, as the Chronicle makes clear, in 1052 he was restored to ‘all that [he] held before’.18

  Following his restoration, new opportunities to increase his land and influence soon fell to Harold as a result of the deaths, in quick succession, of his elder brother Swein and his father, Earl Godwine. Swein’s death made Harold his father’s principal heir and as such, on the latter’s death in 1053, Harold must have inherited the largest proportion of Godwine’s private estates. Unfortunately, there is no direct
evidence to confirm this. Harold’s brothers, Tosti, Gyrth and Leofwine, must also have received a share so that Polhampton in Hampshire, granted to Godwine by Cnut, passed to Tosti. In addition, Harold’s mother, Gytha, may have retained a life interest in a number of Godwine’s former estates, and this was perhaps the reason for the latter’s appearance in Domesday Book. More importantly, Harold also succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex and so came into possession of the extensive lands of this great earldom. Thus he came into possession of such comital estates as Aldermaston in Berkshire, Puddleton in Dorset, Old Cleeve in Somerset and Morehampstead in Devon. It was undoubtedly this dual increase in landholding that made Harold the most powerful man in England after the king, with lands valued at £1,633 in the shires of Wessex. 19

  On succeeding to his new earldom of Wessex, Harold ‘resigned the one he had previously held’ in East Anglia. Nevertheless, he continued to hold extensive lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, and especially Essex until 1066 and some have seen this as an appropriation of comital estates. There exists no definite proof of this, and, as has been noted above, these lands could have been granted by King Edward to his brother-in-law as private estates, which Harold was therefore entitled to retain after surrendering the lands of the earldom itself. It seems unlikely, too, that Earl Aelfgar, the new Earl of East Anglia, would have accepted a truncated earldom given the sensitivity he appeared to show towards his rights, and which, incidentally, would probably result in his exile in 1055 and 1058. The evidence is rather that clearly established comital lands passed to Harold’s successors, so that, for example, his brother Gyrth held the ‘third penny’ of Ipswich in 1066. In this context it is possible that the distinction between official and private estates may have become blurred during the period following the Danish conquest. It is probable that King Cnut, as a foreigner, was less conscious or less respectful of the niceties of previous distinctions between official and private lands. As a result, he may have granted away lands previously associated with earldoms as private estates. This may be why we find a number of clearly comital estates, those associated with the payment of the ‘third penny’, in the hands of individuals who had no right to them. It is thus possible that some lands in East Anglia, which appear to show signs of having once been comital estates, came to Harold as private grants. Unfortunately, in view of the limited evidence available, it is unlikely that a final conclusion can be reached in this matter.20