Godwin Earl of Wessex
1001 – 1053 · Generation V
Godwin Earl of Wessex (1001–1053). Married Gytha Thorkelsdóttir in 1020. The most powerful nobleman in England; father of a queen and of the last Saxon king. Probably a son of the Sussex thegn Wulfnoth Cild, he rose swiftly under Cnut, holding an earldom by 1018 and all of Wessex around 1020; after distinguishing himself on a Danish expedition he married Gytha, whose brother Ulf was wed to Cnut’s sister. In the struggle that followed Cnut’s death he intercepted the ætheling Alfred in 1036 and delivered him to Harold Harefoot. Alfred was blinded and soon died; how far Godwin was to blame is disputed, but the episode shadowed him. He later championed Edward the Confessor, who took his daughter Edith as queen in 1045. When he refused the king’s command to punish the townsmen of Dover after their brawl with Eustace of Boulogne, Edward outlawed him and his sons in 1051, but they came back in arms the next year and forced their restoration. He collapsed at a royal meal in Winchester and died days later.
Partners
- Married Gytha Thorkelsdóttir (1000 – 1069) in 1020 — 2 children together
Children
- King Harold II (1022 – 1066)
- Edith of Wessex (1025 – 1075)
Life
- 1001 — Born
- 1020 — Married Gytha Thorkelsdóttir
- 1053 — Died