King Harold II
1022 – 1066 · Generation VI · King of the English (Jan–Oct 1066)
Harold II Godwinson (1022–1066). King of the English (Jan–Oct 1066). The last crowned Anglo-Saxon king; fell at Hastings nine months into his reign. He was born to power rather than royalty: his father Godwin had been raised to the earldom of Wessex by Cnut the Great, and Harold, previously earl of East Anglia, succeeded to Wessex on Godwin's death. When his brother-in-law Edward the Confessor died childless, the Witenagemot convened and chose Harold king — probably the first English monarch crowned in Westminster Abbey. That autumn two invasions struck in quick succession: in late September he destroyed the army of the rival claimant Harald Hardrada of Norway at Stamford Bridge near York, and within days William of Normandy landed on the south coast, drawing Harold's weary army south again to the decisive battle of the Norman Conquest.
Parents
- Godwin Earl of Wessex (1001 – 1053)
- Gytha Thorkelsdóttir (1000 – 1069)
Siblings
- Edith of Wessex (1025 – 1075)
Life
- 1022 — Born
- 1066 — Died
- 1066 — Harold Godwinson becomes King Harold II
- 1066 — Harold II fights his brother Tostig and a Viking force under Harold Hadrada and defeats them at Stamford Bridge. He hastily marches South at the news that William Duke of Normandy with 100 ships has landed at Pevensey Bay and marched into Sussex.
- 1066 — Harold II is killed at the Battle of Hastings according to legend with an arrow through his eye.