The Other Men Who Wanted England: The Forgotten Rivals Behind the Norman Conquest

The Other Men Who Wanted England: The Forgotten Rivals Behind the Norman Conquest

Most of us remember 1066 as a fight between two men: Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy.

But England's crown had attracted far more attention than that.

In our last post about the Norman Conquest, we looked at why William believed England should be his, and why Harold took the crown instead. Today I want to widen the story, because behind those two famous rivals were several other men with ambitions, claims or connections to the English throne.

And one of the strongest claims belonged to a boy who is often almost forgotten.

When Edward the Confessor died without children on the 5th of January 1066, England did not operate under a simple rule that the crown automatically passed to the nearest relative. The wishes of the previous king, the support of the leading nobles and the ability to actually rule and defend the kingdom all mattered.

That left plenty of room for argument.

Harold Godwinson

Harold II 

Harold was Earl of Wessex and probably the most powerful man in England when Edward died. He was not a member of the old royal House of Wessex, but according to English tradition Edward entrusted the kingdom to Harold at the end of his life.

The leading men of England accepted him, and Harold was crowned on the 6th of January 1066.

As far as Harold was concerned, he was the legitimate king.

Unfortunately for him, several other men disagreed.

William, Duke of Normandy

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Harold II

Date 13th century

William's claim is the one we explored previously.

The Normans maintained that Edward had promised William the English throne years earlier. They also claimed that Harold had sworn an oath supporting William's succession while in Normandy.

Whether Edward's promise was really as clear as William later claimed is still debated, but William certainly believed- or at least insisted - that Harold had taken a crown that should have been his.

He intended to collect it with an army.

Harald Hardrada of Norway

Then there was another Harald.

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The Battle of Stamford Bridge

Harald Hardrada

Harald Hardrada was King of Norway, one of the most formidable warriors of the eleventh century, and his claim came from an older Scandinavian agreement.

Years earlier, Harthacnut, the Danish king who had also ruled England, and Magnus the Good of Norway were said to have agreed that if either died without an heir, the survivor would inherit his kingdoms.

Harthacnut died childless. Magnus consequently claimed rights over England, although Edward the Confessor became king instead.

When Magnus died, Hardrada eventually regarded those rights as having passed to him.

It was a rather complicated route to the English crown- but Hardrada was prepared to test it with several thousand warriors.

He invaded northern England in September 1066.

Edgar Ætheling – the boy with perhaps the best blood claim

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Edgar Aetheling

And then we come to the man - or rather boy -who tends to disappear behind the more famous names.

Edgar Ætheling was probably only about thirteen or fourteen.

But his ancestry mattered a lot.

He was the grandson of King Edmund Ironside and the great-grandson of Æthelred the Unready. He belonged directly to the old royal House of Wessex.

In purely dynastic terms, Edgar had an exceptionally strong claim.

His problem was that England in 1066 needed more than a royal family tree.

With powerful foreign rivals threatening England, Edgar’s youth and lack of an established military and political power counted heavily against him.

But he did not disappear.

After Harold was killed at Hastings, leading English nobles actually elected Edgar king.

He was never crowned.

Within weeks, William's advance forced Edgar and his supporters to submit. The boy who arguably possessed the strongest hereditary connection to the old English kings never really got his chance to rule.

Tostig Godwinson - did Harold's own brother want the crown?

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Tostig, Harold and Edward the Confessor

This one is more complicated.

Tostig was Harold's younger brother and had previously been Earl of Northumbria. After a rebellion against his rule in 1065, Tostig was driven into exile- and Harold accepted his removal.

Tostig was furious.

During 1066 he raided England and eventually joined Harald Hardrada's invasion.

Was Tostig himself trying to become king?

Possibly, but we should be careful. The evidence does not allow us to confidently place him alongside William, Harold and Hardrada as a definite claimant. His immediate ambitions may have been to recover his lost position and destroy his brother rather than take the crown personally.

Whatever his ultimate aim, his actions were important.

Tostig encouraged and then joined Hardrada's attempt to conquer England. Harold Godwinson was forced to fight his own brother at Stamford Bridge.

Both Tostig and Hardrada were killed there on the 25th of September 1066.

And then there was Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark…

Sweyn is perhaps the most easily forgotten name in this story.

King Sweyn II of Denmark was the nephew of Cnut the Great, whose Scandinavian empire had once included England. Scandinavian rulers had not forgotten that connection, and Sweyn saw an opportunity.

He did not become one of the principal invaders during the great succession crisis of 1066, so it would be misleading to describe him as an equal fifth claimant alongside Harold, William, Hardrada and Edgar.

But his interest in England was very real.

In 1069, after William had become king, a major Danish fleet arrived in England and joined forces with Edgar Ætheling and English rebels. They captured York and presented William with one of the most serious challenges of his early reign.

Even Hastings had not completely settled the question of who would control England.

So the struggle for England was never simply Harold versus William.

There was Harold Godwinson, chosen and crowned.

William of Normandy, claiming a promise and an oath.

Harald Hardrada, reaching back to an old Scandinavian agreement.

Edgar Ætheling, the young descendant of England's ancient royal house.

Tostig Godwinson, whose exact ambitions remain uncertain but whose actions helped bring another invasion to England.

And in the background, Sweyn of Denmark, representing a Scandinavian claim.

And by the end of 1066, most of them had either surrendered, been defeated or were dead.

The Evacuee Children Who Left Home Together - Then Found Themselves Separated

The Evacuee Children Who Left Home Together - Then Found Themselves Separated

Yesterday we spoke about one of the most unsettling parts of wartime evacuation: children arriving in unfamiliar towns and villages and waiting while strangers decided whose homes they would go to.

But imagine getting through that journey with your brother or sister beside you, perhaps the only familiar person you had left, and then discovering that you were not going to be allowed to stay together.

Today I want to find out about the evacuee siblings who were separated after they arrived, why it happened and whether they were able to see each other again.

For many children, leaving Mum and Dad was frightening enough. A brother or sister could give them a little security. They had travelled together, knew the same home, missed the same parents and understood exactly what the other child was going through.

Then the billeting process could take even that away.

Children were usually evacuated as part of school groups, and when they reached their destination they had to be found places in local homes. Some people could accommodate two or more children, but others had room for only one. In some places, prospective foster families effectively chose the children they were prepared to take.

Keeping brothers and sisters together could be difficult. Research into the evacuation has found that siblings hoping to be billeted together could actually be among the last children chosen because taking them meant accepting two, three or sometimes more children rather than one.

Age could make things even more complicated too. Older and younger siblings might attend different schools and travel in different groups, and the availability of suitable billets could determine where each child finally ended up.

For the children involved, this could make an already frightening experience considerably worse.

One former evacuee, Irene Mead, was 13 when she was evacuated from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon with her two younger brothers, aged 11 and nine. When they arrived, the children were split up.

Irene remembered crying on her first night because she missed her brothers.

But her story had a happier twist. She discovered that they had been billeted in the house next door. After that, the siblings were able to see one another every day.

Others were determined not to let themselves be separated at all.

One evacuee who was eight years old when sent to Denham in 1939 later recalled arriving with a 13-year-old brother. The children insisted that they would not be split up. It caused difficulties while homes were being found, but eventually somebody agreed to take them both.

Not every separation was caused by a shortage of space. In one later study of former evacuees, a woman identified as Wendy remembered being separated from her sister because her sister had an infection. Decades afterwards, it was still one of the first memories she associated with evacuation. She described the separation as terribly upsetting.

Whether separated siblings could see each other afterwards depended largely on where they had been placed. Some, like Irene and her brothers, were fortunate enough to live only doors apart and could meet regularly. Others might be in different houses around the same village or town and still see one another at school.

But if they were sent farther apart, meetings could become much more difficult. Letters, postcards and occasional visits might be the only contact they had.

Evacuation was intended to protect children from bombing, and for many it undoubtedly did.

But safety came with an emotional price.

For a frightened child standing in a strange village, a brother or sister might have been the last little piece of home they had left.

And sometimes, even that was taken away.