Imagine being driven from one of the most powerful positions in England. You believe your own brother has betrayed you. Less than a year later, that brother is King of England - and you return with a foreign army.
That was the extraordinary position of Tostig Godwinson in 1066.
In our recent Norman Conquest posts, we have looked at the men who believed England’s crown should be theirs.
Today I want to look more closely at Harold’s own brother. Because before Harold faced William at Hastings, he had another enemy to deal with. And that enemy was part of his own family.
Tostig was born into the enormously powerful Godwin family, the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and the younger brother of Harold Godwinson. Like Harold, he rose rapidly through the political world of Edward the Confessor’s England.
In 1055, Tostig was appointed Earl of Northumbria, giving him authority over a vast and important part of northern England.
But Northumbria was not an easy region to govern. It had its own powerful families, traditions and political rivalries, and Tostig appears never to have won the support of much of the Northumbrian ruling elite.
Contemporary and later accounts portray his government as severe, while his opponents accused him of heavy taxation and harsh treatment. Whatever the exact truth- and our evidence for the eleventh century is often incomplete- resentment towards him became extremely serious.
Then, in October 1065, it exploded. Northumbrian rebels rose against Tostig. His officials and supporters were attacked, his property was seized and the rebels chose Morcar, brother of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, as their new earl.
Tostig looked to King Edward the Confessor for help. But another man was sent to negotiate with the rebels. His brother Harold.
And Harold made a decision that would change their relationship forever.
Rather than attempting to restore Tostig by force, Harold accepted that his brother had lost control of Northumbria and negotiated a settlement which recognised Morcar as earl. Tostig was forced into exile.
From Harold’s point of view, there may have been little alternative. Attempting to impose Tostig on the north could have created a much larger civil war at a dangerous moment for the kingdom.
Tostig saw things very differently. He appears to have believed that Harold had betrayed him and may even have suspected that his brother had encouraged the rebellion against him.
The two brothers who had once belonged to the most powerful family in England were now bitterly divided.
Tostig went to Flanders, where he had important family connections through his wife, Judith.
Then everything changed again. Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of January 1066. The following day, Harold Godwinson became King of England.
For the exiled Tostig, his brother was no longer simply the man he blamed for losing his earldom. He was now the king.
In the spring of 1066, Tostig returned. He sailed to the Isle of Wight and then raided parts of England’s coast before moving northwards.
But the attempt went badly. Forces led by Earls Edwin and Morcar drove him away, and Tostig eventually sought refuge in Scotland.
He still had not finished.
At some point, Tostig joined forces with one of the most formidable warriors in Europe: Harald Hardrada, King of Norway.
Hardrada already had ambitions in England. Now he had something else- an English exile with knowledge of the kingdom and every reason to see Harold removed from the throne.
In September 1066, their forces entered northern England.
On the 20th of September, Hardrada and Tostig met the armies of Edwin and Morcar at the Battle of Fulford, just outside York. They won. York submitted. For a brief moment, the invasion appeared to be succeeding.
But Harold Godwinson was already coming.
The English king marched rapidly north with his army, covering an extraordinary distance to confront the invaders.
On the 25th of September 1066, the brothers finally faced one another at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
By the end of the day, Harald Hardrada was dead. So was Tostig Godwinson.
Harold had defeated the invasion from the north. But his victory came at an enormous cost.
His army had marched hundreds of miles and fought a major battle. And just three days later, William of Normandy landed on the south coast of England.
Harold would now have to turn around and march south again.
Tostig is an interesting figure because it is tempting simply to describe him as the brother who betrayed Harold. The reality was probably more complicated.
Tostig believed that he had been wronged. Harold may have believed that sacrificing his brother’s position was necessary to prevent England descending into civil war.
Whatever their motives, their family dispute became part of something much larger. And in September 1066, two brothers ended up facing one another on opposite sides of a battlefield.
One of them died there. The other would be dead less than three weeks later.
Do you see Tostig as a traitor to his brother and country, or a man trying to reclaim what he believed had been unjustly taken from him?
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