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How did the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England come to be ruled by a dynasty from northern France?
The answer lies in two facts: first, there was no clear-cut heir when the English monarch Edward the Confessor died, and second, one of the claimants was an ambitious chancer from just across the Channel.
Harold Godwinson
When Edward the Confessor died childless on 6 January 1066, England was plunged into a protracted succession crisis.
First out of the starting-blocks was the earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson, the most powerful nobleman in England. He was the son of Edward's old adversary Earl Godwin, who, promoted by King Cnut, had acquired a vast army and estates. Harold's sister Edith was Edward's queen, but Harold himself had no blood ties to the monarchy.
On his deathbed, Edward is said to have reached out and touched Harold's fingers. Harold took this gesture as a royal appointment. Once the king had expired, Harold won the approval of the country's ruling council, the Witan, and was crowned Harold II later the same day.
William the Bastard
Other contenders were not prepared to watch from the sidelines. The man most determined to overturn Harold's actions was William, duke of Normandy (known as 'William the Bastard' due to his illegitimate birth). Edward's mother Emma had been William's great-aunt, so the king and the duke were second cousins, once removed.
The origins of William's claim lie in the year 1051-2. It was then that Edward had exiled Godwin for stirring up trouble and had allegedly nominated William as his heir. Edward didn't regard William as 'foreign' – the king had grown up in Normandy, his mother's homeland, and felt an affinity with its people and way of life.
Holy crusade
The Norman case was bolstered by a trip to Normandy made by Harold in 1064. The exact reasons for the journey are disputed, but it may have been to secure the release of members of the Godwin family whom William was holding hostage on Edward's behalf. The (admittedly biased) Bayeux Tapestry suggests that Harold's visit was to reaffirm William as Edward's successor.
Either way, Harold ended up swearing an oath of allegiance to the duke. Norman chroniclers maintain it was an oath recognising William's claim. The Godwin version was that he was merely promising to be William's man in Normandy. The tapestry suggests that the oath was sworn under duress.
To gather support from his own sceptical nobles, William turned the campaign for the English crown into a holy crusade. He secured the pope's blessing for an invasion and assembled his troops across the Channel in August 1066 in anticipation of a southerly wind. Harold's army waited on the south coast, but William's favourable breeze failed to materialise.
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