Harold Godwinson ClaimBackground to the Harold Godwinson claim - Harold Gowinson's claim to the throne of England was not based on a strong blood tie
- He had just a kinship to Edward the Confessor, who had married Harold's sister, Edith
- But he was the Earl of Wessex, one of the most powerful Nobles in England
- He had been an advisor to Edward the Confessor
- He had proved himself to be a good leader and fighter
- His father and family had dominated the Witan ( the English council of ruling elders) who advised the king
- He was the richest man in England
- Edward the Confessor considered the Normans as friends, had employed Normans as advisors and even designated a Norman should succeed him to the English throne
- The Anglo Saxons resented Edward the Confessor's close ties with the Normans and Harold Godwinson applied so much pressure on Edward the Confessor that his Norman advisors were sent back to Normandy.
- Harold and his family had established alliances with all the major nobles of England
- Harold deposed his brother Tostig as Earl of Northumbia and replaced him with Morcar
- Edwin the Earl of Mercia and Morcar the Earl of Northumbria, previous enemies of Godwinson, had pledged to support Harold Godwinson
Harold's claim to the English throne - Harold Godwinson asserted that he had been chosen by Edward the Confessor to be the next King of England
- When King Edward the Confessor lay dying his wife Edith and Harold Godwinson were at his bedside. According to Harold, King Edward's dying words were:
"I commend my wife and all my kingdom to your care" - Harold insisted that he had been tricked into taking the sacred oath of allegiance he had made to Duke William. And that he was not told that he was swearing the pledge on sacred religious relics - in his view he had been duped and owed the Norman Duke no allegiance and refuted his claim to the English throne
- The rightful heir to the throne of England was Edgar the Aetheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside but he was only a ten year old boy and deemed too young to control the turbulent English realm
- Harold Godwinson had forced Edward the Confessor's Norman advisors back to Normandy
- The Witan (a council consisting of 60 of England's most powerful nobles) offered the crown to Harold in preference to all other contenders
- Harold Godwinson was an Anglo-Saxon!
To find out more about their claims to the English throne please click one of the following links: The Duke William the Bastard of Normandy claim
The Hardrada the Viking claim
The Edgar the Aetheling claim
Wessex and the Anglo Saxons
The Kings of England 871 - 1066
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