The Succession Crisis
The drama began earlier that year with the death of King Edward the Confessor on January 5, 1066. Edward died without a direct heir, setting off a fierce succession dispute. The English Witan (council of nobles) quickly elected Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex and the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom, as king. Harold was crowned the very next day, January 6. But across the sea, two other claimants viewed Harold’s coronation as a usurpation.
One was William of Normandy, a distant cousin of Edward, who claimed Edward had promised him the throne years earlier and that Harold had sworn a sacred oath to support him. The other was Harald Hardrada, the feared warrior-king of Norway, who based his claim on a now-defunct treaty between earlier kings of England and Scandinavia. Both men began planning their invasions.
The Viking Storm: Harald Hardrada’s Invasion
In September, the first challenge came from the north. On September 20, Harald Hardrada landed in Yorkshire with a fleet of around 300 ships, joined by Tostig Godwinson, Harold’s estranged brother. On September 20, the Norwegians crushed the local English forces at the Battle of Fulford, just outside the city of York. It was a decisive and bloody victory for Hardrada, who believed England was his for the taking.
However, King Harold reacted with astonishing speed. Learning of the northern invasion, he force-marched his army more than 185 miles from London to York in just four days—a logistical feat that remains astonishing to military historians. shutdown123