William Godwinson: A Powerful Figure In The Medieval World

What if the Candidates for the president of the U.S. had to fight in a battle to see who would win the election. As crazy as it sounds, this is how Duke Williams became King of England in 1066. In January of 1066 the death of King Edward the Confessor was the beginning of the Battle of Hastings. When King Edward died, he had no children to inherit the throne. The legend says that before his death, King Edward sat up and pointed to Harold Godwinson who was across the room (“Hastings”). Shortly after he died, Harold became the King of England. There were three other people who fought to be heir to the throne. Harold defeated two of them fairly quickly. He had hoped he could also defeat the third opponent, Duke Williams, but this was not the case. On October 14, 1066 the Battle between Harold and Duke Williams, later to be known as the Battle of Hastings, began. Duke Williams was the leader of the Norman army and led his troops to victory at the Battle of Hastings because of his great plan of attack (“The Battle of Hastings”).

On the 14th of October 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. His win could be summed up by the fact that William was a better leader. Other factors that contributed to William’s victory include: William was better prepared, the English army was severely weakened as Harold had just fought off an invasion in the North of England, and Harold made a fatal mistake of prematurely entering the Battle of Hastings.

When edward the confessor died he had no children to take over when he passed so this left three contestants their names:

William’s father went on a pilgrimage in 1034 to release his sins. While returning home from his journey, he died suddenly. Having no other heir, William took his place as Duke of Normandy.

Harold Godwinson was born in the 1022s to a powerful Anglo-Saxon family in Wessex, United Kingdom. Throughout his life, he achieved many great things, including being the last Anglo-Saxon to be crowned King of England and being the Earl of Wessex. He was at the top of the social structure from the 6th of January 1066 until his death fighting the Norman Invaders on the 14th of October at the Battle of Hastings. The Battle of the Hastings was a major event during this time period and marked the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England.

William the conqueror in the battle of hastings. September 27 is when things started going William’s way, the wind shifted and started moving them right into England. Directly after reaching shore William decided to make his move and as stated in the document "William I." “William rallied the fleeing horsemen, however, and they turned and slaughtered the foot soldiers chasing them. On two subsequent occasions, William’s horsemen feigned retreat, which fooled Harold’s soldiers, who were then killed by their opponents. Harold’s brothers were also killed early in the battle. Toward nightfall the king himself fell, struck in the eye by an arrow according to Norman accounts, and the English gave up.” (par.1) this quote shows that William knew what he was doing and did the right thing and also that he wasn’t scared. William was about to become a ruler of another country.

William Manchester divides the period of time from A.D. 400 to roughly the 1600s into three parts in A World Lit Only By Fire. The first part, entitled “The Medieval Mind,” is how the standards of living and the overall wellbeing of the people living in that time were and how education was virtually nonexistent. The book then shifts to the second section, entitled “The Shattering,” this section describes the intellectual movements and activities, such as the Protestant Reformation, that ended up destroying the Medieval Mindset and replacing it with a mindset that questions everything about authority. The third and final section of Manchester’s novel is entitled, “One Man Alone.” This section focuses on Magellan and the three year voyage of

Arguably the most important factor in the exertion of power over the English was the ability by the Normans to act militarily. The warlike attitude of the Normans, combined with the religious aspects that will be discussed later, provided them with a ready and capable army with which to support William’s claim to the throne. The early years of William’s rule, after the 1066 defeat of Harold, emerged as a sort of military occupation within England by the Normans. These years were crucial in the Norman advance within England. When William came to England he arrived with a large support of military men and much of these supporting military men remained in England because of their military duties. This army aided William not only in the initial battle against Harold, but later as well, through their

It is at this time where early transitions and alliances started to pay off. Ancient traditions helped William maintain his ducal authority. Count William of Arques still had to pay homage to the duke. Probably the biggest reason William was able to maintain his authority was due to the Norman relationship with France. King Henry I supported William. Another break for William was the fact that King Henry didn’t take Normandy for himself. He did claim rights over Normandy and placed William under his protection. The King was exercising his rights as overlord to safeguard his kingdom. King Henry didn’t do this completely without any benefit to himself, he did take two fortresses.

In this essay I am writing about why William Duke of Normandy won the battle of Hastings.

Godwin's rise to power was rapid. In 1017, when King Cnut created the English Earldoms, Godwin became the Earl of Wessex. Two years later he went with Cnut on a visit to Denmark, where Cnut was so impressed by Godwin that he arranged for him to marry Gytha, sister of Ulf.They had several children: Swegen, Tostig, Harold, Gyrth and Edith. By the time Edward the Confessor became king in 1042 he was the most powerful Earl in Anglo-Saxon England. King Edward married Edith in order to keep Godwin loyal to him and his sons became Earls (Swegen became the Earl of Hereford, Gloucester and Oxford and Harold became the Earl of East Anglia). He also had a nephew (Beorn) who was Earl of Hertforshire

William was born to Robert I of Normandy and Herleva, a woman who lived with Robert I but was lower than a wife, in 1028 (“William I”). In a royal family being the eldest male child gives you direct claim to the throne, and luckily for William he was

William’s success in the Battle of Hastings had longer lasting effects than just crowning him King and yet this was not his only legacy. Although William was intelligent and savy in relation to fighting wars, he was illiterate and could not speak English, no matter how hard he tried (www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-william-the-conqueror, 2013: online). Consequently, he insisted on the English speaking French on a daily basis and French became the national language for over 300 years. English eventually became more widely spoken again and despite it once again becoming the national language, it had been transformed due to the length of time French had been spoken as it was now infused with French and latin words. William’s inability

William arrived at Torbay, on November 5th 1688 ready to fight for the throne. He was a brave man, for James II’s army was double the size of William’s army. Although it didn’t matter because James II’s army was deserting to the other side, James II army had abandoned him. When William of Orange was welcomed into London, James II fled to France in disguise. Parliament claimed that by abandoning his country, the king had abdicated and the throne was now left vacant. On February 6th 1689 Mary and William became King and Queen of England.

There is a critical difference between the two countries that seems to have heavily contributed to the reason William won, and Harold lost. Although his troops were fighting on their home soil, they simply were not as warlike and aggressive as the Normans, and were doomed to failure.