Harald Hardrada - The Last Viking Documentary

England 1066 rumors abound of invasion all eyes to himself towards Normandy and its ruler Duke William who has long coveted the English throne then on the 8th of September a massive invasion fleet is sighted off the east coast let's not buy Juke William but by the king of Norway Harald Hardrada the last great Viking [Music] the man known to history as Harold sigurðsson or Harald Hardrada was born in 1015 or 1016 in ring Greek north of the city of Oslo in modern-day Norway his father King Sigurd Cyr was an insignificant ruler of ring Greek a region in buskerud in the Norwegian uplands who is notable for marrying a fallen king's wife and adopting her son olaf haraldson who became king olaf ii of norway around the time of Harold's birth Harold's mother who is described as a generous and caring lady was us the good branch daughter who had married sick at sea shortly after the death of her first husband Harold Krantz Kerr who was a descendant of the Norwegian fairhair dynasty and ruler of the vast fault region of Norway who was murdered as he slept in his foster sister secret the hor T's home who he had hoped to marry to benefit from her wealthy estate Harold's father Sigurd was baptized as a Christian in 998 and although he had no grand ambitions of his own he was aware of his son's adeptness as a warrior and whilst Harold's father was a modest peaceful but wealthy man he was nonetheless supportive of Harold's warlike ambitions and was aware of his son's relentless drive and encouraged him to pursue his own purpose in recent years the paternal lineage of Harold's father has been questioned by some modern-day academics as it is thought that his family tree may have been altered some time after his death to further legitimize his descendants cling to the Norwegian throne which was a practice that was not uncommon at the time according to the Icelandic sagas both Harald and his half-brother Olaf who descended from the supposed first king of Norway King Harald the first or Harald fairhair rarity said that Harold's great-grandfather was Sigurd Lisa who was the son of fair hair however as no definitive evidence exists to verify the accuracy of many of the Viking sagas the accuracy of hard Radha's family lineage is still debated although very little verified information exists relating to Harold's childhood he was nonetheless described extensively by the 13th century Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson who depicts him as being larger than other men with light hair and beard and a long upper bed or mustache and it is also evident that like his half-brother Olaf Harold would continue the Viking tradition of leaving his homelands in order to seek fame and fortune across the high seas during the 9th century Norway was made up of a number of small regional kingdoms but by the end of the first millennium had been unified under the rule of Harold and Olaf's ancestor Harold the first Harald fairhair but after his death in 933 fractured into smaller territories and kingdoms once again controlled by y'all's Nobles under fair hairs descendants who still held the Norwegian throne including his great grandson Olaf Tryggvason who did much to convert his subjects to Christianity then in the year 1000 Trigg vassan was killed by the forces of his archenemy and brother-in-law the pagan King of Denmark Sweyn Forkbeard in the Battle of spaulder after which Forkbeard United the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway where he installed the vassals Nobles have laid to rule over different parts of his newly acquired Norwegian kingdom but to despite this Forkbeard ultimately died in 1014 in Lincolnshire after invading England and he phoning its King Ethelred the unready after this Falk beards eldest son harold ii became king of denmark whilst his younger son Knut was proclaimed king of England until he was driven out when Ethelred returned from exile in Normandy at the request of the English Nobles however after the deaths of both Ethelred and a son Edmund Ironside in 1016 Knut became the undisputed king of England once more and following this in 1019 also succeeded his brother as King of Denmark and would later also rule Norway parts of Sweden Pomerania and Schleswig earning him the title of Knut the great by the timer Swain forbids death in 1014 Harald Hardrada half-brother Olaf haraldson was around 19 years of age and was already a seasoned campaigner that had embarked on many travels and campaigns across the Baltic England and even Normandy where he had even aided æthelred the unready in his quest to reclaim his throne from King Canute by taking the city of London a burning London Bridge after this in 10:15 all have decided to return to Norway and attempted to reclaim what he saw as his ancestral birthright the Norwegian throne and no doubt making use of the wealth he had accumulated on his troubles left Normandy where he had converted to Christianity and landed in his homeland where he declared himself monarch in the process gaining the support of the five petty kings before defeating the y'alls of late at the Battle of neza in 1016 thusly confirming his kingship for more than a decade much of the reason for Olaf successes was due to the fact that the King Canute had been indisposed in subduing England when Olaf seized the Norwegian throne but finally in 1029 the Danish King immersed a powerful army including Danish and English housecarls and mounted an invasion of Norway culminating in the naval battle of Hal gaya in 1026 in which Olaf was narrowly defeated and later was forced to flee Norway in 1029 for the Slovak Finnish state of Kiev in ruse a later Sweden as his nobles rebelled against him in support of Knut the following year after the death at sea of Canute's puppet Norwegian Regent Olaf attempted to retake the throne of Norway and after amassing an army along with his young 15 year old half-brother Harold who brought six hundred men to Olaf's bama marched through Sweden towards Trondheim in northern Norway where on the 29th of July 1030 olaf Harold and his men met a larger Norwegian force of peasant farmers and Nobles loyal to King Canute who heavily outnumbered them after fierce fighting Olaf received two wounds to his neck in me and whilst leaning on a rock no doubt in a state of exhaustion a spare was thrust up and under his chainmail coat and into his torso before another warrior dispatched him with a sword thrust to the throat meaning the before long the former king's army was overwhelmed by their adversaries but nonetheless a laughs men they've managed to bury his body nearby the location the exact site remains a mystery to this day after their defeat at the Battle of Stickle stand as it is now known Harald who had fought bravely by Olaf side no doubt with the help of his loyal followers managed to escape the field and took shelter and succor on a remote farm in order to heal his wounds and then after recovering travelled over the Norwegian border and across the Swedish mountains before he finally arrived in the Kievan Rus kingdom which was a state comprised of a loose Federation of Slavs and things then run by King Yaroslav the first otherwise known as Yaroslav the wise of Novgorod and his wife Inga good all of us thought er throughout the winter of 1031 Harald ingratiated himself within yaroslav's Court becoming a military captain and it was at this time that he first requested the hand in marriage of the king's daughter lady Ellis Eve but was initially rejected as he was not considered to be wealthy enough and therefore did not meet the standards of her family who had deemed prestigious within the Royal Courts of Europe after spending several years in the kiev in ruse Kingdom taking part in campaigns against the poles and local tribes Harald like his brother olaf and many vikings before him realized that he needed money and fame if he was to attract enough men to his banner with whom he could win territory mari who he wished and climbed the social hierarchy of europe with the ultimate goal of reclaiming the kingdom of Norway therefore in 1034 Harald along with several hundred of his retainers turned his eye to the rich and powerful Byzantine Empire and its capital of Constantinople but the Vikings called mitla guard where he hoped to earn money and renown as a mercenary in order to increase his chances of marrying his lady Ellis Eve who it is clear he was determined to Wed in previous centuries the pagan warriors from the north had been the enemies of the Byzantine Empire however since the reign of emperor basil ii christian Norseman had been employed as close body guards known as the Varangian guard within the Emperor's court and it was perhaps with the goal of attaining such status himself the terral's decided to leave the kiev in ruse with yaroslav's blessing and travelled southwards towards the imperial capital at this time the Byzantine Empire itself was ruled by the son of a peasant Emperor Michael the fourth the puffle Argonian and the new emperor Zoe the great known as Zoe Paul for a janitor or born into purple due to her having been born to a reigning emperor in 978 after finally arriving in Constantinople it wasn't long before Harold's presence was noticed by the Byzantine military as he was soon according to the sagas commissioned in 1035 by the state as of a run Gian guard to serve in Emperor Michael's personal retinue although some modern historians question whether he rose this rapidly as the Varangian guard were the Empire's elite troops whilst Harald was settling into his new life in the East in 1035 King Canute died and with the support of the King of Sweden and the Norwegian nobility Harold's 11-year old nephew Magnus the illegitimate son of olaf ii and his wife aster it's english slave al field became magnus the first of norway whilst King Canute son Arthur Knut became the King of Denmark however even though the Danes had largely been responsible for his father's demise Magnus acting on the advice of his counselors chose not to go to war against the Danish king earning him the nickname of Magnus the good in contrast to Magnus hatha Knut soon rekindled his hopes of ruling over Norway in 1040 war broke out between the two kingdoms but when both men's Nobles brought the Kings together in a meeting on the border of their realms the two rivals agreed did the lands of the first one of them to pass away would go to the other and two years later Arthur Knut died in England meaning that without so much as fighting a battle Magnus became King of Norway as well as Denmark by 1240 Magnus's uncle Harold had already proven himself to be an extremely able and fearsome warrior as he had according to Snorri Sturluson become the leader over all the Varangians by this time had campaigned in the Emperor's armies in Asia Minor modern-day turkey forcing back the Arabs to the river Euphrates in northern Iraq capturing numerous Arab forts and settlements in the process according to many accounts Harald also played a crucial role in capturing Palestine at this time with relative ease without fire nor by the sword and allegedly oversaw the signing of a peace treaty between the Byzantines and the Muslim Fatimid caliph in which Christians were allowed to travel to Jerusalem but as the journey was dangerous Harald is sent to have escorted pilgrims to the holy city where he no doubt visited the city's holy shrines and sites and may have even helped to reconstruct the Church of the Holy Sepulchre that was built around the cave where Christ was entombed and then rose from the dead we are also led to believe that Harald was considered to be a strong and charismatic military leader as during his campaigns and travels he amassed a significant following personal fortune and fleet in which he took to the Seas and attacked pirate shipping around Greece and in 1038 Harald also joined a byzantine campaign in sicily but for 200 years had been controlled by the muslims and ruled as the emirate of sicily it was during this campaign that Harald came into his own and marked himself out as an exceptional military commander as on one occasion he in his comrade the Norman mercenary Willie iein arm faced difficulty in breaching the walls of a Saracen stronghold however the invaders overcame the fortifications when they decided to use wax and sulfur on splintered pieces of wood fixed to the back of small birds which when released instinctively sought sanctuary under the roofs within the castle walls thus starting many fires and leaving those inside with no choice but to surrender despite heralds plundering expeditions it is written that he was also merciful sparing those who surrendered and were willing to take him as their new leader but by march 1041 a norman lombard revolt in opposition to the byzantine domination of southern italy culminated in the battle of ala Vento at which the Normans led by Harold's former ally William iron arm defeated the Byzantines making the confrontation the first major Norman Lombard success against the Greeks in the battle for control of Italy marking the beginning of Norman rule in Sicily and southern Italy after this the rebellion in Italy continued with confrontations such as the Battle of Monte Maggiore in May 1041 where Harold and the Varangian Gert once again faced the Normans who at this time had famously adopted the tactical use of cavalry and were able to overpower the Byzantines on the battlefield but shortly afterwards both Harold and the Varangian guard were recalled from Italy to fight in Bulgaria alongside Michael the fourth at the Battle of Ostrava in late 1041 against a force of rebels who'd risen up against the Empire then after Harold and his fellow Guardsmen had returned to Constantinople his patron the Emperor Michael the fourth died on the 10th of December 1041 and was replaced by his adopted son Michael the fifth who ruled as co-regent with Michael the fourths wife Zoe for a janitor however after ascending to the throne Michael had Harold imprisoned on charge of defrauding the Emperor's Treasury as it was commonplace for the Varangian guard to loot the Emperor's treasure after their death although there was no evidence that Harold was guilty in contrast to this another account states that Harold was imprisoned because he had requested the marriage to a fictional niece of Emperor Zoe named Maria whilst yet another states that he defiled a noblewoman and yet another that he was imprisoned for murder nonetheless whatever the reason was behind his imprisonment it has been suggested that the new emperor must have been suspicious of Harold not least because of his loyalty to the previous Emperor Michael the fourth after bass michael the fifth made matters worse when he banished his stepmother Zoe from her position of co-emperor sin 1042 as he was under the impression she had attempted to poison him imprisoning her on the island of príncipe and afterwards proclaimed her sister Theodora as his successor this act proved unpopular with the people of Constantinople however who then rose up in revolt against Michael the fifth dethroning him freeing Harold in the process and reinstalling in his place both Zoe and her sister Theodora as Co rulers but after a brief two-month reign Zoe married Constantine the ninth monomer Coase making him the new king alongside Theodora and herself whilst the dethroned michael was blinded castrated and sent to a monastery in line with byzantine tradition possibly by Harold's own hand by this time in 1042 Harold was around 27 years of age and was evidently becoming Restless to return north to his homeland even publicly stating his desire to do so but this was opposed by Emperor Zoe who was unhappy about Harold's intentions as she is said to have been in love with him although it is probable that she merely wanted to retain his services in her elite Varangian guard but whatever the case Harold retained his goal of traveling back to the ki-rin ruse to marry Ellis Eve after which he intended to carry on northwards to his homeland of Norway despite the Emperor's forbidding him to leave her service Harold chose to do so anyway and one evening after finding two ships he along with a small number of retainers cast off from constantinople harbor but whilst entering the Bosphorus Strait that connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea the ship accompanying his own was destroyed under the weight of a massive chain that spanned the harbor entrance despite this Harald managed to enter the Strait and navigate north into the Black Sea and after months of travel finally arrived back in Kiev in ruse in late 1042 and shortly afterwards married Elysee with her father Yaroslav blessing in the winter of 10 foot 3 to 10 44 which was largely due to the vast amount of wealth he had accumulated yet despite his riches it is still significant that Harald was allowed to marry the king's daughter as Yaroslav other children were married to European Kings which at this time Hera was not another possible condition of marrying Ellis Eve may have been that Harald was a source of information on the defences of Constantinople that were famously considered to be amongst the most formidable in the world at the time and it is therefore surely no coincidence that shortly after Harold's arrival in the kiev in ruse Yaroslav the first launched an attack on the imperial city in which he was defeated and forced to withdraw however there is no record of Harald having taken part in this campaign in 10:43 then in the summer of 1045 her alt along with his wife said their goodbyes to Yaroslav the first by departing the city of Novgorod and setting sail across the Baltic Sea before finally arriving in sigtuna Sweden in late 1045 or early 1046 in a ship which according to accounts almost sank under the weight of gold it contained an inn told whilst in Sweden Harald secured the support of its king anand jacob to whom his wife alice eve was related well as well as this Harald also joined forces with a pretender to the Danish throne Swain Esther it'sand the grandson of Sweyn Forkbeard who had been kicked out of Denmark by king Magnus and so after their alliance was forged the three joined forces and conducted raids on the Danish coast despite the close relationship between Swain and harald the relationship frayed when king magnus in 1046 offered to share the throne of norway with her alt if he would in return share his great wealth with Magnus who was all but bankrupt and as a consequence both men shunned Swain in the negotiations much to his displeasure after this Harald ruled half of Norway with king Magnus the first but when his Co regen died without an heir in 10:47 Harald then inherited the remaining lands of Norway and also declared himself to be King of Denmark even though Magnus had appointed Swain this his heir apparent before his death culminating the two rivals going to war with one another in what would prove to be a long drawn-out conflict from 1048 to 1064 during this war Harald sank to the vitally important Danish trade center of Hedeby in 1040 knowing there was also the best protected and most populated town in Scandinavia after which he then went on to attack the Danish city of ours in 1050 when the Holy Trinity Church was burned to the ground before narrowly evading capture in Jutland where in an attempt to escape he lightened the cargo of his ship by throwing captured booty into the sea but when this failed to deter Swain's advance he instead chose to have his captives thrown overboard instead which had the desired effect as well as its war against the Danes Harold also had to contend with discontent from his own Nobles in the form of the descendants of Haakon Sigurdsson who had formerly controlled much of northern Norway as a vassal of Denmark in the 10th century and whose family line was now headed by I na thum Bosque elfia who had married hawkins daughter and after the death of King Canute had done much to place Magnus the good on to the Norwegian throne then in an effort to deal with the powerful in our it was now trying to raise an army Harald in 1050 offered to meet his rival at a farm near Trondheim but the two would discuss a resolution to their dispute however Harald proved himself to be a ruthless and cunning politician as when I NAR arrived with his son and heir at the meeting the king's men ambushed them and moments later both lay dead but after hearing of our husband and sons murder I NAS wife rallied a force and attacked the farm from H Harald was lucky to escape now that he had subjugated the Norwegian nobility the King once again sought to claim the Danish throne by resuming his war against Swain and the high point of this conflict then came in 1062 when both met the naval battle of Nisa which had been pre-arranged between Harald and the Danish King to take place on the Nissen River near the modern-day swedish city of homestead on the 9th of august the confrontation that followed proved to be typical of naval battles in the Viking era in which long ships with long narrow keels and flat bottoms were deployed they could carry up to 35 men and were easily maneuvered by two walls on either side of the stern will rear of the ship whilst on board archers peppered the enemy vessels with arrows and infantry waited to board the foe ships it was with a fleet comprised of as many as 300 of these iconic vessels that Harald arrived at the Nissan River however when he did so Swain and his own fleet was seemingly absent from the battle site prompting Harald to perhaps naively order his non-professional soldiers which made up half of his fleet to go home whilst his remaining men raided the Danish coastline in customary Viking fashion then in dusk Swain along with his fleet of some 300 ships that have been lying in wait in a concealed position ordered an approach on the Norwegian forces they now outnumbered by two-to-one and in response to this Danish advance Harald that is Norwegian chieftain Hakan iverson bonded their ships together in a tight formation which was then mirrored by Swain and his second-in-command Finn Arneson until finally the two fleets join battle in a hailstorm of arrows under which thousands of Vikings locked homes in hand-to-hand combat ultimately much to Swain's despair Harold's army was victorious although he almost lost his life in the process with many Danes escaping to fight another day and in the celebrations that followed credit for the Norwegian victory was given to one of Harold's Earl's Hakan Everson who had outflanked the enemy during the fighting and caught them off guard but despite this the victory was soured by the fact that Swain had managed to flee with his life after being captured although to Harold's displeasure he discovered that his rival had possibly been freed by his second-in-command harcum who had previously served under Swain's command prior to changing sides resulting in Harald banishing him from Norway as a result as neither King had been able to secure a decisive victory in this long and bloody war a peace treaty between both sides were signed in 1064 in which both sovereigns kept their Thrones with Harald ruling Norway and Swain Denmark with each retaining their respective kingdoms existing boundaries importantly Harald was also formally recognized as King Harald the third of Norway by his kinsmen and former enemies while King of Norway Harald implemented a number of economic policies such as the introduction of standardized Norwegian minted currency which was viable for international trade and moreover the king's impact on Norway due to his relationship with the Byzantine Empire led to the expansion of Norwegian trade with countries such as Scotland and Ireland the Kiev in ruse as well as the Byzantine Empire itself which helped to stabilize and enrich the kingdom's economy in conjunction with his economic reforms Harald also endeavoured to promote to spread of Christianity across his kingdom by bringing in bishops priests and monks from abroad building new churches and repairing damaged chapels across Norway in order to spread the word of God both in and beyond his homeland whilst perhaps one of his most lasting and important decisions was according to the sagas to found the city of Oslo which acted as his base of operations and remains the capital of Norway to this day in contrast to this Harald also imposed harsh punishments on his people that would earn him his nickname of hard rada meaning stern or hard ruler such as ordering the maiming and killing of those who withheld their taxes and he also kept his people in check through the use of his personal army were hit whilst he also increased the power of the monarchy during his reign by enforcing a policy which stated that only the king could keep his own head giving Harald increased power over the lords of Norway as they could not raise armies after solidifying his grasp over the kingdom Harald then turned his attention across the North Sea to the rich and fertile lands of England which the Vikings had been plundering for centuries starting with the earliest raid on the island in 793 when the Vikings attacked the monastery of st. Cuthbert's on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne in Northumbria a description of which was carved onto the so-called doomsday stone these raids saw the Vikings labeled as barbarous heathen men in the anglo-saxon chronicles but regardless they continued to attack the island mercilessly over the coming decades marking the beginning for the Viking Age and after many years of incursions scores of Vikings emigrated to the British Isles taking up residence in England Scotland Ireland and Wales and assimilating with the native population particularly in the north of Britain where many towns and villages still bear Viking names heralds interest in England was first kindled when he received an invitation from the unseated kostik Godwinson brother to Earl Harold Godwinson of Wessex to help him claim back the anglo-saxon elder of Northumbria which he had been banished from because of his unpopularity with the population of Northumbria that was largely of Danish in Norwegian stock heritage during his rule in Northumbria thake who was a southerner used violent tactics to subdue the northern populace and quickly became a despised figure amongst the local population as well as the kingdom's nobility including Edwin Earl of Mercia of his brother MOCA who hated the Godwin sons and had designs over Northumbria for themselves eventually this discontent against toasting reached boiling point in 1065 when a rebellion broke out in the north against the heated Earl which had been encouraged by Edwin and Morcar who pressured the rebels to petition the aging and childless English King Edward the Confessor who sent his right-hand man hostage brother Harold Godwinson the earl of wessex northwards to negotiate with a northumbrian rebels unwilling to face the reality of a civil war with Edwin and Morcar Harold Godwinson refused to back his own brother and instead persuaded Edward the Confessor to side with the rebels resulting in war car being elected as the new Earl of Northumbria meaning that the humiliated toss dick was forced to flee England and seek sanctuary in Flanders by this time King Edward was gravely ill meaning that the English throne would soon be contested by a number of powerful dupes and Kings most notably Harold Godwinson Earl of Wessex himself Harald Hardrada and most famously Duke William of Normandy but despite these various claims upon his deathbed Edward the Confessor named Harold Godwinson as his heir and so when the King finally died on the 5th of January 1066 the English Earl was crowned King of England the following day meaning that when william heard the news of God Winston's coronation he flew into a rage and began preparations for war at this time Toslink was still in flanders at the court of count baldwin v who then lent him a number of ships with which he conducted raids on the south coast of England and East Anglia in may of 1066 but then most pillaging Lincolnshire hostage was defeated in battle but the Earl's end with omocha and so he then fled to the safety of Scotland under the protection of his friend King Malcolm the third it was whilst he was in Scotland the Toslink first communicated with Harald Hardrada and it is said that the banished Earl even traveled to Norway to Harold's court whether Norwegian King was so impressed with das leg that he formed an alliance and began planning their invasion of England although some states that tossed ik did not travel to Norway and the two men formed their alliance after Harold's landing in England Harold had Radha's claim to the English throne was based on an agreement between the former Danish ruler of England King Arthur Knut and king Magnus the good which stated that the last man living would inherit the others lands and titles however historians now believe that England did not form a part of his agreement so when half the Knut passed away in 1042 the Saxon Edward the Confessor was crowned King of England with the backing of the kingdoms Earl's but nonetheless both king Magnus and hot-rodder continued to claim the English throne regardless during their reigns on the other hand William of Normandy same to the English throne was based on the fact that his grandfather Richard ii of normandy was the brother of Edward the confessors mother Emma making him Edwards cousin but as well as this he also claimed that he had reached an agreement with Edward the Confessor in 1051 which stated he would be crowned King of England after Edward's death back in Norway Harald Hardrada who was 50 years old in 1066 they said to have been apprehensive about seizing the English throne and had it not been for the persuasion of toss leg he may very well have not been willing to attempt an invasion of England but it is certain that if the Norwegian King had misgivings about the undertaking he did not have them for long as his invasion preparations must have begun in the mid to late summer of 1066 the latest as accounts tell us that by this time Hardrada had amassed a massive army of 10 to 18 thousand warriors at the head of whom he then set sail for England in August of 1066 over the coming days Harold's invasion force was ferried across the North Sea in 250 to 300 long ships first stopping in Shetland and then all kane' rallying more men to his banner including several thousand Scottish troops courtesy of toasties Li King Malcolm the 3rd of Scotland although it is not known for certain if posting himself sailed from Norway with Harald or if the two met on the coast of England nonetheless it is generally accepted that the two joined forces in the vicinity of the River Tees after which they conducted raids on Scarborough and other northumbrian towns enroute to the capital of the north the City of York after sailing down the river Humber and disembarking in the village of ricky'll the Viking army then progressed towards York but when they came in sight of the city's walls near the modern-day village of Fulford on the 20th of September 1066 Harold and his host were confronted by a three to four thousand strong Saxon army under the command of toasting archenemies Edwin Earl of Mercia and Morcar Earl of Northumbria in preparation for the forthcoming engagement harold deployed toss thick along with his Flemish mercenaries to the right of the Viking line opposite Morcar on the section left wing possibly as the new tossed egg would fight hard against his archrival whilst on the Viking left Harold and his Vikings thanks Dolph again stead wing who deployed his forces at a right angle between the river who's on a Saxon right and Martius on their left meaning that the Vikings could not outflank them although they occupied the high ground hostilities then commenced when more cast Saxons charged tossed eggs Flemish troops who struggled to contain them then Harold's Vikings swept across the battlefield and despatched Edwin's right wing in turn splitting their Saxon opponents into two factions decimating their formation and with the English hemmed in and surrounded on three sides they soon fell back into York whilst Edwin and Morcar escaped unharmed until four days later the city capitulated on the 24th of September with Harold taking up to 150 child hostages from prominent families in the city news of the Viking victory at Fulford soon reached King Harold Godwinson who instantly moved north from London to Yorkshire to meet Harald Hardrada staggeringly completing an almost 200 mile march in only four days rallying troops as he went before arriving in turn caster west of York on the 24th of September although it is one of the most famous battles in English history the exact site of the Battle of Stamford Bridge is not known for certain but it is generally thought to be east of the River Derwent south east of the town now known as Stamford Bridge despite the size of the Saxon army it seems that hot rodder had no idea of the magnitude of the threat which now thinks tip as his own force although similar in size to Godwinson s-- was divided between his own host as well as the Viking fleet moored a trickle meaning that he had left York undefended culminating in King Harald and Saxons reoccupying the city on the morning of the 25th of September before marching eastwards towards hot rodders Vikings who were encamped on the eastern bank of the River Derwent it is clear that Harald was caught off guard by the speed with which the English King had marched northwards as he left around 1/3 of his force to the south guarding the Viking longships a trickle along with the majority of his men's armor and shields meaning that they would have to fight the English wielding for the most part only their swords and axes legend has it that when King Harold Saxon hosts attempted to cross a small wooden bridge that spanned the River Derwent they were halted in their tracks by a lone Viking armed with a giant double handed axe who according to accounts slaughtered up to 40 Saxons who dared fight him nonetheless this fearsome opponent was ultimately brought down when a lone Saxon swam under the bridge and thrusted his spear up between the wooden planks into the Norseman's loins it is said that after crossing the Derwent Godwinson in the hope of pacifying his brother rode up to the Viking host before the battle and offered toss stick the rights to his earldom at half of all England if he returned to fight by his sight although this offer was not accepted and instead kostik chose not to betray Harald Hardrada and subsequently the battle known to history as Stamford Bridge commenced then after forming up opposite one another the Saxons and Vikings clashed in a brutal and desperate hand-to-hand struggle but ultimately the Vikings lack of armor and shields cost them daily as the Saxons were able to break up their enemy's line until in the very thick of the fighting Harald Hardrada was struck in the neck with an arrow and mortally wounded continuing to cut down his foes until exhausted the king of norway is finally slain then following Harold's demise kostik took up the leadership of the dwindling oinking army but was soon killed himself after which the Viking rearguard arrived on the battlefield led by I Stine or II who was betrothed to Hart Radha's daughter Marina who upon discovering that his King had been slain raised hard Radha's fallen banner had began a counter-attack which almost breached the English line until re was himself killed and his men routed after the battle the remaining Norseman slipped away under the cover of darkness but were pursued to ricky'll by Godwinson who allowed Harold's son and successor olaf to return home if he promised never to invade England again to which he agreed and so the young Viking set sail for Norway where he became king along with less than a tenth of his father's original force of ten thousand men and only twenty-five of the 300 ships which had arrived in England despite his famous victory at Stamford Bridge Harold Godwinson was not gifted much time to enjoy his victory as his army had been greatly weakened by the long march and desperate fight against hard rada and then only three days after the Saxons had defeated the Vikings the Norman invasion force led by Duke William of Normandy finally landed on the coast of Sussex to the south meaning that the English King was faced with a second long march in battle that famously proved to be too much for him and his men as they were defeated at the Battle of Hastings on the 14th of October 1066 marking the end of Saxon England at the beginning of Norman rule although it is likely that the Norman invasion itself would have been unsuccessful if Harald Hardrada had not invaded England it is perhaps telling or even ironic but the Saxons at Stamford Bridge defeated one of the last great Vikings in harald when they were themselves in turn defeated by the descendants of the Vikings a rather Norseman after whom the Normans are named and who had ultimately transformed the history of the whole of medieval Europe from the British Isles to Sicily and even the Middle East even though the truth of Harold's character is largely unknown as much of the information we have on him was written long after his death in the Icelandic sagas and the anglo-saxon chronicles the narrative of him being an outstanding and fearsome warrior and skillful tactician seems to be consistent with his many achievements and accomplishments and despite his failure to clean the throne of England Herald is today seem to be one of the last of a dying breed of Vikings who traveled the known world in search of glory and he doing so died in battle as he had lived with a sword in his hand and his brethren by his side what do you think of Harald Hardrada was he a brutal and tyrannical king who only sought power and wealth or was he one of the last true Viking heroes who like his forebears lived as if every day was his last and died like a Viking in the very think of his enemies let us know in the comment section and in the mean time thank you very much for watching you you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Length: 40min 8sec (2408 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020