King Harold: The True Story Of The Last Anglo-Saxon King | Fact Or Fiction | Chronicle

[Music] i'm standing on the exact location of one of the most famous deaths of all time a death that marked the end of the best known battle in british history towards dusk on the 14th of october 1066 an unknown archer fired an arrow into the air from somewhere beyond those ruins by chance it came down straight into the eye of king harold of england this simple twist of fate changed our country forever as a result a horde of normans led by william the conqueror marched in and removed a whole way of life of course william's propaganda machine ensured that all we ever get to hear about harold is that he was the loser at the battle of hastings but there's a hidden history a tragic story of love violence intrigue and cold hard cash this is the real story of the last great anglo-saxon king tracking down the facts of harold's hidden history means embarking on a quest across the length and breadth of britain and over to the continent only by making this journey can we see how the event of his life conspired to set him on a countdown to the last fatal moment it started here this is bosom on the south coast today it's a picturesque little pleasure harbour a thousand years ago it was a hub port for the saxon territory of wessex sometime around 10 20 harold was born and brought up here the saxon church where he would have gone to mass still stands we don't know when exactly he was born the chroniclers thought all you needed to know about the young harold was his second name godwinson his father was the most powerful lord in the land earl godwin of wessex godwin had risen from the lowest ranks of the saxon aristocracy and was a tenacious political fighter he needed to be these were turbulent times a stone church like this was also used as a military building for centuries the tower had been used to watch out for viking raiders coming up the solent but when harold was a boy the danish empire under king canute had taken over the english kingship edward the anglo-saxoner had fled to normandy earl godwin had survived the takeover marrying a danish woman and giving his three oldest sons scandinavian names swain harold and tostig yes our english hero was in fact half viking in 1042 harold appears in the chronicles in his own right in his early twenties he got his first taste of power when the danish empire ended and the ancient english royal line was restored edward who's known as the confessor returned in triumph from exile in normandy but with edward came change for the first time he created a permanent base for the english monarchy here on the banks of the thames just outside london at westminster but edward was a new boy and a stranger in his own country he may have come from a long line stretching right back to alfred the great but he'd been brought up in normandy he needed the support of the saxon earls and in particular of godwin who ran wessex [Music] edward bought godwin's support he married his daughter harold's sister then cemented the alliance by giving harold's older brother swain an earldom in the midlands and appointing harold as earl of east anglia it made the godwinds the most powerful family in the land [Music] harold was the picture of a saxon warrior blonde bearded and now with wealth influence and his own retinue of personal troops harold and his family were loyal to the king they served for long periods with the navy protecting the english coast from raids edward felt no obligation in return [Music] like any new boss edward wanted his own people so he started bringing in norman nobles and giving them pockets of land he also began replacing english clerics with norman churchmen these were people who wanted religious reform but also had a political agenda and the most dangerous of these was the new archbishop of canterbury robert of zhumierge it was said by a chronicler that robert de jumiage had such a hold over edward the confessor he could point to a crow and say that crow is white and edward would agree with him this guy was a schemer and a politician and i believe that he was the prime mover and trying to badmouth godwin and harold and all the rest of the family in the eyes of edward the confessor because there was so much mileage in it if you could get rid of this most powerful family you could leave the way open for the succession to the duke of norman [Music] but this isn't just a political story it's a personal one too harold's career may have been kick-started because his father was so powerful but his downfall was because of his family as well his whole story is a dynastic tragedy and the course of the nation's history was changed because his family fell apart [Music] the first source of tension was harald's sister edward's marriage had failed to produce an heir and in those days the woman was always to blame edward couldn't annul the marriage because the earl godwin and his sons were still so powerful but the lack of an air created external pressure on the family they might have survived if their internal stability hadn't been threatened by the behavior of harald's maverick elder brother [Music] swain was a typical rich kid gone wrong he was a bully and a hell raiser he was exiled in 1046 to denmark for keeping a nun prisoner as a sex slave but all his lands were divided between harold and his cousin bjorn but in exile he behaved so badly that eventually denmark had him thrown out again so three years later he turned up in england begging edward for forgiveness understandably harold was indignant all this time he'd been doing his duty serving his king as a naval commander why should he now have to give back his lands to an aristocratic waste draw supported by his cousin for the first time harold stood up to his father family unity was beginning to crumble on one side stood godwin and swain on the other harold his brothers and cousins the godwinds were no longer invincible edward passed judgment swain was to sail from bosom within three days or pay with his life the rest of the god winds were 70 miles along the coast the mata seemed settled by the king's decision as they waited in the shadow of the old roman fort here at pevensey swain turned up on horseback for one last appeal to his family to help get him reinstated somehow or other he managed to persuade his cousin bjorn to speak on his behalf to the king bjorn set off for bosom with swain and just three attendants swain was a psychopath with a grudge we don't know what went wrong but at bottom swain had bjorn tied up and bundled onto his boat he killed his cousin in cold blood and dumped him in an unmarked grave he'd gone too far the sailors of the royal fleet declared him anything the viking word for someone who's completely beyond the pale even swain's own ships deserted him he was forced to flee to england's enemies in flanders in spite of this universal condemnation earl godwin lobbied for swain's return in 1051 he used his remaining shreds of influence to pressure edward into allowing the murderer back his return caused tension and resentment among other nobles who had to give back land goodwin had other families as rivals within england and edward and he personally didn't like each other that seems fairly clear and so there's a lot more personal animosity rivalries within the kingdom at the back of all that the feuding godwinds had isolated themselves edward encouraged by robert of zumierz had the chance to reshuffle england's power base in his favor he went in for the kill edward set a trap for earl godwin he brought his brother-in-law eustace over from bologn on the pretext of an official visit a dover eustace and his heavily armed men orchestrated a pub brawl that turned into a full-scale riot with deaths on either side dover was godwin's territory edward gave the order for him to make an example of the town godwin was faced with the choice of burning looting and pillaging in his own homeland or disobeying the king he chose rebellion and rallied his sons to try to persuade the king to change his mind at an emergency summit but edward had the support of the other barons and when he refused to give the godwin safe conduct to the meeting they were forced to flee from the country the godwin family sailed into exile harold's career seemed over but edward had underestimated the effects of this shift in the balance of english power the rest of the earls realized that if the king could oust the most powerful family in the land no one was safe messages of support started crossing the channel and ten months later the godwinds sailed back into london harold and his father moored here at southwark on the south bank of the thames edward faced them across the river in those days there weren't any bridges so the bishop of winchester stiggened ferried back and forth negotiating a humiliating climb down for the king the godwinds lands were restored and many of edward's norm and cronies were forced out including the scheming archbishop it was victory robert of zhumiye knew the game was up and he fled immediately out of london before they came back to the court and he killed several people on the streets before he left this is the kind of church we're dealing with here then within six months first swain and then earl godwin died leaving harold as the new earl of wessex harold and edward could now start with a clean slate but the crisis of 1051 was to continue to halt howard when he fled england robert of zhumierge had snatched harold's youngest brother and a nephew as hostages he handed them over to his new master william duke of normandy the two young relatives languishing in a foreign dungeon were a time bomb that would eventually lead to harald's downfall harold godwinson had survived exile and crisis to become the most powerful earl in the kingdom as edward the confessor's right-hand man he commanded the army he was about to face his first challenge the welsh were threatening to invade england the border country of hereford had always been vulnerable to attack when edward had brought norman nobles to england his motives were partly strategic over on the continent the normans had come up with the technology of the modern bailey castle an easily defended stronghold from which a lord and his men could dash out to give battle or retreat from an invading force without giving ground the perfect answer to welsh raids the norman casterlins brought their technology with them this is one in u.s harold in herefordshire it actually became one of harold's personal possessions most people around here aren't even aware that it was a castle it's known locally as the mound but it's actually of a classic modern bailey design they'd have flattened all the area around here got all the earth put it over there where the trees are and then they would have protected this inner mound with a wooden palisade and also protected the outer ring round here with another palisade so it would have been virtually impregnable and if you look over there you can see what a superb position it was in in order to stop the welsh from raiding in the golden valley below but king edward had entrusted this key territory to a relative known as ralph the timid the welsh swept over the border brushing ralph's forces aside overrunning hereford and burning the minster there was only one man to deal with the crisis harold the welsh campaign proved harold's worth as a politician as well as a soldier if you go to hereford today you can still see harold's legacy in the layout of the old city he negotiated a deal giving land in return for a withdrawal from hereford he then set about strengthening the town building moats and city walls the restored walls surrounding the razor wire of tesco's marked the course of harold's defenses but griffith the welsh leader continued to cause trouble on the border so at christmas 1062 harold decided to solve the welsh problem once and for all wales was afghanistan for england it was really dodgy place to get into because the english had heavier armed troops you could get bogged down in there and get picked off in ambushes [Music] harold came up with a radical solution the saxon equivalent of a commando unit he decided the way to sort out griffon was to make a lightning raid right into the heart of his territory he first of all marched with lightning speed uh past hereford and on to the west against griffith's own castle i think one of the significant thing about harold in wales is it absolutely says that here was somebody who was an innovator of military tactics somebody who knew that things had to change and you would adapt to circumstances when griffith escaped harold launched a second phase his brother tostig continued raiding by land while harold sailed round the coast to destroy strongholds the welsh thought were protected by the mountains in the end the demoralized welsh signaled their submission by sending harold the head of their leader harold was proving invaluable to king edward and he reaped the rewards of his position his role as earl of wessex gave him estates throughout southern england his welsh success gave him land on the border as well he was the equivalent of a multi-millionaire and he lived the life he loved the sport of hawking which had the same sort of cachet as polo does today he was famous for taking a hawk everywhere he went and had europe's finest collection of books on the subject an 11th century man of means was expected to have a suitable wife and harold was no exception edith swann neck was noted for her beauty [Music] what was unusual for the time is that they also had a genuine relationship which lasted until harold died as far as we can see harold had one of the real relationships of medieval history there were probably others we don't know about but certainly we know that harold and edith swan neck were a very happy if you like a certain love affair in other matters harold followed the customs of the age rich men had a duty to fund religious institutions founding a church or abbey enhanced your earthly reputation and brought credit in the afterlife king edward for instance was spending a fortune on an abbey near his new base at westminster [Music] harold picked a project to rival the kings he believed he'd been cured of some kind of paralysis when he prayed at the shrine of the holy cross at waltham in essex it was here that he built waltham abbey which gave its name to the town today's church is half the size of the abbey in its heyday harold lavished money on the project bringing back highly prized relics from trips to the continent and providing costly fixtures such as a gold and marble altar gospel books with silver covers and a famous vestment embroidered with eight kilos of gold thread but just when it seemed that harold had it all he made the worst mistake of his life [Music] the chronicles tell us that in 1064 harold set off across the channel from bosom on a diplomatic mission to normandy the facts of the visit have been obscured by histories written after the norman conquest in order to justify william the conqueror's invasion they say that harold was sent by king edward to reaffirm a promise that william could be king of england after edward's death but this is norman's spin finding harold's real reasons for sailing abroad involves a bit of detective work the official norman version is this in 1051 king edward promises william of normandy the throne of england and in 1064 king edward sends harold over to confirm that promise but what this official version conveniently forgets is that between these two dates in 1056 king edward also sent harold over to hungary on a long costly mission in order to bring back a distant relative who he'd earmarked to succeed him and this young man was still sitting around in the english court the official version just doesn't wash it seems much more likely that harold went over to france on his own account on a courageous rescue mission the hostages were the reason for harold actually making his journey to normandy there was no reason to select an outsider a foreigner as king one who probably would not have been accepted by the english nobility when robert of zhumiye had fled back to the continent with harold's relatives he'd encouraged william of normandy to believe that he'd been promised the english throne by edward twelve years later harold goes on what he thinks is a straightforward mission to negotiate the release of his brother and nephew but he doesn't know about the promise to william he wasn't aware of the fact that william was ambitious to take control of england and was therefore waiting to exploit any opportunity to do so harold basically walked into a trap to find what happened next you have to come here to bayer in normandy to see a document made within a decade of harold's visit this is where harold's history starts to be told not just in chronicles written down by monks but in the first comic strip ever the bayer tapestry it's an extraordinary piece of work if you've only seen reproductions you haven't got any idea of its scale or the detail of the embroidery it's 70 meters long it was originally commissioned to be hung in the nave at the cathedral here in baier and who made it english seamstresses at canterbury the tapestry shows that things went wrong for harold from the start he was blown off course made a forced landing up the coast and was taken captive by the local baron the man who came to the rescue was willian duke of normandy harold was safe but his bargaining power was destroyed he now owed his life to the man who was to be his downfall at hastings harold was out of the frying pan and into a blazing inferno in the year 1064 harold godwinson set out on a mission to rescue his brother and cousin who'd been given us hostages to william duke of normandy but his stay soon turned into something much more complicated and sinister half honored guest half prisoner he was now a member of william's entourage and was reluctantly dragged around the duke of strongholds like this one at coal between william and harold they now began a subtle political game of cat and mouse you didn't keep the most powerful english earl a virtual prisoner unless you wanted something harold knew that he was part of a wider political agenda hatched by a man who'd forged a reputation as one of the hard men of europe his father died when william was a boy on pilgrimage to jerusalem and he spent his formative years fleeing across normandy with various tutors and uncles to to actually keep alive so by the time he got to 1820 and actually had rule of normandy he would have been quite a tough a tough person he he had formed himself in a way that that he broke no opposition william had established a fearsome military empire the normans weren't french at all but descended from vikings when harold joined william on a campaign against the duke of brittany it gave him a chance to assess norman tactics and prove his own worth as a warrior the norms were actually very impressed by howard williams force was crossing the river couinor which flows into the sierra more sound michelle on the borders of normandy and brittany and suddenly harold noticed that some of the knights were sinking in the quicksand and quick as a flash he wrapped his arms round the chest of one of them yanked him to safety then went back in and rescued a second one harold's reward was being knighted by william a double-edged sword that involved pledging obedience to his new lord william's agenda was beginning to unfold then came the body blow william brought harold to the cathedral here in bayer [Music] he demanded that harold take a solemn oath sworn on sacred relics to support william's claim to the throne of england harold was under duress and swore with the 11th century equivalent of crossed fingers breaking an oath was monumental and as far as william was concerned harold was bound by it harold swore the oath but in the full realization that that was the only way he would escape but knowing that he had no intention of actually supporting it later on harold returned home knowing that his perjury would come back to haunt him but even as he returned another nail was being prepared for his coffin there was trouble again from within his own family harold's next brother down tostig was earl of northumbria governing the whole of the north of england the region was wild and uncivilized but it did have advantages the northumbrians paid half as much taxes anywhere else in england then tostig made the fatal error of trying to put this right with a tax hike harold and his brother would have known lady gaga but unlike us who only remember that she rode through coventry in the nude they would have remembered her famous ride as a tax protest to try to persuade her husband the earl of mercier to reduce the burden on his oppressed people tostig might have been well advised to follow godiva's example but he didn't in one fell swoop he doubled northumbria's taxes the king agreed but the people of northumbria didn't on the 3rd of october 1065 local nobles stormed tostig's stronghold in york looting his armory and killing his men they marched south demanding a change of governor ironically they wanted lady godiva's grandson instead the rebels had got as far as oxford when edward put his top man on the case to negotiate what harald heard presented him with a dilemma the choice was a civil war that would fatally weaken england leaving her open to attack from william of normandy or abandoning his own brother harold chose country over family and recommended that edward give the northumbrians the leader they wanted tostig was outraged he went into exile bowing revenge on a brother who'd become his arch enemy king edward never saw the consecration of westminster abbey the nobility who'd gathered for the grand opening were to witness a far more important drama edward had fallen sick on christmas day he swiftly deteriorated and died on the 4th of january on his deathbed he altered the succession in favour of harold the existing heir was too young easy meet for william of normandy the english nobles were on hand to approve the dying king's wish on the 6th of january the new abbey witnessed two events edward's funeral and the enthronement of king harold of england harold godmonson was the only man whom you could elect as king if you were in your right mind in england in 1066 long before edward died they were expecting an invasion from norway a possible invasion from denmark and certainly an invasion from normandy as soon as they all came down [Applause] by the time news of edward's death reached the continent harold's accession was a fed accompli william didn't take it well he was out in the woods hunting when a messenger brought him news that harold his sworn man had taken the crown for his own they say he went straight home without a word and sat for hours with his head buried in his cloak errol stood with his forehead against a pillar trying to cool the rage within then when he'd recovered enough to speak he called the council of war this is div sumer on the mouth of the river div in normandy and here 950 years ago williams started to build an immense fleet of 700 warships and transports in order to invade england it was warfare on an industrial scale they'd have chopped down around sixty thousand trees and employed about eight thousand men but more than that the support structure to raise the cash and feed and water the workers would have involved everyone in normandy when william awoke from his rage no one was left untouched the church at div has a list of all the nobles who sailed with william but initially he had trouble recruiting many thought a campaign against the powerful english was suicide what swayed them was religion william managed to persuade the pope that his invasion was a crusade against an english king who broke oaths and an archbishop who hadn't been properly appointed by the church the pope gave his blessing and allowed william to wear one of the perjured relics into battle the doubters fell into line harold called out the english reserve and stationed them along the south coast all summer they waited while adverse winds prevented williams armada from sailing eventually harold disbanded the troops so they could go and get on with the harvest and as soon as he did so it came an invasion but not from the south harold's brother tostig was out for revenge tostig had already had one disastrous solo attempt but now he joined his meager force of 12 ships to the mighty fleet of the giant viking harold hardrada hardrada had built up a reputation right across europe as a ruthless warrior physically enormous he brought with him seven and a half thousand battle-hardened men they sailed up the ooze before going on to take york king harold's response was swift and fearless he decided on the same sort of lightning strike that had paid off against the welsh he headed north arranging for troops to meet him as he went force marching 25 miles a day it was a tremendous logistical feat he had to march 190 miles up the great north road which was little more than a cart track on the 24th he reached the outskirts of york the unsuspecting invaders were waiting at the crossing of the river derwent at stamford bridge they were miles from their ships and because it was hot many had abandoned their armor a dawn harold marched on york the town's folk flung open the city gates and harold's forces marched right through and on to stamford bridge six miles beyond as harold arrived on the horizon the invaders saw the saxon weapons glittering like a field of broken ice the norwegians were caught on the hop quickly they moved back to the far side of the bridge to give themselves the chance of forming a decent defensive formation the story goes that the entire saxon advance was held up by one fearsome viking who held the bridge single-handedly killing 45 men until a crafty english spears man waded out into the river and thrust upwards into the unprotected area underneath his chain mail then the english swarmed across the bridge and battle proper was joined in the old warrior tradition two shield walls hacking at each other until a breach was made the front line would bend down and the next line are like this and then the next one so you've got a whole built up wall of shield interlocking the principal weapon is still always the sword which can be used to strike over the shield wall either cutting or thrusting they would also use swat squad and that's where you would get the famous two-handed ass hopefully punch a hole in the enemy's shield wall and then they could deploy back again inside their shield the battle was fierce bloody and final the survivors sailed off in just 24 of their original 300 ships 60 years later the piles of bones from the rotting corpses were still a local landmark harold had won an extraordinary victory against one of the most renowned warriors of the age however the diplomat he allowed the remnants of the defeated norwegian army to leave in peace provided they promised never ever to return they were true to their word and harold hardrada's incursion was the last great viking assault on britain in other circumstances it would have ranked alongside trafalgar or the battle of britain but the celebrations were short-lived devastating news arrived from the south coast there he was feasting with his men having fought off the most terrible threat to england and then news comes that this guy from normandy has landed his penalty so it's like who wants to be a millionaire you're almost there win the next battle and you not only have england secure but you are the greatest king that ever ruled it so harold rallied his weary troops and headed south to meet his destiny at stanford bridge king harold had pulled off one of the greatest victories in british history but three days later william of normandy landed at heaven sea 250 miles to the south harold had another mountain to fly williams swiftly decided that the pevensy marshlands were indefensible he moved to the hilly country near hastings the next day news reached him of harold's great victory not wanting to make the same mistake as hardrada william decided to dig in near his ships and ravage the nearby countryside the bayer tapestry gives the first ever portrait of the effects of war on civilians a mother and child flee as refugees from their burning home harold's determination and stamina were awesome he left much of his tired northern force behind and set off with his core professionals on the return journey south it's likely that william knew harold hardrada was setting out for the north of england and although accounts will tell us that the winds didn't allow them to sail from normandy when they wanted to in actual fact they didn't sail until september and that was a long time to wait for the winds it's likely that william chose to wait knowing that there would be an attack from the north and then he knew already that the troops would have been weakened harold rendezvoused with what reinforcements he could muster at a local landmark known as the hoary apple tree the next day would change its name forever to battle harold only had to survive the battle to leave william without reinforcements or escape he took up the perfect defensive position on this hill the abbey was built later specifically to mark the spot harold had chosen his ground well he lined his men up for about 200 metres in each direction this wall was built to echo that formation a shield wall four five even six men thick the king and his knights rode to the battle but when they got here they got off and took their place in the wall along with everyone else harold probably used what was the most suitable the most appropriate technology for hastings he was defending a hill he was shutting off the road to london he was essentially a defensive action at nine o'clock in the morning the battle started with a blast of trumpets as the normans struggle up the hill in their full armor they could hear the din of the saxons shouting and beating their shields with their weapons in the middle of them is king harold with his battle cry of holy cross [Music] first williams infantry then his cavalry broke against the shield wall-like waves against a jetty but the saxons didn't budge in fact it was the normans who broke first a sudden panic by the men of brittany on williams left flank spread throughout the entire army word had got round but william had been killed a retreat started and threatened to become a route the first time that harold's war broke and followed the norms down the hill arguably they they thought the normans were defeated and arguably the norms were defeated at that point it was perhaps harold's mistake that he didn't commit all his forces on that first retreat down the hill but it was only william's horse that had been killed realizing the problem he lifted his helmet so that his men could see that he was still alive he rallied them and they regrouped they cut off the pursuing saxons who formed a small defensive circle over there where slowly they were hacked to pieces because the horses were able to turn quickly and come back onto those men and wipe them out maybe william then saw the advantage of this because time and again william used it that afternoon and late into that evening they would ride up to the shield wall and then feign going away and they would be departing and then turn quickly and come back onto the enemy and little by little cut down the saxons in the 11th century battles used to go on for two hours at most but here they were still fighting after nine and a half hours and harold was so close just another half hour and he would have won because if night had fallen then only he had the possibility for reinforcements the next day but the tide was turning as the saxons retreated the norman cavalry got a purchase on the flat ground at the top of the hill but the real key to the battle is given by all those tiny little archers who start to appear in the bottom margins of the tapestry at this point it was one arrow that really made the difference when harold was critically wounded in the eye the saxon cause was lost the arrow didn't kill him we know that this is harold with the arrow in his eye his name is printed overhead but other accounts tell of cavalry riding in to finish him off it seems that this whole scene is a storyboard this is harold but so is this and if you think that the falling figure having his leg cut doesn't have an arrow look again the stitching's been removed sometime in the last 900 years you can see the holes where the arrow once was harold's body was mutilated the chronicles say his head was cut off all of his right leg and half of his left anything of value was stripped from the corpses who were left naked to rot or in the case of the wealthy to be rescued for burial the next day this whole area was covered with hacked and dismembered corpses stripped of their armor by bounty hunters it was impossible to tell which one was harald's until edith swann neck searching among the bodies found him here she identified him according to the chroniclers by certain marks on his body presumably the intimate knowledge of a lifetime's love harold's mother offered his weight in gold for the corpse a final proof of the godwin's wealth but william refused the last thing he wanted was a saxon cult building up round harold shrine the earliest accounts say that william buried harold by the sea but later tradition says that his body was taken to his own great foundation at waltham abbey and that became the accepted burial place of the last anglo-saxon king [Music] but now new evidence has emerged to challenge that tradition a historian in bosom harold's own home has made a vital connection between the 11th century records and a local archaeological discovery the people of bosom had always known that king knute's daughter was buried in their parish church right here but then in the 1950s when some heating was being put in they discovered another important tomb next to it here well they opened up the tomb naturally and uh they thought it had been vandalized quite frankly and uh there was no head and uh there was the right leg missing entirely and two-thirds of the left leg was not there either but in the tapestry there's only the one leg being hacked you're talking about the head missing and the other leg there were two accounts that came out one by the bishop amul which described the injuries sustained by the body that came out in about 10 67 about only a year after the conquest and there he gives exactly that description the head was cut off one leg was thrown away and the tapestry completes the picture with the other leg being cut off hence just a mutilated body and then william pottier also really confirms that he said he was very rather seashore and what do we have here the seaside bosom became william's personal estate after the conquest here he could make sure that the grave didn't act as a focus of political discontent while he set about the business of wiping out the saxon aristocracy introducing a new culture and a new language and blackening the name of the defeated saxon king i think that this country should erect a splendid monument to harold this was a man who defended england against overwhelming odds and who went down heroically surrounded by his house cars fighting to the last man around their king he was not a quitter and we should celebrate him and we should celebrate his englishness and the achievement of 500 years of native english civilization which stood for so much in medieval europe which had such a civilizing effect and all of that is what harold stands for he stands for old english valor really i've been all over the country looking for the real harold and what i've found hasn't been a loser but a charismatic leader who if hadn't been for a twist of fate might will have ended up as a national hero in the same mold as elizabeth the first or nelson or churchill but the arrow found its mark and the battle was lost and in a way england lost something too because although there's no doubt that the subsequent blend of norman and saxon culture has given us a great richness and vitality it also gave us a new aristocratic elite who spoke a different language and were completely cut off from the people who they were ruling and a thousand years later that social golf is still taking a long time to bridge

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 141,851

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, king harolds death, king harold, king harold documentary, 1066 documentary, battle of hastings documentary, battle of hastings movie, anglo saxon, anglo saxon documentary, anglo saxon england, tony robinson documentary, william the conquerer, british history vikings, chronicle

Id: vI8TEbnWcwo

Length: 48min 24sec (2904 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021