Subscribe RSS FeedHarold’s ill-fated trip to Normandy has sparked much debate among historians. Why did he go? How much damage did it cause? One thing is certain: Harold and William were far from strangers by the time they met on the battlefield of Hastings.
It is thought by some that Harold was on a fishing trip in the English Channel when a sudden rain squall blew his boat all the way to Ponthieu in 1064. Count Guy, as was his right, took Harold hostage and was apparently quite put out when Duke William showed up shortly thereafter and demanded that he give Harold up. A proverbial case of from the Frying Pan Into The Fire! Once Harold was the unwilling guest of Duke William, he knew he wasn’t going to get out of there without some painful concessions.
Norman chroniclers favor the story that King Edward sent Earl Harold to Normandy to confirm his choice of William as heir to the English throne. The obvious argument against this legend is that King Edward had no legal right to appoint his successor. Although the king’s last wishes were always considered, the final decision was with the Witan, the king’s council.
There are other explanations about Harold’s intentions. The one that makes the most sense to me is the possibility that he went to Normandy in an attempt to secure the release of his brother Wulfnoth, held hostage since around 1052. Alas, even this attempt failed and ironically Wulfnoth’s isolation probably protected him from the same fate as his brothers.
Harold’s stay at William’s court was protracted and cordial – at least on the surface. During this time, Duke William led a punitive expedition against Conan of Brittany, taking Harold with him and fighting side-by-side with the famous Saxon Earl. The Bayeux Tapestry shows a scene where Harold wades into quicksand to save two Norman soldiers from certain death. After the siege of Dinan, William gave Harold arms and weapons and knighted him for his valor.
Nonetheless, once Harold became William’s man – so to speak – it was time for him to return home. But one final concession had to happen first: the great oath. In front of all the Norman barons, Harold was obliged to swear an oath to support William’s claim to the English throne (against his own interests, even then), swear to secure the castle of Dover for William (not likely!), to marry one of William’s daughters (he was already married with children).
Knowing this was his only way out, Harold duly swore the oath knowing that under duress, many an oath was often allowed to go unfulfilled. However, William was too smart to be outwitted; just to make it stick, he secretly laid the bones of Normandy’s saints beneath a tablecloth on which stood the bible. Once the oath was sworn, the tablecloth was whisked off and Harold was aghast that he had just sworn a false oath on holy relics.
The consequences of Harold’s oathbreaking were grim indeed; William used this event to win the pope’s approbation for his conquest of England. When the Duke unfurled his banner at the Battle of Hastings, he placed the Pope’s banner alongside for all to see. The Normans went so far as to declare that God had turned against Harold’s kingdom and shown his favor to the invaders.
Perhaps Harold felt a sting of guilt, himself. I would doubt that anybody ever knew except, perhaps, his confessor. Would things have turned out differently if he never made this ill-fated voyage? Probably not, but one never knows.
Hi Mercedes, a great blog!
I have always believed that Harold’s mysterious visit to Northern Europe didn’t originally plan a trip to duke William’s Normandy!
Perhaps he was trying to free hostages (younger brother, Wulfnoth and nephew Hakon?) taken from England in 1052 (by an ousted and fleeing Archbishop Robert Champart, avoiding the returning Godwineson family?) to give to duke William?
Maybe he was trying to broker some powerful Political alliance or marriage with a Continental nobleman to one of his sisters (the ‘Aelgifu’ seen in the Bayeux Tapestry?)?
Perhaps William was trying to make Harold confirm the oath which his father had apparently made in 1052 to Edward? That being, to offer up Dover and equip and man it at his own expense?
Other sources say that Harold was trying either to simply go on a fishing trip that got caught in a storm (in the Bayeux Tapestry), or was actually supporting William regarding the succession promise that Edward had supposedly given William in his brief visit to his distant royal kinsman in 1051 (after the Godwinson clan had been exiled)?
Whatever the true cause of his visit, from which he returned with Hakon to an apparently frowning King Edward (Tapestry), I think the oath he apparently gave to William invalid, as you also said.
I say this because it was made outside England and her laws and possibly meant totally different things to English and Norman?
Even the Normans (Poitiers) state that it was made “over hidden relics” which strongly suggests deceit, and no-one seems to agree where the oath was held?
Harold would have been mindful of William’s reputation for cunning, coercion and brutality (Edward’s own nephew, Walter of Mantes, was poisoned in a Norman gaol at this time – hardly conducive to becoming enamoured to the king?) and at Alencon and Mortemer, and may well have gone along with the ‘oath’ simply to ensure the safety of his entourage, hostages and himself?
Hi Johnny,
Thanks for your posts! It’s a pity we have so little to go on and so many possibilities. In the end, I agree that Harold would probably have agreed to anything just to get away, with the assumption that very few oaths made under coercion stand up in the end. Too bad for Harold the Pope didn’t need much convincing to throw his support behind the Norman banner.
I don’t think I ever heard of Godwine’s oath to offer up and equip Dover at his expense? Since Dover was already part of his earldom, would this have been an exception… to Offer it up to the Normans? Could you point me in the direction of this episode? I would be grateful for further study.
Hi Mercedes,
I agree, the sources seem so vague or contradictory! I think that Harold deliberately didn’t send an embassy to the Pope – maybe he still remembered the near disastrous embassy of Tostig and Ealdred’s in 1061?
As for the suggested theory regarding Godwin and Dover (an oath to offer up Dover to Norman usage?) it was Paul Hill in “The Road to Hastings” (bottom p.134) when he says:-
“But the most important thing about Harold’s time with William was that he certainly seems to have sworn an oath. The strongest likelihood is that the oath…was a renewal of the one which Godwin had sworn in 1051 (see pages 102-103)”
Intriguing? It was tied up with both Eustace’s and William’s mysterious visits to England in 1051 just after the Godwinson’s had been exiled and fled.
Eustace and William were never true friends, and the former seems always to have had a fixation with this vital coastal town castle- causing havoc in both 1051 and 1067?
Hi Johnny… greetings from New Jersey! My question is, how (or why) did Godwine swear an oath in 1051 while in exile? Or was this before his exile while trying to curry favor??? I have read that Edward might have promised England to William in 1051 (while Godwine was in exile), although he must certainly have known that his promise meant nothing without the approval of the Witan.
I never ran across Paul Hill before, but I just found a copy of his book on Amazon. I’ll give it a try, thank you very much.
Hi
If my memory serves, Godwin was obliged to pay homage to Edward during the build-up to the crisis of 1051, whereby Edward gathered huge forces (earls Siward of Northumbria and Leofric of Mercia) against the Godwinson clan in that infamous stand-off before they were exiled.
It’s been a while since I read it, but perhaps Godwin may have been too strong to be forced to swear anything to Edward after his triumphant return to power in 1052?
I do remember reading that Godwine paid some sort of homage to Edward (short of putting himself at the King’s mercy) before his exile, but on his return I imagine he was holding all the cards, so to speak.
I just received a copy of “The Road to Hastings”, thank you very much. Maybe I’ll learn something new! I admit that Edward A. Freeman is my “go-to” for much of my research; I found my precious set in England two decades ago. Alas, he is SO thorough it’s easy to get bogged down!
I agree, in 1052 it was definately Godwin who was in charge of Edward! Yet he didn’t rub it in or attempt a coup despite his triumphant return to power?
Harold and Tostig also seem to have been very loyal and friendly with the king, in spite of his thoughts about their father!
As for sources, I tend to absorb a few of the more modern scholar’s books (ie. Peter Rex, H.J.Higham, Michael Wood) for their tantalising theories and dissections of the sparse contemporary sources.