biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1022–66)
|
| biography:
| Last Anglo-Saxon king of England (1066), the second son of Earl Godwin. By 1045 he was Earl of East Anglia, and in 1053 succeeded to his father's earldom of Wessex, becoming the right hand of Edward the Confessor. After Edward's death (Jan 1066), Harold, his nominee, was crowned as king. He defeated his brother Tostig and Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, at Stamford Bridge (Sep 1066), but Duke William of Normandy then invaded England, and defeated him near Hastings (14 Oct 1066), where he died, shot through the eye with an arrow. |
|
|
