biography
| name: |
Godwin
|
| |
also spelled Godwine
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (?–1053)
|
| biography:
| Anglo-Saxon nobleman and warrior, probably son of the South Saxon Wulfnoth, and the father of Harold Godwinsson. He became a favourite of Canute, who made him Earl of Wessex in 1018. In 1042 he helped to raise Edward the Confessor to the throne, and married him to his daughter Edith. He led the struggle against the king's foreign favourites, and Edward revenged himself by confining Edith in a monastery, and banishing Godwin and his sons in 1051. But in 1052 they landed in the S of England and gained so much local support that Edward was forced to grant his demands and reinstate his family. Godwin's son Harold was for a few months Edward's successor. |
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