1066

Who really had the best claim to the throne?

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There was a fourth claimant? People usually just focus on the first three because it's just so neat that three people were coming from three different countries, each having some claim to the throne and basically fought for it at the same time. It's almost too good and I expect someone to make a miniseries about it.

Harold Godwinson was Edward's brother-in-law and was accepted by the Witan.
He was also the only one of the three who actually shared the mother tongue of the country itself.
Neither harald or willy had a legal or blood relation.

William's wife probably had a better claim to the throne than he did, being a descendant of the House of Wessex

So... Harold Godwinson

youtube.com/watch?v=A27bsTGR8gA

Edgar Aetheling was the male-line grandson of Edward the Confessor's older brother Edmund Ironside. He was elected king by the Witan after Harold's defeat in Hastings, though he was never crowned.

William. Edward designated William as his heir and Harold swore a sacred oath to William.

Harold could have won had his shield wall had more discipline, regardless once those first Anglo-Saxons charged down the hill the Normans were destined to eat England alive, he pushed his luck.

William wouldn't push his luck had the Anglo-Saxons accepted him as ruler, he did not want to fight rebellions for years and years just to consolidate his power over the ashes, he knew what a bother that was in Normandy alone and would be content with the title, a token level of taxation and some impetuous Huscarles on his side.

Had rule been peacefully transfered to William the Anglo-Saxons would fight alongside the Normans and adopt their military tradition, Anglo-Saxon clergy would mingle with Norman and adopt Norman architecture, they would become as powerful as their Norman conquerors IRL without losing their rights. Thanks Harold.

Depends what you call legitimacy.
Some countries have extremly legitimist laws, where succession is the entire conception of royalty. The Kingdom of France is the perfect embodiment of this way : The King pass the crown to his son. The loyalty is given to the King personnaly, and it is why, despite France's many rebellions throughout History, no nobleman, no merchant, no peasant ever contested the fact that a King was King. In France, the King was forbidden from abdicating, and from handing out the crown.

England, at least England during the medieval era, so after french lords took over and installed their aristocracy, has a system where loyalty is given not to a King personnaly, but to the crown ; And in this conception rebellions and usurpations are much more accepted.

If you think the legitimate way is the only lawful way to having a King, Edgar Atheling was the true heir as great-nephew to Edward the Confessor.

Anyone here ever read the Anglo Saxon Chronicles? Really good on the subject. It's like a medieval Wikipedia of everything England went through up to the eleventh century.

The entire Godwinson family was pure fucking evil. They betrayed England to the Danes several times. Edward was the last English King, Harold was an Anglo-Dane baka, not even English.

Well Harold never really got a chance to show if he was a good King. His reign was only a year long and most of his time was trying to save his kingdom from being conquered or ransacked from two directions. He never got a chance to do much. It's kind of unfair to call him evil.

>Norman military tradition
>HURR DURR BUILD MORE CASTLES AND GATHER MORE HEAVY CAVALRY
Harold only lost the war because he was more focused on protecting civilization from the Scandinavian devils.

This t.bh Pham. Harold's reign was fucking chaotic as shit. It's a surprise he held the title of King for almost a year.

>Get crowned after Edwards death
>Attempt to establish myself as King
>FUCKING NORMANS ABOUT TO INVADE
>Build a fleet, travel with my entire army to Isle of Wight and wait out the summer and autumn for him
> nothing happens
>Return to London after exhausting my entire food supplies for my unused army
>Find out that a VIKING KING has invaded the north and destroyed most of my northern army
>hastily regroup southern army, March for two weeks, night and day to try and stop him before he can control the north
> Battle at Stamford Bridge, kill him but most of my army's exhausted or dead
> Get word that now the Normans are finally invading the south
>have to haul ass and try to intercept him, most of my army is already wasted and I'm forced to leave my archers behind
>Go to Hastings
>Get shafted in the eye
>Dead
>entire Kingdom gets FRENCHED

>invaded England in 1052
>uses power base in wessex to have family members appointed earl
>possibly instructed sister not to have children with Edward
>force Edward in to a position of figure head
>makes Edward afraid of divorcing his sister and fearful of bringing Edgar home


Going back generations its clear they were a family of psychopathic assholes hell bent on gaining power.

I did

>William crowned King and swears to uphold the laws of England
>Harold swears fealty
>feast
>William goes back to Normandy to intimidate rebellious barons and rival lords with his new crown
>a wild Norseman appears
>William goes absolutely berserk and immediately sails over with his entourage of Norman Knights joined by every Thegn and Huscarl in England
>vikings effortlessly trampled into the dirt never to trouble England again
>didn't even need to raise the fyrdmen
>more feasting and drinking
>English don't have to fight for centuries to wrestle back their rights from the crown because they were never taken to begin with
fix'd

So like the Trumps?

The one who claimed it and backed it up with steel

Not only there was another one, but he had the best claim, I think, in that he was a member of the House of Wessex, but he had no one to help him as even Edward the Confessor didn't have a lot of power.

There was Svend Estridsen of Denmark as well, he never really tried to press it though.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweyn_II_of_Denmark

Hardrada. Magnus the Good was the heir to England but Edward usurped the throne.

Tostig, Harold's brother who was promised the throne by Edward but was forced to sell half his kingdom to honor his King's dying wish.

Harald Hardraade
if only you English FUCKS had submitted to your rightful Norse ruler
we could have defended you from the French pussies

The Anglos would have had a better chance to defeat William under Hardrada. The man had fought Normans before Italy and there'd be no harrying of the north. His main man Tostig would have secured the north and the Anglos' culture wouldn't have been mutilated

Norsecuck mad about being 3rd place

Tostig was just a shitter who didn't know his place.

>Get btfo by Harold
> flees to Scotland

#
Funnily enough I'm doing a research project on this. The translator keeps referring in his citations to a man named Florence. Anybody know who
'Florence' is? I can't seem to find anything about him. Was he the writer for the Anglo Saxon Chronicles during 1066?

Pic related. Citation two refers to a 'Florence' as does citation eight. Can't seem to find anything about him and I don't want to make assumptions.

This is the only right answer. Might was right then and still is now. Edgar Æthling may have been the heir based on familial ties to Edward the Confessor but he had literally no power to back it up with. That meant that there were really only three real contenders for the throne and their strength was the only real factor that mattered. William was able to claim and hold the throne through his superior military strength against a weakened England.

Pretty sure that's Florence of Worcester. He was a monk in the 1100s who helped write and maintain the Chronicle.

Are you fucking retarded? The Normans were hated in pre-1066 England because they lorded over the Anglo-Saxons with arrogance. Even if Harold had backed William, not only would the remaining English view Harold as a Norman appeaser like Edward, the Norman warlords would've ran roughshod on the thanes and ceorls.

And there's no fucking proof that Edward promised the throne to William. Swenyn Estriddson was promised by Edward too. Edward had no authority to give the throne to a Norman who had no blood ties to the House of Cerdic. He needed the consent of the English Church clergy as well as his nobles, the Witanegemot and they certainly wouldn't have elected William. He neither spoke the language nor did he understand its laws.