Godwin, Earl of Wessex
Godwin (d.15 April 1053) was made Earl of Wessex by the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Edward the Confessor (d.1056).
Godwin was a son of Wilfnoth, "probably a Sussex thegn"[1], by his wife Gytha. It is, however, unclear whether Godwin was an Anglo-Saxon or a Dane, given that both his wives were Danish nobles. Godfrey relates that "in Anglo-Saxon society class distinctions were regarded as natural and essential" and that "there can be no doubt that there was a real class structure in Anglo-Saxon society"[2] and this did not change under the Danish King Cnut.
Godwin and his sons were notorious for their ambitions, treachery, murder and their manipulation of King Edward. Godwin is held responsible for the murder of Prince Arthur, Edward The Confessor's brother, during a trip by Arthur to England from exile in 1036. In 1040 Godwin gave the Danish King Hardacnut a galley containing eighty warriors."[3] In 1051 Earl Godwin and all his sons rebelled in force but were defeated by Edward, forfeited, and exiled from England. Godwin, Swein, Tostig and Gurth all went to Bruges; Harold and Leofwine went to the Norwegian port of Dublin, in Ireland, and stayed there the winter, returning the following year with a small invasion force and fleet. On this occasion, Edward was caught by surprise and was humiliatingly forced to restore the Godwinsons in their titles and properties. Despite Godwin's death on April 15, 1053 while dining with the King, his family had by now become the leading power in the land and his son Harold now established himself as the foremost general in the kingdom by virtue of his repeated victories over the Welsh Prince, Gruffyd.[4][5])
Marriage
Godwin's first wife was Danish Princess Thyra, daughter of Sweyn I (d. 3 Feb 1014), King of Denmark and Norway, and the sister of Danish King Cnut's brother-in-law, Earl Elf, a Danish family said to descend from a bear! It seems almost certain by this that Godwin must have also been a Dane. Also, King Cnut granted Wessex to "his upstart favourite, Godwin" about or before 1018, firstly as a Thegn, then as an Earl.[6]
His second wife was Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, whose brother (or cousin) Jarl Elf was a son-in-law of Sweyn I and the father of Sweyn II (d. 28 April 1076). So she was closely related to Godwin's first wife. Gytha and Elf were allegedly grandchildren to the legendary Swedish Viking Styrbjörn the Strong (a disinherited Prince of Sweden) and great-grandchildren to Harold Bluetooth (d.985/6), King of Denmark and Norway. This second marriage, to Gytha, resulted in the birth of several children:
- Tostig (k.25 Sept 1066)
- Harold (k.14 Oct 1066)
- Swein
- Gurth
- Leofwine
- Edith (1020–75), who became Queen consort of (a reluctant) King Edward the Confessor (no issue).
Sources
- ↑ Barlow, Professor Frank, The Feudal Kingdom of England 1012 - 1216, London, 1955, p.56.
- ↑ Godfrey, John, "The Defeated Anglo-Saxons Take Service with the Eastern Emperor" in Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 1978 vol.1, London, 1979, p.63.
- ↑ Hooper, Nicholas, "Anglo-Saxon Warfare on the Eve of the Conquest" in Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 1978 vol.1, London, 1979, p.85.
- ↑ Humble, Richard, The Saxon Kings, BCA, London, 1980, p.196.
- ↑ Walker, David,, "The Norman Settlement in Wales" in Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies 1978 vol.1, London, 1979, p.131.
- ↑ Barlow, 1955, p.55.
