Hastings revisited

We think we know the story of Harold Godwinson’s reign so well. We know that the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England came to the throne after the death of his childless brother-in-law Edward the Confessor, who ruled from 1042 to 1066. And we know that he had to face two invasions: a Norwegian invasion led by Harald Hardrada (‘hard ruler’) up in Yorkshire; and just days after that Norwegian army was destroyed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, a Norman invasion down in Sussex, led by Duke William of Normandy, who claimed that Edward had in fact nominated him as his real successor.  It’s a story that, for generations of schoolchildren, has had at its heart three ‘establi