battle of Fulford
1066.Eight months after Harold Godwineson's succession in January 1066, Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, launched a major attack, in conjunction with Tostig, Harold's brother. They sailed up the Ouse ...
Battle of Hastings
(14 October 1066)A battle fought at Senlac, inland from Hastings (south-east England) between the English under Harold II and an invading army under Duke William of Normandy (William I). Harold heard ...
battle of Stamford Bridge
1066.A victory for King Harold Godwineson over Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, and his own brother Tostig, both of whom were killed. Harold Hardrada was asserting a purported promise of succession ...
earl of Orkney Thorfinn
(c.1009–c. 1065).It is clear that ‘Thorfinn the Mighty’ wielded great power. He succeeded his father Sigurd as earl of Orkney when a small boy in 1014. He was a grandson of Malcolm II of Scotland. He ...
George Maniakes
General and usurper; died Ostrovo near Thessalonike between Apr. and early June 1043 (Shepard, “Russians Attack” 174, n.4).Of low birth, Maniakes (Μανιάκης) impressed even his opponents by his great ...
Godwine
(d. 1053).Godwine rose to prominence in the reign of Cnut, as one of his chief advisers, and has traditionally been held responsible for the brutal death of Æthelred the Unready's exiled son Alfred ...
Harold II
B. c.1022, 2nd s. of earl Godwin and Gytha; acc. 6 Jan. 1066; m. Ealdgyth, da. of earl Aelfgar, 1066; issue: Harold; also (illeg.) 4 s. 2 das. by Eadgyth Swanneshals (‘Swanneck’); d. 14 Oct. 1066; ...
Magnus I Olafsson
(c. 1024–1047),King of Norway from 1035 to his death. The illegitimate son of King Olaf II Haraldsson (Saint Olaf), Magnus was brought up in the Kievan Rus’. He returned ...
Norman Conquest
The period beginning in 1066 with Duke William of Normandy's victory over the English at the Battle of Hastings. As William I (1066–87) he established a military superiority over the English, ...
saga
[Ge]Old Norse word meaning a story (originally in prose) of quasi‐legendary events; colloquially, a long tale. Used chiefly to describe the historical stories current in Iceland in the Middle Ages.
Stigand
(c. 1000–72),archbishop of Canterbury (1052–70), was a worldly prelate. Promoted rapidly by Edward the Confessor, he held the bishoprics of Winchester and Canterbury in plurality after 1052. His ...
Sweyn Estrithsson
(d. 1074),king of Denmark (1047–74). Overshadowed by his rival Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, Sweyn nevertheless posed a significant threat to the rulers of England. The son of Cnut's sister ...
Theodoricus monachus
Author of a short Latin history (c.1180) of the Norwegian kings from Harald Fairhair to Haraldr gilli (d. 1136), titled Historia de antiquitate regum norwagiensium. A dedication to Archbishop ...
Tostig
(c. 1025–66),younger brother of Harold, who was briefly, in 1066, king of England, and of Eadgyth, Edward the Confessor's queen. With Tostig's appointment to Northumbria, his family seemed set ...
Varangians
Any of the Scandinavian voyagers who travelled by land and up rivers into Russia in the 9th and 10th centuries ad, establishing the Rurik dynasty and gaining great influence in the Byzantine Empire. ...
