The Norman Conquest, 1066–1100

Abstract

By the end of 1065 Edward had probably been ill for some time. The magnates who gathered for the consecration of the new Westminster abbey during the Christmas festivities must have guessed that they would soon need to elect a new king. The crisis could not have come at a worse time. A few weeks earlier the Northumbrians had finally risen against the harsh rule of their earl, Tostig. His appeal to Edward and to his brother, Harold, to restore him to authority had been turned down. As a consequence he had broken with Harold, and fled to take refuge with his wife’s family at the court of Flanders. Only Edgar aetheling had close kinship ties with the dying king. Some may have considered his claim, as William of Malmesbury reports; William even at one point suggests that Edgar was nominated by Edward.¹ After Hastings, the surviving native magnates were prepared to back Edgar faute de mieux; Brand, the incoming abbot of Peterborough, was so rash as to send to Edgar for confirmation of office. But it must have been obvious to the majority both before and after Hastings that Edgar was too inexperienced a figure to provide a rallying point.² That left Harold and, if the Norman chroniclers are accepted, William. There is no indication that any voice spoke out for the duke, though that does not mean that Harold’s succession was greeted with unanimous acclaim.