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cover next page > title : The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066 Warfare in History, 1358-779X author : DeVries, Kelly. publisher : Boydell & Brewer Ltd. isbn10 | asin : 0851157637 print isbn13 : 9780851157634 ebook isbn13 : 9780585372860 language : English subject Harold,--King of England,--1022?-1066, Harald--III Harð ráði,--King of Norway,--1015-1066, Great Britain-- History, Military--449-1066, Stamford Bridge, Battle of, 1066, Great Britain--History--Invasions, Norway--History, Military. publication date : 1999 lcc : DA161.D48 1999eb ddc : 942.02/1 subject : Harold,--King of England,--1022?-1066, Harald--III Harð ráði,--King of Norway,--1015-1066, Great Britain-- History, Military--449-1066, Stamford Bridge, Battle of, 1066, Great Britain--History--Invasions, Norway--History, Military. cover next page > < previous page page_i next page > Page i The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066 Warfare in History < previous page page_i next page > < previous page page_ii next page > Page ii Warfare in History General Editor: Matthew Bennett ISSN 1358779X Already published The Battle of Hastings: Sources and Interpretations edited and introduced by Stephen Morillo Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, and Technology Kelly DeVries The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from the Eighth Century to 1340 (second edition) J. F. Verbruggen Knights and Peasants: The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside Nicholas Wright Society at War: The Experience of England and France during the Hundred Years War edited by Christopher Allmand The Circle of War in the Middle Ages: Essays on Medieval Military and Naval History edited by Donald J. Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon The Anglo-Scots Wars, 15131550: A Military History Gervase Phillips < previous page page_ii next page > < previous page page_iii next page > Page iii The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066 Kelly DeVries < previous page page_iii next page > < previous page page_iv next page > Page iv © Kelly DeVries 1999 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 1999 The Boydell Press, Woodbridge ISBN 0 85115 763 7 The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell and Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell and Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 146044126, USA website: http://www.boydell.co.uk A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DeVries, Kelly, 1956 The Norwegian invasion of England in 1066 / Kelly DeVries. p. cm. (Warfare in history, ISSN 1358779X) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0851157637 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Harold, King of England, 1022?1066. 2. Harald III Harðráði, King of Norway, 10151066. 3. Great Britain History, Military 4491066. 4. Stamford Bridge, Battle of, 1066. 5. Great Britain History Invasions. 6. Norway History, Military. I. Title. II. Series. DA161.D48 1999 942.02'1dc21 9937405 This publication is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk < previous page page_iv next page > < previous page page_v next page > Page v Contents Maps and Genealogies vi General Editor's Preface ix Acknowledgements xi 1. Introduction 1 2. Anglo-Scandinavian England 14 3. Haraldr Harðráði 23 4. Godwin and His Family 69 5. Harold Godwinson 124 6. The Conflict between Harold and Tostig Godwinson 168 7. The Norwegian Military 193 8. The English Military 210 9. The Invasion 230 10. The Battle of Stamford Bridge 262 11. Aftermath 297 Bibliography 301 Index 317 < previous page page_v next page > < previous page page_vi next page > Page vi Maps and Genealogies 1. Haraldr Hardráði's Travels 22 2. The Godwin Family 70 3. Kings of England and Their Descendants, 10161066 80 4. Gruffydd's Raid on Hereford, 1055 137 5. Harold and Tostig Attack Wales, 10623 141 6. Harold Godwinson and His Descendants 156 7. The Diffusion of Sources Concerning the Conflict between Harold and Godwinson 190 8. Area of Norwegian Conquest 246 9. The Battle of Fulford Gate, 20 September 1066 257 10. Major Roads in the Eleventh Century 265 11. The Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 277 < previous page page_vi next page > < previous page page_vii next page > Page vii To the Midgley Family: Michael, Elizabeth, Edward, Emma, Matthew, Eleanor, and William and to their extended family in the Wharfe Valley Branch and Leeds 1st Ward who have proven that the people of Yorkshire in the 1990s are much more friendly to foreigners than their ancestors were in 1066 < previous page page_vii next page > < previous page page_ix next page > Page ix General Editor's Preface The Norwegian invasion of England in 1066 only lasted a few days and ended in disaster. It might seem a difficult task then to write such a substantial book as this on the subject. Yet although the history of Haraldr Harðráði's last campaign was brief, bloody and terminal for the great warrior, the context in which his bid for the English throne lay has bever been explored in such detail before. Kelly DeVries is able to lay bare the personal, dynastic and military history of all the main participants on that fateful day at Stamford Bridge, just outside York. Haraldr's own career had taken him as far as Constantinople and Sicily, via the kingdom of Kiev where he had acquired a bride. His acquisition of the Norwegian throne in 1047 provided the incentive for his daring bid for the far greater prize of England two decades later. In his entourage, and also dead by the end of the day, was Tostig, the younger brother of the English king Harold Godwinson. The opposition of the two brothers bears testimony to the tangled events that preceded the crisis year of 1066, which witnessed two coronations and the triumph of a French- speaking Norman rather than a Scandinavian. Fifty years earlier, of course, a Scandinavian king had come to power. Knútr the Great and his successors had ruled for a quarter of a century, drawing England into a North Sea orbit which the events of 1066 were decisively and permanently to change. Yet this is not apparent even by the end of 1066, for another Scandinavian ruler, Sveinn Estriðson, king of Denmark, had a claim to the English throne. Long after the defeat of the Norwegians the Danes were to play a significant if eventually unsuccessful role in English military affairs in the late 1060s and early 1070s. In 1085, the preparations of Sveinn's son Knútr the Good to invade England forced William I into hugely expensive defensive measures. Their cost directly influenced the organization of the survey known as Domesday Book, by which the Conqueror sought to calculate his kingdom's resources. As late as 1098, another Norwegian king, Magnús 'Barelegs', could sail in the Irish Sea, land at Chester and defeat and kill its Norman earl. So Scandinavian influence in English affairs did not cease after Stamford Bridge, nor did Scandinavian and Icelandic historians lose interest in events there. Professor DeVries' love for saga material comes over well in this volume. He is able to draw upon an enormously wide range of source materials and proudly demonstrates his knowledge of Old Norse. He is able to supplement Latin narrative and documentary references with the richly evocative descriptions of Snorri Sturluson and the Norwegian Kings Sagas, together with pithy translations of skaldic poetry. Anyone interested in the late Viking era will find fascinating insights from the materials upon which the author has drawn. Many aspects of the book read like a detective story, too, as Professor < previous page page_ix next page > < previous page page_x next page > Page x DeVries attempts to untangle the skein of events in England prior to 1066. He explores the role of Godwin, who rose to be earl of Wessex, and his sons, as military legitimate rulers warlords who were too important even for a king to dismiss for long. Godwin returned triumphant from a brief exile in 105152 to drive out Edward the Confessor's Norman favourites and create the circumstances which eventfully enabled Harold Godwinson to take the throne on 6 January 1066. His military career is studied in some detail as is the military organisation of Anglo-Saxon (really Anglo-Scandinavian) England. There is plenty in this volume to excite the interest of military historians together with a challenging reassessment of what Professor Warren Hollister called Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Conquest (Oxford, 1962). That title may be taken to sum up older, more stereotyped views of the changes which came about in the kingdom of England after 1066, which imply that somehow its inhabitants were hanging around waiting for William, duke of Normandy, to come and take over. This may seem obvious with hindsight; but as the author explains, it could all have been very different but for the Norwegian invasion of 1066. MATTHEW BENNETT ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY SANDHURST 1999 < previous page page_x next page > < previous page page_xi next page > Page xi Acknowledgments This book began nearly twenty years ago when I entered my final year as an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University. As an Honors Program student, I had the option of doing an undergraduate thesis, known at Brigham Young University as a University Scholar's Project. As I was the only student in a Medieval Studies program developed for me by the Department of Humanities there, I had the freedom to write my thesis on almost any subject and under any of a number of professors on campus.
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