The Succession Crisis of 1066: The Four Claimants to the Throne

The crown was not simply inherited

• When Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066, he left no children and no clear heir, and England had no fixed rule for deciding who ruled next.
• Edward had been king since 1042, but his long exile in Normandy had left his court split between English and Norman factions.
• The Godwins were the most powerful English family: after Earl Godwin died in 1053, his son Harold Godwinson inherited the earldom of Wessex and became the king's chief adviser.
• There was no primogeniture (the rule that the throne passes automatically to the eldest son). Who became king depended instead on the dying king's nomination, the approval of the Witan (the council of leading nobles and bishops that chose the king), and above all on a claimant's power to defend the realm.
• With no single rule to settle the succession, four different men could each argue a genuine claim, which left the crown to be decided by war.

Harold Godwinson

Strengths

• As Earl of Wessex he was the immediate frontrunner, and claimed that Edward had named him successor on his deathbed.
• The Witan elected him at once and crowned him on 6 January 1066, the day after Edward died.
• As head of the richest English family, he commanded the strongest army and the widest noble support in the country.

Weaknesses

• He had no royal descent from Edward, and William accused him of breaking an oath he had supposedly sworn in 1064.

His wealth, army, and the Witan's backing made Harold the strongest candidate in practice, despite his royal bloodline being the weakest of the four.

William of Normandy

Strengths

• As Duke of Normandy he was Edward's cousin through the king's mother, Emma of Normandy, which gave him a blood link to the throne.
• He claimed Edward had promised him the crown, and that Harold had sworn to support that claim while shipwrecked in Normandy around 1064.
• He also won papal support: the Pope sent a blessed banner that framed his invasion as a holy cause and helped him recruit.

Weaknesses

• As a foreigner with no backing inside England, he could only take the crown by conquest.

William's claim rested on a promise, an oath, and the Pope's blessing, but none of these counted unless he could win a war.

Harald Hardrada

Strengths

• As King of Norway he pressed a Viking claim to the English throne.
• He argued that an earlier English king, Harthacnut, had promised the crown to his predecessor Magnus of Norway in the 1040s, and he aimed to restore Scandinavian rule over England.
• A famed warrior, he brought a large and experienced army, and allied with Tostig, Harold Godwinson's exiled brother, who knew the country.

Weaknesses

• The claim was old and distant, with no support inside England.

Hardrada's was the weakest claim of the four, and rested entirely on winning battles rather than on any real family or legal right.

Edgar Ætheling

Strengths

• Edgar Ætheling had the strongest hereditary claim of all the contenders.
• He was the grandson of Edmund Ironside, a former English king and Edward's half-brother, making him the closest living blood relative of the old royal line.
• A claim like his could have united those who valued traditional inheritance over a foreign or an elected king.

Weaknesses

• He was only around 14, seen as too young to lead in a crisis, and he had no army, lands, or powerful backers to enforce his right.

Edgar had the best blood claim but the least means to enforce it, so the Witan passed him over for Harold.