1066 (MLXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1066th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 66th year of the 2nd millennium and the 11th century, and the 7th year of the 1060s decade. As of the start of 1066, the Gregorian calendar was 6 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was the dominant calendar of the time.
Harold Godwinson, also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman Conquest. Harold's death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. He was succeeded by William the Conqueror.
Godwin of Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the first Earl of Wessex. Godwin was the father of King Harold II and of Edith of Wessex, who in 1045 married King Edward the Confessor.
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, in England, on 25 September 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson. After a bloody battle, both Hardrada and Tostig, along with most of the Norwegians, were killed. Although Harold Godwinson repelled the Norwegian invaders, his army was defeated by the Normans at Hastings less than three weeks later. The battle has traditionally been presented as symbolising the end of the Viking Age, although major Scandinavian campaigns in Britain and Ireland occurred in the following decades, such as those of King Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark in 1069–1070 and King Magnus Barefoot of Norway in 1098 and 1102–1103.
The Norman Conquest was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, French, Flemish, and Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror.
The Battle of Fulford was fought on the outskirts of the village of Fulford, just south of York in England, on 20 September 1066, when King Harald III of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada, a claimant to the English throne and Tostig Godwinson, his English ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar.
Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, also called Githa, was a Danish noblewoman. She was the wife of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and the mother of King Harold Godwinson and Edith of Wessex, the latter of whom was the queen consort of King Edward the Confessor.
Edith of Wessex was Queen of England through her marriage to Edward the Confessor from 1045 until Edward's death in 1066. Unlike most English queens in the 10th and 11th centuries, she was crowned. The principal source on her life is a work she herself commissioned, the Vita Ædwardi Regis or the Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, which is inevitably biased.
Morcar was the son of Ælfgār and brother of Ēadwine. He was the earl of Northumbria from 1065 to 1066, when William the Conqueror replaced him with Copsi.
Edwin was the elder brother of Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, son of Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia and grandson of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He succeeded to his father's title and responsibilities on Ælfgār's death in 1062. He appears as Earl Edwin in the Domesday Book.
Events from the 1060s in England.
Events from the 1050s in England.
The House of Godwin was an Anglo-Saxon family who were one of the leading noble families in England during the last fifty years before the Norman Conquest. Its most famous member was Harold Godwinson, King of England for nine months in 1066.
Godwin or Godwine was a son, probably the eldest son, of Harold Godwinson, King of England. He was driven into exile in Dublin, along with two of his brothers, by the Norman conquest of England, and from there he twice led expeditions to south-western England, but with little success.
Edmund or Eadmundᚪᛖᛞᛘᚩᚾᛞ or Ædmund was a son of Harold Godwinson, King of England. He was driven into exile in Dublin by the Norman conquest of England, along with two of his brothers, and from there he twice took part in expeditions to south-western England, but with little success. He disappears from history in the early 1070s.
Harold was a son of Harold Godwinson, King of England. He was driven into exile by the Norman conquest of England, and found refuge at the court of the king of Norway.
Ansgar the Staller or Esegar was one of the wealthiest and most powerful nobles in late Anglo-Saxon England. He escaped badly wounded from the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, then led the defence of London.
There were two Danish attacks on Norman England. The first was an invasion in 1069–1070 conducted in alliance with various English rebels which succeeded in taking first York and then Ely before the Danes finally accepted a bribe to leave the country. The second was a large-scale raid in 1075, intended to support the Revolt of the Earls, in which the Lincolnshire coast and York were both ravaged. A third attack was planned in 1085, and a large invasion fleet comprising Danish, Flemish and Norwegian vessels was gathered, but it never sailed. All three attacks were motivated by a claim on the English throne asserted originally by Cnut the Great's nephew Sweyn II, king of Denmark, and maintained by later Danish kings until as late as the 13th century, but neither of the two realised attacks succeeded in making Sweyn's claim good, or indeed gained anything for the Danes apart from a certain amount of plunder.
The Northumbrian Revolt of 1065 was a rebellion in the last months of the reign of Edward the Confessor against the earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, brother of Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex. Tostig, who had been earl since 1055, is said to have provoked his nobles to rise against him by his harsh administration of justice, raising of tax levels, frequent absences from his earldom, and murder of several political opponents. In October 1065, the rebels entered Northumbria's capital, York, killed Tostig's men, looted his treasury, renounced their allegiance to Tostig and proclaimed Morcar, brother of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, as their new earl. They then marched south to Northampton, causing much devastation in Yorkshire and the North Midlands as they went, and joining forces with the army of Mercia. The king sent his chief earl, Harold Godwinson, to negotiate with them, and when they refused to compromise on the deposition of Tostig he tried and failed to raise his own army against them. On Harold's advice, he finally gave in to their demands and recognised Morcar. Tostig was sent into exile in Flanders, from where, disgusted at what he saw as his brother's betrayal, he shortly afterward raided the English coast, finally dying in arms against him at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
