Edgar Ætheling, Part 1

After the death of King Harold Godwinson on 14 October 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, the witenagemot wasted no time: the very next day, while Harold's body was being identified on the battlefield, they chose another man to be king, despite the claims of William of Normandy. That man was Edgar, called "Ætheling" ("noble").

This choice was not random. Not only was he in a line of legitimate succession, but it could be argued that his accession to the throne had been approved by Edward the Confessor before his death in January of 1066.

Edgar's great-grandfather was Æthelred. When Æthelred was killed by Cnut, his the family fled England. Ægthelred's son was Edmund Ironside, who would rule the south of England while Cnut ruled the north, until one of them died and the other took the whole island. Edmund died shortly after. Edmund's son was called Edward the Exile and spent most of his life in Hungary, where Edgar Ætheling was born. In the illustration above, you see Edmund in the upper-right, Edward the Exile in the center, and Edward's children below: Edgar, Margaret (who would later marry Malcolm Canmore and even later become a saint), Edmund (who died young), and Cristina.

In 1056, Edward the Confessor recalled Edward the Exile and his family to England to make Edward his heir. This was actually Edward's attempt to have an Anglo-Saxon dynastic succession in the face of the increasingly powerful Godwins. Unfortunately, Edward died shortly after returning to England, in 1057. Still, to the witenagemot, this meant that Edward's son Edgar was a potential successor. One day after Hastings and the loss of Harold, the witenagemot chose Edgar as the new king. He was perhaps 14 years old.

Edgar had powerful supporters: Earls Edwin and Morcar, Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York. What he did not have was an army. The powerful men who supported him did not put together a very serious defense. Whatever claim he had through Edward's choice of Edgar's father had been ignored months earlier by these same men in favor of Harold, so their determination to support him is questionable; you might call it the last gasp of "national pride" before the inevitable Norman takeover.

In fact, Edward was never formally crowned, and by December the witan and Edgar's key supporters were agreeing to negotiate with William. Everyone, including Edward, agreed to pay homage to William.

William kept Edgar with him, first on his return to Normandy in 1067 and then back to England. A brief attempt at rebellion by the northern earls Edwin and Morcar in 1068 was quickly suppressed. We do not have confirmation that Edgar was part of it, but it is true that he and his mother and sisters landed on the coast of Scotland around that time. Either he was in the north as part of the rebellion or he was attempting to return to Hungary, the land of his and his siblings' birth.

They were taken in by King Malcolm III, a connection which offered another opportunity for Edgar to become king. I'll tell you how that went next time.

Dealing with the Godwins

Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, was a powerful landowner during the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042 - 1066), and Edward was wary of him. Edward as married to Godwin's daughter Eadgifu, but Godwin did not support his king and son-in-law in everything.

Edward had spent time growing up in Normandy, and he showed a preference for elevating Norman French subjects over local English or Danish subjects. One such example was Robert of Jumièges. Robert had known Edward in Normandy, and followed him to England where he was made bishop of London in 1043.

In 1051, a new Archbishop of Canterbury was needed. The clergy and monks of Canterbury elected a cousin of Godwin's to the position, but Edwards rejected this and appointed Robert of Jumièges. Robert claimed that Godwin was in illegal possession of some estates that belonged to the See of Canterbury. Moreover, in September of that year Edward's brother-in-law, Eustace II of Boulogne, visited. Edward appointed him castellan (governor) of a castle in Dover. The locals rebelled against this, resulting in fighting and 40 deaths. Dover was within Godwin's earldom, and Edward told Godwin to punish the citizens of Dover who had attacked Eustace. Godwin refused.

This refusal gave Edward the opportunity to deal with Godwin definitively. Robert of Jumièges claimed that Godwin wanted to kill the king, just like he had killed Edward's brother Alfred Ætheling. The other two most powerful earls in England, Leofric and Siward, supported the king against Godwin. Godwin's sons held earldoms, and called up their own men, but none were willing to fight against the king.

An Anglo-Saxon royal chaplain and advisor, Stigand, handled negotiations between the king and Godwin. When he carried the king's message to Godwin, that there could be peace if Godwin could restore Alfred Ætheling, Godwin took the hint: he fled to Flanders while his sons went to Ireland.

The incident with Eustace was obviously a turning point in the relationship between Edward and Godwin, but Robert of Jumièges definitely fanned the flames with his appointment to Canterbury, his claim of illegal possessions, and his claim that Godwin was planning assassination. Before we go further about Edward vs. Godwin (and that relationship is far from over), we should look more closely at Robert, what he did, and what happened to him.

(Note: as significant as Godwin was in his lifetime, there are no depictions of him that I can find. The illustration is of the coat of arms that is attributed to his son, Harold, after he became king. This design is displayed at Winchester Castle.)

The Fighting Bishop

Tomb of Remigius, Lincoln Cathedral [link]

A "ship list" exists of the ships used by William of Normandy when he conquered England in 1066. It records who contributed the ship and in many cases the men and supplies aboard. One of the ships was provided by Remigius de Fécamp, a Benedictine monk.

The exact participation of Remigius is in dispute. According to the historian Henry of Huntingdon (c.1088 - c.1157), Remigius fought at the Battle of Hastings, bringing 20 knights along with his ship. Gerald of Wales, however, who thought so highly of Remigius that he tried to get him canonized as a saint (it never happened), said he only came along with 10 knights that were sent from the region of Fécamp.

His contribution must have been significant, because after the Conquest he was made the Bishop of Dorchester, which at the time was the largest diocese in England. But he had to continue "fighting": his ordination by Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury was a point of contention when papal legates came to England in 1070 and pushed Stigand out of his office, also reversing the appointment of Remigius to Dorchester. Stigand's successor, Lanfranc, wouldn't touch the subject of Remigius' legitimacy, and Remigius had to travel to Rome in 1071 to seek forgiveness from Pope Alexander II and become "properly" re-appointed as a bishop.

Was there smooth sailing now that he was recognized as Bishop of Dorchester? Not quite. There were two archbishoprics in England—York and Canterbury—and each one claimed that Dorchester belonged in its territory and Remigius' loyalty was to that archbishop. Lanfranc and the Archbishop of York, Thomas of Bayeaux, appealed to Pope Alexander II who, even though he was a former pupil of Lanfranc's and held him in high esteem, refused to take sides, pushing the debate back to the king's council in England.

The council ruled that Dorchester (and Lichfield and Worcester, to which York also lay claim), belonged to Canterbury. Still, Thomas would occasionally ask for help from Remigius, such as during the consecration of the Bishop of the Orkney Islands. Remigius, not wanting to set a precedent that he "worked for" York, appealed to Canterbury to keep him away from the ceremony.

Remigius had a long and busy career, taking part in William's courts, and sitting on the commission that produced the Domesday Book. He died on 7 May 1092 and was buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where his bones, chalice, paten, and half of his crozier were recovered in 1927.