The History of a Dynasty
Emma Mason
Harold Godwineson was king of England from January 1066 until his death at Hastings on 14 October of that year. Although he was not the only candidate for the succession to the childless King Edward the Confessor, Harold had a far stronger claim than William of Normandy to the throne. For much of the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was married to Harold's sister Eadgyth, the Godwine family, led by Earl Godwine, had dominated English politics. In The House of Godwine Emma Mason tells the turbulent story of a remarkable family which, until Harold's unexpected defeat, looked far more likely than the dukes of Normandy to provide the long-term rulers of England. But for the Norman Conquest, an Anglo-Saxon England ruled by the Godwine dynasty would have developed very differently from that dominated by the Normans.
'A shower of arrows fell around King Harold, and he himself was pierced in the eye. A crowd of horsemen now burst in, and the king, already wounded, was slain.'
-- Henry of Huntingdon
"This is an impressive untangling of a complex tale of revenge, double-dealing and deceit."
-- The Sunday Times
