Thorgils "Sprakalaeg" Styrjornsson

Family/Spouse: Sigrid. Sigrid was born about 971 in of Halland, Sweden. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Princess of Denmark Estrid Margaret Svendsdatter. Estrid (daughter of King of Denmark, Norway and England Svend "Forked Beard" and Princess of Poland Swietoslava) was born about 955 in Denmark; died before 9 May 1047; was buried in Cathedral Roskilde, Denmark. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She died in exile.

Gytha married Godwin about 1019/20. Godwin (son of Wulfnoth) was born about 987 in of Wessex, England; died on 15 Apr 1053 in Winchester Castle, Hampshire, England; was buried in Winchester Cathedral, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Flicka Dansk. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Harold Godwineson, II was created Earl of East Anglia in c. 1045, and succeeded his father as Earl of Wessex on the 15th of April, 1053. He was created Earl of Hereford in 1058, and styled 'Duke of the English' from 1064. He succeeded Edward the Confessor as King of England on the 6th of January, 1066, having been chosen by the King as his successor with the support of the Witan. Harold II was crowned on the 6th of January, 1066, probably at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (some authorities state he was crowned at Westminster Abbey, but there is no evidence for this).

He was killed at the Battle of Hastings, Sussex, England. He was felled by an arrow between his eyes - this popular myth has been perpetrated by a misreading of the Bayeus tapestry. He was, in fact, struck down by a blow from a sword wielded by a mounted Norman knight. Harold was buried on the seashore at Hastings, or on the battlefield - the latter is more likely. A stone memorial marks the spot within the grounds of Battle Abbey. Later on, Harold's remains were removed to Waltham Abbey in Essex.

He was succeeded by William, Duke of Normandy, the victor of Hastings.

THE NORMAN KINGS OF ENGLAND

Harold II was the last of the Saxon Kings of England. His successor, William I, based his claim to the English throne upon a promise made to him more than a decade before 1066 by Edward the Confessor, who is said to have told William that he, Edward, would make him his successor.

In 1064, Earl Harold was shipwrecked upon the coast of Normandy. William kept him in honorable captivity until he had sworn upon he had sworn upon holy relics to do all in his power to enforce William's claim to the English throne. William knew very well that at that time it seemed that Harold, the most powerful man in England next to the king, would be designated Edward's successor, which was what in fact happened. When, in the autumn on 1065, Edward was seen to be dying, the Witan considered all claimants and decided that Harold, as the only man with the strength and maturity that befitted him to rule England, was the natural choice. Edward, on his deathbed, accordingly left his crown to Harold, who seized power in defiance of his oath to William.

William thereupon gathered an army, sailed to England, and defeated Harold on the 14th of October, 1066 at the battle of Hastings - it should actually be called the Battle of Senlac Ridge, as that was where it took place. Hastings is 11 miles away.

At that time, there was only one living male representative of the ancient line of the Kings of Wessex, and that was a child known as Edgar the Atheling. He was the grandson of Edmund II. The Witan in London set him up as king as soon as they received the news of William's victory at Hastings, but it quickly became obvious that Edgar's impeccable claim to the throne would be no match for William's determination to wear the crown of England. Edgar submitted to William within 6 weeks, and William was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

A new royal dynasty had been founded; the joining of England with Normandy brought England very much into the forefront of European affairs. William's followers received lands and honors, and thus founded aristocratic dynasties of their own in their new realm. A new order prevailed, England was feudalized, its Church overhauled, and its legal system; and all things Saxon were disdained by the conquering Normans.

William's claim to the English throne had very little basis in dynastic terms. His great-aunt Emma had been wife to both Ethelred II and Canute. William's wife Matilda was a descendent of King Alfred. And that was all. William's own ancestor, Rollo, who founded the duchy of Normandy in the 10th century, had been a Viking pirate. It was left to William's son, Henry I, to ally himself in blood to the ancient line of Cerdic; in 1100, he married Edith, the niece of Edgar the atheling, much to the disgust of his Norman barons, who sneeringly referred to the royal couple as 'Godric and Godgifu', old Saxon names now fallen into disrepute. Yet the marriage was popular with the common people, who were, after all, Saxon, and later Kings would acknowledge that it was fitting that the blood of Cerdic flowed in their veins.

Family/Spouse: Edith Swanneshals. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Harold married of Mercia Ealdgyth about 1052 in York, England. Ealdgyth (daughter of Earl of Mercia III Ælfgar and Ælgifu) was born about 1034 in Mercia, England; died after 1086 in France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Edith married King of England Edward "The Confessor" on 23 Jan 1045. Edward (son of King of England Æthelred II "The Unready" and of Normandy Emma) was born about 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, England; died on 5 Jan 1066 in London, England; was buried in Westminster Palace, London, Middlesex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was abducted by Sweyn and whom she contracted an uncanonical marriage.

Family/Spouse: of Wessex Sveyn. Sveyn (son of Godwin and Gytha Thorgilsdottir) was born about 1023; died on 29 Sep 1052 in Lycia, Constantinople, Byzantium. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was created an earl in 1043.

Family/Spouse: of Wessex Elgiva. Elgiva (daughter of Godwin and Gytha Thorgilsdottir) was born about 1025; died about 1066. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was created Earl of Northumbria in c. 1055. In that year, or later, he was also created Earl of Northampton and Nottingham. He was deprived of his earldoms on 3rd October, 1065. He was killed on the 25th of September, 1066, at the Battle of Stamford bridge in Northumberland, fighting his brother Harold II in alliance with Harold Hardraada, King of Norway.

Family/Spouse: of Flanders Judith. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was said to have been a monk at Rheims in France.

Notes:

She is said to have been a Nun at either St. Omer in France, or at Bruges in Flanders.

Notes:

He was created Earl of East Anglia in 1057.

Notes:

He created Earl of Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire
in c. 1057

Family/Spouse: III Æfleda. III (daughter of of Saxe-Mercia, Earl of Northumberland Aldred and Edgina) was born in 997 in Mercia, Northumberland, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was a Nun at Wilton Abbey, Wiltshire, England

Family/Spouse: Vladimir Monomakh, Grand Duke of Kyiv II. Vladimir (son of Grand Duke of Kyiv Vsevolod I Yaroslavich and Irene Maria Monomachina) was born in 1053 in Kyiv, Ukraine; died on 19 May 1125 in Kyiv, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was perhaps born in December, 1066 in Chester, although some authorities have stated that he was an illegitimate son of Harold by his mistress Edith Swanneshals. Ulf is said by some chroniclers to have drowned at sea before 1070, but he is recorded as being alive in 1087 in Normandy.

Notes:

He grew up in exile.