For more than half a year Harold was left to occupy the throne ho had thus obtained iu quiet. His accession evidently took place with the general assent of tee nation; the nubility with few exceptions, and the bishops with scarcely any, avowed themselves its authors and sopperters; the acquiescence of the people was complete everywhere, except, for a brief space at first, among the Northumbrian., who were, however, tastily induced to lay aside their scruples by the, influence of their Earl Mot-car, whoa. sister Editha Harold had married ; and on the whole there is no reason to suppose that he would have had any trouble in maintaining himself if he bad been allowed to remain unmolested by attacks from abroad. Two foreign enemies however at length assailed lam nearly at the same time. Ills brother Tostig, having formed a coufederacy with Harold Ilardrada, king of Norway, first made a descent upon the Isle of 'Wight, and after he had levitd contributions from the inhabitants, sailed round at the head of his fleet of sixty vessels to the mouth of the T;ioe, where he was joined about the begiunieg of September by Hardrada with a bevy of three hundred nib The invaders had drit en back Earls Mercer and Edwin, and made themselves waiters of the entire province of Yee k before Harold came up. On the 25th of September 1066 however he engaged them at Stamford Bridge, on the Derwent, when both Hardrads. and Tc.tig fell, and the English king obtained a complete victory. Only three days after this the Duko of Normandy landed at Bulverhithe, between Pevensey and Hastlugs, on the southern coast, with a mighty armament, which he had spent the preceding eight months in fitting out. Harold, having first proceeded to London, did not reach the Norman camp till the 13th of October 1066. On the morniog of the following day battle was joined at a place then called Senlac (now Battle), about nine miles from Hastings. The bum of this memorable
engagement, which lasted the whole day, was the complete defeat and rout of the English, after Harold himself had fallen, pierced through the head by au arrow—his two brothers, Gurth and Leofwine, having also been already claim This victory, as all know, gave the crown of England to the Duke of Normandy, by whose descendants it has ever since been worn.
Harold is said to have been twice married. By his first wife, whose name has not been preserved, he had three sons, Edmund, Godwin, and Magnus, who on the death of their father fled to Ireland, from which tuey afterwards attempted some descents on the western coasts of England, but eventually retired to Denmark. His second wife, Editba, otherwise called Algitha, the daughter of Earl Alfgar, is said to have been the widow of Griffith, the Welsh prince, whose head had been sent by his subjects as a peace-offering to Harold. By her Harold is asserted to have had a son and two daughters; but, as it is admitted that he was only married to her some time iu 1065 at the earliest, we may doubt it she could already have produced so considerable a family. The son, named Wolf, is said to have been knighted by William Rufus; Gunilde, the eldest daughter, became blind, and passed her life in a nunnery; the second, whose name is unknown, is supposed to have gone to Denmark with her half-brothers. Queen Editha survived her husband many years, during which she is said to have lived in obscurity in Westminster. This lady, according to the Scottish historians, was the mother by her first husband of a daughter who married Fleetness, the son of Banque, thane of Lochaber, whose son Walter, marrying a daughter of Alan the Red, earl of Brittany, became the progenitor of the Stewarts. (On this story see Appendix No. X. to the first volume of Hailee's ' Annals of Scotland.')