he
banishment of Tostig. At the beginning of 1066 King Edward died, his
last breath being to recommend that Harold should be chosen king. He was
crowned on January 6th, and at once set himself with steadfast energy to
consolidate his kingdom. At York he won over the reluctant men of
Northumbria, and he next married Ealdgyth, Griffith's widow, in order to
secure the alliance of her brothers, Morcar and Edwin. His short reign
of forty weeks and one day was occupied with incessant vigilance against
the attacks of two formidable enemies at once. Duke William lost no time
in beginning his preparations for the invasion of England, and Tostig,
after trying the Normans and the Scots, and filibustering along the
coasts on his own account, succeeded in drawing to his side the famous
Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. In the month of September the two
reached the Humber, and Harold marched to meet them, resting neither day
nor night. The Icelandic historian, Snorro, in his dramatic narrative of
the fight, tells how Harold rode out accompanied with twenty of his
housecarls to have speech with Earl Tostig, and offer him peace; and
when asked what amends King Hardrada should have for his trouble in
coming, replied, "Seven feet of the ground of England, or more
perchance, seeing he is taller than other men." At Stamford Bridge
Harold overtook his enemy, and after a bloody struggle won a complete
victory (September 25, 1066), both Tostig and Harold Hardrada being
among the slain. But four days later Duke William landed at Pevensey.
Harold marched southward with the utmost haste, bringing with him the
men of Wessex and East Anglia, and the earldoms of his brothers; but the
two earls, Edwin and Morcar, held aloof and kept back the men of the
north, although some of the men of Mercia, in the earldom of Edwin,
followed their king to the fatal struggle which was fought out from
nine in the morning till past nightfall, on October 14, 1066. The
English fought with the most stubborn courage, and the battle was only
lost by their allowing the pretended flight of the Normans to draw them
from their impregnable position on the crest of the hill, ringed with an
unbroken shield wall. On its slope, right in front of the Norman army,
waved the golden dragon of Wessex, as well as the king's own standard, a
fighting man wrought upon it in gold. Here Harold stood with his mighty
two-handed axe, and hewed down the Normans as they came. Before
nightfall he f