Harold Godwinson

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

All this month on Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis uncover the stories of the protagonists and events that led up to the Battle of Hastings. There’s Harold Godwinson, the Anglo Saxon Lord who became the king of a people only recently brought together; Harald Hardrada, a legendary Viking warrior seeking to rebuild the North Sea Empire to which he believes himself heir; and William the Conqueror, descended from pagan Vikings, now the Christian Duke of Normandy. The lives of millions of people for centuries to come will be inextricably linked to their actions in that fateful year of 1066.

In this first episode, Eleanor finds out more about Harold Godwinson from Professor Levi Roach.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Lady Killers is back with me Lucy Worsley on BBC Radio 4.
0:07.0	Join me and a crack team of female detectives to reinvestigate more astonishing crimes from the past, all committed by women.
0:19.0	We premeditated to take his life.
0:22.0	The new season of Lady Killers is coming soon. Listen wherever you get
0:26.7	your podcasts. In the mists of the distant past, three roads lead to a meeting point. A single road leads away from it.
0:42.0	At the junction sits a great prize.
0:45.0	It offers wealth, power, and entry into the history books.
0:49.0	Three men drive their horses faster and harder along the three roads each determined to claim the prize for himself.
0:57.2	There will be a collision and the prize will only be won in blood.
1:01.8	From one road comes an Anglo-Saxon lord who has become the
1:05.3	king of a people only recently brought together. From another a Viking warrior of
1:10.2	legendary stature seeking to rebuild the North Sea Empire to which he
1:14.4	believes himself heir. The third is descended from pagan Vikings now made
1:19.6	Christian Frenchman. The three warriors are Harold Godwinson, Harold Hadrada,
1:25.8	and William the Conqueror.
1:27.1	What none of them sees is the weight of the prize they seek.
1:30.2	The lives of millions over centuries to come will be inextricably linked to the result of the
1:36.4	clash these three men charge headlong into. The prize is England. The year is 1066.
1:43.3	England will never be the same again.
1:45.9	This is the story of it was decided the Battle of Hastings when King Harold was
2:04.9	killed by William the Conqueror in 1066. It's an easy historical factoid, a date
2:11.5	that rolls off the tongue quickly and it's probably illustrated in your
	...

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