The Realm: The True history behind Game of Thrones Read Online Free PDF Page B

effectively became heir apparent, though without Edward’s public blessing. But the Godwins were themselves torn apart by feuds. Godwin’s third son, Tostig, had been made Earl of Northumbria following the death of Earl Seward in 1055, who the previous year had defeated and killed the Scottish usurper Macbeth at the Battle of the Seven Sleepers. Northumbria was an alien place to southern men, there were few passable roads between north and south, and the region was far more heavily Danish, especially the country around York. Tostig, despite his Danish name and Danish mother, was considered too southern by most of the magnates but the violence he displayed in maintaining the law, to both the guilty and innocent, also unnerved many.
    In October 1065 this led to an uprising in the north, led by two brothers from the old ruling house, Edwin and Morcar, who reached as far as the Thames and threatened civil war. Harold acted as mediator, most likely agreeing to exile Tostig and making the brothers Earls of Northumbria and Mercia, and marrying their sister. This would give him a greater claim to the throne, which the brothers of the north would support.
    The final days of 1065 were marked by terrible storms. The noblemen of England came from all around the country to feast together at Westminster Abbey, which Edward had built, but it was clear that the king was gravely ill. Two monks by his bedside warned that England was cursed by God and would suffer evil spirits for a year and a day; the king died on twelfth night, and Harold assumed the throne.
    Across the narrow sea William the Bastard, ferocious leader of the Duchy of Normandy, was soon assembling a fleet to conquer the Realm. The Normans were scared of crossing this dangerous stretch of ocean, and the king called a council, where with sheer force of will and the promise of riches, he proclaimed that he would become King of England. It was a fantastically bold move. But the Normans were the pre-eminent warriors of the region, the ferocity of their Viking ancestors reduced not one bit by the French tongue and Roman religion Instead their capacity for conquest was increased by a fervent faith and superior tactics. For these warlike people their entire way of life was geared towards fighting: they cut their hair short in the Roman fashion, and bred a special warhorse from Arab stallions. 
    William was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert and a low-born woman whose father may have been an embalmer of corpses. Although a bastard, William was accepted as Robert’s heir, but when his son was only seven the duke headed to the Holy Land. There he died, leaving William to grow up in a feud-ridden court where several attempts were made on his life, most of them by family members. Odo the Fat killed his first protector, Count Gilbert, and then his tutor Turold. Later, Osbern, head of the royal household, was stabbed to death by William of Montgomery in young William’s bedchamber. Montgomery was himself later stabbed to death.
    By the time that Edward the Confessor passed away William was nearly 40, thick set, and battle-hardened by years of conflict with Normandy’s neighbours Maine, Flanders and France. He claimed the throne through his relation to the Confessor, and said that Edward had named him successor and that Harold had sworn an oath to him, although few believed him; and the one with the strongest claim was Ethelred’s great-grandson Edgar Atheling, but he was just a boy.
    Meanwhile a fourth king vied for the throne, the Norwegian Harold Haadraada, ‘hard-ruler’. The 6’4” Thunderbolt of the North, as he was also known, was famed for showing no mercy to his enemies. One of his party tricks was to break a siege by attaching burning wood to the wings of birds, which would then fly back to their nests within the city. ix Haadraada had travelled far in his career; as a youth he had followed the Viking trail down the rivers of Russia to the holy city of Constantinople,