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Godwin, Earl Of Wessex
Godwin of Wessex (; died 15 April 1053) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who became one of the most powerful earls in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great (King of England from 1016 to 1035) and his successors. Cnut made Godwin the first Earl of Wessex (). Godwin was the father of King Harold II () and of Edith of Wessex, who in 1045 married King Edward the Confessor (). Rise to power Godwin's father was probably Wulfnoth Cild, who was a thegn of Sussex. His origin is unknown but 'Child' (also written Cild) is cognate with 'the Younger' or 'Junior' and is today associated with some form of inheritance. In 1009 Wulfnoth was accused of unknown crimes at a muster of Æthelred the Unready's fleet and fled with twenty ships; the ships sent to pursue him were destroyed in a storm. Godwin was probably an adherent of Æthelred's eldest son, Æthelstan, who left him an estate when he died in 1014. This estate in Compton, Sussex, had once belonged to Godwin's father. After C ...
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Cnut The Great
Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rule are referred to together as the North Sea Empire by historians. As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of Viking Age#Northwestern Europe, centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His later accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut sought to keep this power base by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. In 1031, Malcolm II of Scotland also submitted to him, though North Sea Empire, Anglo-Norse influence over Scotland was weak and ultimately did not last by the time of Cnut's death.ASC, Ms. D, s.a. 1031 ...
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Harthacnut
Harthacnut (; "Tough-knot";  â€“ 8 June 1042), traditionally Hardicanute, sometimes referred to as Canute III, was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 and King of England from 1040 to 1042. Harthacnut was the son of King Cnut the Great (who ruled Denmark, Norway, and England) and Emma of Normandy. When Cnut died in 1035, Harthacnut struggled to retain his father's possessions. Magnus I took control of Norway, but Harthacnut succeeded as King of Denmark and became King of England in 1040 after the death of his half-brother Harold Harefoot, king of England. Harthacnut himself died suddenly in 1042 and was succeeded by Magnus in Denmark and Edward the Confessor in England. Harthacnut was the last Dane to rule England. Early life Harthacnut was born shortly after the marriage of his parents in July or August 1017. Cnut had put aside his first wife Ælfgifu of Northampton to marry Emma, and according to the '' Encomium Emmae Reginae'', a book she inspired many years later, ...
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Ælfgifu Of Northampton
Ælfgifu of Northampton (; 990 â€“ after 1036) was the first wife of Cnut the Great, King of List of English monarchs, England and List of Danish monarchs, Denmark, and mother of Harold Harefoot, King of England. She was regent of Norway from 1030 to 1035. Biography Family background Ælfgifu was born into an important noble family based in the English Midlands, Midlands (Mercia). She was a daughter of Ælfhelm, Ealdorman of York, Ælfhelm, ealdorman of southern Northumbria, and his wife Wulfrun. Ælfhelm was killed in 1006, probably at the command of King Æthelred the Unready, and Ælfgifu's brothers, Ufegeat and Wulfheah, were blinded. Wulfric Spot, a wealthy nobleman and patron of Burton Abbey, was the brother of Ælfhelm or Wulfrun. The family again came under suspicion during the invasion of England by Swein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, in 1013–14, and further members were charged with treachery and killed. It is possible that Ælfgifu was a kinswoman of the wife of ...
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Harold Harefoot
Harold Harefoot or Harold I (died 17 March 1040) was regent of Kingdom of England, England from 1035 to 1037 and King of the English from 1037 to 1040. Harold's nickname "Harefoot" is first recorded as "Harefoh" or "Harefah" in the twelfth century in the history of Ely Cathedral, Ely Abbey, and according to some late medieval chroniclers it meant that he was "fleet of foot". The son of Cnut the Great and Ælfgifu of Northampton, Harold was elected regent of England following the death of his father in 1035. He initially ruled England in place of his brother Harthacnut, who was stuck in Denmark due to a rebellion in Norway which had ousted their brother Svein Knutsson, Svein. Although Harold had wished to be crowned king since 1035, Æthelnoth (archbishop of Canterbury), Æthelnoth, List of Archbishops of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to do so. It was not until 1037 that Harold, supported by earl Leofric, Earl of Mercia, Leofric and many others, was officially pr ...
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Estrid Svendsdatter
Estrid Svendsdatter of Denmark (also known as ''Estrith'' or ''Astrith''; 990/997 – 1057/1073) was a Danish princess and titular queen, a Russian princess and, possibly, duchess of Normandy by marriage. She was the daughter of Sweyn Forkbeard and perhaps Gunhild of Wenden and half-sister of Cnut the Great. By Ulf Jarl, she was the mother of the later King Sweyn II Estridson and Beorn Estrithson. The dynasty that ruled Denmark in 1047–1412 was named after her. Though never a ruler or wife of a king, she was known in Denmark as queen during her son's reign. According to other researchers Estrid was the daughter of Sweyn Forkbeard and Sigrid the Haughty, herself the daughter of Skagul Toste, making Olof Skötkonung, the son of Sigrid the Haughty and Eric the Victorious, Estrid's half-brother while Canute the Great, Harald and Świętosława her other half-siblings, as children of Sweyn Forkbeard and the Polish princess Gunhild, daughter of Mieszko I of Poland. Biography ...
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Ulf The Earl
Ulf Thorgilsson, commonly known as Ulf Jarl or Earl Ulf, was a Danish jarl of Skåne and regent of Denmark. Ulf was the son of Thorgil Sprakling and the father of King Sweyn II of Denmark and thus the progenitor of the House of Estridsen, which would rule Denmark from 1047 to 1375, which was also sometimes, specially in Swedish sources, referred to as the Ulfinger dynasty to honor him. Biography Ulf Jarl was the son of Danish chieftain Thorgils Sprakalägg. In the 18th century, Danish historian Jacob Langebek proposed that Styrbjörn Starke and Tyra Haraldsdotter were the parents of Thorkel Sprakalegg.Searle, W. G. (1899 Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings, and Nobles: The Succession of the Bishops and the Pedigrees of the Kings and Nobles(London: Cambridge University Press. p. 355). Therefore, this would make Ulf Jarl a descendant of Olof (II) Björnsson of the House of Munsö and through Tyra a descendant of Harald Bluetooth of the House of Knýtlinga. His brother Eilaf was an earl ...
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Compton, West Sussex
Compton is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex. The village lies on the B2146 road, southeast of Petersfield, Hampshire and northwest of Chichester. The parish also includes the villages of West Marden and Up Marden. History and Geography The village has a long history, perhaps first being mentioned in the will of King Alfred the Great. It is in the Sussex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. High ground nearby is known as Compton Down and on a part of the down known as Telegraph Hill there was an Admiralty semaphore station. Parish church The church of England parish church dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin, dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, but was heavily restored in 1849. The building is flint-faced with stone dressings and a tiled roof. It has a chancel and nave with south aisle, north porch and western bell turret, which is weather boarded with a shingled spire. It is a Grade II* listed building, and currently forms p ...
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Æthelstan Ætheling
Æthelstan Ætheling (; early or mid 980s – 25 June 1014) was the eldest son of King Æthelred the Unready by his first wife Ælfgifu of York, Ælfgifu, and was the heir apparent to the kingdom until his death. He is first mentioned as a witness to a charter of his father in 993. He probably spent part of his childhood at Æthelingadene, Dean in west Sussex, and his paternal grandmother Ælfthryth, wife of Edgar, Ælfthryth may have played an important part in his upbringing. Almost nothing is known of his life, although he seems to have formed a friendship with Sigeferth (died 1015), Sigeforth and Morcar (thegn), Morcar, two of the leading thegns of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, Five Boroughs of the East Midlands. In December 1013 the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, Sweyn conquered England and King Æthelred was forced into exile in Normandy, but he returned following Sweyn's death in February 1014. It is not known what became of Æthelstan and his surviving full brothers, ...
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Æthelred The Unready
Æthelred II (,Different spellings of this king's name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern dialect word . ; ; 966 – 23 April 1016), known as Æthelred the Unready, was List of English monarchs, King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death in 1016. His epithet comes from the Old English word meaning "poorly advised"; it is a pun on his name, which means "well advised". Æthelred was the son of Edgar, King of England, King Edgar and Ælfthryth (wife of Edgar), Queen Ælfthryth. He came to the throne at about the age of 12, following the assassination of his elder half-brother, King Edward the Martyr. The chief characteristic of Æthelred's reign was conflict with the Danes (tribe), Danes. After several decades of relative peace, Danish raids on English territory began again in earnest in the 980s, becoming markedly more se ...
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Kingdom Of Sussex
The Kingdom of the South Saxons, today referred to as the Kingdom of Sussex (; from , in turn from or , meaning "(land or people of/Kingdom of) the South Saxons"), was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon England. On the south coast of the island of Great Britain, it was originally a sixth-century Saxon colony and later an independent Realm, kingdom. The kingdom remains one of the least known of the Anglo-Saxon polities, with no surviving king-list, several local rulers and less centralisation than other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The South Saxons were ruled by the kings of Sussex until the country was annexed by Wessex, probably in 827, in the aftermath of the Battle of Ellendun. In 860 Sussex was ruled by the kings of Wessex, and by 927 all remaining heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were ruled by them as part of the new kingdom of England. The foundation legend of the kingdom of Sussex is that in 477 Ælle of Sussex, Ælle and his three sons arrived ...
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Thegn
In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were held by a thane as well as the rank; an approximately equivalent modern title may be that of baron. The term ''thane'' was also used in Early Middle Ages, early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers, and ''thane (Scotland), thane'' was a title given to local royal officials in medieval eastern Scotland, equivalent in rank to the child of an earl. Etymology ''Thegn'' is only used once in the laws before the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939), but more frequently in charters. Apparently unconnected to the German language, German and Dutch language, Dutch word '' '' ('to serve'), H. M. Chadwick suggests "the sense of subordination must have been inherent... from the earliest time". It gradually expanded in meaning and use, to ...
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