Statue of Harold Godwinson and Edith Swanneck
Harold Godwinson (r. 1066) was the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and married Edith Swanneck, a wealthy East Anglian heiress, in the 1040s. Harold was the chief advisor to Edward the Confessor, and after claiming the throne following the king’s death in 1066, he was defeated and killed by William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. Edith lived several years after her husband and may have fled to the continent with her children, who settled across several European nations, including Denmark, Poland and Russia.
The statue depicts Edith finding Harold’s body in the field of Hastings, southeast England. It alludes to the story that Harold’s body had been so badly mutilated by the battle that he could only be identified by Edith, who recognised markings on his chest that were known only to her. Built in Hastings in 1875 by Charles Augustus William, the statue was commissioned by Lord Brassey, Member of Parliament for Hastings, to stand in Hastings Town Hall. It was moved between several locations over the years before being placed at its current site at West Marina Gardens in Hastings in 1953.
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Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.Original image by Alexis Markwick. Uploaded by Michael McComb, published on 09 April 2025. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Public Domain. This item is in the public domain, and can be used, copied, and modified without any restrictions. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
