Did King Harold II Die With an Arrow in His Eye?

NBC News ^ | October 13, 2014 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, has long been thought to have been killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But British archaeologists are to test a theory he survived on the anniversary of the famous battle this Tuesday. The battle, on Oct. 14, 1066, marked a turning point in British history as the Normans conquered medieval England.

There are different accounts of how he was killed, one of them pictured in the Bayeux Tapestry, which appears to have him gripping an arrow that had pierced his eye. Another account has Harold being killed by knights and his body dismembered. But Peter Burke, an amateur historian in southern England, has suggested Harold may have survived as a hermit for a further 40 years. Archaeologists will begin to test his theory on Tuesday by launching a scan of the grounds of Waltham Abbey Church in Essex, where Harold was supposedly buried. The scan will be carried out by Stratascan, the same geological survey company that helped locate the remains of King Richard III in 2012 beneath a parking lot.

[colorado tanker]

It will be fascinating to see what they find, but I really doubt Harold got away. In those days no claimant of a throne would allow a rival to live.

[SunkenCiv]

If memory serves, the survivors of the battle said, it appeared he’d been slain, then he emerged from a pile, pulled off his helmet, and shouted “I still live”. Then the arrow with his name on it killed him. Famous last words...

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

That theory that one or more shipwrecks played any role in Harold's defeat at Hastings seems dubious. Harold had to first defeat a Danish invasion at Stamford bridge, then force-march his men to Hastings. Harolds troops were exhausted and were too late to stop the Normans from embarking and forming up their troops. A battle to prevent the Normans from even setting foot on English soil would have worked (probably) if Harold was waiting for them with a well-rested army.

[ZULU]

All very true. BUT the falsehood that Harald had broken oaths on Holy Records resulted in the Pope giving William the Bastard’s little enterprise the legitimacy of a crusade which allowed to more easily conscript the scum of Europe into his army. In today’s secularized society it’s difficult to comprehend the impact of a papal declaration of a crusade.