Later, they take several of the captives and tie them to the Frankish signal fires. As the men are burned alive, Harald and the other warriors cheer and praise Odin while urinating on the unfortunate Franks. When the Vikings travel upriver towards Paris, the ships are shot at from the forts by Frankish soldiers, led by Rollo. When the Franks raise a huge chain between the two forts to block the ships progress, Harald's ship is capsized and sunken.
Harald and his brother swim to Ragnar's ship, where they defend against the Frankish assault. Harald and Halfdan lead a raid on a small Frankish farm.
They discover a family inside, and brutally kill them all, after raping the two daughters. They burn the farm afterward. Harald and the other Vikings battle the Franks head-on in in brutal combat on the river. Harald fights alongside his brother and is dismayed when Halfdan is shot by a Frankish crossbowman. Harald is last seen retreating with the Viking fleet after a crushing defeat by the Franks.
In the years following the defeat at the Second Siege of Paris , King Harald is busy expanding his realm, conquering the Kingdom of Rogaland , and killing King Arnarson and his earl Eyolf. He also defeated King Svein from an unspecified Norwegian kingdom. Harald, along with his brother, Halfdan, joins Bjorn in his expedition to the Mediterranean Sea and assures Bjorn he has no intention of threatening Kattegat.
When Bjorn seeks a truce with his uncle Rollo, Harald is captured along with the other Norse leaders. He questions Bjorn's judgement in trusting Rollo. Eventually, they are released when Bjorn agrees to allow Rollo to join the expedition. As the expedition runs short on fresh water and food, Harald privately questions Bjorn's leadership and suggests he might be cursed, like he considers Ragnar.
He relents to Halfdan and brings up that their overthrow of the Lothbroks is inevitable in his quest to become king of Norway. Eventually, the fleet comes upon Algeciras and sacks the city.
Floki prevents Harald and Halfdan from murdering praying Muslims: Harald directly stops his brother from entering a conflict with Floki. Egil begins to infiltrate Kattegat and locate weaknesses in its defenses. As the Lothbroks gather the Great Heathen Army , they ally with them once more. As forces from all over Scandinavia gather in Kattegat, Harald spots Ellisif. He reacts nervously upon seeing her and his brother encourages him to talk to her.
When Harald meets Ellisif in the Great Hall, he tells her that he will soon be worthy of her, and he can finally cut his hair and marry her.
However, Ellisif confesses that she is already married to a Danish earl, a man of lower social status and fame than Harald. Harald angrily reminds her that he was already a king when she refused him and is hurt by her rejecting him for a man he considers "a nobody," stating he has based his whole life around her. Meanwhile Halfdan draws an axe to kill her. Ellisif begs him not to, and Harald lets her go. Later Halfdan suggests that they must kill Ellisif because she has taken Harald's honor.
Harald refuses and reveals that he only loves two people: Halfdan and Ellisif. Harald states he will kill all those who threaten her. In camp, Harald kills Ellisif's husband, Earl Vik , to avenge the offense that has gnawed away at him.
Later, he falls for Ellisif's pretention of renewed interest in him, and they start to make love. Before it goes too far, however, Ellisif pulls a blade and tries to kill him to avenge her husband's death. Halfdan, however, had been suspicious and watching, and kills her.
Harald is left distraught by Ellisif's attempt to kill him and to have lost the only woman that he has ever loved. Later, he partakes in the Battle of Repton , as Aethelwulf 's forces are crushed. King Harald heads back to Kattegat and parts ways with his brother, who sailed from England to the Mediterranean once more with Bjorn.
When he arrives, Lagertha suggests that Harald was expecting to find Egil in her place, so he could take over the kingdom. Harald confesses and dares that she kill him, but she captures him instead. Harald is held prisoner by Lagertha. He proposes an alliance with her through marriage, but she refuses and rapes him. Harald's men free him and capture Astrid they leave Kattegat and Harald offers Astrid the same proposition that he had to Lagertha.
Back in Harald's home village of Tamdrup, Astrid is initially visibly repulsed by the town, a fishing and whaling village. However, she agrees to Harald's proposal, and they are married.
Ivar arrives for a meeting in Harald's kingdom, to negotiate an alliance with him and they agree to attack Kattegat in two moons' time. The arangement being thar Ivar become King and Harald succeading him after his death.
Although Astrid convinces Harald that she is a happy and willing participant in their marriage, she goes behind his back and sends a group of fishermen from his village to warn Lagertha of his attack plans. The fishermen force Astrid to submit to sex with them before they agree. Read more about: Vikings The most powerful goddesses in Norse mythology. Most Recent. A history of the poppy: Why we wear them as a symbol of remembrance and other facts. The kingmaker Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor dynasty.
Lesser known facts about The Battle of the Somme. Toussaint Louverture and the birth of Haiti. The Battle of Britain British History. The history of the Viking Age Vikings. What is the legacy of the Vikings? Probably seeking to restore Cnut's "North Sea Empire", Harald also claimed the Danish throne, and spent nearly every year until raiding the Danish coast and fighting his former ally, Sweyn. Although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark.
Not long after Harald had renounced his claim to Denmark, the former Earl of Northumbria, Tostig Godwinson, brother of the newly chosen but reigning not for long English king Harold Godwinson also known as Harold of Wessex , pledged his allegiance to Harald and invited him to claim the English throne. Harald went along and invaded Northern England with 10, troops and longships in September , raided the coast and defeated English regional forces of Northumbria and Mercia in the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September Although initially successful, Harald was defeated and killed in a surprise attack by Harold Godwinson's forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September , which wiped out almost his entire army.
Modern historians have often considered Harald's death, which brought an end to his invasion, as the end of the Viking Age. Zijn mislukte veldtocht in om Engeland te veroveren luidde het einde van het Viking-tijdperk in.
Volgens de overlevering werd de Noorse hoofdstad Oslo rond door Harald gesticht. Oslo bestond al, maar werd door Harald uitgebouwd tot een stad. Een standbeeld uit van Harald te paard is te zien op het stadhuis van Oslo. Molti dettagli della sua vita e del suo regno sono contenuti nel Heimskringla. In response, he acted with brutality, and had peopled maimed and killed as a warning to those who disobeyed him.
Harald's contribution to the strengthening of Norway's monarchy was the enforcement of a policy that only the king could retain a hird, thus centralising power away from local warlords. According to historian Knut Helle, Harald completed the first phase of what he has termed the "national territorial unification of Norway".
To establish domestic alliances, he married Tora Torbergsdatter of one of the most powerful Norwegian families. Haakon had even ruled the whole of Norway nominally under the Danish king from until , when he was killed during the takeover by Olaf Tryggvasson. Even after Haakon's death his offspring held a certain degree of sovereignty in the north, and by Harald's early reign the family was headed by Einar Thambarskelfir, who was married to Haakon's daughter.
While the family had maintained good relations with Magnus, Harald's absolutism and consolidation of the kingship soon led to conflict with Einar. Imitation of a type of Edward the Confessor. It was from his power-struggle with the Norwegian aristocracy that Harald got himself the reputation which gave him the nickname "Hardrada", or "the hard ruler". One time in Nidaros, Einar arrived at Harald's court, and in a display of power was accompanied by "eight or nine longships and almost five hundred men", obviously seeking confrontation.
Harald was not provoked by the incident. Although the sources differ on the circumstances, the next event nonetheless led to the murder of Einar by Harald's men, which threatened to throw Norway into a state of civil war. Although the remaining descendants of Haakon Sigurdsson considered rebellion against the king, Harald eventually managed to negotiate peace with them, and secured the family's submission for the remainder of his reign.
Reportedly even considering to give him the title of Earl, Haakon was greatly upset when Harald later backed down from his promise. In early , Haakon entered the Uplands and collected their taxes, the region thus effectively threatening to renounce their loyalty to Harald. The revolt of Haakon and the farmers in the Uplands may have been the main reason why Harald finally had been willing to enter a peace agreement with Sweyn Estridsson.
After the agreement, Harald went to Oslo and sent tax collectors to the Uplands, only to find that the farmers would withhold their taxes until Haakon arrived. In response, Harald entered Sweden with an army and quickly defeated Haakon. Due to the remote location of the region in the interior of the country, the Uplands had never been an integrated part of the Norwegian king's realm.
Using harsh measures, Harald burned down farms and small villages, and had people maimed and killed. Starting in Romerike , his campaign continued into Hedmark , Hadeland and Ringerike. Since the regions contained several rich rural communities, Harald strengthened his economic position by confiscating farming estates. Harald's reign was marked by his background as a military commander, as he often solved disputes with harsh force.
One of his skalds even boasted about how Harald broke settlements he had made, in his battles in the Mediterranean. Modern historians have taken this as a sign that despite his absolutism, his reign was one of peace and progress for Norway. Harald is considered to have instituted good economic policies, as he developed a Norwegian currency and a viable coin economy, which in turn allowed Norway to participate in international trade.
He initiated trade with Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire through his connections, as well as with Scotland and Ireland. Harald also continued to advance Christianity in Norway, and archaeological excavations show that churches were built and improved during his reign.
He also imported bishops, priests and monks from abroad, especially from Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. A slightly different form of Christianity was thus introduced in Norway from the rest of northern Europe, although it should be noted that the East—West Schism had not yet taken place.
The protests by the legates led Harald to throw the Catholic clergy out of his court, and he reportedly stated to the legates that "he did not know of any other archbishop or lord of Norway than the king himself". Once he had returned to Norway, Harald seems to have displayed an interest in exploring his own realm, as for instance the Morkinskinna recounts Harald's trip into the Uplands.
Harald is also said to have explored the seas beyond his kingdom, as the contemporary Adam of Bremen reports of such naval expeditions conducted by Harald: [93]. Kelly DeVries has suggested that Harald "may even have known of and sought out the legendary land called Vinland which Viking sailors had discovered only a short time before," which Adam mentions earlier in the same passage to have been widely reported of in Denmark and Norway. Lamb has on the other hand proposed that the land he reached may have been either Spitsbergen or Novaya Zemlya.
With the truce and the recognition that he would not conquer Denmark, Harald turned his attention to England. England had belonged to Harthacnut , the son of Cnut the Great, until he died childless in Harald based his claim to the throne of England on an agreement made between Magnus and Harthacnut in , which stated that if either died, the other would inherit the throne and lands of the deceased. When Harthacnut died, Magnus assumed the crown of Denmark and considered himself the lawful heir to Harthacnut.
While Edward the Confessor had himself crowned English king in his absence, Magnus had planned to invade England in , only to be forced to turn his fleet towards Denmark due to an uprising by Sweyn Estridsson. Although the threat was temporarily averted by Magnus's death in , Edward's negotiations with his enemies throughout the s gave Harald as well as Sweyn Estridsson and William of Normandy an impression that he was a possible heir to Edward.
When Edward died in January , he was to Harald's dismay succeeded by Harold Godwinson , a son of one of his advisors. Harald's son Magnus had previously been involved in Gruffydd ap Llywelyn 's war against the English king with a Norwegian fleet, possibly indicating that Harald had tested the situation in England long before his invasion, only to find that he could not simultaneously be at war with Denmark and England.
According to the sagas, Tostig finally pledged his support for Harald, including that of the "majority of the chieftains", at a meeting in Norway.
Some historians doubt that this meeting took place, as William of Malmesbury claims that Tostig did not pledge his support for Harald until they met at the Humber. This would indicate that the invasion originally was Harald's plan alone, and that his joining of forces with Tostig was merely a later agreement when the two met for the first time in Scotland or Northumbria.
Another proposal by historians is that a meeting did indeed take place in Norway, but instead with Copsig , one of Tostig's early supporters and a fellow exile, as Tostig's mediator. If this is correct, it would both allow an agreement to have been made in Norway, and the first personal meeting between Harald and Tostig to have taken place in Britain. The plans for the invasion were in any case completed by the start of September , and had possibly begun already in March or April.
In both places he was joined by several important lords, chieftains, and soldiers, including the Earls of Orkney , Paul and Erlend Thorfinnsson. He next went to Dunfermline, where he met with Tostig's ally Malcolm III of Scotland and according to some sources, with Tostig [] who allocated him a couple thousand Scottish soldiers.
He had then raided villages along the southern coast of Britain from the Isle of Wight to Sandwich. As Harold Godwinson gathered a large army in response, Tostig sailed north to meet with Harald, while Harold Godwinson remained in the south in expectation of invasion by William of Normandy, [] who for a long time had openly claimed the English throne.
Embarking from Tynemouth, Harald and Tostig likely landed at the River Tees, [] entered Cleveland , [] and started plundering the coast. The first resistance was met at Scarborough, where Harald's demand for surrender was opposed. In the end, Harald managed to burn down the town, which in turn caused other Northumbrian towns to surrender to him. After further raiding, Harald and Tostig sailed down the Humber, until they disembarked at Riccall.
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