The House of Godwin: The Rise and Fall of an Anglo-Saxon Dynasty

For much of the eleventh century, the House of Godwin stood at the centre of English politics. In The House of Godwin, Michael John Key traces the dynasty from Earl Godwin’s rise under Cnut through the careers of his children, including Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, and Tostig, whose rivalry with his brother helped shape the crisis of 1066.

Key places the family’s ambitions, alliances and periods of exile within the unstable politics of late Anglo-Saxon England and its connections with Scandinavia and Normandy. He examines Godwin’s role in the Anglo-Danish succession, Harold’s journey to Normandy, William the Conqueror’s claim to the throne, the invasions of 1066 and the fate of the surviving Godwinsons after Hastings. Drawing together political, military and dynastic history, the book reassesses a family whose extraordinary rise and sudden fall were inseparable from the end of Anglo-Saxon rule.