Gyrth,
the son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, and
the brother of Swegen, Tostig
and Harold,
was born in about 1030.
In
1051 a group of Normans became involved
in a brawl at Dover and several men were
killed. Edward the Confessor ordered Godwin,
as earl of Wessex, to punish the people living in the town for this
attack on his Norman friends. Godwin refused and instead raised an
army against the king. Godwin marched on Gloucester but a war was
averted when it was agreed that the Witan
would sort out the dispute.
The
earls of Mercia and Northumbria remained loyal to the king and the
Witan eventually declared that Godwin and his sons had five days to
leave England. Godwin and his sons, Gyrth and Tostig
joined Swegen in Flanders.
Over
the next year Edward the Confessor increased
the number of Norman advisers in England.
This upset the Anglo-Saxons and when
Godwin and a large army commandeered by his sons, Gyrth, Harold
and Tostig, landed in the south of England
in 1052, Edward was unable to raise significant forces to stop the
invasion. Most of the men in Kent, Surrey and Sussex joined the rebellion.
Godwin's
large fleet moved round the coast and recruited men in Hastings, Hythe,
Dover and Sandwich. He then sailed up the Thames and soon gained the
support of Londoners. Godwin now forced Edward to send his Norman
advisers home. Earl Godwin was also given
back his family estates and was now the most powerful man in England.
Gyrth now became Earl of East Anglia.
Gyrth,
who fought at the Stamford
Bridge,
was killed at the Battle
of Hastings.
The
Normans: Classroom Activities
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