So why did King Hardrada of Norway invade England? This chapter gave me an opportunity to examine why the most famous Viking of his day risked everything to go to war against the Anglo-Saxons. In 1066 Harald Hardrada was entering the autumn of his life. He had worked hard to become rich and powerful and, most of all, the king of his people. Although he had ultimately been successful in his endeavours it seems that Hardrada found ruling a kingdom much more difficult than he had might have imagined. It was a common claim of his that he had never been beaten in battle since the first one he had fought in, and then he had been but a boy. Whether this claim was true or not he was a formidable warrior and chieftain, but as he approached the end of his life his legacy was tarnished by a long and fruitless war against the Danes, who he was never able to defeat conclusively. Whereas Guillaume of Normandy needed greater resources to maintain his independence from France, Hardrada needed a glorious conquest to answer his critics at home. Of course, Anglo-Saxon wealth would have been very welcome too; his court’s treasury was running low.

Perhaps the coming of Tostig Godwinson was the spur that he needed to act. Tostig had previously visited Guillaume with his offer of becoming an ally, but Guillaume did not favour his plans for defeating Harold too highly. Hardrada probably found the idea of taking to the sea and raiding the lands of his enemy much more to his liking than court intrigues. I think that the appeal of recapturing the days of his youth with companions that had shared many an adventure with hims was a powerful motivation.

Despite the more nostalgic notions of reliving the past I do not think that King Harald was blind to his actual position. The people in Norway were turning against him and some of his enemies were beginning to find the courage to challenged his kingship. He was heading to England with the largest Viking force ever to cross the sea, but the truth was that his own forces were depleted. He had to rely on a significant number of mercenaries, Danes even against who he had fought for so long, as well as Anglo-Saxons following Tostig, to bolster his numbers. He knew that any Saxon army that took the field against him would be united, whereas his own men were disparate, brought together by the thought of plunder only.

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