The year 1066 is synonymous with the Norman Conquest and the violent end of

Anglo-Saxon rule in England. But what’s been largely forgotten is that, just weeks
before the Battle of Hastings, there was another, entirely separate, attack on
England. The would-be invaders were Viking warriors headed up by Norway’s King
Harald Hardrada, who would be slain at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25
September. His death is now regarded as marking the end of the Viking Age – but
just who was this remarkable figure whose failed invasion of England has been
overshadowed ever since by the exploits of William the Conqueror?
‘WHO KNOWS HOW HIGHLY I’LL BE HERALDED ONE
DAY.’
Hardrada – whose name can translate as ‘Hard Ruler’, ‘Tyrannical’ or simply
‘Resolute’, depending on how you want to think of him – was involved in bloody
power struggles from an early age. While still a teenager, Harald joined forces with
his half-brother, Olaf II of Norway, who had been toppled and exiled by Cnut the
Great of Denmark. The half-siblings fought to regain the throne for Olaf at the Battle
of Stiklestad in 1030, where Olaf himself was killed. Harald was injured but managed
to go on the run, feeling rather sorry for himself. ‘From copse to copse I crawl and
creep now, worthless,’ he wrote. ‘Who knows how highly I’ll be heralded one day.’

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It was the start of a new life as a wandering adventurer and warrior. He wound up in
the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which was the Rome, Paris, London or New
York of its time: a sprawling, bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis of wealth and
intrigue. Here, Harald joined the Varangian Guard – an elite class of largely Norse
fighters who protected the Byzantine. ‘They attacked with reckless rage and neither
cared about losing blood nor their wounds,” a contemporary source tells us.
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by Sky HISTORY

Harald distinguished himself in the Varangian Guard, seeing action against pirates
on the Mediterranean, and perhaps battling Arab forces as far east as Mesopotamia
(the region which encompasses the likes of Iraq and Syria). Frank McLynn, author of
1066: The Year of the Three Battles, sums up Harald’s colourful reputation,
describing him as ‘forceful, self-willed, determined, courageous, far-sighted, [he had]
a talent for war, was attractive to women but was also a ferocious disciplinarian,
wildly ambitious and coldly ruthless, greedy and avaricious, with a lust for loot that
became legendary.’
His numerous military skirmishes made him incredibly rich with the spoils of war, but
Harald also fell out of favour with the aristocracy and was imprisoned for a period.
Eventually released, he was part of a bloody revolt which – according to legend –
culminated with Harald blinding the Byzantine Emperor Michael V. Harald was by
this point supremely powerful and influential thanks to his aggressive reputation and
sheer wealth. But his fate lay back home in his native Scandinavia, where Magnus –
the son of his slain half-brother Olaf II – had been crowned King of Norway and
Denmark. This may have been one of the reasons Harald began the journey
homewards in 1045.