Toscead betweox fadungum "Harold Gōdwines sunu"

Harold now forced his army to march 240 miles to intercept William, who had landed perhaps 7000 men in [[Sussex, England|Sussex]], southern England three days later on [[28 Hāligmōnaþ]]. Harold established his army in hastily built [[earthworks (engineering)|earthworks]] near [[Hastings]]. The two armies clashed near [[Battle of Hastings|Hastings]] on [[14 Winterfylleþ]], where after a hard fight Harold was killed and his forces routed. According to tradition, and as depicted in the [[Bayeux Tapestry]], Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye. Whether he did, indeed, die in this manner (a death associated in the middle ages with perjurers), or was killed by a sword, will never be known. Harold's wife, Edyth Swannesha, was called to identify the body, which she did by some private marks known only to herself. Although one Norman account claims that Harold's body was buried in a grave overlooking the Saxon shore, it is more likely that he was buried in his church of [[Waltham Abbey|Waltham Holy Cross]] in [[Essex]].

Literary interest in Harold revived in the 19th century with the play ''Harold'' by [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]] (1876) and the novel ''Last of the Saxon Kings'' by [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] (1848). [[Rudyard Kipling]] wrote a story, ''The tree of justice''(1910), describing how an old man who turns out to be Harold is brought before [[Henry I Englalandes|Henry I]]. [[E. A. Freeman]] wrote a serious history in ''History of the Norman Conquest of England'' (1870-79) in which Harold is seen as a great English hero. By the 21st century Harold's reputation remains tied, as it has always been, with subjective views of the rightness or wrongness of the Norman conquest.