William was born in 1028. He was the son of Robert, Duke of Normandy and Herleva. Because Robert and Herleva were not married, William was known to his contemporaries as William 'the Bastard'. To us he is known as William the Conqueror. In 1035 at the age of seven or eight, William (more...)

HARTHACNUT (King of England 1040-1042)
Denmark

Harthacanute was the eldest son of Canute and his second wife Emma. When Canute died in November of 1035 Harathacanute was in Denmark and could not return to England because his claim to the (Danish/Norwegian ?) throne was being contested by Magnus I of Norway. Harthacanute appoint (more...)

Leofric (Earl of Mercia)
Leofric rose to power during the reign of Canute and Edward the Confessor. He became the Earl of Mercia and controlled large parts of the Midlands. He supported Edward against the Godwines. He appears to have been quite religious as there are records of him founding abbeys at Coventry and Wenlock. L (more...)

Godwine (Earl of Wessex)
King Canute gave Godwine the title of Earl of Wessex and Godwine very quickly rose to be extremely powerful. In 1042 Edward the Confessor married Godwine's daughter Edith and from then on the Earl more or less ran the country. He opposed Edward's Norman advisors and in 1051 the Godwines revolted aga (more...)

Emma (of Normandy, Wife of Athelred)
Wife of Athelred

Emma of Normandy was the daughter of Richard I, the Duke of Normandy. Emma married Athelred the King of the English in November of 1002. This was at the time when England was under constant attack from Viking raiders. The English had to pay the Vikings sums of money, known (more...)

Alfred (Second son of Athelred)
Alfred was the second son of Athelred and Emma. Alfred was murdered in 1036(7) when he came to England to help his mother's campaign against Harold Harefoot and Earl Godwine.