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January 6

January 6

January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 359 days (360 in leap years) remain in the year after this day.

Events

- 1066 - Harold Godwinson crowned King of England
- 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans
- 1540 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
- 1579 - The Union of Atrecht was signed
- 1661 - The fifth monarchy men unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
- 1690 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I becomes King of the Romans
- 1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings
- 1853 - American President-Elect Franklin Pierce, wife Jane, and son Ben are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts. Franklin and Jane survive but eleven-year-old Ben is killed.
- 1858 - Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.
- 1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, resulting with the capture of Harar a few days later.
- 1893 - Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
- 1870 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
- 1900 - It is reported that millions are starving in India.
- Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa - over 1,000 people killed
- 1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
- 1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
- 1929 - King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura.)
- 1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
- 1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- 1936 - Supreme Court of the United States rules the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional in the case United States v. Butler et al.; Porky Pig premieres
- 1940 - Actor William Powell marries his 3rd and final wife, actress Diana Lewis
- Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznan, Warthegau.
- 1941 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
- 1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
- 1946 - William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) hanged for treason at the age of 39
- 1950 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
- 1961 - A fire at the Thomas Hotel in San Francisco kills 20 people.
- 1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
- 1973 - Schoolhouse Rock premieres on American television
- 1974 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
- 1975 - The American soap opera Another World becomes the first soap opera in the world to air hour-long regularly scheduled episodes.
- 1978 - The Hungarian Holy crown (also known as Stephen_I_of_Hungary crown) returned to Hungary from the United_States, where was held after the WW_II.
- 1982 - William Bonin convicted of being the "freeway killer".
- 1992 - The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
- 1994 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
- 1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
- 1996 - 1996 Gaithersburg Metrorail Accident on the Washington Metro system kills one in Montgomery County, Maryland, during the Blizzard of 1996.
- 1998 - The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched to survey the moon's surface.
- 1999 - Bob Newhart receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 2001 - Al Gore, as President of the U.S. Senate, tallies the electoral votes and certifies George W. Bush as the winner of U.S. presidential election, 2000.
- 2005 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers.

Births

- 1367 - King Richard II of England (d. 1400)
- 1412 - Joan of Arc, French warrior and Catholic saint (d. 1431)
- 1418 - Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (d. 1448)
- 1486 - Martin Agricola, German composer (d. 1556)
- 1488 - Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet (d. 1540)
- 1525 - Caspar Peucer, German reformer (d. 1602)
- 1561 - Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (d. 1656)
- 1587 - Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish statesman (d. 1645)
- 1595 - Claude Favre de Vaugelas, French man of letters (d. 1650)
- 1617 - Kristoffer Gabel, Danish statesman (d. 1673)
- 1706 (O.S.) - Benjamin Franklin, American statesman (d. 1790)
- 1714 - Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (d. 1788)
- 1822 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (d. 1890)
- 1832 - Gustave Doré, French painter and sculptor (d. 1883)
- 1838 - Max Bruch, German composer (d. 1920)
- 1872 - Alexander Scriabin, Russian composer (d. 1915)
- 1878 - Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
- 1880 - Tom Mix, American actor (d. 1940)
- 1882 - Fan S. Noli, Albanian bishop, poet, and political figure (d. 1965)
- 1882 - Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)
- 1883 - Khalil Gibran, Lebanese writer and painter (d. 1931)
- 1898 - James Fitzmaurice, Irish aviation pioneer (d. 1965)
- 1899 - Phyllis Haver, American actress (d. 1960)
- 1903 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (d. 1993)
- 1910 - Morris Wright, American writer (d. 1998)
- 1910 - Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1913 - Edward Gierek, Polish politician (d. 2001)
- 1914 - Danny Thomas, American singer, actor, and comedian (d. 1991)
- 1915 - Alan Watts, English writer, philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1920 - Sun Myung Moon, Korean evangelist
- 1920 - John Maynard Smith, English bioligist (d. 2004)
- 1920 - Early Wynn, baseball player (d. 1999)
- 1923 - Jacobo Timerman, Argentine writer (d. 1999)
- 1924 - Earl Scruggs, American musician
- 1925 - John De Lorean, American auto maker (d. 2005)
- 1926 - Ralph Branca, baseball player
- 1926 - Kid Gavilan, Cuban boxer (d. 2003)
- 1929 - Babrak Karmal, Afghani politician (d. 1996)
- 1930 - Vic Tayback, American actor
- 1931 - Capucine, French actress (d. 1990)
- 1931 - E. L. Doctorow, American author
- 1931 - Dickie Moore, Canadian hockey player
- 1932 - Stuart A. Rice, American chemist
- 1933 - Oleg Makarov, cosmonaut (d. 2003)
- 1933 - Emil Steinberger, Swiss comedian
- 1936 - Julio María Sanguinetti Coirolo, President of Uruguay
- 1940 - Penny Lernoux, American journalist and author (d. 1989)
- 1940 - Van McCoy, American musician (d. 1979)
- 1943 - Terry Venables, English football manager
- 1944 - Bonnie Franklin, American actress
- 1944 - Rolf M. Zinkernagel, Swiss immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1946 - Syd Barrett, English guitarist and singer
- 1947 - Sandy Denny, English vocalist (d. 1978)
- 1951 - Kim Wilson, American musician
- 1953 - Malcolm Young, Scottish guitarist (AC/DC)
- 1954 - Hans Robert Hiegel, German architect
- 1954 - Anthony Minghella, British director
- 1955 - Rowan Atkinson, English comedian and actor
- 1957 - Nancy Lopez, American golfer
- 1959 - Kapil Dev, Indian cricketer
- 1959 - Kathy Sledge, American singer
- 1960 - Nigella Lawson, British chef and writer
- 1960 - Howie Long, American football star
- 1962 - Michael Houser, American musician (Widespread Panic) (d. 2002)
- 1964 - Henry Maske, German boxer
- 1964 - Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan athlete (d. 2005)
- 1966 - Fernando Carrillo, Venezuelan actor
- 1968 - John Singleton, American film director and writer
- 1970 - Julie Chen, American television presenter and newsreader
- 1970 - Gabrielle Reece, American volleyball player and model
- 1974 - Nicole DeHuff. American actress (d. 2005)
- 1976 - Danny Pintauro, American actor
- 1980 - Steed Malbranque, French footballer
- 1981 - Mike Jones, American rapper

Deaths

- 1088 - Berengar of Tours, French theologian
- 1448 - Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (b. 1418)
- 1537 - Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (b. 1510)
- 1537 - Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (b. 1481)
- 1616 - Philip Henslowe, English theatrical entrepreneur
- 1689 - Bishop Seth Ward, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1671)
- 1711 - Philipp van Almonde, Dutch admiral (b. 1646)
- 1718 - Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (b. 1664)
- 1718 - Richard Hoare, English goldsmith and banker (b. 1648)
- 1724 - Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese dramatist (b. 1653)
- 1731 - Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (b. 1672)
- 1734 - John Dennis, English critic and dramatist (b. 1657)
- 1840 - Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (b. 1752)
- 1852 - Louis Braille, French teacher of the blind (b. 1809)
- 1855 - Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (b. 1779)
- 1884 - Gregor Johann Mendel, Austrian geneticist (b. 1822)
- 1885 - Peter Christian Asbjørnsen, Norwegian writer and scientist (b. 1812)
- 1918 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician (b. 1845)
- 1919 - Max Heindel, Danish astrologer and mystic (b. 1865)
- 1919 - Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1858)
- 1928 - Alvin Kraenzlein, American athlete (b. 1876)
- 1937 - Brother Andre, Canadian religious figure (b. 1845)
- 1942 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
- 1945 - Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (b. 1863)
- 1949 - Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)
- 1981 - A.J. Cronin, Scottish writer (b. 1896)
- 1990 - Ian Charleson, Scottish actor (b. 1949)
- 1990 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- 1992 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1917)
- 1993 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer (b. 1938)
- 1995 - Joe Slovo, South African politician (b. 1926)
- 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian leader (b. 1966)
- 2000 - Don Martin, American cartoonist (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Pierre Charles, Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1954)
- 2004 - Charles Dumas, American athlete (b. 1937)
- 2004 - Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (b. 1921)
- 2005 - Lois Hole, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta (b. 1933)
- 2005 - Louis Robichaud, Premier of New Brunswick (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances

- Ancient Latvia - Zvaigznes Diena observed
- Christianity (except Eastern Orthodox who follow the Julian Calendar) - Epiphany of the Lord (a.k.a. "Twelfth Day of Christmas" and Three Kings Day in some areas).
- In the Irish Calendar- Little Christmas or "Women's Christmas" and/or Twelfth Day.
- Rastafari movement - Celebration of the ceremonial birthday of Haile Selassie
- Armenian Christmas

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/6 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 5 - January 7 - December 6 - February 6 — listing of all days ko:1월 6일 ja:1月6日 simple:January 6 th:6 มกราคม

January 6

January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 359 days (360 in leap years) remain in the year after this day.

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Harold Godwinson

Harold Godwinson, or Harold II of England (c. 1022 – October 14, 1066) was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England. He ruled from January 5 to October 14 1066 when he was killed at the Battle of Hastings.

Early Life

Harold's father was Godwin, the powerful Earl of Wessex. Godwin was himself a son to Wulfnoth Cild, Thegn of Sussex and had married twice. First to Thyra Sveinsdættir (994 - 1018), a daughter of Sweyn I who was King of Denmark, Norway and England. His second wife was Gytha Thorkelsdættir who was a granddaughter to the legendary Swedish viking Styrbjærn Starke and great-granddaughter to Harold Bluetooth, King of Denmark and Norway, father of Sweyn I. This second marriage resulted in the birth of two sons Harold and Tostig Godwinson, and a sister Edith of Wessex (1020 - 1075) who was Queen consort of Edward the Confessor. Created Earl of East Anglia in 1045, Harold accompanied Godwin into exile in 1051 but helped him to regain his position a year later. When Godwin died in 1053, Harold succeeded him as Earl of Wessex (a province at that time covering the southernmost third of England). This made him the second most powerful figure in England after the king.

Powerful Nobleman

In 1058 Harold also became Earl of Hereford, and he replaced his late father as the focus of opposition to growing Norman influence in England under the restored Saxon monarchy (1042 - 1066) of Edward the Confessor, who had spent more than a quarter of a century in exile in Normandy. He gained glory in a series of campaigns (1062 - 1063) against the ruler of Gwynedd, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who had conquered all of Wales; this conflict ended with Gruffydd's defeat (and death at the hands of his own troops) in 1063. About 1064, Harold married Aldith, daughter of the Earl of Mercia, and former wife of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. By Harold, Aldith had two sons - possibly twins - named Harold and Ulf, both of whom survived into adulthood and probably ended their lives in exile. Harold also had several illegitimate children by his famous mistress (or wife, according to Danish law), "Ealdgyth Swan-neck" or "Edith Swan-neck" or "Edith Swanneck". In 1064, Harold was shipwrecked in Ponthieu and was turned over to the court of Duke William of Normandy. William considered himself to be the successor of the childless Edward the Confessor, and obtained from Harold an oath to support William as the future king of England. It was alleged that William forced Harold to swear to support his claim to the throne, only revealing after the event that the box on which he had made his oath contained holy relics. After Harold's death, Normans were quick to point out that in accepting the crown of England, Harold had perjured himself of this oath. The chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote: "This Englishman was very tall and handsome, remarkable for his physical strength, his courage and eloquence, his ready jests and acts of valor. But what were these gifts to him without honor, which is the root of all good?" In 1065 Harold supported Northumbrian rebels against his brother Tostig who replaced him with Morcar, due to unjust taxation instituted by Tostig. This strengthened his acceptability as Edward's successor, but fatally divided his own family, driving Tostig into alliance with King Harald Hardrada ("Hard Reign") of Norway.

Brief but Eventful Reign as King

Upon Edward the Confessor's death in (January 5 1066), Harold claimed that Edward had promised him the crown on his deathbed, and the Witenagemot (the assembly of the kingdom's leading notables) approved him for coronation, which took place the following day. However, the country was invaded, by both Harald Hardrada of Norway and William, Duke of Normandy, who claimed that he had been promised the English crown by both Edward (probably in 1052) and Harold, who had been shipwrecked in Ponthieu, Normandy in 1064 or 1065. Harold offered his brother Tostig a third of the kingdom, and Tostig asked what Harold would offer the king of Norway. "Six feet of ground or as much more as he needs, as he is taller than most men," was Harold's response according to Henry of Huntingdon. Invading what is now Yorkshire in September, 1066, Harald Hardrada and Tostig defeated the English earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at the Battle of Fulford near York (September 20), but were in turn defeated and slain by Harold's army five days later at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25). Harold now forced his army to march 240 miles to intercept William, who had landed perhaps 7000 men in Sussex, southern England three days later on September 28. Harold established his army in hastily built earthworks near Hastings. The two armies clashed at the Battle of Hastings, near the present town of Battle close by Hastings on October 14, 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. His brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were also killed in the battle. Whether he did, indeed, die in this manner (a death associated in the middle ages with perjurers), or was killed by the sword, will never be known. Harold's mistress, Edith Swanneck, was called to identify the body, which she did by some private mark (the face being destroyed) 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 Holy Cross in Essex, which he had refounded in 1060.

Legacy and Legend

Harold's illegitimate daughter Gytha of Wessex married Vladimir Monomakh Grand Duke (Velikii Kniaz) of Kievan Rus' and is ancestor to dynasties of Galicia, Smolensk and Yaroslavl, whose scions include Modest Mussorgsky and Peter Kropotkin. Consequently, the Russian Orthodox Church recently recognised Harold as a martyr with October 14 as his feast day. Ulf, along with Morcar and two others, were released from prison by King William as he lay dying in 1087. He threw his lot in with Robert Curthose, who knighted him, and disappeared from history. Two of his elder half-brothers, Godwine and Magnus, made a number of attempts at invading England in 1068 and 1069 with the aid of Diarmait mac Mail na mBo. They raided Cornwall as late as 1082, but died in obscurity in Ireland. A cult of hero-worship rose around Harold, and by the 12th century, legend says that Harold had indeed survived the battle, had spent two years in Winchester after the battle recovering from his wounds, and then traveled to Germany, where he spent years wandering as a pilgrim. As an old man, he supposedly returned to England, and lived as a hermit in a cave near Dover. As he lay dying, he confessed that although he went by the name of Christian, he had been born Harold Godwinson. Various versions of this story persisted throughout the Middle Ages, and have little claim to fact. Literary interest in Harold revived in the 19th century, with the play Harold, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in (1876); and the novel Last of the Saxon Kings, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in (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. 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. A fictional account based on the events surrounding Harold's struggle for and brief reign as king of England titled "The Interim King" has been published and is written by James McMillan. By the 21st century, Harold's reputation remains tied as it has always been, with subjective views of the "right-ness" or "wrong-ness" of the Norman conquest.

Family Tree

Ealhmund of Kent, King of Kent AD 784. Ancestry unknown. =? | | Egbert of Wessex, c.770-839. Paternity uncertin. =Redburga | | Ethelwulf of Wessex, c.795-858 =Osburga daughter of Oslac of Isle of Wight =Judith of France daughter of Bald |___________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | Athelstan Athelbald Aethelberht Athelred Aethelswith Alfred the Great d.851? d.860 d.862 =Wulfrida d.888 =Ealhswith | | ____________________________________| | | | | | | | Aethelwald Aethelhelm, Earldorman of Wiltshire | k.899 =Elswitha | | | | ___________________|________________ | | | | | | | Aethelfrith of Wessex (d.927) Elfleda of Wessex (d.918)+Edward the Elder =? | | | | Ethelweard Eadric of Washington, Wessex =? | | Athelward "the historian" (d.998) =? | | Athelmar Cild (d.1015) =? | | Wulfnoth Cild, Thegn of Sussex =? | | Godwin, Earl of Wessex =Gytha Thorgilsdottir | |___________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sven Tostig Gyrth Leofwine Wulfnoth Waeltheow Morcar Edwin Herbert Alfgar | & sisters Edith, Elgiva, Gunhilda, Gytha | | Harold Godwinson +Ealdgyth Swan-neck =Aldith (married 1064) | | | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |_________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Godwine Edmund Magnus Gunhild Gytha of Wessex Harold Ulf b.1049 b.1049 b.1051 1055-97 1053-1098 fl.1098 fl.1087 two sons died in exile in Ireland lived in Normandy? issue & fate unknown Sources: http://www.mathematical.com/englandharold1019.html http://www.draftymanor.com/bart/GenBrit/b0002537.htm

Bibliography

Biography by P. Compton (1961); F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England (3d ed. 1971). Biography by Ian W. Walker: Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1997. ISBN 0-7509-1388-6

External links

- [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/s050/f395158.htm A pedigree of him ; not necessarily reliable]
- [http://nygaard.50g.com/files/1389.htm Another profile of him]
- [http://armidalesoftware.com/issue/full/Thaler_174_main.html A chart including him among the descendants of King Cerdic of Wessex]
- [http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cousin/html/p85.htm#i5571 A short profile of him among other related persons] Category:1022 births Category:1066 deaths Category:Viking Age Category:Heirs to the English & British thrones Category:Anglo-Saxon monarchs ja:ハロルド2世 (イングランド王)

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the

January 6

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Harold Godwinson

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England

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