Historians have been puzzling for a long time, where Harald II’s residence stood, the last Anglo -Saxon king of England. The famous wall carpet from Bayeux provided a hint: King Harold is shown on him in the ballroom of his house and in a church. These illustrations have now compared archaeologists with new finds and clearly localized the medieval royal seat in Bosham in southern English. The residence represents a rare model house of the Anglo -Saxon aristocracy, since these buildings were mostly destroyed by the Norman conquerors.
Harold Godwinson, also known as Harald II, was a King of Angel Saxony who died in the famous battle at Hastings in 1066. She was part of the conquest of England by the Normans, led by Wilhelm the conqueror, the Duke of Normandy. The course of his campaign is shown on the Bayeux carpet in 58 scenes, a famous medieval handicrafts. On the 68 -meter -long wall carpet you can see two representations of King Harold, in which he visits a church and celebrates a festival in a prestigious hall.
King Harold’s residence actually stood in Bosham
According to the carpet, this ballroom was in the village of Bosham, on the coast of West Sussex in southern England. But the exact location of Harold’s royal center of power from the Middle Ages remained unclear. Historians suspect him in a place where a private house from the 17th century today has been able to clearly prove the location in Bosham. In order to localize the location without doubt, a team around David Gould from Exeter University has now examined archaeological finds from previous excavations. In addition, the researchers analyzed the surroundings of the house in Bosham and medieval remains there. They compared their finds with notes on old cards and documents.
Gould and his colleagues found that two other previously unknown buildings once stood in medieval Bosham. The house still preserved on the foundations of one was built, the other was in the garden of today’s complex. The analysis of the remains suggests that the ballroom shown on the Bayeux carpet was part of a larger complex, which also included a church that is still standing today. In addition, the analyzes confirmed the discovery of an earlier excavation, according to which a latrine was once in a large wooden building at the site of today’s private house in Bosham. In England, however, only people with a high status built such latrines into their residential complexes, only from the 10th century. Therefore, the researchers conclude from the find that there was an elitist cleaver in Bosham, which was part of Harold’s lost royal residence.
“The realization that a Anglo -Saxon bathroom was actually found during the 2006 excavations confirmed that this house is at the site of an elite residence from the time before the Norman conquest,” says senior author Duncan Wright from Newcastle University. Together, the indications “above all reasonable doubts are raised that we have found the location of Harold Godwinson’s private center of power, which is prominently depicted on Bayeux’s wall carpet.”
Search for other Anglo -Saxon royal residences
The researchers found a rare copy: “In Norman conquest, a new ruling class took the place of an English aristocracy that has left only a few physical remains. This makes the discovery in Bosham extremely significant – we have found a Anglo -Saxon model house, ”says co -author Oliver Creighton from the University of Exeter. Unlike the Norman elites, who preferred to live in castles, Anglo -Saxon rulers and Harold lived in closed residential complexes from mansions with adjacent churches or chapels, as the researchers explain. They suspect that there were once around 1,000 such systems.
In follow -up studies, they now want to search for and analyze other Anglo -Saxon nobility residences such as those of King Harold in order to learn more about the number and appearance of this form of living. The search is made more difficult by the fact that apart from the Bayeux carpet, there is no visual representation of such English rule centers from the time before the conquest.
Source: Newcastle University; Specialist articles: The Antiquaries Journal, DOI: 10.1017/S0003581524000350