The Illness of Harold

Joanne Major
May 8
5 min read

Updated: May 13

I'm delighted to welcome the first guest to my blog, my fellow Pen & Sword author, Paula Lofting. An established historical fiction writer, Paula has just published her first historical nonfiction book, Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King: Harold Godwinson, England's Golden Warrior. Paula is sharing an excerpt from this.

The following excerpt from Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King talks about an illness that struck Harold down as a young man when he was Earl of East Anglia. This story only appears in the chronicle Haroldi Vita. The said book was written around 1205, however there may well be some truth to the story. Sadly, much of the book is more likely to be legend and parts of it, such as his supposed survival of the Battle of Hastings are the stuff of fantasy. The illness, however, is the only chapter that is plausible. It is a shame that the other content makes its reality seem less likely. I let the readers decide for themselves.

The anonymous author speaks of Harold as the best, most uprighteous of young men in the land. Nonetheless, he was struck with a stroke, causing what physicians called a paralysis, said to have been delivered by the hand of God. The text implies that Harold would receive spiritual reward if he overcame it, ‘a remedy for his soul’, now, and for any future wounds. The author of the Haroldi describes the affliction as that which ‘forsakes a man’s body’ and causes it to forget its ability to function. Thus, as Harold lay very ill, unable to move the parts of him rendered useless and weak, hearts were heavy with grief, including the king who loved him. The chronicler refers to Edward’s wariness of Harold’s family, stating that of all of them, Harold was dearer than any others; the best of a bad sort. Edward made available his own physicians to attend him. Again, the chronicler draws the reader’s attention to the spiritual context of the problem, proclaiming that the Almighty’s will cannot be put aside by the power of man. That Edward loved Harold like a son is corroborated by a later chronicler, Snorri Sturluson.

Somehow, the sad news of Harold’s predicament reached the ears of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III referred to in the Haroldi, as king of the Alemanni, and he sent a physician called Ailard, whom it was said that God had entrusted with great skill at healing the sick. We are not told how Henry came to know about Harold’s illness, but we learn that Henry and Edward were ‘akin’ to one another through marriage. For Henry’s father, Henry II, had married Edward’s half-sister Gunhildr, who died when Edward was still exiled in Normandy and unlikely to ever have met. It is possible that Edward and Henry III may have met when Edward attended courtly events. Apparently, united in affection and friendship, both Emperor Henry and Henry, King of France had attended Edward’s coronation. The emperor may have felt empathy upon hearing of Edward’s distress for Harold. As the Haroldi reported, Henry hastened to send his own talented physician, Ailard (also known as Master Adelard of Uhtrecht) to his dear friend, the king of England. The friendship may have deepened when, in 1049, Henry called upon Edward to assist him in his troubles with Count Baldwin V.

The learned Ailard, a native of Liege and student of Uhtrecht, arrived in Waltham where Harold was being cared for, and examined the young earl carefully. He realised

that he, like Edward’s other physicians, was unable to help him, despite devoting every attention to him. And seeing that Harold’s illness was one of divine intervention rather than cause of the physical, the physician, who was also qualified as a scholar, a spiritual cause needed a spiritual remedy.

Keeping within the theme of otherworldly the author tells us that those attending Harold advised Ailard of the life size stone figure of the crucified Jesus Christ that Tovi the Proud had discovered in the ground on an estate in Somerset and brought by divine providence, to the church at Waltham. Tovi was said to have been in such awe of the stone cross, he had used his own sword to gird it and his wife Gytha had adorned its figure of Christ in gold and precious stones, all made of ‘marvellous workmanship’ with her own jewellery. She had also ordered a gemstone to be embedded within it to provide light for those on watch. It was to this artefact that Ailard recommended Harold pray if he wanted to live, persuading him to put his hope in God from whom salvation comes if one puts their trust in him. Harold was carried to the place where the stone cross was kept and ‘prayed with great earnestness that the guardians of the place, whose duty it was to minister at the health-giving symbol would deign to obtain for him by their hearty prayers pardons for his sins and alleviations of his sufferings; in a word, health for both the inner and the outer man. Nor was the mercy of the Saviour long in wanting to him who asked for health with a faith unfeigned for soon the pain and weakness of his body grew less; but as he became stronger his love for the observances of the Holy Cross wonderfully increased’. Thus in a short while, Harold was restored to perfect health and vowed to devote the rest of his life to the Holy Cross of Waltham.

Later he would rebuild the church there, a magnificent church that would outshine the old one. This new church of the Holy Cross was to become his life’s joy, but he would not see it consecrated until 1060, five years before Edward’s new church of Westminster.

Book Links

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Author Bio

Paula was born in the ancient Saxon county of Middlesex in 1961. She grew up in Australia hearing stories from her dad of her homeland and its history. As a youngster she read books by Rosemary Sutcliff and Leon Garfield and her love of English history grew. At 16 her family decided to travel back to England and resettle. She was able to visit the places she'd dreamt about as a child, bringing the stories of her childhood to life. It wasn't until later in life that Paula realised her dream to write and publish her own books. Her debut historical novel Sons of the Wolf was first published in 2012 and then revised and republished in 2016 along with the sequel, The Wolf Banner, in 2017. The third in the series, Wolf's Bane, will be ready for publishing later this year.

In this midst of all this, Paula acquired contracts for nonfiction books with the prestigious Pen & Sword publishers. Searching for the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, England’s Golden Warrior is now available to buy in all good book outlets, and she is now working on the next non-fiction book about King Edmund Ironside. She has also written a short essay about Edmund for Iain Dale's Kings and Queens, and articles for historical magazines. When she is not writing, she is a psychiatric nurse, mother of three grown up kids and grandmother of two and also re-enacts the Anglo-Saxon/Viking period with the awesome Regia Anglorum.