In doing so, Harold ignored the interests of a more likely claimant to the throne – someone who tends to be overlooked in the story of 1066.

Edward the Confessor’s closest blood relative was his great-nephew, Edgar, the grandson of his half-brother Edmund Ironside. Edgar was probably around 14 years old in 1066, and in the last years of his reign Edward seems to have promoted him as a potential candidate for the throne. He was referred to as ‘ætheling’, a title meaning throneworthy and used for the sons of kings.

In terms of his descent, Edgar Ætheling had the strongest claim to the English crown in 1066. A continental chronicler, writing in the 1080s, said that in seizing the throne Harold had disregarded an oath he had sworn to Edward that he would yield the throne to Edgar.

Taking the throne at this period depended not just on kinship, however, but on the approval of the leading nobles. Edgar’s youth and relative inexperience would have counted against him in their deliberations.

Harold, by contrast, was around 40 years old, had extensive military experience, and was the second wealthiest person in England after the king. He was also politically adept, and by 1066 had forged alliances with the leading figures in the kingdom. In the process he had outmanoeuvred his closest immediate rival, his brother Tostig.

His coronation reflected the reality of his existing political prominence.

Guarding the south coast

Upon his exile in late 1065, Tostig had sailed to Flanders (the northern half of what is now Belgium). In May 1066 he sailed to the Isle of Wight, where he took on provisions, before moving eastwards, raiding the south-east coast of England and arriving at the important port of Sandwich in Kent.

Harold’s response was to raise an army and naval forces immediately to confront his estranged brother. When he learned that Harold was on his way, Tostig sailed northwards, raiding Lincolnshire, before Earls Eadwine and Morcar drove him out. He then took refuge in Scotland over the summer.

By the time Harold arrived at Sandwich, however, he was almost certainly aware of a far more significant threat – that Duke William of Normandy was preparing to invade England.

William’s invasion and the journey south

Three days after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, William of Normandy landed on the Sussex coast at Pevensey. Harold was still in the north when he heard this news and prepared to return south to face the long-awaited Norman invasion.

As with his journey northwards, Harold’s return to London was strikingly swift. The soonest Harold could have heard of William’s invasion was around 2 October, and within two weeks he had moved from Yorkshire to fight William at the Battle of Hastings. According to some chroniclers, before marching into Sussex Harold spent time in London – up to six days according to one account – making the achievement of the journey from the north all the more remarkable.

Historians have long accepted that this journey entailed Harold rushing his battle-weary men on a long march south. Even if Harold and the army travelling with him only stayed in London for a couple of days, they would have had to cover the 200 miles from Yorkshire to London in seven days, before continuing a further 50 miles to confront William at Hastings on 14 October. The ‘long march’ – not mentioned in any contemporary sources – has long appeared to be an almost superhuman feat of endurance.

There is another possibility, however. Recently, historian Tom Licence has suggested that Harold used a fleet to transport men from the north. He has noted that one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports Harold sending naval forces north in his campaign against Hardrada.