Campbell on Tostig

“A Note on Tostig Godwinson’s Movements in 1066.”

by Miles W. Campbell

    [p. 3] Banished from England in November 1065, owing to the rebellion of his Northumbrian subjects, Earl Tostig Godwinson, with his family and a few faithful supporters, found refuge at the court of Count Baldwin V of Flanders, the half-brother of his wife. After the death of Edward the Confessor and the accession of Tostig’s brother Harold to the English throne in January 1066, the exiled earl began to search for an ally who could provide him with the military support necessary to return to England and triumph over the newly-crowned monarch, whom he held responsible for his banishment.1  His quest for revenge came to a head in the following September, when, having made an alliance with King Harald Hardrada of Norway, they launched a large invasion of northern England. After having run roughshod over the Northumbrian forces at Fulford Gate on September 20, the invaders were, in their turn, crushed by the king of England at Stamford Bridge five days later. 

    Although Tostig’s movements during the months between his banishment and his return to Northumbria in the company of a great Viking army are partly known, the precise details remain a question without answer, or at least rather obscure. There is, first of all, the problem of his relations with the king of Norway. Even though it seems evident that, prior to the event, Tostig had come to an agreement with the Norwegian with a view to an invasion of England, there is uncertainty as to the precise moment that that agreement took place, and if the earl had direct contact with the Norse monarch or whether he conducted the essential negotiations by means of emissaries. The [p. 4] question of whether Tostig, in his search for help, made contact with Duke William of Normandy remains equally without an adequate answer. Even though it is true that one can find evidence in the sources which would seem to relate to these two questions, their apparent contradictions have led scholars to express doubts concerning their validity.  It seems likely, however, that the sources do in fact provide sufficient information to resolve these problems and that there is no real contradiction among them. What is more, these same sources reveal an episode of Tostig’s activity during this period which has escaped the notice of historians, for it appears very probable that instead of making a single naval attack against the southern coast of England, as is generally thought, he in fact made two.

    The uncertainty which has surrounded Tostig’s movements has its origin, for the most part, in the apparently contradictory statements of the Historia Ecclesiastica of Orderic Vitalis and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Orderic Vitalis suggests that the earl, whose banishment he erroneously places after the accession of Harold to throne, quickly left Flanders and made his way to Normandy in the hope of obtaining from Duke William the desired help against his brother.2 The Norman, although he had received his kinsman warmly, obviously shied away from his request for aid.3 He did, however, allow Tostig to sail from the Cotentin in an attempted raid on England. The attack failed, thwarted by contrary winds in the English Channel, and Tostig turned his ships to the east, sailing all the way to Norway, where he entered into discussions with Harald Hardrada that led to the decision to invade the island kingdom.4 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, even if it was unaware of the presumed visit of Tostig to Duke William, a meeting about which only Orderic Vitalis speaks, affirms that the earl did make a raid on the southern coast of the kingdom.5 This attack, which the chronicle puts in May, [p. 5] instead of having run aground as Orderic Vitalis seems to indicate, would have seen Tostig pillage the Isle of Wight and several other English coastal sites. According to the English sources, he then headed, not to the east and Norway, but to the north and the court of King Malcolm of Scotland, where he stayed for the summer. After having studied the sources supplying any information on the movements of Tostig in some detail, E. A. Freeman concluded that the itinerary given by Orderic Vitalis could not be completely matched up with those supplied by various English texts.6 Even though he was inclined to accept the statement of the Norman chronicler that the earl had sought support from William and, not having been able to obtain what he wished, took ship from a port of the Cotentin against England, he rejected the rest in favor of “good English sources.” As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle attests, he maintained that Tostig, after having successfully hit the coasts of southern England, turned towards the north and made for Scotland, after an attempted raid on the region of Lindsey.7 Even while knowing that there were some sources that claimed Tostig had been in personal contact at that time with the Norwegian king and with King Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark, he believed that all the discussions between them had been conducted by intermediary envoys.8 After him, scholars were inclined either to follow him or to express their uncertainty with regard to the whole question.9

    [p. 6] There is no certain way, however, that the assertions of both Orderic Vitalis and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle can be reconciled completely. It is possible that Freeman, and others, have made an error in supposing that the naval campaign of which the Norman speaks and the one mentioned by the Saxon chronicles were the same campaign. If, however, Orderic Vitalis was really alluding to a fruitless attempt by Tostig to seize power before the raid in May, several of the impediments that hinder the establishment of a complete and exact chart of the movements of Tostig are removed.

    The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle declares that Tostig, after having fled to Flanders, stayed there “during the winter.”10 On the another hand, Orderic Vitalis leads us to believe that he went to Normandy right after the death of the Confessor and the coronation of Harold on the fifth of January.11 Likewise, William of Malmesbury attests that the earl stayed in Flanders only until Edward passed away.12 Tostig, like Duke William, was undoubtedly informed of English events with only a few days’ delay, or at most a couple of weeks. Convinced that time was come for action, he had no reason to remain inactive in Flanders “during the winter.” Not having a military force strong enough to re-establish his earlier position in England, he recognized that he would obviously need to align himself with a powerful ally. It was also clear that such an ally, who would contemplate an adventure as grand as would be an invasion of England, must have a strong personal interest concerning the ultimate destiny of the Anglo-Saxon crown. Even before his exile, the earl could have thought to establish close relations with the Duke of Normandy.13 At the court of Baldwin V, William’s father-in-law, Tostig was well placed to be informed of the reaction of the duke to the accession of Harold Godwinson to the throne. Nothing would be more logical for the man who knew of William’s belief that the throne of England should come to him [p. 7] by right than to turn first towards Normandy to obtain the aid he was seeking.

    It is not at all improbable, therefore, to think that Tostig went to Normandy towards the end of January or the beginning of February in the hope that the duke would help him. William, for reasons difficult to ascertain, repulsed his advances but allowed him to leave from a Norman port to harry the English coast.14 Not having been able to achieve his goal, and still seeking a champion for his cause, Tostig headed east, continuing on all the way to Scandinavia. This accords with what Orderic Vitalis claims. But is there any proof for the viability of the argument of another naval attack directed by Tostig against coastal England in 1066? There may be. Manuscript E of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that Harold, having become king, “sallied forth with a war fleet against William.”15 This mention is earlier than⎯and distinct from⎯the report of the raid in May. There is not a single word in the Norman sources of William sending ships against England before the great invasion of October. But, coming from a Norman port, the ships of the Anglo-Saxon Tostig could well have been mistaken for those of the duke. We know that the English wrongly believed that Tostig’s attack in May announced the coming of William.16

    From this point on, the accounts of Orderic Vitalis, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the Scandinavian sources corroborate each other concerning the actions of the earl. The Norman chronicler speaks of his travelling towards Norway. Snorri Sturlason says that he set sail, leaving Flanders and travelling along the Frisian coast to Denmark; and then, having been unable to obtain the support of King Sweyn, continuing on to the district of Vik in Norway, where he found Harald.17 It is not surprising that the Icelandic skald knows nothing of the meeting between Tostig and William, since it is doubtful that the earl made his attempts at an alliance with the duke known. After having heard the false explanation of the [p. 8] domestic situation in England that Tostig gave, Harald decided to assemble an invasion force⎯a decision that he could hardly have taken before the visit of his guest. Orderic Vitalis says that six months were necessary to mobilize the Norwegian army18. As the Viking army must have departed from Norway around mid-August, the discussions between Harald and Tostig probably took place in February. This matches with Snorri Sturlason’s assertion that the earl, having concluded his business with the Norwegian monarch, returned to Flanders in the spring to gather together his partisans.

    Tostig’s movements after his return to Flanders are recorded in the English sources. In May, he came “from beyond the sea” to the Isle of Wight, which he pillaged and where he took hostages. Moving eastward, he stopped at Sandwich. There, he was joined by his lieutenant Copsi, a Northumbrian who enjoyed his trust, with a fleet of seventeen vessels.19 The fact that this fleet had come from the Orkneys is, as Sir F. M. Stenton observed, an additional argument in favor of the opinion that an agreement had already been concluded between King Harald and the earl, since the islands were at that moment under the authority of the king of Norway and Copsi had most certainly asked for Harald’s consent to depart.20 It is not unreasonable to think that Copsi supplied Tostig with information about the state of preparations in the north for the impending invasion.

    From Sandwich, the earl moved along the eastern coast and, after an attack against the region of Lindsey where he was repulsed by earls Edwin and Morcar and abandoned by many of his Flemish mercenaries, he continued his route towards Scotland. During the summer, he must have impatiently awaited word that the war fleet assembled in the Norwegian islands of Solund was ready to appear. He most likely spent his time recruiting troops from among the Scots. Towards the [p. 9] middle of August, he must have received word that the Norwegian fleet had launched. At the end of the month and at the beginning of September, he and his troops rejoined those of King Harald near the mouth of the Tyne, then, after the earl had been received as “the man” [vassal] of the Viking, they launched the invasion where both would find their death at Stamford Bridge.

Miles W. Campbell

New Mexico State University

Notes

1. On the Northumbrian rebellion, see: E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1867-1876), vol. II, p. 481-501 and 646-651; B. Wilkinson, “Northumbrian Separatism in 1065 and 1066,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library XXIII (1939), p. 504-526; Sir F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1947), p. 570-571 ; F. Barlow, Edward the Confessor (London, 1970), p. 233-239. It was before King Edward that Tostig, at the moment of his banishment, put forth the accusation that Harold had been the instigator of the rebellion: Vita Edwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium requiescit, ed. and trans. by F. Barlow (London, 1962), p. 52-53.

2. A. Le Prévost, ed. (Paris, 1838-1855), vol. II, p. 120. The mention of a visit by Tostig to William that we find in William of Jumièges is an interpolation from Orderic Vitalis: Gesta Normannorum Ducum, ed. J. Marx (Paris; Rouen, 1914), p. 192. The chronological error of the Norman chronicler with respect to the date of the banishment of the earl does not have any consequences on the order of the events which follow, because it is evident that Tostig arrived in Normandy after the death of Edward. Orderic Vitalis is not the only one to have made this error: cf. “The Saga of Harald Sigurtharson (Hardrada),” in: Snorri Sturlason, Heimskringla, ed. and trans. by L. M. Hollander (Austin, 1957), ch. 77 and 78.

3. Historia Ecclesiastica, vol. II, p. 120. Tostig was related to the duke through his wife.

4. Id. p. 123-24.

5. Mss C, D, E, in anno.

6. Norman Conquest, op. cit., t. III, p. 712.

7. Ibidem.

8. One finds the mention that Tostig visited Scandinavia in: “The Saga of Harald Sigurtharson”, op. cit., ch. 78 and 79; Liber de Hyda, ed. E. Edwards, Rolls Series, p. 292; Wace, Roman de Rou, ed. and trans. by Sir A. Melet, London, 1860, p. 75.

9. Sir F. M. Stenton (Anglo Saxon England, p. 578-579) thinks that Tostig started some procedure of alliance with King Harald before the May raid, but he does not specify whether he thinks that the negotiations had been conducted personally or by the intermediary of envoys. Same thing in: C. Plumer, Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, Oxford, 1892-1899, vol. II, p. 254; D. C. Douglas, William the Conqueror, London, 1964, p. 190; G. Jones, A History of the Vikings, London, 1968, p. 410; R.A. Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, London, 1968, p. 142-143. It is difficult to discern why F. W. Brooks (The Battle of Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire Local History Society, 1956, p. 10) concludes that King Harald spent the summer with Tostig because his departure from the Norwegian islands of Solund before the invasion is clearly attested in “The Saga of Harald Sigurtharson”, ch. 83. S. Körner (The Battle of Hastings, England and Europe, 1035-1066, Lund, 1964, p. 262) seems to be of the opinion that Tostig met the Norwegian king only in Scotland. For Dom Jean Laporte (“Les operations navales en Manche et Mer du Nord pendant l’année 1066”, Annales de Normandie, XVII, no. 1, mars 1967, p. 18-21), Tostig, after his raid on Sandwich at the beginning of May, goes to Scandinavia, then having returned to Flanders, from there swooped on the region of the Humber, then from that point, moved up towards Scotland. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says clearly that the earl went directly from Sandwich towards the north and Scotland, stopping only for a brief raid on the coast of the region of Lindsey.

10. Mss C, D, E, sub anno 1065.

11. It would seem that the earl reached Normandy before the duke had convened his barons to discuss the situation in England; in effect, Orderic Vitalis indicates that it was Tostig’s arrival and encouragements which led William to hold this meeting. As the exact date of the meeting cannot be known for sure, it is reasonable to think that this was after the coronation of Harold. 

12. Gesta Regum Anglorum, ed. T. D. Hardy, London, 1848, vol. I, p. 343.

13. T. J. Oleson, “Edward the Confessor in History” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 3rd series, 2nd section, 53 (1959), p. 34; Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, p. 131.

14. No doubt informed of the circumstances which had led to Tostig’s expulsion from England, the duke probably thought that any association with the earl would be more of an obstacle than an advantage for future dealings with Northumbria. It is equally possible that since Tostig arrived, it seems, in Normandy just a short time after the accession of Harold to the throne, William still had some hope of peacefully resolving his dispute with the English king. 

15. Sub anno 1066.

16. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, mss. C, D, E, sub anno 1066.

17. “The Saga of Harald Sigurtharson,” ch. 79.

18. Historia Ecclesiastica, vol. II, p. 124.

19. Geoffrey Gaimar, L’Estoire des Engles, ed. and trans. by C.T. Martin, R.S. vol. I, p. 219.

20. Anglo-Saxon England, p. 579.