Edith Swanneck | England's Most Tragic Medieval Love Story

By clicking my link piavpn.com/historyprofiles you’ll get an 83% discount on Private Internet Access! That’s just $2.03 a month, AND you’ll also get 4 extra months completely for free!

Once again, Ollie hits one out of the park. Thank you for the biography of this noble woman whom I did not know existed until now. Cheers!

Edith only gets short mention typically. Thank you for highlighting her/their story. Love does exist.

What such a beautiful story of the beautiful lady Edith and the fall of the king to William the conquer . Another excellent story from HP.

I remember reading a book about Edith Swanneck as a teenager. It was so sad when she had to identify Harold's body.

Wow good video - I did not know Edith was a daughter of Thorkell that's very cool. The resolve of her and Gytha to come to the battlefield to retrieve Harold's body when nobody else would!

Thank you. They were hand fasted which was a legitimate marriage before Christianity took over. Therefore, to me, it was legitimate. Wonderful , loving and faithful wife. 🙏🙏🙏👵🇦🇺

When old people say “they don’t make them like this anymore” this must be what they mean

The description of their picturesque marriage rituals, their love, and how a child from that union would have been seen as legitimate, parallels that of Game of Thrones' Rhaegar and Lyanna.

Absolutely love this, thanks so much. It’s so interesting and enlightening. British schools don’t seem to teach that much about our earlier history, why not? They should..it’s fascinating and so well done. A new subscriber for sure!

Thanks Ollie! I had never heard of this lady, not her lovely story. I really enjoyed it❤🇨🇦

Love your work! Thanks For this! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I had never heard of her and had no idea what she did to identify him after death, I can’t imagine the deep love she must’ve felt to knowing her love was literally in pieces to give him some semblance of peace in the afterlife.

I used to think, with most historians, that Ealdgyth Swannesha was Eadgifu the Rich, but now I don’t think so. Firstly, their names are different in pronunciation and meaning: no Anglo-Saxon speaker would equate them. Secondly, Harold had a sister named Eadgifu. His brothers were granted extensive estates, so why wouldn’t his sister be? Thirdly, one of Harold’s sisters was promised to one of William’s significant supporters, so she’d have brought a hefty dowry; unfortunately this sister died in early 1066 and Harold, now on the English throne, snarkily offered her corpse as the bride. Fourthly, Ralph de Gaël, an Anglo-Breton to whom William granted the Earldom of Norfolk, chose Eadgifu’s caput at Exning in Cambridgeshire for his wedding with Emma Fitz-Osbern in 1075. When William opposed this marriage, Ralph rebelled and tried to bring down William’s government. So, what I think happened is that Ralph was Eadgifu’s betrothed and lawful inheritor of her lands, so these were given to him after 1066. Exning therefore was Ralph’s. When William disallowed Ralph’s marriage to his second beloved, this triggered Ralph’s earlier trauma, so he wasn’t going to take cruel whims from kings any more.

A wonderful documentary on dear Edith & Harald - thank you so much!!

I have heard of her before but I did not know a lot of this information. Thank you for the video

Historians typically list Edith the Fair as Harold Godwinson's 1st wife. She was dedicated to him even though he legally repudiated her.

Lady Edith is my 27th great-grandmother.

👍⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you for the biography of this noble woman whom I did not know existed until now. Cheers!

Wonderful story! I'd never heard of Edith before and would love to know what happened to her. This is one of my favorite documentaries.