Harold and Edith
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright for Photograph: Creative Commons |
Location
| Street: | Grosvenor Crescent / Sea Road |
| Town: | St. Leonards on Sea |
| Parish: | Hastings |
| Council: | Hastings Borough Council |
| County: | East Sussex |
| Postcode: | TN38 |
| Location on Google Map | |
| Object setting: | Garden |
| Access is: | Public |
| Location note: | West Marina Gardens |
| In the AZ book: | East Sussex |
| Page: | 126 |
| Grid reference: | F8 |
| The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks. | |
| Previous location: | The Brassey Institute, Hastings, moved to current location in 1953. |
back to top | |
Makers
| Name : | Charles Augustus William Wilke |
| Role: | Sculptor |
back to top | |
General Information
| Construction period: | 1875 |
| Work is: | Extant |
| Owner custodian: | Hastings Borough Council |
| Object listing: | Not listed |
| Description: | The piece is a group statue of King Harold II and his common-law wife Edith (Ealdgyth Swan-neck, also known as Edith the Fair, and most commonly Edith Swan-Neck). Harold is lying on his back dying and the figure of Edith is hunched over him, holding up his head towards her face |
back to top | |
Classification
| Categories: | Sculptural, Free Standing |
| Object type1: | Statue |
| Object type2: | Sculpture |
| Subject type1: | Figurative |
| Subject subtype1: | Reclining |
| Subject type2: | Portrait |
| Subject subtype1: | Group |
back to top | |
Object Parts
| Part 1: | Base |
| Material: | Concrete |
| Height (cm): | 10 |
| Width (cm): | 198 |
| Depth (cm): | 137 |
| Part 2: | Area of random slabs |
| Material: | Stone |
| Width (cm): | 365 |
| Depth (cm): | 320 |
| Part 3: | Plinth |
| Material: | Brick core with concrete render |
| Height (cm): | 76 |
| Width (cm): | 183 |
| Depth (cm): | 122 |
| Part 4: | Statue |
| Material: | Marble |
| Height (cm): | 84 |
| Width (cm): | 135 |
| Depth (cm): | 87 |
back to top | |
Object Condition
| Overall condition: | Poor |
| Risk assessment: | Immediate risk |
| Condition 1 of type: | Surface |
| Condition 1: | Biological growth |
| Condition 2: | Abrasions, cracks, splits |
| Condition 3: | Surface spalling, crumbling |
| Condition 4: | Bird Guano |
| Condition 5: | Accretions |
| Condition 6: | Corrosion, Deterioration |
| More details: | The sculpture is severely weathered and virtually none of the carved surface remains (originally Harold’s chain mail sleeves were present for example). Prominent areas of carving such as noses and fingers are now eroded. Soil and sand have become deposited in the crevices of the carving. |
| Condition 2 of type: | Structural |
| Condition 1: | Broken or missing parts |
| Condition 2: | Cracks, splits, breaks, holes |
| More details: | The fingers of Harold’s left hand, the toes of his left foot and the end of his axe handle are lost. The corners on the eastern side of the plinth are gone. |
| Date of on-site inspection: | 23/05/2007 |
back to top | |
History
| History: | Edith Swan-Neck (1025 – 1086?) is best known as the mistress or common law wife of Harold II (Harold Godwinson; c. 1022 – October 14, 1066) who died at The Battle of Hastings in 1066. Harold was legally married to Edith of Wessex, but this was a political marriage. It is said that the body of Harold was terribly mutilated by the Norman army and they refused to surrender his body to his mother even for his body weight in gold. Folklore has it that Edith Swan-Neck walked through the carnage of the battle and identified Harold by marks on his body known only to her. It was only because of this that Harold was able to have a Christian burial by the monks at Waltham Abbey.
Edith was Harold’s first wife, married ‘more Danico’ (in the Danish manner), also known as ‘hand-fasting’, which remained legal until the 1753 Marriage Act in England and some time in the 1970s or 80s in Scotland (changed because of illegal immigrant scams). Edith was very wealthy and her family would never have allowed an unofficial arrangement – Domesday refers to her as Edith Faera (the fair), Pulchra (beautiful) and Dives (rich) – she had lands to the value of c.£500 in 1066, in East Anglia. It was common for important men to have more than one wife, and for the first one to be ‘hand-fast’, so that you could later make a diplomatic match as well – but the church would only marry you once, unless the wife you had married in church had died. King Canute had two wives. It was just good luck that Harold and Edith liked each other. The Carmen tells us that William had Harold’s body parts gathered up in a purple linen cloth, taken back to his camp at Hastings, and interred under a cairn of stones on the coast, before standing atop said cairn to be recognised by his army as King in Harold’s place in a ceremony which, despite being pure Viking, the Christian Bishop Guy described – a sure sign that it is true. He also said that Countess Gytha offered William Harold’s weight in gold, or to forego the bodies of Gyrth and Leofwin if she could have Harold’s, and that he refused both offers. There is a romantic story, which may be true, that Edith Swan-Neck climbed the Watch Oak (now the name of a roundabout at the north end of Battle High Street, and locals will tell you the exact location of the original tree a little to the north) to watch the battle. Modern history writers vary in their interpretation of this – some think she went onto the battle field to recover his body, some that William’s soldiers caught her in the rout and he made her do so to make sure that Harold had been killed and not escaped etc. According to the Carmen, the shield wall remained solid until word that Harold was dead spread through the English army, but it is probable that word spread that he had been wounded in the face and the army crumbled, knowing that no-one could recover from such an injury, before the Normans could get at him to finish him off. Poitiers says Edith Swan-Neck accompanied the two monks from Waltham Abbey to help them find the body parts to take for burial, and does not mention the Viking ceremony, possibly due to censorship. The Carmen also informs us that William had crossbowmen, because the arrows are described as ‘quadratus’, ie square in cross-section, and so not capable of being used with a long-bow. This would make sense, as William was very into the latest military technology, including trebuchets, and successfully laid siege to the supposedly impregnable Dover (he set the hill-top town on fire and destroyed it before moving on – this no doubt explains the collapse of resistance in Kent – Dover Castle is on the site) and to London, whose 30ft high walls were no match either, and the citizens negotiated a favourable treaty, renewed by Henry II c.1155? – William stayed at Westminster Hall during the siege, and the surrender took place there. Appendix 2 of 'A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons' by Geoffrey Hindley says that building work in 1954 at Bosham Church found ‘an important tomb with the bones of a tall man with the head, the right leg and part of the left leg missing. These correspond to the dreadful wounds Harold was reputed to have sustained. Bosham is certainly near ‘the seashore’ and it is tempting to see’ this as Harold, ‘hidden away by the victor safely under his control to avert the possibility of any popular cult.’ Perhaps Waltham had the head, and maybe the legs were missing, or at Waltham too. (Heather Grief, Hastings Local History Group. 9 June 2009) |
| Hard archive file: | Yes |
back to top | |
References
| Source 1 : | |
| Title: | ‘Statues and Memorials in Hastings and St. Leonards: a report on condition and conservation option |
| Type: | Archive |
| Author: | Dinsmore, Jennifer. |
| Location: | Hastings Borough Council |
| Date: | 00/00/1997 |
| Page: | 4 |
Further information: | |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ealdgyth_Swan-neck | |
back to top | |
Photographs
Date: 23/05/2007 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Date: 23/05/2007 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
 Date: 23/05/2007 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Date: 23/05/2007 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
back to top | |