Page "Harold Harefoot" Paragraph 19

The cause of Harold's death is uncertain.

Katherine Holman attributes the death to " a mysterious illness ".

An Anglo-Saxon charter attributes the illness to divine judgment. Harold had reportedly claimed Sandwich for himself, depriving it from the monks of Christchurch.

Harold is described as lying ill and in despair at Oxford.

When monks came to him to settle the dispute over Sandwhich, he " lay and grew black as they spoke ".

The context of the event was a dispute between Christchurch and St Augustine's Abbey, which took over the local toll in the name of the king.

There is little attention paid to the illness of the king.

Harriet O ' Brien feels this is enough to indicate that Harold died of natural causes, but not to determine the nature of the disease.

The Anglo-Saxons themselves would consider him elf-shot ( attacked by elves ), their term for any number of deadly diseases.

Michael Evans points out that Harold was only one of several kings of pre-Conquest England to die following short reigns, and lives, including Edmund I ( reigned 939 – 946 ), Eadred ( reigned 946 – 955 ), Eadwig ( reigned 955 – 959 ), Edmund Ironside ( reigned 1016 ), and Harthacnut ( reigned 1040 – 1042 ).

He wonders whether the role of king was dangerous in this era, more so than in the period after the Conquest, or whether hereditary diseases were in effect, pointing that most of these kings were members of the same lineage, the House of Wessex.