The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty

by Frank Barlow

The family of Earl Godwin of Wessex stands among the most famous in English history, whose most famous son was King Harold. Frank Barlow charts the family through to Harold – the last Anglo-Saxon king – and finally the crowning of William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest. Set against the backdrop of Viking raids and ultimately the Norman Conquest of 1066, Frank Barlow unravels the gripping history of a feuding family that nevertheless determined the course and fortunes of all the English.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Anglo Saxon, Medieval History, Medieval, British Literature

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2001

About the author

A Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature, Frank Barlow was Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter, where he taught from 1953 until his retirement in 1976. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989 for his contributions to historical scholarship.

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good study about the most ill-fated family dynasty at the beginning of the middle-ages/end of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty. Informative about the Godwins rise and fall, and how lucky Harold Godwinson was to actually manage to claim the throne of England after Edward the Confessor passed on. Lucky I guess to claim it without any formal succession rights, but also incredibly unlucky to have lost it eight months later when he was slaughtered during William the Bastards take over of England stemming either from an unlucky arrow shot in the eye, or maybe being singled out by Norman Knights and ridden down. Depends, as Barlow says, on your interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Not only was Harolds death the end of his short lived reign, but he also lost his brothers at Hastings, so there was no one to create a proper strong rival claim to the English throne. William the Bastard got it all. Also, the death of Harold and his brothers saw the end of the Godwins, their family line ended up in diaspora, with some leaving for Europe, his Mother in a convent and they slowly disappeared from the history books. I find it sad actually that they suffered this fate, caused by an overthrow by a group of 'bandits' that wanted the English throne. Or at least that is how some people interpret 1066.

Good study with limited sources make Frank Barlows book a very interesting, insightful read.

[M.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this book and only hindsight makes me give it a 3 because the comprehensive study presented of the family turns out to be far less comprehensive the more you read about the period. The Leofwinessons are barely mentioned at all (I know because I've read it twice and then used the appendix to look for them) and the portrayal of Edward the Confessor is as a weak man who buckled to their pressure. That said, this is a hugely entertaining read and well worth looking at provided you remember it's a one sided view of England in the 1000's.

[Peter Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about the Godwin family and it's nice to see them treated as a whole, rather than as aspects within the reigns of four individual kings and then Harold as almost a separate entity. The weight of detail is biased towards Harold's doings, with Cnut, Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut's reigns being dealt with rather rapidly. This is mostly a consequence of the availability of the sources, but I think he could have fleshed out the earlier sections a bit. Barlow is particularly strong on bringing out just how hooky the circumstances are surrounding any oath given by Harold to William. In addition the sections that discuss the many and varied interpretations of the Bayeux Tapestry show that it is indeed a dark art. It's a very readable book and it's length does make for a quick turnaround.

However, I was left with the feeling that it was written in Barlow's spare time. He was on the other side of 90 when he put pen to paper for this and I don't think he did as much research as he might have done. His work on Edward the Confessor is more or less the size of a breeze block and screams well researched. This one doesn't have that depth. The first thing I disliked was the bibliography – there were probably just as many books there from before 1900 as there were post 1980. Things like that concern me. I was further put out by him looking into an 1848 novel about Harold and works of fiction really do not belong in historical novels. This was a fairly obscure novel and the subject matter hasn't even entered the realm of popular legend, so it could have safely been ignored.

There were a couple of errors, such as the old chestnut that the English would ride to battle and then fight on foot and the preferred English tactic was to stand in a phalanx in defence. Both of these things happened, but circumstances altered cases. There is also an oddity where Barlow writes on one page that the Queen didn't witness any of Edward's charters between 1046-60, but twenty pages later states that from 1055 she was regularly attesting them and signing just under the king.

This isn't a bad book and if you can buy it for a reasonable amount (I paid £20 for it a few years ago), then it's worth a read.

[Shake n' Vac]

Barlow is an excellent writer, I have several of his books and this is a fairly solid account of a powerful Anglo-Scandinavian family; a spoiler alert here, they do all eventually die. The book is compact and readable, the problem is that his account really highlights the lack of contemporary sources to the point that, it could be argued, it may have been better for the Godwins to remain as supporting characters in his biography of Edward the Confessor and those of other authors on Harold (Walker) and William (Douglas) than getting a volume of their own. I feel there is enough in it to make it worthwhile, but perhaps one more for the history buffs than the general reader.

[Julie Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

source: Interlibrary Loan
Note - Harold II: the Doomed Saxon King by Peter Rex has more information on Harold and is probably a better book.

This book didn't seem to add much to what Barlow already wrote in his Edward the Confessor biography. I wanted to know more about Godwin's interactions with the other Earls, why didn't the younger boys marry by 1066, and much more about Tostig - I can only say that it appears the sources are lacking and Barlow couldn't be bothered to give us his thoughts. He does try to get into Edith's character a bit more.

[Alex Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive and tactful look into one of the most interesting English families of the middle ages.

[Ellen Ekstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before the Plantagenets, before the Tudors, there were the Godwins.

I used to think that English History began on October 14, 1066. My year of research into Anglo-Saxon England has fortunately corrected my assumption. The leading family in the late Anglo-Saxon period was the Godwin family, who virtually held and ruled almost all of England and were second only to the Kings of the time. Mr. Barlow covers the family's history from its 'obscure' past to the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in this easily-read, understandable, biography. He is even-handed in his treatment of all the drammatis personnae, from Athelred the Unready to Harold II, including Edward the Confessor's queen, Edith, showing us neither saints nor sinners, but somewhere in the middle, the people of their time. He makes no new revelations, nor posits new theories. He just gives us the facts as the extant information is known to us. I enjoyed his explanation of Anglo-Saxon terms and names. Usually when reading about this period, the reader is lost somewhere in Old English and has to fend for her/himself, but Mr.Barlow gives a bit more information, which makes the reading of his book all the more easier.

I recommend this book for students of the period and readers just wanting to know who the players were in the volatile, interesting kingdom of England before the Conqueror stepped foot on the sand at Penvensey.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief little book that I found quite confusing. The names are difficult and then there is the repetitiousness of word roots and whole names. There is of course also a lack of evidence, a fact that Barlow acknowledges in his chapter on sources.

[Hillary · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst, most disorganized and uninteresting history book ever written

[Scott Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy Frank Barlow's books.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've very much enjoyed other scholarly works by Frank Barlow (in particular his EDWARD THE CONFESSOR is excellent), but this book felt scant, cobbled together, and not particularly well organized.

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Pam Shelton-Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was reasonably well researched and was well written though I found it to be a little less probing than Ian Walker's book on King Harold.