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King Harold Day 2006
"The Battle of Hastings" by Marriott Edgar
Harold, Crowned King and Killed in a Year
New Boards for the Abbey Gardens
Sites for the Interpretative Boards
Schools' Art Competition
Other places connected with 1066
Harold's Links with Waltham Abbey
How it all Began
King Harold Day people
King Harold Day 2004 and 2005
The Eve of Conquest
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Harold's Links with Waltham Abbey
Location: Essex
Harold’s Links with Waltham Abbey
Kind Harold was originally Harold Godwinson, the Earl of Wessex. By 1043 he had also become Earl of East Anglia, and owned large estates in the Waltham area and at Nazeing and was Lord of the Manor of Waltham.
Whilst at Waltham, he was cured of paralysis. To give thanks he built a new church in 1059 on the site of one built by Tovi, King Canute’s Standard Bearer in 1030. This church was consecrated on 3rd May 1060 in the presence of King Edward the Confessor. In 1062 Harold founded a secular college at the church site, making it in effect a priory. The church had become his favourite.
Harold’s mistress was Edith Swan-Neck, and she lived in one of Harold’s manors at Nazeing.
On 14th October 1066, Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings. William the Conqueror at first refused to allow Harold’s body to be taken for burial. Eventually, though, Edith Swan-Neck was permitted to claim Harold’s body, and she took it back to his favourite church of Waltham, where it was buried before the High Altar.
In 1177, King Henry II, as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas à Becket, began the enlargement of Harold’s church, and formed an Augustinian Priory at the site. In 1184, Waltham Priory became Waltham Abbey. When Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, Waltham Abbey was the last to be dissolved on 24th March. The Augustinian Canons were sent away from Waltham. The monastery, choir, transepts and eastern chapels were destroyed.
The Romanesque nave, being the Parish Church, was spared, and thus we have the beautiful Abbey Church which we see today.
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