How historically accurate is King and Conqueror? Here’s the real history that should have happened

King and Conqueror is the story of how Duke William of Normandy, a man descended from Vikings, won the English throne and became William the Conqueror.

But it’s also the story of the rise and fall of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, and a man who had to die for William to succeed. And it’s the story of an unlikely bromance between these two men, underscored by an almost-certainly ahistorical heart-to-heart in a bathtub.

Who are the king and conqueror of King and Conqueror?

James Norton (Happy Valley) stars as Harold Godwinson and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) plays his nemesis, William of Normandy, aka the Conqueror.

The eight-part drama begins with the coronation of Harold’s predecessor, Edward the Confessor, in 1043, and takes us through to exactly where you’d think it would (and if this is a spoiler, apologies, but you’ve had nearly 1,000 years to catch up): with Harold dead at the battle of Hastings, with an arrow in his eye.

Whether Harold really was felled by an arrow is a point of scholarly debate (tied to the Bayeux Tapestry, which confusingly, isn’t even a tapestry) but the show does a nifty job of explaining the arrow away. Also neatly handled in a story dominated by three men are the women behind the Norman Conquest: Matilda of Flanders (William’s wife), Emma of Normandy (Edward’s mother), Edith the Fair (Harold’s wife) and Edith of Wessex (Harold’s sister and Edward’s wife, who is named Gunhild in the show). They are all able political actors in their own right, as they were in real history.

Elsewhere, though, King and Conqueror could be seen to fall foul of its own ambition, truncating and conflating people and events to its own ends. The portrayal of poor Harald Hardrada, in particular – the Norwegian king and third claimant to England’s throne – falls into a familiar ‘brutish Viking’ trope.

Is King and Conqueror a true story?

Yes, a lot of King and Conqueror is a true story – in the sense that Duke William did invade England, Harold was slain on the battlefield at Hastings, and William claimed the throne in his place – but liberties have been taken with the historical record.

Not least, if you set aside Harold, almost none of the historical figures who die in King and Conqueror (and it’s a surprising number) meet their end how they are supposed to, when they are supposed to or where they are supposed to. That seems to have been unavoidable as the eight episodes span more than 20 years – there is a lot of history packed in here, and not a lot of time to cover it.

After the trailer we explore the real history behind King and Conqueror – and if you don’t want spoilers, look away now.

King and Conqueror: the real history

** This section contains major spoilers for King and Conqueror**

King and Conqueror opens in 1043, with the coronation of Edward the Confessor. The real Edward was a monarch popularly described as being a bit weak and feeble, and perhaps more concerned with preparing his soul for life ever after than the daily rigours of kingship.

This holier-than-thou reputation may have been the result of reinvention and revisionism – historian Tom Licence describes him instead as “strong, glorious, feared by his enemies”, a king who wielded power in his own right. But it is the feeble Edward we see here, a touched man who hears the whispered word of God and is ruled by his domineering mother, Emma of Normandy.

Emma bears the distinction of being the only woman to have been consort to two kings of England: Aethelred the Unready and Cnut the Great. She is also the mother of two more English kings: first Harthacnut from 1040 until 1042, then Edward immediately after.

In King and Conquerer, Edward’s court is dominated by two factions – the Normans, led by Emma, and the Godwin family.

Here, as in real history, Earl Godwin of Wessex is one of the most powerful men in England. His rise came during the chaos that followed the Danish conquest of England in the early 11th century, when he became an advisor to King Cnut. He forged a familial tie with Cnut by marrying a Danish wife, Gytha, whose brother was a jarl [a Danish chief] married to Cnut’s own sister. And he created another familial tie with Edward the Confessor, arranging for the king to marry his daughter Edith. This brought Godwin to the height of his power – though in real history, almost three years into Edward’s reign.

In King and Conqueror Godwin’s daughter is named Gunhild, presumably because Harold also marries an Edith, and the laws of historical drama say you can’t have two people with the same name. Godwin also has more sons than we see on the small screen – Sweyn, Harold and Tostig should have also been joined by Gyrth, Leofwine and Wulfnoth. In real history, that was important to the succession crisis that happened two decades later.

But for now, it is 1043, and it is Edward’s coronation.

William is present, and he and Harold have met. Neither of these things are true – the earliest existing record of William coming to England says he does so in 1051, and he couldn’t have met Harold on that occasion as Harold was in exile (more on that in a moment). The first confirmed meeting we know is in 1065, when Harold ends up in Normandy, and when he apparently swears on holy relics that he would support William as the next king of England.

As King and Conqueror tells it, no sooner does the crown touch Edward’s head than Emma reveals her true intentions, using her son to banish the Godwins from England. They escape to Flanders, ruled by the Machiavellian Count Baldwin, but minus Harold’s wife Edith, who is kidnapped by the Mercians during the escape. William appears here too – he’s been ousted from Normandy by his one-time protector, King Henry I of France, who now seeks to murder William and absorb Normandy into his own lands. It makes sense that he would be here, because his wife is Matilda of Flanders, and Baldwin is her father. Though she probably didn’t moonlight as a torturer, as the show implies.

If these events seem a bit rushed, it’s because this is contracted history: the real Godwins were exiled, but not until 1051 – nearly a decade into Edward’s reign.

Edith, as far as we know, was never taken captive. Some of the family end up in Flanders, but not all. Harold, in particular, heads to Ireland, before the Godwins raise armies and sail back to regain their lands. He is not Earl of Wessex by this point, as he is in the show – his father doesn’t pass on the title until his death in 1053 – and so Harold does not have to betray his elder brother Sweyn to get the earldom.

Meanwhile, William did have to face down Henry for control of Normandy, but that conflict dragged from the early 1050s through to Henry’s death in 1060; during a siege, not the dramatic flourish of single combat as is depicted here.

Remember: almost no one dies when, where or how they are supposed to.

From there we leap forward to Harold’s trip to Normandy, bringing us to the beginning of the Bayeux Tapestry. Now we are in more familiar territory: Harold apparently swearing to uphold William’s claim to the crown over the relics of Bayeux; the succession crisis precipitated by Edward the Confessor’s death in 1066; Harold taking the throne; Tostig’s betrayal; Harald Hardrada’s invasion; and finally the three battles that would define England, culminating at Hastings on 14 October 1066.

What happened to Sweyn Godwinson?

The real Sweyn Godwinson does die while ostensibly on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but the reasons for that spiritual journey were quite different.

King and Conqueror gives Sweyn Godwinson, the eldest son of Earl Godwin and brother of Harold, a much bigger role in Harold’s story than we think he had in real history. A boorish lout, he is shown as quick to anger and rash in action, at one point drawing his sword in the presence of the king to the astonishment of all around him. This is no man fit to rule Wessex, and Godwin passes him over for Harold, mollifying Sweyn with the promise of the earldom of Northumbria.

When Harold robs him of that too – giving Northumbria to another brother, Tostig Godwinson – Sweyn becomes a liability, prompting Harold to force Sweyn on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Sweyn escapes, and begins plotting to regain Wessex through force, so Harold has him assassinated.

None of that happened as far as we know, but the real Sweyn – who held real power as Earl of Herefordshire – was nonetheless something of liability.

In 1046 he abducted an abbess from Leominster, prompting his exile to Flanders in 1047, yet he was back in Englandin 1049, after making a plea to King Edward. That same year, he murdered his cousin, prompting a second exile that was not so easily forgiven. He went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died in unknown circumstances on his return journey.

Whether he was forced to make it as in King and Conqueror, we don’t know, but we do know this all took place before Godwin himself died, so Sweyn was never passed over for the earldom of Wessex.

Did King Edward the Confessor kill his mother, Emma of Normandy?

There is no evidence that Edward the Confessor beat his mother to death with his crown – in fact, says historian Tom Licence, it would have been completely out of character.

“It wouldn't fit my understanding of their relationship,” says Licence, who was speaking on an upcoming episode of the HistoryExtra podcast about Edward the Confessor's life. “Edward's way of punishing people was to take away their assets or to put them into exile. He hit them in the pocket, not over the head.”

While King and Conqueror portrays Edward as so feeble he cannot do without his mother – until he snaps and does away with her entirely in the middle of the series, and in a manner befitting Game of Thrones – the real Edward simply removed her from any proximity to power. When he became king, he confiscated her assets and sent her into ‘retirement’ in the Winchester countryside.

“Edward most likely wanted to reduce her political involvement back to a simple status as the widow of the former kings, leaving him to rule independently,” writes historian and archaeologist Cat Jarman. “As far as we know, she lived the rest of her life in Winchester.”

Did Edward invite William of Normandy to be his successor?

Edward the Confessor may have offered his distant cousin William of Normandy the throne – but probably not by letter, and probably not when King and Conqueror suggests he does.

In the drama, Edward sends William a letter naming the Norman duke as his heir after Harold’s return from exile. This is what prompts Harold to go to Normandy – taking on the role of messenger, he wants to see how William reacts.

But if the real Edward did offer William the throne, it would probably have been when he invited William to England in 1051.

“There's definitely contact in that crucial period where the Godwins are expelled,” writes historian Marc Morris. “The Norman and the English sources together – and the behaviour of Edward and the Godwins – strongly suggests that Edward did make a promise of the throne to William.”

Historian David Bates argues that, when Edward died 15 years later and Harold was pronounced king, William would have been compelled to press his claim as a matter of personal honour.

“Whatever one makes of the actual dispute, I'm quite prepared to believe that he believed he'd been named as Edward's successor,” Bates told us an upcoming episode of the HistoryExtra podcast about the life of William the Conqueror.

“He was presumably going around saying ‘I'm going to be the next king of the English’ – it would [have] almost been that he would've lost face if he hadn't tried.”

What did Harold really swear to William at Bayeux?

No one knows for certain whether Harold gave a solemn oath to uphold William’s claim to the English throne.

This is a moment of realpolitik in the show, where William springs the oath on Harold in front of witnesses instead of merely confirming an alliance, to the outrage of both Matilda of Flanders and Edith the Fair , who have conspiring towards peace (real history doesn’t tell us if Matilda and Edith ever met). Harold, displaying his father’s talent for getting out of a tight spot without breaking his word, promises to support the ‘rightful king’. Their eyes are daggers.

This moment, on which the Norman Conquest turns, takes place in 1065. Norman and English sources vary on what was said, and even where this meeting took place – it may not have been Bayeux. Even why Harold went to Normandy is up for interpretation: was it as a messenger, or to assert himself? Did he even mean to meet with William?

Whatever the case, “he came into William’s hands – as a guest, according to the Normans; as a captive, according to the English,” says Licence on the HistoryExtra podcast. “William then took him campaigning, for diplomatic effect – to show off his new prize and give the impression that Harold was his guest.”

Did Harold swear his oath under duress then? One detail that the show doesn’t include is that, since the 1050s, the real William had been holding one of Harold’s brothers (Wulfnoth) and a nephew (Hakon) as hostages. Freeing them may have been the entire reason for Harold’s visit.

“Harold probably did promise something to William – otherwise, the duke wouldn’t have let him go (along with one of the hostages). But it’s doubtful that he swore to uphold William’s claim to the throne.”

Did Edward the Confessor die in a bathtub?

No, Edward the Confessor did not die in a bathtub in the throes of passion while his wife Edith of Wessex tried to foist an heir upon him.

They may not have even consummated the marriage.

“There's a very strong, traditional argument that Edward never really entertained the idea of having a child with Edith,” historian Marc Morris says on our podcast series 1066: The Battle for England. He points to the fact that when the Godwins were exiled in 1051–2, Edward went so far to imprison Edith in an abbey. Even though she was brought back to court when the Godwins returned to power, in that time he made no plans to remarry.

The real Edward died on 5 January 1066, after an illness of a few months. This was barely a week after the consecration of Westminster Abbey, where Harold was crowned king the following day.

Why did Harold Godwinson claim the throne of England?

It is not because he promised his father on his deathbed in the 1060s, as depicted in King and Conqueror – but it may have something to do with someone else’s last words.

“Debate still rages about what happened on Edward’s deathbed,” writes historian Caitlin Ellis. King and Conqueror suggests that Edward said nothing intelligible about the succession and that Harold outright lied to further his own ambitions, but real history is more nuanced.

“The Life of King Edward, [a tract] commissioned by his wife and queen Edith … [has Edward] stretching his hand out to Harold and, referring to Edith who was there, declaring ‘I commend this woman and all the kingdom to your protection’,” says Ellis. “But was protection the same as taking the throne for himself?”

Whether that is what Edward meant is also debated – there is some evidence that, regardless of any promise he may have made to William in 1051, Edward now favoured the claim of his only blood relative, the boy Edgar Ætheling. Edgar isn’t mentioned at all in King and Conqueror.

Harold’s claim rested on him being the most powerful noble in Anglo-Saxon England, and this is where Harold’s many brothers come back into the story. By the late 1050s the Godwins controlled Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, Kent, Surrey, and parts of Middlesex and Essex, and he made sure to spread his influence beyond the family too.

“He goes to great lengths to build bridges with former enemies to make sure he has across the board political approval,” says Marc Morris on our podcast series 1066: The Battle for England, noting that Harold is merely the brother-in-law of the king.

“If you are dynastically secure, if you are the son of the previous king and you've been groomed your whole life to succeed your father, and the political community expects that, then you don't need to go to these lengths.

“The thing that shows the weakness of Harold's claim is how much people at the time said everybody wanted him to do it.”

1066: The battle for England

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Why did Tostig Godwinson betray Harold – and did Harold kill him?

Tostig had as much reason for betraying Harold in real history as he does in the King and Conqueror, but there’s no evidence that Harold personally killed him at the battle of Stamford Bridge – accidentally or otherwise.

Tostig’s time as Earl of Northumbria in the show comes to an end when Harold replaces him with Morcar, the Earl of Mercia. It’s part of the price that Morcar demands for supporting Harold’s claim to be king – the other part being Harold’s marriage to his sister.

In real history, Tostig was replaced in 1065, while Edward the Confessor was still alive, and in circumstances that testify to how much power Harold had over the king.

Tostig, it turns out, was not a good earl – he taxed heavily, allegedly murdered some nobles, and was generally unjust – and so Northumbria revolted and offered Morcar the earldom. Morcar, you should know, was not already Earl of Mercia. That belonged to his elder brother Edwin, another historical figure missing from King and Conqueror.

Edward’s plan was to restore Tostig by force; but Harold overruled him, instead agreeing with the rebels demand to install Morcar. This backfired spectacularly.

“The problem was that Harold agreed to a plan in which Tostig gets nothing,” says Morris. “Tostig is gone forever. Perhaps further down the line, Harold thought ‘Well maybe I can reintroduce him, after a period of political exile’, but that wasn't what was agreed, and Tostig is clearly beyond furious about it.”

And that fury took him to Norway, and Harald Hardrada.

Who was Harald Hardrada and what was his claim to the throne?

Reduced to a growling Viking during his limited screentime in King and Conqueror, Harald Hardrada was king of Norway whose English ambitions rest on an inherited claim – but he wasn’t invited by Emma of Normandy.

In the show, Emma writes to Harald inviting him to claim the throne; the real Emma couldn’t have done so in 1060s, as she died in 1052, but there is speculation that in the 1040s she may have written to his predecessor (and for a time, co-ruler as King of Norway), Magnus the Good.

As Caitlin Ellis explains: “The later Norse sagas claim that Harald’s nephew and erstwhile co-ruler Magnus had made a pact with Harthacnut, King of England and Denmark, as they both lacked male heirs, and when one of them died, the survivor would accede to the other’s thrones in addition to their own.

“When Harthacnut died, Magnus indeed acceded to the throne of Denmark for a time, but not that of England, as Edward the Confessor had had himself crowned. Harald may have had a tenuous claim, but in all likelihood, he was simply being opportunistic in 1066.”

Did Harold Godwinson have two wives?

Yes, Harold Godwinson did have two wives, Edith the Fair and later Ealdgyth of Mercia (Margaret in the show) – though only one was married to him in the eyes of the Church.

Edith and Harold were married more danico – in the Danish way – which among the nobility of the time would have been seen as perfectly lawful, though not Christian.

That meant he could ecclesiastically take Ealdgyth as a second wife, which he likely did to shore up his allegiances in the Midlands and Northumbria in a post-Tostig England – she was sister to Earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria.

There is some debate as to whether Harold proposed this marriage as early as 1063, which would have brought him closer to Mercia and the leaders of North Wales in place of Northumbria; all we can be sure of is that they were married by early 1066.

In the show, neither this marriage pact nor the earldom are enough to prevent Morcar from betraying Harold at Hastings by refusing to enter the fray, rounding off his broadly despicable portrayal.

Whether he was quite this much of a villain is not clear – the sources don’t explicitly say where the real Morcar (or Edwin) were during the battle.

Was Harold killed by an arrow from God?

Harold Godwinson probably wasn’t killed by an arrow at all – much less one guided by the hand of God.

The idea of the arrow – depicted as a crafty bit of post-mortem modification to Harold’s corpse in King and Conqueror – has its roots in the Bayeux Tapestry, though some have suggested that its presence there may be the work of later embroiderers rather than its 11th-century creators.

But righteousness does hang heavy over the Normans in history, as it does in the drama.

Much is made of the comet seen before the battle of Hastings (true – it’s Halley’s Comet, and it appears in the Bayeux Tapestry) and that William’s half-brother Odo secured the blessing of the Pope (partially true – whatever papal backing the Normans had, Odo likely didn’t have much to do with it).

The extent of the Pope's support in real history is unclear. William of Poitiers writes that Pope Alexander II did sponsor the invasion with a papal banner, but on this episode of HistoryExtra podcast, historian Dan Armstrong suggests that a banner may have been granted later, in 1070, when papal envoys came to England to bolster William’s shaky legitimacy, and that Poitiers may have backdated the event to justify the conquest.

Arrow or no, we do have some corroboration for an alternative, notes Caitlin Ellis.

“The Song of the Battle of Hastings [Carmen de Hastingae Proelio] says instead that Harold was attacked by four knights, including William himself, and that he's basically hacked to pieces.”

And so we come to William’s coronation – not immediately after Hastings, but on Christmas Day 1066.

King and Conqueror is streaming on BBC iPlayer now. For more content like this, check out the best historical movies of all time as chosen by historians and ranked by you, history TV shows and films to stream tonight, and our picks of the new history TV and radio released in the UK this week