AthelingMatilda is crowned queen
The Whitsun coronation at Westminster gives the conquest a queen and, before the year is out, an English-born son.
What the record says
Matilda was crowned by Ealdred at Whitsun 1068. Her youngest son Henry, later Henry I, was born in England later that year, the only one of William’s sons born in the kingdom.
Certainty
| Fact | Value | Certainty |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 11 May 1068 | Exact |
| How sure we are | High | Of this record as a whole |
People
Related events
- Edwin and Morcar rise in the Midlands
The brothers leave court after the promised marriage to William’s daughter fails to happen.
- Exeter submits after eighteen days
Harold’s mother Gytha and the western shires test the new king’s patience.
- William sails for Normandy
The new king spends most of 1067 across the Channel, leaving Odo and fitzOsbern to govern.
- The Danes and the north take York
Sweyn’s fleet in the Humber joins Edgar, Waltheof, and the Northumbrians against the Norman garrison.
- William is crowned at Westminster
Ealdred of York crowns the Conqueror on Christmas Day while his guards set fire to the houses outside.
Sources
Where this is recorded
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Avalon Project)
- Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, trans. Thomas Forester
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