Very little is known for certain of the ancestry of the Godwins, the family of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Harold II. When King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 the legitimate heir was his great-nephew, Edgar Ætheling, but he was young and lacked powerful supporters. Harold was the head of the most powerful family in England and Edward's brother-in-law, and he became king. In September 1066 Harold defeated and killed King Harald Hardrada of Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and Harold was himself defeated and killed the following month by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. The family is named after Harold's father, Earl Godwin, who had risen to a position of wealth and influence under King Cnut in the 1020s. In 1045 Godwin's daughter, Edith, married King Edward the Confessor, and by the mid-1050s Harold and his brothers had become dominant, almost monopolising the English earldoms. Godwin was probably the son of Wulfnoth Cild, a South Saxon thegn, but Wulfnoth's ancestry is disputed. A few genealogists argue that he was descended from Alfred the Great's elder brother, King Æthelred I, but almost all historians of Anglo- Saxon England reject this theory.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestry_of_the_Godwins

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1635:

Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a three-month pacification campaign against Taiwanese aborigines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_pacification_campaign_on_Formosa

1831:

After a bloody battle with the military causing 600 casualties, rebellious silkworkers seized Lyon, France, beginning the First Canut Revolt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canut_revolts

1975:

Two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos I was declared King of Spain according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Carlos_I_of_Spain

1995:

Toy Story, the first feature film created using only computer- generated imagery, was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story

2005:

Angela Merkel assumed office as chancellor of Germany, the first woman to do so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

dory: 1. (nautical) A small flat-bottomed boat with pointed or somewhat pointed ends, used for fishing both offshore and on rivers. 2. Any of several different families of large-eyed, silvery, deep-bodied, laterally compressed, and roughly discoid marine fish. […] 3. A wooden pike or spear about three metres (ten feet) in length with a flat, leaf-shaped iron spearhead and a bronze butt-spike (called a sauroter), which was the main weapon of hoplites in Ancient Greece. It was usually not thrown but rather thrust at opponents with one hand. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dory

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.   --Charles de Gaulle https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle