“Edith finding the body of Harold on the battle-field of Hastings”. This is the original inscription on the base of the statue. The now weathered statue marks the end of the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when the remains of King Harold II (Harold Godwinson 1022 – 1066), the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, was discovered and identified by his wife, Edith Swanneck. Although this marble statue has weathered over much time the sadness of the event lingers on. The work was commissioned by Sir Thomas Brassey MP for Hastings, and made in 1875 by the Prussian sculptor Charles Augustus William Wilke (1832 - 1885). Although King Harold II had just over two weeks earlier defeated the invasion in the north of England by King Harald Sigurdsson Hardrada King of Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, King Harold’s exhausted army then marched south to confront William's Norman invasion at the Battle of Hastings. King Harold II was killed in this second battle of Hastings in the south, changing the history of England for ever, with the ascendancy of the new King William the Conqueror. West Marina Gardens, Hastings and St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, England. the event depicted 14 October 1066; photo taken 16/06/2019; sculpture created 1875
Date: 16/06/2019
Location: Hastings, East Sussex, England
Photographer: Richard Keith Wolff
