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Invading what is now [[Yorkshire]] in September, 1066, Harald Hardrada and Tostig defeated the English earls [[Edwin, Earl of Mercia|Edwin]] of [[Mercia]] and Morcar of Northumbria at the [[Battle of Fulford]] near [[York]] ([[September 20]]), but were in turn defeated and slain by Harold's army five days later at the [[Battle of Stamford Bridge]] ([[September 25]]).
Harold now forced his army to march 240 miles (386 kilometres) to intercept William, who had landed perhaps 7000 men in [[Sussex, England|Sussex]], southern England three days later on [[September 28]]. Harold established his army in hastily built [[earthworks (engineering)|earthworks]] near [[Hastings]]. The two armies clashed at the [[Battle of Hastings]], near the present town of [[Battle, East Sussex|Battle]] close by [[Hastings]] on [[October 14]], where after a hard fight Harold was killed and his forces routed. His brothers [[Gyrth Godwinson|Gyrth]] and [[Leofwine Godwinson|Leofwine ]] were also killed in the battle. According to tradition, Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye, but the victim depicted in the [[Bayeux Tapestry]] is anonymous. Whether he did, indeed, die in this manner (a death associated in the middle ages with perjurers), or was killed by the sword, will never be known. Harold's mistress, Edith Swanneck, was called to identify the body (the face being destroyed), which she did by the tattoos pricked into his chest which read "Edith" and "England". Although one Norman account claims that Harold's body was buried in a grave overlooking the Saxon shore, it is more likely that he was buried in his church of [[Waltham Abbey (abbey)|Waltham Holy Cross]] in [[Essex]], which he had refounded in 1060.
Harold's strong association with [[Bosham]] and the discovery of a Saxon coffin in the church in the 1950s has led some to speculate that King Harold was buried here. A recent bid to exhume a grave in Bosham church was refused by the Diocese of [[Chichester, West Sussex|Chichester]] in December 2004, the Chancellor ruling that the chances of establishing the identity of the body as Harold II were too slim to justify disturbing a burial place. A prior exhumation had revealed the remains of a middle-aged man lacking one leg, a description which fits the fate of the king according to certain chroniclers.
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