The Saturday briefing

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

- by CAROLINE FORD

HAROLD: James Norton in King & Conqueror and, below, wind turbines off the Norfolk coast

Is there anything you're yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them....

I have really enjoyed watching the BBC drama series King & Conqueror and it made me wonder what happened to Harold Godwinson's children?

Valerie Turnbull, via email

Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England - with both Saxon and Danish ancestry. He's best known for losing the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - only nine months after being crowned - and died after being shot in the eye by an arrow (even though he probably wasn't).

Harold had two wives, and married his first, the wonderfully-named Edith Swan-neck (also known as Edith Swanneschals or Edith the Fair) in a traditional Danish hand-binding ceremony.

Although lawful at the time, the Christian church did not recognise the marriage and their children were not treated as legitimate.

Records are scant but the couple had at least five children: sons Godwin, Edmund, Magnus and daughters, Gytha and Gunnhild.

Harold later married Ealdgyth of Mercia - granddaughter of Lady Godiva - in a Christian ceremony, in order to have legal descendents.

Sources are contradictory, but Ealdgyth possibly gave birth to a son, Harold (or twin sons), within months of the battle.