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Historical person
c. 11th century–1055
Robert of Jumièges was a Norman churchman who became bishop of London and then archbishop of Canterbury under Edward the Confessor. He was associated with the king’s Norman advisers and clashed with the powerful Godwin family. When Godwin returned from exile in 1052, Robert fled England and was deposed without papal approval. Norman writers later used his claims about the English succession to support William the Conqueror’s case.
Robert appears in Helen Hollick’s Harold the King and Julian Rathbone’s The Last English King. Historical fiction often casts him as the foreign intriguer encouraging Edward to favour Normandy. His career also reveals the international politics of church office and the way post-Conquest narratives turned disputed conversations into legal justification.
K. M. Ashman’s The Challenges of a King is set in AD 1045 Earl Godwin of Wessex prepares for the marriage of his daughter Edith to King Edward. Securing the Godwin family's place at the centre of English government.
Series
Road to Hastings traces the political rise of the Godwin family and the decisions that produced the English succession crisis of 1066. Beginning with Edith of Wessex's marriage to Edward the Confessor, the trilogy follows Earl Godwin and Harold Godwinson through exile, restoration, diplomacy and the growing influence…
All books in this series
