William the Conqueror’s chaplain used to tell this story to those who doubted his master’s claim to the English crown.
In 1063, against the advice of King Edward the Confessor, Harold, son of Earl Godwin, crossed the Channel to Normandy. There, young Duke William welcomed him with a degree of warmth that was faintly troubling. William made of Harold his especial friend, and shared with him his ambition to be named Edward’s heir. Would Harold help him? William asked, and Harold mumbled something vague.
Two young English princes were banished to the court of Yaroslav the Wise, and one returned to claim the crown.
Edward the Exile was one of two princes, sons of Edmund Ironside, driven to Kiev after the Danish warrior-king Cnut the Great took their father’s crown in 1016. In 1054, Edward returned to England with his wife and young son Edgar, encouraged by his uncle King Edward the Confessor to believe that he was about to regain his lost throne.
Scandinavian tradition says that the daughter of King Harold was consort to one the great rulers of Kievan Rus’.
After Vladimir I adopted Christianity in the 10th century, the rulers of what would become Russia became prime candidates for dynastic marriage into the great royal houses of Europe. An example of particular interest to the English is the Princess Gytha, daughter of King Harold Godwinson, who married Vladimir’s great-grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.