Ulf, son of Harold Godwinson
(1066-1087)
Ulf or Wulf (fl. 1067 – 1087?) was a son of Harold Godwinson, King of England. He was captured during the course of the Norman conquest of England, and imprisoned in Normandy, being released only at the death of William the Conqueror.
Birth and parentage
Ulf's family was one of the most powerful in Anglo-Saxon England: his paternal grandfather was Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his father was Harold Godwinson, who inherited the same title and was crowned king of England at the beginning of 1066. Harold's first wife, whom he married in a form of ceremony not recognized by the church, was called Edith Swan-neck, and his second wife was Ealdgyth, sister of the earls Edwin and Morcar. Most historians believe Edith Swan-neck was Ulf's mother, but in the 19th century Edward Freeman argued that it was Ealdgyth. Frank Barlow was undecided.
Ulf's date of birth is also uncertain. If Freeman was correct then Ealdgyth must have given birth to Ulf in Chester after Harold's death, having been married to him for only a few months in total, and since she was also the mother of a son called Harold that would necessarily imply that the two boys were twins. On the other hand Ian Walker argues that he was born between 1047 and 1053.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56734044. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1067, 1087, 1066 and 1047.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ulf, son of Harold Godwinson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.