text: Archaeologists will this week test if the Bayeux Tapestry correctly depicts Harold II’s death, when they scan a graveyard to investigate whether he in fact survived the Battle of Hastings. 
   
   The same survey team used to find the remains of Richard III under a Leicester car park is now searching for the remains of England’s last Saxon king in the grounds of Waltham Abbey Church in Essex. 
   
   History books currently record he was wounded in the eye by a Norman arrow and then hacked down by four Norman knights at a turning point of British history on October 14, 1066. 
   
   But an amateur historian funding the ground scan believes Harold Godwinson may have survived and lived for another 40 years as a hermit. 
   
   Peter Burke says the alternative history is found in a 12th century document called Vita Haroldi, which is kept in the British Museum. 
   
   He told the Independent on Sunday: “We have the Norman story put through the Bayeux Tapestry – the English story is a different one. 
   
   "You put things together and it begins to build a picture that is quite solid. If everything backs you up in history, you should look at it. You shouldn't just leave it.” 
   
   
   
   A re-enactment of the 1066 Battle of Hastings in East Sussex (Rex) 
   
   Mr Burke, 64, who has investigated the theory while researching his own historical novels, believes the scan will find the body of Harold, but potentially it will be the body of an old man, rather than a young king killed in battle. 
   
   In that case historians will have to rewrite the history books he believes. 
   
   He said: “I'm very hopeful we will find something. I've always thought you should question things. You shouldn't just take history at face value. 
   
   "[The Battle of Hastings] is one of the biggest events in English history. Whether it will go as far as rewriting history books, I suppose they'll have to," he said. ||||| THE wait is nearly over for a moment that could change history as we know it. 
   
   A geophysics scan will take place in Waltham Abbey on Tuesday October 14 in a bid to settle once and for all the question of King Harold’s last resting place. 
   
   Harold is said to have been brought to Waltham Abbey to lie at rest. 
   
   Author Peter Burke, who has written a series of novels about the last Saxon king of England, has finally got the permission needed to carry out the search in the grounds of the Abbey. 
   
   Mr Burke believes Harold may have escaped death by an arrow through the eye at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. 
   
   Oval Films, the production company involved in the discovery of Richard III two years ago have teamed up with Mr Burke on the project. 
   
   He believes the scan may reveal Harold lived until 1090, being taken to Winchester to receive treatment. 
   
   An unknown headless knight could have been identified by Harold’s wife Edith to lie in the grave to conceal the fate of the defeated king. 
   
   A ceremony is held at the grave in the Abbey Gardens as part of King Harold Day every year. ||||| Could King Harold have been buried at Waltham Abbey years after escaping his supposed death at the Battle of Hastings and fleeing to Germany? A ground scan may be about to find out 
   
   © Wikimedia Commons 
   
   Peter Burke initially believed that the notion of King Harold escaping thebloodbath, in which he is commonly thought to have been dismembered and even shot in the eye, was far-fetched.A historian who has lived within 200 metres of Waltham Abbey for the past 29 years, Burke’s investigation began unwittingly while he was planning his latest book.“I was researching for the,” he says.“I am a stonemason by trade and was interested in how some of the church and surrounding walls were constructed.“Knowing stonework as well as I do, I've seen so many constructions old and new and their style can reveal the skills - and sometimes the lack of skills - of masons in the past, as well as anomalies.“I found some interesting stonework around the Abbey at Waltham, and learned of a tale of a king who escaped the slaughter at Hastings, which I wove into my story.“What surprised me was that, when I researched further into what I accepted at first as a fanciful tale, I began to realise there was possibly a story with some basis, in fact.“I found an interesting manuscript called theand felt compelled to look deeper into this, as a part of the tying up of loose ends for my books.“As I studied I became fascinated by the logical and simple manner of this work.“Four years later, having thoroughly researched the histories available and pondered on the characters and their actions at the time, and the dates of the walls being constructed, I have concluded that the story of Harold's escape from the field of battle at Senlac Hill could actually be the true, English version: that although terribly wounded, Harold was nursed back to health and made his escape to Germany two years later.”A licence has been granted for a scan in the Abbey gardens, supported by a geophysics team. It could be filmed by the crew responsible for a television documentary on the discovery of Richard III’s remains in 2012.“Well, it’s being discussed,” says Burke, who is due to have talks with two production teams.“There could, of course, be nothing where we are set to look, but I felt strongly enough that it was worth the £2,000 – the cost for the scan to at least look.“The place we are examining using ground penetrating radar is where I have seen something.“There are, I believe, three possibilities that lie under the ground at Waltham Abbey: the body of a brutally hacked to death soldier, a collection of bones belonging to a Saxon knight who is not Harold, a cask containing ash or bones - possibly Harold - or the remains of an old man, 6 foot 1, with scarring to his temple and cheek.“If we find the latter then we will need a DNA test and history, as we have understood it for 950 years, may have to change.” ||||| The geological survey company used to find the remains of Richard III is launching a search for the body of King Harold II in the grounds of Waltham Abbey Church in Essex, where the fallen monarch was supposedly given a burial. 
   
   The scan, to be performed by the Stratascan team on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, will be filmed for a documentary exploring an alternative theory of Harold's death. 
   
   The history books record that on 14 October 1066, Harold was brutally hacked to death by four Norman knights, after being struck by an arrow to his eye. The scenes of Harold gripping the arrow were later depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. 
   
   Archaeologists will now explore a claim that the king survived the battle and lived as a hermit until he died of natural causes in his eighties – about 40 years after the battle. 
   
   The alternative explanation, contained in a 12th-century document housed in the British Library called Vita Haroldi, is championed by Peter Burke, an amateur historian from Waltham Abbey who has been studying an alternative English version of events for the past five years. 
   
   "We have the Norman story put through the Bayeux Tapestry – the English story is a different one," said Mr Burke, 64. "You put things together and it begins to build a picture that is quite solid. If everything backs you up in history, you should look at it. You shouldn't just leave it," he said. 
   
   Mr Burke, who is a stonemason and fiction author, said that he was "absolutely convinced" that the scan would find King Harold's body and he has funded the search with £2,000 of his own money. 
   
   He will lead the scan to a site near the east wall where there are thought to be some symbol markings. This site is roughly 15 yards away from King Harold's reputed tomb at the High Altar. 
   
   English Heritage granted permission for a ground-penetrating radar to scan the area. Debbie Priddy, the inspector of ancient monuments in the East of England, said they "were happy to give consent for this work which involves no disturbance to the nationally important archaeological remains of the abbey church". 
   
   If the scan does provide evidence, excavation may still be a while off due to the consecrated nature of the site. English Heritage would need to advise the Secretary of State to consent to excavation, in an effort to "conserve archaeological remains for future generations". 
   
   "I'm very hopeful we will find something," said Mr Burke. "I've always thought you should question things. You shouldn't just take history at face value. [The Battle of Hastings] is one of the biggest events in English history. Whether it will go as far as rewriting history books, I suppose they'll have to," he said. 
   
   Although Mr Burke said that he expected criticism over the search, members of the Waltham Abbey Historical Society have said the king's remains are unlikely to be found because the site has been frequently disturbed for building works. 
   
   The account by Guy, Bishop of Amiens, of the East Sussex battle, which delivered a decisive Norman victory, says that Harold was killed by four knights, probably including Duke William II of Normandy, and his body dismembered.
target: – King Harold II's death is immortalized in the Bayeux Tapestry, which shows England's final Anglo-Saxon king taking an arrow to the eye during the Battle of Hastings on Oct. 14, 1066; Norman knights then were said to have hacked him to pieces. Now, a team is tugging on the tapestry's threads to see if that story holds. The same geological survey company that unearthed Richard III under a parking lot will tomorrow (that's the 948th anniversary of the death) scan the ground where Harold is supposed to be buried in an investigation of an alternate tale: that the king actually survived and lived another four decades as a hermit. That theory was penned in a document called the Vita Haroldi in the 12th century, and amateur historian Peter Burke believes it to be true, so much so that he's funding the scan at Essex's Waltham Abbey Church. King Harold is said to be buried in a tomb at the High Altar there, but Burke suspects he's actually interred about 45 feet away, near the east wall. "We have the Norman story put through the Bayeux Tapestry—the English story is a different one," he tells the Independent. As the Telegraph reports, Burke hopes the scan will reveal Harold's body—and that it will prove to be the remains of an elderly man, indicating the king did indeed regain health and then fled to Germany two years later. Should the scan surface "old man, 6 foot 1, with scarring to his temple and cheek ... then we will need a DNA test," Burke tells Culture24. Who would be in the tomb then? The Hertfordshire Mercury reports Harold's wife, Edith, could have IDed a headless knight as her husband in order to hide the truth. (Another big discovery relates to Alexander the Great.)