who did harold fight before the battle of hastings
Battle of Hastings The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward's death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway). Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, and were in turn defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge five days later. The deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge left William as Harold's only serious opponent. While Harold and his forces were recovering, William landed his invasion forces in the south of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066 and established a beachhead for his conquest of the kingdom. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went.
Clifton Moor Skirmish There are at least three contenders for the claim to have been the last battle on English soil, as different historians have used different definitions for what constitutes a battle. If Clifton Moor was a "skirmish" and not a battle, and if the Battle of Preston, fought during Jacobite Rising of 1715, was a siege and not a battle, and the Battle of Reading (1688) is discounted as a street fight, then the last pitched battle on English soil was the battle of Sedgemoor fought in 1685, which was the decisive battle in Monmouth Rebellion. However either of the former, or possibly the Battle of Bossenden Wood (1838), can also be considered the last battle, depending on how a battle is defined[4][5] while the Battle of Graveney Marsh (1940) could also be counted as a skirmish. There is also, of course, a certain semanticism in the expression "last battle on English soil", for it specifically excludes the subsequent Second World War air battles over English soil, particularly the Battle of Britain (10 July to 31 October 1940) which was fought in the skies over Kent and the winter blitz of 1940-1941 which is sometimes called the Battle of London. The claim to be the most recent battle site in England, for what were relatively small armed confrontations, is useful for promoting tourism at the locations.[5][6]