Editing Stigand (section)

===Norman Conquest===
[[File:KingHarold Coronation BayeuxTapestry.PNG|thumb|250px|''HIC RESIDET HAROLD REX ANGLORUM. STIGANT ARCHIEP(I)S(COPUS)''. "Here sits Harold King of the English. Archbishop Stigand". Scene immediately after the crowning of Harold by (according to the Norman tradition) Stigand. Detail from the [[Bayeux Tapestry]].]]
[[Image:William1.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|[[William the Conqueror]], shown here from the Bayeux Tapestry, at first accepted Stigand's position, but later allowed papal legates to depose him.|alt=A seated man in robes holding a sword upright in one hand and pointing with his other hand. Behind the seated figure is a standing man pointing in the same direction as the seated figure.]]

King Edward, on his deathbed, left the crown to his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson, the son of Earl Godwin.<ref name=Thomas18/> Stigand performed the funeral services for Edward.<ref name=Rex197>Rex ''Harold II'' p. 197</ref> Norman writers claimed that Stigand crowned Harold as king in January 1066.<ref name=Chibnall21>Chibnall ''Anglo-Norman England'' p. 21</ref> This is generally considered false propaganda, as it was in William's interest to portray Harold as uncanonically crowned. If Harold was improperly crowned, then William was merely claiming his rightful inheritance, and not deposing a rightful king.<ref name=Higham175>Higham ''Death of Anglo-Saxon England'' pp. 175–180</ref> The [[Bayeux Tapestry]] depicts Stigand at Harold's coronation, although not actually placing the crown on Harold's head.<ref name=Rex151>Rex ''Harold II'' p. 151</ref>{{efn|The Tapestry also depicts Stigand wearing a pallium, which Norman sources usually claimed he had no right to wear.<ref name=Owen124>Owen-Crocker "Image Making" ''Leaders of the Anglo-Saxon Church'' p. 124</ref>}} The English sources claim that Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, crowned Harold, while the Norman sources claim that Stigand did so, with the conflict between the various sources probably tracing to the post-Conquest desire to vilify Harold and depict his coronation as improper.<ref name=Walker136/> Current historical research has shown that the ceremony was performed by Ealdred, owing to the controversy about Stigand's position.<ref name=Huscroft48/><ref name=Chibnall39/><ref name=Walker136/> However, one historian, [[Pauline Stafford]], theorises that both archbishops may have consecrated Harold.<ref name=Stafford83>Stafford ''Unification and Conquest'' p. 83</ref> Another historian, Frank Barlow, writing in 1979, felt that the fact that some of the English sources do not name who consecrated Harold "tip(s) the balance in favour of Stigand".<ref name=1000Chuch60>Barlow ''English Church 1000–1066'' p. 60 footnote 4</ref>

Stigand did support Harold, and was present at Edward the Confessor's deathbed.<ref name=Barlow249>Barlow ''Edward the Confessor'' pp. 249–250</ref> Stigand's controversial position may have influenced Pope Alexander II's support of [[William the Conqueror]]'s [[Norman conquest of England|invasion of England]].<ref name=ASE586>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 586</ref><ref name=Loyn98>Loyn ''English Church'' p. 98</ref> The reformers, led by Archdeacon Hildebrand, later Pope [[Pope Gregory VII|Gregory VII]], opposed the older type of bishop, rich and installed by the lay powers.<ref name=Rex208>Rex ''Harold II'' pp. 208–209</ref>

After the death of Harold at the [[Battle of Hastings]], Stigand worked with [[Edwin, Earl of Mercia|Earl Edwin]] and [[Morcar of Northumbria|Earl Morcar]], as well as Archbishop Ealdred of York, to put Edgar the Ætheling on the throne.<ref name=Walker183>Walker ''Harold'' pp. 183–185</ref> This plan did not come to fruition, however, due to opposition from the northern earls and some of the other bishops.<ref name=Douglas204>Douglas ''William the Conqueror'' pp. 203–206</ref> Stigand submitted to William the Conqueror at [[Wallingford, Oxfordshire|Wallingford]] in early December 1066,<ref name=Huscroft18>Huscroft ''Ruling England'' pp. 18–19</ref><ref name=BatesWC94>Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 94</ref> and perhaps assisted at his coronation on Christmas Day, 1066,<ref name=DNB/> although the coronation was performed by Ealdred.<ref name=BatesWC96>Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 96</ref> William took Stigand with him to [[Normandy]] in 1067,<ref name=Knowles104>Knowles ''Monastic Order'' p. 104</ref> although whether this was because William did not trust the archbishop, as the medieval chronicler William of Poitiers alleges, is uncertain.<ref name=Conquest11>Williams ''English and the Norman Conquest'' p. 11</ref> Stigand was present at the coronation of William's queen, [[Matilda of Flanders|Matilda]], in 1068, although once more the ceremony was actually performed by Ealdred.<ref name=BatesWC100>Bates ''William the Conqueror'' pp. 100–101</ref>