An Anglo-Danish noble, he rose to power under Canute, after whose death Godwin supported the acession of Edward the Confessor and became a dominant figure in royal government. In 1045 his daughter Edith married Edward. He was overthrown in 1051 but regained his position by force in 1052. He was suceeded by his son Harold. Died of Apoplexy.

Father: , Wulfnoth of Sussex, Cyld of Sussex

Married to Sveynsdottir, Thyra

Notes:
Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (1B:22). This line shows Godwin's 8 generation descent from AETHULWULF, KING OF WESSEX (RIN 1339).
1. Edith_* of_Wessex
2. Harold_II*

---------

Godwin of Wessex (Old English: Gōdwine) (990 – 15 April 1053), was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Cnut the Great and his successors. Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex. Godwin was the father of King Harold Godwinson and Edith of Wessex, wife of King Edward the Confessor.

---------

725Godwin of Wessex was the most powerful man in England after the King, whom he supported in the raid on the treasures at Winchester, but who tried his utmost to run the country as family fiefdom. He plotted to have Edward marry his daughter Edith, a union to which the king consented to keep Godwin happy and allied in the face of continued Scandinavian threats. Edward was double Edith's age; the marriage did not produce an heir, for the saintly king had earlier taken a vow of chastity (a hunting accident had left him impotent in any case). Edward wanted his Norman relatives to gain the throne of England. The handing over of power to William became his obsession. But there were other claimants from the house of Earl Godwin that contested the king's wishes.

Notes:
Per Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (1B:22), dau. of Jarl Thorkill Sprakalaeg. Stuart's "Royalty For Commoners" (368:32), notes that recent research questions Jarl Thorkill's paternity of Gytha.

Child 1: , Edith (Eadgyth), b. CIR 1020
Child 2: Godwineson, Harold II, King of England, b. ABT 1022
Child 3: , Sveyn, Earl of Mercia
Child 4: Godwinsson, Tostig of Northumbria, Earl of Northumberland, b. CIR 1026
Child 5: , Leofwine, Earl of Kent
Child 6: , Gyrth, Earl of East Anglia
Child 7: , Driella
Child 8: , Wulfnoth
Child 9: , Alfgar, Monk at Rheims
Child 10: , Edgiva
Child 11: , Elgiva
Child 12: , Gunhilda, Nun

----------

3Gytha Thorkelsdottir (Old English: Gȳða Þorkelsdōttir), also called Githa, was the daughter of Thorgil Sprakling (also called Thorkel). She married the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Godwin of Wessex.
They had a large family together, of whom five sons became earls at one time or another, three remaining earls in 1066:
1. Sweyn Godwinson, Earl of Herefordshire, (d. 1052). At some point he declared himself an illegitimate son of Canute the Great but this is considered to be a false claim.
2. Harold II of England, (c. 1022 - October 14, 1066)
3. Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria (c. 1026 - September 25, 1066)
4. Edith of Wessex, (d. December 19, 1075), queen consort of Edward the Confessor
5. Gyrth Godwinson, (c. 1030 - October 14, 1066)
6. Gunhilda of Wessex, a nun (c. 1035-1080)
7. Ælfgifu of Wessex, (c. 1035)
8. Leofwine Godwinson, Earl of Kent (c. 1035 - October 14, 1066)
9. Wulfnoth Godwinson, (c. 1040)
Two of their sons, Harold II and Tostig Godwinson, faced each other at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where Tostig was killed. Less than a month later, three of her sons, Harold II, Gyrth, and Leofwine, were killed at the Battle of Hastings.
Shortly after the Battle of Hastings, Gytha was living in Exeter and may have been the cause of that city's rebellion against William the Conqueror in 1067, which resulted in his laying siege to the city. She pleaded unsuccessfully with him for the return of the body of her slain son Harold II. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gytha left the Kingdom of England after the Norman conquest of England, together with the wives or widows and families of other prominent Anglo-Saxons, all the Godwin family estates having been confiscated by William. Little else is known of Gytha's life or future, although it is probable that she went to Scandinavia (like her granddaughter and namesake), where she had relatives.
Her surviving (and youngest) son Wulnoth lived nearly all his life in (pleasant) captivity in Normandy until The Conqueror's death in 1087. Only her eldest daughter Queen Edith (d. 1075) still held some power (however nominal) as widow of Edward the Confessor.

Sveynsdottir, Thyra