The Last of the Vikings

Image: Harald in his last battle according to Matthew Paris, the English chronicler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_Hardrada        

        The well-written article harks back to the twilight of the Viking Age zooming on the life of a hopeless adventurer and eventually the king of Norway. 

        An ultimate pretender to the throne, Harald Hardrada began his career as a commander of a contingent of rebel forces assisting to no avail to his half-brother to recover the throne in his maiden Battle of Stiklestad when the young warrior was still in his teens.

        The humiliating defeat sent him into exile to the Kievan Rus. Harald found favor at the court of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise who appointed him one of his captains. However, the young man's attempt to court the ruler's daughter ended in fiasco and he made his way to Constantinople where the Roman Emperor reserved for him a place in his elite troops dubbed the Varangian Guard.

        Gaining a well-earned military reputation, Harald was unscrupulous in politics which nearly cost him life. He managed to escape seizing a ship which took him to the Kievan Rus again. All these years the Grand Prince Yaroslav was the keeper of the adventurer's plundered fortune and now the renowned warrior received the princes as his top prize.

        The expatriate decided to return home and became a pretender to the throne occupied by his nephew. Long years of civil war would rattle the kingdom and led to the division of the Viking Empire. Harald succeeded in keeping Norway under his sway.

        Having realized that at the home front he could do no better, the fifty-year-old veteran hatched a scheme to invade Britain. After initial success, his army was routed in the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Harald declined to recognize his defeat and conducted a suicidal attack against advancing English troops. His winner, king Harold of England, agreed to deliver proverbial seven feet of English soil to bury the Viking giant. 

Source: "The Incredible Life of Harald Hardrada" http://www.realmofhistory.com/2016/08/12/harald-hardrada-last-great-viking/