The body of King Harold II being interred after the battle of Hastings. Engraving by F. Bacon, 1851, after F.R. Pickersgill, 1847.

"Although one Norman account claims that Harold's body was buried, after Hastings, in a grave overlooking the Saxon shore, it is more likely that he was buried in his church of Waltham Holy Cross. According to Waltham tradition, Harold's handfast wife, Edith Swanneck, brought the king's mutilated body from Hastings to Waltham. Waltham sources, moreover, record that before 1177 the king's body was translated within the church three times, and it is just possible that before the reform of Waltham Abbey by Henry II a cult was developing around Harold's body."--Oxford dictionary of national biography

Left, the naked body of the dead king is lowered by two men on a winding sheet into a cavity below the flagstones of a crypt. Above, he is blessed by a priest holding a book. He is kissed by a nun as he is buried. Right, his widow Edith Swanneck is comforted by a tonsured monk (anachronistic?)

[London] : Art Union of London, 1851.

1 print : engraving, with etching ; platemark 48.1 x 55.5 cm

The burial of Harold. From the original picture in the Palace of Westminster. Painted by F.R. Pickersgill A.R.A. ; Engraved by F. Bacon.

Wellcome Collection 2970993i