Harald Hardrada

Harald Hardrada (c. 1015-1066) was King of Norway from 1046 until his death. As a young man exiled after a failed uprising in Norway, he served for years as a commander in the Byzantine Empire's elite Varangian Guard, fighting in campaigns across the eastern Mediterranean and amassing considerable wealth before returning north to claim the Norwegian throne. In 1066 he invaded England, allying with the exiled English earl Tostig Godwinson and claiming the English crown, but his army was defeated and he was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge by King Harold Godwinson, only weeks before Harold was himself defeated by William the Conqueror at Hastings. His death is often taken by historians as marking the end of the Viking Age.