There can be little doubt that the tension between Earl Godwine and the King at that Easter table was running high. After a period following great stress, it is believable that the Earl was vulnerable to a stroke. There is no reason to suppose that he was poisoned and such a ploy would have served no purpose politically, given that Harold was the more powerful at this stage.
There is little credibility in the apocryphal tale constructed by Norman apologists in subsequent centuries. Earl Godwine, "reclining" next to the King, declared that he prayed that God might not permit him to swallow the mouthful of bread he had taken if he was ever aware of having done anything with the intention of endangering the Aetheling Alfred or injuring the King. As he said this, they write, he was choked by
