Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066. He was buried the following day, when Harold was crowned king. William sent Lanfranc to Rome to obtain papal backing. He called his magnates to councils, but it was necessary in many cases to use force of personality, together with offers of land to be won in England.
On 24 April, Halley's Comet blazed for a week in the sky. An omen to many, it appears on the Tapestry near a worried Harold. The estuary of the River Dives became the assembly place for the fleet, said to number 696 vessels, while the troops began to assemble nearby, but the wind blew obstinately from a northerly direction. Harold was guarding family lands in the south, while an English fleet, said to consist of 700 ships, patrolled the Channel.
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