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Battle of Hastings

Ch. 1 of 7
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Contents

Battle of Hastings

7 sections

  • The Battle of Hastings lasted from about 9 am to dusk on the 14th of October 1066, and by nightfall it had ended a way of life that had endured in England for centuries. A single day of fighting between William, Duke of Normandy, and the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson did not just decide who sat on a throne. It began the Norman Conquest of England, reshaping its language, its aristocracy, and its church from the ground up. What brought two armies to a hillside in East Sussex? Why was Harold fighting two invasions almost simultaneously? And how did the tactics of a relatively small force of Norman cavalry and archers undo an English shield wall that had held for most of the day? The answers begin not on the battlefield but in a succession crisis that had been building since King Edward the Confessor died without an heir.

  • King Edward died on the 5th of January 1066, leaving the English throne to no clear successor. Harold Godwinson, the richest and most powerful of the English aristocrats and the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, moved quickly. The Witenagemot, England's royal council, elected him king, and he was crowned by Ealdred, the Archbishop of York.

    But three rival claimants immediately contested that coronation. William of Normandy asserted that Edward had promised him the throne, and that Harold himself had sworn to support that claim. Harald Hardrada of Norway grounded his bid in an older agreement: his predecessor Magnus the Good had arranged with the English king Harthacnut that whichever of them died first without an heir, the other would inherit both kingdoms. Harold's own exiled brother Tostig Godwinson also entered the picture, raiding southeastern England with a fleet recruited in Flanders in early 1066.

    Norman propaganda added a further complication. It claimed Harold's coronation had been performed by Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose own election was considered uncanonical. The claim was likely false, but it served William's diplomatic purposes as he sought to portray Harold as an illegitimate ruler. In April 1066, Halley's Comet appeared in the sky and was widely observed across Europe; contemporary accounts linked its appearance directly to the succession turmoil in England. Both William and Hardrada spent the following months assembling troops and ships, preparing separate invasions.

  • Hardrada moved first. He led a fleet of more than 300 ships carrying perhaps 15,000 men into northern England in early September, and Tostig's forces joined him there. On the 20th of September they shattered a northern English army under Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, at the Battle of Fulford, and then occupied York.

    Harold had spent much of the summer on the south coast, waiting for William. On the 8th of September, with no Norman landing in sight and his militia needing to harvest their crops, he dismissed his forces. News of the Norwegian invasion reached him shortly after, and he drove north with remarkable speed, covering roughly 200 miles to reach the Norwegians. At the Battle of Stamford Bridge on the 25th of September, Harold caught Hardrada and Tostig by surprise and killed them both. The Norwegian losses were catastrophic: only 24 of the original 300 ships were needed to carry the survivors home.

    The victory came at a severe price. Harold's army was battered, exhausted, and far from the south. William had been waiting at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme since about the 12th of August, his crossing delayed by unfavourable weather or by the threat of Harold's naval forces. He seized his moment the moment Harold's fleet dispersed. Norman ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex on the 28th of September, and William's forces built a wooden castle at Hastings and began raiding the surrounding countryside. Harold was forced to march south again immediately, gathering troops as he traveled, determined to contain William before the Norman forces could break out of their beachhead.

  • Harold camped at Caldbec Hill on the night of the 13th of October, near what sources describe as a "hoar-apple tree", roughly 8 miles from William's castle at Hastings. He took a defensive position the next morning at the top of Senlac Hill, in present-day Battle, East Sussex, with his flanks protected by woods and marshy ground to the front.

    The English force was built around two distinct elements. The housecarls were full-time professional soldiers wearing conical helmets and mail hauberks, most of them armed with the two-handed Danish battleaxe. Around them stood the fyrd, local levies who owned their own land and served by obligation. For every five hides of land, one man was supposed to serve; in emergencies, England could furnish perhaps 14,000 men from the fyrd. Both groups fought on foot. The English army had almost no archers.

    William's force was structured differently. About half were infantry, and the rest were split roughly equally between cavalry and archers. He deployed his army in three divisions: Bretons on the left under Alan the Red, Normans in the centre under William himself, and Frenchmen and others on the right under William fitzOsbern and Count Eustace II of Boulogne. In front stood the archers, behind them infantry spearmen, and cavalry held in reserve. The exact size of both armies is unknown; modern historians suggest the English numbered 7,000-8,000 men, while estimates for the Normans range from 7,500 to 12,000. About 20 named individuals can reasonably be placed with Harold, including his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine. Only about 35 named individuals can be reliably confirmed as having stood with William.

  • Fighting began at 9 am on Saturday the 14th of October. Norman archers opened by shooting uphill at the English shield wall, to little effect. The uphill angle drove their arrows into English shields or sent them overshooting the hilltop entirely. With few English archers on the field, there were also almost no spent English arrows for the Normans to gather and reuse.

    William sent spearmen forward next, but the English met them with axes, spears, and stones. The infantry could not break the shield wall, and the cavalry advanced in support without success. A general retreat began, blamed on the Breton division on William's left. A rumour spread through the Norman ranks that William had been killed. Harold's men broke formation to pursue the fleeing enemy. William rode through his own troops, showing his face to prove he was alive, then led a counter-attack that cut down the pursuing English. Some rallied on a nearby hillock before being overwhelmed.

    Whether Harold ordered the pursuit or his men broke ranks on their own initiative is unknown. The 12th-century chronicler Wace claims Harold ordered his men to hold formation, but no other source confirms that detail. What followed, at some point in the afternoon, were what later chronicles describe as deliberate feigned flights: Norman cavalry would charge, wheel, and flee, then turn on the English who chased them. William of Poitiers says the tactic was used twice. Most historians accept that it was genuine Norman strategy rather than an invented excuse for earlier real retreats. Each cycle of feigned flight thinned out the housecarls in the shield wall, and the gaps were filled with lighter-armed fyrd. The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio records that William had two horses killed under him during the fighting; William of Poitiers raises that count to three.

  • Harold appears to have died late in the battle, though the accounts of how are among the most disputed questions in English medieval history. The Bayeux Tapestry shows a figure with an arrow in his eye beside a warrior being struck down by a sword, and over both figures the inscription reads "Here King Harold has been killed". Which figure is Harold, or whether both depict him, cannot be determined.

    The earliest written account of the arrow-to-the-eye story dates to the 1080s, from a history of the Normans written by Amatus of Montecassino, an Italian monk. William of Malmesbury adds that a knight wounded Harold at the same moment the arrow struck. William of Poitiers offers no details at all. The Carmen claims William himself killed Harold, but as the military historian Peter Marren and others note, such a feat would surely have been recorded elsewhere. Ian Walker, a modern biographer of Harold, concluded that Harold probably died from an arrow in the eye, but acknowledged the possibility that he was struck down by a Norman knight while already mortally wounded. Peter Rex, another biographer, concluded after examining all the accounts that it is simply not possible to say with certainty how Harold died.

    What is undisputed is the effect. Harold's death left the English forces leaderless. Most fled. The soldiers of the royal household gathered around Harold's body and fought on until they were destroyed. A rearguard action at a site the sources call the "Malfosse", or "Evil Ditch", saw some Englishmen rally one last time and seriously wound Eustace of Boulogne before the Normans overwhelmed them. By nightfall, sunset had come at 4:54 pm and full darkness descended by around 6:24 pm, with moonrise not until 11:12 pm. The battlefield went dark before most of the pursuit was done.

  • Harold's body was identified the following day, either by his armour or by marks on his body. A later tradition held that his face was unrecognisable and that Edith the Fair, his common-law wife, was brought to the battlefield to identify him from marks only she knew. His personal standard was sent to the papacy. Harold's mother Gytha reportedly offered William the weight of her son's body in gold to recover it; William refused. Whether Harold's remains were eventually thrown into the sea, buried at a cliff's edge, or secretly interred at Waltham Abbey, which Harold himself had founded, remains unresolved. Later legends even held that Harold survived and became a hermit at Chester.

    The English nobles did not immediately surrender. Edgar Ætheling was proclaimed king by the Witenagemot, backed by Earls Edwin and Morcar and both archbishops. William marched on London, defeated English forces at Southwark, found London Bridge impassable, crossed the Thames at Wallingford, and received the submission of Stigand there. The English leaders surrendered at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. William was crowned King of England by Ealdred on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster Abbey.

    Resistance continued for years. Rebellions in Exeter, an invasion by Harold's sons, uprisings in Northumbria, a Danish fleet, and the revolt of Hereward the Wake at Ely all followed. William's response to the Northumbrian risings became known as the Harrying of the North in late 1069 and early 1070, devastating large parts of the region. William founded Battle Abbey at the site of the battle, with the high altar placed at the spot where Harold died. The site is now administered by English Heritage. Some English veterans of Hastings eventually made their way to Constantinople and joined the Varangian Guard; they faced Norman forces again at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in 1081, and were defeated once more in similar circumstances.

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Harold GodwinsonWilliam the Conqueror

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Common questions

When and where did the Battle of Hastings take place?

The Battle of Hastings was fought on the 14th of October 1066, approximately 7 miles northwest of Hastings at the site of present-day Battle, East Sussex. Fighting began at 9 am and lasted until dusk.

Why did the Battle of Hastings happen?

King Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of January 1066 without an heir, triggering a succession crisis. Harold Godwinson was crowned king by the Witenagemot, but William of Normandy claimed Edward had promised him the throne and that Harold had sworn to support his claim, leading William to mount an invasion.

How did Harold Godwinson die at the Battle of Hastings?

The traditional account, first recorded in the 1080s by Amatus of Montecassino, holds that Harold died from an arrow to the eye. The Bayeux Tapestry shows a figure with an arrow in his eye alongside the inscription "Here King Harold has been killed", though historians including Ian Walker and Peter Rex note the exact circumstances cannot be confirmed.

What tactics did William use to defeat the English at Hastings?

William deployed archers, infantry, and cavalry in sequence, opening with archers shooting uphill at the English shield wall. His forces also used feigned flights, wheeling cavalry away in false retreat to draw English soldiers out of formation and expose them to counter-attack. William of Poitiers states this tactic was used twice.

How many soldiers fought at the Battle of Hastings?

The exact numbers are unknown. Modern historians estimate Harold's English army at between 5,000 and 13,000 men, with most settling on 7,000-8,000. Estimates for William's Norman force range from 7,500 to 12,000 men. About 2,000 Norman dead and 4,000 English dead have been speculated by historian Peter Marren.

What happened to Harold's body after the Battle of Hastings?

Harold's body was identified the day after the battle, either by his armour or by marks known to his common-law wife Edith the Fair. William refused a reported offer from Harold's mother Gytha to ransom the body in gold. Whether Harold was buried at sea, at a cliff, or at Waltham Abbey which he had founded remains historically unresolved.

All sources

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