Due to the weather, William also had delays, fortunately for him, they worked in his favour. After having spent time summoning his men, William was ready to set sail for England, his fleet of 700 ships unfortunately wouldn’t feel wind in their sails for many days after, during this  period of time, Harold was moving his men up North, to Stanford bridge, so when William finally could set off, Harold was still at Stanford Bridge.

Harold’s army was massive; it was a combination of skilled fighters and village peasants, called the Fern, men who were required to give 2 months per year to the Kings Army. Despite its size, it was not very modern in terms of technologies, the Anglo – Saxons had cavalry, but they only used them as a method of transportation, not as a weapon of war. However, they still were a force to reckon with as displayed at the battle of Hastings.

Finally when William and Harold finally saw eye to eye, they had two very different battle plans, and technologies. For a start William had new technologies, such as Cavalry, and Archers, these were radicle new advances of the time, and were like the tanks and machine guns of WWI. As for Harold, he was prone to the old ways of warfare. Anglo – Saxons never used horses in battle, rather, purely for transportation purposes.

The Battle began at 9:00AM at Battle hill, Battle. Harold was situated on the crest of the hill, with William on the bottom. William had his men set up in three groupings; these way they set up their men was Harold had his men set up with a shield wall1 which spanned nearly a mile. William set his men up with archers at the front, Cavalry at the back and allied forces to the left and right.                              

William made the first move, using his archers to attempt to weaken his enemy, unfortunately due to the shape of the hill, the archers arrows either went into the Anglo – Saxons’ shield wall, or above their heads. However, William didn’t keep this up for long, soon charging at Harold’s army, it was here where the Battle of Hastings, truly begun.

The fighting was ferocious, however, in terms of brute force, both armies were two evenly matched, however, William noticed a fault in the Anglo – Saxons front, and decided to employ an old tactic which he had used to win many battles in his earlier life.

William noticed that occasionally the forces to the left of his front, the forces less loyal to him, who had been recruited from Brittanie would become over whelmed, turning and fleeing back down the hill. When this happened, the less disciplined fern section of the Anglo – Saxon front would run after them, thinking that they had won.

William instructed his army to attack, and then turn and flee, waiting for the oblivious Anglo – Saxons to run after them, falling into a trap, where they were outnumbered and slaughtered. 

Alongside this, William instructed his archers to go to the back of the line, and shoot their arrows upward, making the Anglo – Saxons have two problems to worry about. It was here in which Harold was fatefully hit in the eye by a Norman arrow, killing him2.

With their leader out, the Anglo – Saxons crumbled into a heap and the battle was over before nightfall.

The two armies clashed near the town of Hastings on 14 October. After a bloody struggle that lasted the best part of an entire day the Saxon shield-wall was finally breached, Harold killed, and the Saxon army routed. William was victorious but the English did not surrender as had been expected instead its ruling council the Witan elected Edgar Atheling the new King, even though he was still a boy, and resistance to William’s rule, though often sporadic, was to continue for sometime.  

William was furious and vented his anger on the local populace. Farms were burned, families driven from their homes, towns pillaged, and those who resisted put to the sword. His repression was harsh and continued long after he was formally crowned King of England  at Westminster Abbey on 25 December.

Resistance continued however, in February, 1067, a Saxon Army led by the late King Harold’s mother Gytha was defeated at Exeter. Later that same year a rebellion lead by Earl Gospatrick broke out in Northumbria. Ealdric the Wild in Wales also raised an army to oppose Norman rule, and Harold’s sons regularly raided the West Country from their base in Ireland.  All such attempts at resistance was crushed as William built castles and stationed garrisons at every part of the country he occupied. By 1070, it seemed that William had at last pacified the country but one man had other ideas.

Hereward the Wake’s place of birth was Bourne in Lincolnshire. He was the son of Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva. They were powerful and influential landowners who had access to the Royal Court. Hereward, however, was a hot-headed and reckless youth who had the temerity to argue so furiously with the King, Edward the Confessor, that he was exiled to Europe for doing so when still aged only 14. Whilst on the Continent he learned the skills of the warrior and fought in many campaigns. 

Following his victory at Hastings, William began the process of dispossessing the Saxon’s of their land and granting it to his Norman acolytes. Hereward returned to England to take possession of his inheritance only to find that it had already been sequestered and that the new Norman owner of his families estates had murdered his brother and nailed his decapitated head to the door of the family home. Hereward was quick to exact his revenge and over the next few weeks he personally slayed 14 Normans and subsequently nailed their decapitated heads to the same door. 

The seizure of his lands, however, was a fait-accompli. He could either except the new status-quo or rebel. He chose to rebel. Now a wanted man he fled to the Fens, a vast area of heavily forested wetlands that covered much of Eastern England and were so covered in water that it was said that its occupants had webbed-feet.

Hereward was initially harboured by Bishop Thurston of Ely and it was during this period of seclusion that he quietly raised his forces and garnered support. Using the connections he had made during his exile in Europe he persuaded the Danish King Sweyn Estrithson to support him and who sent a small army. He was also joined by Earl Morcar of Mercia. By 1070, he was ready to raise the flag of rebellion.

In early 1070, he led his army on a raid on Peterborough Cathedral and plundered it of its gold and treasure. As agreed he then handed over half of his bounty to Sweyn Estrithson. Unknown to Hereward however, Sweyn had also been paid off by William. With the treasure in his coffers Sweyn now withdrew back to Denmark.

The Wetlands were perfect territory for guerrilla warfare. It was almost impossible to use cavalry and to wear heavy armour was to run the risk of drowning. So even with his forces greatly diminished Hereward was able to put up a tough resistance to any attempts by the Normans to crush him, and try they would. 

The Normans could not gain access to Ely, which was virtually an Island. Hereward had cut off all available land routes. The only way they could traverse the marshes and water ways was to build causeways. They began the construction of three at Stuntney, Aldreth, and Little Thetford, but Hereward ambushed the Normans at all three locations before they could be completed. Defeated, the Normans were forced to withdraw. It seemed that there was no way that the Normans could penetrate the Fens. William was getting desperate, he feared that the success of Hereward’s rebellion would spread to the rest of the country. He now got lucky, however. Bishop Thurston, for reasons we cannot know for sure, perhaps he feared for the survival of his Abbey, approached William and revealed to him a secret land route to Ely. William now gathered overwhelming forces and leading the army himself marched on Ely. Hereward resisted where he could but was unable to contest the field with the Normans in any kind of pitched battle. As the Normans advanced Hereward’s forces melted away. Ely was captured without a fight, and the Earl Morcar taken prisoner; but Hereward and a handful of his followers disappeared into the forests where they were to continue to resist the Normans, raiding baggage trains, attacking isolated outposts, and murdering tax collectors for some years to come. Indeed, it is believed by some that the legend of Robin Hood has its origins in the exploits of Hereward the Wake.

No one knows what became of Hereward the Wake. Certainly he was neither captured nor killed by the Normans. Had they done so it would have been the cause of some celebration. It is possible that he eventually fled back to Europe.  With his disappearance, however, ended the last effective resistance to Norman rule in England. He was the Last Saxon Hero.

It is thanks to this invasion that the modern English language has so many similarities and word roots from the French language, and thus developing our speech and giving us such thick thesauruses!

King William was born at some time during either 1027 or 1028 in Falaise, Normandy. He was the only son of a French Duke who, despite his illegitimacy, named him as his successor, and thus the next Duke of Normandy.   

As a child William had many attempts made on his life, mainly by people closely related to him. These threats arouse because William was not a legitimate son, and family members were under the impression that they had a better and more worthy claim to the throne. When he was staying in Vaudreuil one of the many attempts was made on his life, but unfortunately there was a mix-up and the assailant stabbed the child in the next bed to death instead of William. Many of the people jealous of William’s life nicknamed him ‘William the Bastard’.

Despite all the rumours that were spread and the attempts on his life, when his father died, William did become the next Duke of Normandy.

When William became Duke in 1035, he was only 7 years old, and 3 of his guardians were killed by various conspirators. Luckily throughout his reign he was supported by the current King of France, who knighted him at the age of 15. One of the most momentous events of his time as Duke was his defeat of a group of rebels at Caen, during which he obtained the Truce of God. After this battle William at last managed to control most of Normandy, and many of the rebel groups were crushed.

In 1053 William was betrothed to Matilda of Flanders, and their marriage was held in Notre-Dame chapel, located in Eu castle. They had 10 children together; 4 sons and 6 daughters. However because they were distantly related they felt they had to pay penance, and each donated a church.

Because of the nobility of the marriage the present King of France, Henry I, began to become worried that the couple together may prove a threat to her throne. Within 3 years he had unsuccessfully tried to invade William’s territory twice. In 1062 William managed to capture Maine.

In England, during the reign of William, Edward the Confessor died. There were 3 people who believed that they should become the next King of England, William among them. The others were Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, and King Harald III of Norway. William had reason to believe he should take the throne, not only because of his family, but also because he said Edward had promised him that he would take the throne when he had been sent into exile during the years when the Danish occupied England.

Williams other argument was that when he had rescued Harold from a shipwreck Harold had sworn to work with William. The problem for William was that Edward’s will specified that Harold should become the next King of England.

William then planned to take England by force. Harold also had the same idea, but in reverse. On a coast in England Harold had made a huge army which would invade France, but luckily for William bad weather and winds prevented it from setting sail. His invasion was delayed by 8 months!

William’s army had around 696 ships in its fleet, carrying not only infantry, but cavalry and archers. During the 8 month delay the army stayed together, and its force remained strong. Harold’s fleet however, disbanded because of lack of supplies including food and lowered morale.

Harold’s fortunes continued to take a turn for the worst when his other threat to the throne, Harald, brought his own army, and battled him. Fortunately, after 4 days of war, Harold won.

2 days after this victory William set sail to England, and after a short delay, causing the fleet to stop further along the French coast, arrived. When William made his stop in France he was able to strengthen his fleet. On arrival William moved to Hastings, and waited for Harold to return from the north of England, where he had been battling Harald. It was here that the famous battle of Hastings occurred.

Check my profile for the next part on William the Conqueror.

One man, however, did lay claim to the throne, and he wasn’t a Viking but a Saxon. Alfred, the youngest son of a previous Saxon King, Ethelred the Unready, had been living in exile in Normandy along with his brother Edward. On hearing of Canute’s death the impetuous Alfred immediately lay claim to his rightful inheritance. The Earl Godwin, as the leading member of the Witan and the most powerful nobleman in England, cordially invited both Alfred and Edward to visit him at his estate in Guildford.

Though both brothers landed in England the more circumspect Edward decided to decline Godwin’s invitation and sailed back to Normandy. Alfred, however, continued his journey and was lavishly entertained by Godwin who even at one point during the proceedings swore an oath of fealty to his new lord and master. Early the following day he handed Alfred over to Harold Harefoot’s men who butchered his entourage. Alfred was then briefly imprisoned before having his body mutilated and his eyes plucked out. He died three days later in Ely of his wounds.

Having secured the throne for Harold Harefoot, Godwin now revelled in his new role as Kingmaker but he had even greater ambitions.

On 17 March, 1040, Harold Harefoot died to be succeeded by Harthecnut. So contemptuous of his half-brother was he that one of the first things he did on his return was to have his body disinterred, beheaded, and dumped in the River Thames. During his short reign it was possibly the most significant thing he did other than invite Edward, now known as the Confessor, for his piety, to join the Royal Household. Harthecnut was unmarried and was not known to have any children, so it seems likely that he intended to make Edward his nominated successor.

On 17 June, 1042, whilst toasting the bride at a wedding celebration in Lambeth, Harthecnut collapsed and died. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports, ” he died as he stood at his drink, and he fell suddenly to earth with an awful convulsion, those who were close to him took hold, but he spoke no words.” It was in its way a Viking death.

Edward the Confessor was now chosen King of England by the Witan, but he was reliant upon his throne to the Earl Godwin. Edward hated the arrogant, overbearing Godwin whom he held responsible for the brutal murder of his brother, a fate that had also awaited him. He was in no position, however, to do anything about it. He was forced to keep his peace.

In 1045, Godwin forced Edward to marry his daughter Edith (Eadgyth). The plan no doubt was to secure for the Godwinerson family a son of Royal descent and a legitimate successor to the throne. Edward, who had little choice in making the marriage, refused to consummate it, possibly to prevent any such thing from happening.

With little support amongst the Saxon nobility or in England generally, Edward looked to Normandy for his priests and advisers. Godwin in particular resented this and the two soon became bitter political opponents. In September, 1051, a violent confrontation took place between the people of Dover and and the party of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, who was in England at Edward’s invitation. The town of Dover was in the Earl Godwin’s possession and Edward now ordered that he punish the town for its disobedience. Godwin refused, preferring to maintain the support of his people. To refuse a direct order of the King was treason. This was Edward’s opportunity to strike. Godwin’s treasonable behaviour allowed Edward to rally enough support to have him and his family exiled abroad. Edward, flushed with success was now free to rule, but his joy was to be short-lived. Within a year Godwin was back but this time with a fully armed invasion fleet. Edward’s attempts to raise a fleet and an army to oppose him fell apart and he was forced to restore Godwin to his Earldom and all his previous authority. Godwin’s subsequent celebrations simply served to make Edward’s humiliation complete.

On 15 April, 1053, a little over a year after his return the 63 year old Godwin collapsed during a Royal Banquet, probably of a stroke. He never regained consciousness and died three days later. The outpouring of grief that followed was possibly less than sincere.

The Earl Godwin’s estates and authority now passed to his eldest surviving son, Harold. Though just as ruthless and unscrupulous as his father, Harold was also energetic, an able administrator, and a fine military commander. He was brave and resourceful and despite being a Godwineson soon became Edward’s indispensable man. Edward, however, had spent 25 years of his life in Normandy, he was as much Norman as he was English, and looked to that country both politically and culturally. He was also a great admirer of William the Bastard, the young Duke. As a result, Edward also found himself the focus of the anti-Norman faction at Court.

By this time Edward spent less time in ruling his Kingdom than he did in isolation and pious reflection. More and more, Harold Godwineson was running the country.

In 1064, Harold was shipwrecked off the coast of France at Ponthieu. No one knows for certain why he was even at sea. It has been suggested that the childless Edward had earlier sent the Archbishop of Canterbury to Normandy  to offer the succession to Duke William, and that Harold was on his way to swear an oath of fealty to the future King of England. But there is little evidence for this.

The rescued Harold was handed over to Duke William who quickly took a shine to him. The Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote at the time, ” This Englishmen was very tall and handsome, remarkable for his physical strength, his courage and eloquence, his ready jests and acts of valour. But what were these gifts without honour, which is the root of all good.” It was both praise and condemnation. Either way, he impressed William who took him on campaign with him in Brittany where Harold rescued two of William’s soldiers, at great risk to his own life, from treacherous quicksands.

The Bayeux Tapestry (that instrument of Norman propaganda) depicts Harold during his stay in Normandy swearing an oath of allegiance to William on sacred relics. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.

Upon his return to England, Harold made no mention of any apparent oath, and had little time to ponder upon any such thing for he was immediately plunged into a crisis. His brother Tostig, to whom he was particularly close, had been made Earl of Northumbria. One of the first things the hot-headed and arrogant Tostig did was to double the rate of taxation. It was a measure designed solely to line his own pockets, but it was to cause a rebellion. It was also a problem that Edward was only too happy to leave to Harold to sort out.

Despite his close relationship with his brother, Harold made a political decision. To avoid civil war he decided that it was necessary to remove Tostig and replace him with the Earl Morcar. Tostig was furious that his own brother would turn against him and put his own interests before that of his family. He vowed vengeance and immediately formed an alliance with the ferocious 6′4″ Norwegian, Harold Hadrada. From now on Harold and Tostig would be implacable foes, and for both of them it was to prove fatal.

In January, 1066, Edward the Confessor fell into a coma. Though from time to time he regained consciousness he refused to nominate a successor. At one moment he appeared to point towards Harold, and he was said to have told his wife that upon his death Harold should become protector of England but, he could not bring himself to name a Godwineson King of England.

Edward the Confessor died on 5 January, 1066. Regardless of what he may have thought or wished the following day the Witan selected Harold to succeed him. His Coronation took place at Westminster Abbey that afternoon.

William in Normandy was furious declaring that Harold had sworn allegiance to him on sacred relics. He immediately began to make preparations to invade. However, there was little enthusiasm amongst the Norman  nobility for the coming conflict and it took an intervention by the Pope who proclaimed it a Holy War to bring them on board. Harold, in the meantime, assembled his army on the Isle of Wight.

Unfavourable winds delayed the sailing of William’s fleet and with summer fast turning into autumn it seemed that any invasion would be stalled until the following spring. On 8 September, with provisions running short, Harold disbanded his army. On the same day, Tostig and Harald Hadrada, who also laid claim to the throne of England, landed with their army near Newcastle. 

Tostig and Hadrada advanced into Yorkshire where they defeated the combined armies of the Earl Morcar and Edwin of Mercia near the village of Fulford. Just five days later on 25 September Tostig and Hadrada were taken completely by surprise by the arrival of Harold’s army. He had force marched his entire army all the way from London to Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire in just four days. 

Just prior to the battle a man rode up to Tostig and offered to return his Earldom to him if he would desert Hadrada. Tostig replied sarcastically, ” and what will you offer Hadrada?” To which the man replied, ” as he is taller than most men, I offer him seven feet of earth.” Hadrada demanded to know of Tostig, “ who is this man?” Tostig smiled and said, ” that is Harold, King of England.” 

The Norwegian army was outnumbered, ill-prepared, and divided, and though they fought ferociously the battle itself was a massacre. Both Tostig and Hadrada were killed along with perhaps as many as 8,000 of their 9,000 men. Of Hadrada’s fleet of 300 ships only 24 ever returned to Norway. Harold had little time to celebrate his victory, however, just three days later he learned that William had landed with his army at Pevensey Bay in Sussex. 

On learning of the news that William had landed on the coast of England during his absence, Harold immediately marched his men the 241 miles back to London. They were tired and exhausted and Harold could have waited for those reinforcements that were already being raised, but with his army flushed with success and not wanting to allow William to establish himself further inland he instead decided to give battle.

The decisive conflict was to take place at Senlac Hill some 6 miles north of the village of Hastings in East Sussex. The two armies were evenly matched with both having between 9,000 and 12,000 men. Unlike William, however, Harold had no cavalry and so decided to take the high ground and fight a defensive battle behind the formidable Saxon shield wall. The core of his army were made up of Housecarls, professional soldiers some 5,000 strong who fought primarily with the two-handed battleaxe that it was said could cut a horse in two. Alongside them were the Thegns, the landed nobility, and the majority Fyrds, conscripted peasants. Williams army consisted of his Norman Knights, Flemings, Bretons, Italian mercenaries, and a great many archers.

Williams forces attacked uphill with great enthusiasm and the belief that God was on their side on the late morning of 14 October, 1066. Despite being fuelled by the sense that their victory was pre-ordained they made little impact on the shield wall, the Saxon barrage of missiles caused a great many casualties, and when they did make it to the shield wall they were bettered in the hand-to-hand fighting. Time and again they were forced back. In desperation William ordered his cavalry to attack  much earlier than would normally have been the case. Yet again they were forced to retreat and seeing this the Norman’s began to falter. Finally, the Breton’s on William’s left flank broke and began to run taking the Flemish in their rear with them. At this critical moment William’s horse was killed from under him and the rumour spread that he had been killed, the Norman army began to disintegrate. His luck, however, was about to change. Thinking they were victorious many English Fyrd’s broke ranks and began to give chase. William, seeing this pulled off his helmet, mounted another horse, and riding among his men began to rally his men. He succeeded in restoring discipline, but it had been a close run thing. Those Saxon’s who had broken ranks now found themselves defenceless against superior forces without the protection of the shield wall and were surrounded and killed, among them were Harold’s brothers Gytha and Leofwyne.

The Saxon shield wall was now much depleted. William now deployed his archers to fire volley after volley into the increasingly disorganised Saxon ranks. Many had by now lost their shields in the fighting and hundreds were killed. But still they held firm. Late in the afternoon, Harold, who had been in the thick of the fighting, himself fell victim to an arrow in the eye. Seeing their King prostrate and dying many Fyrd’s began to flee the battlefield. Even so, the Housecarls fought on to the bitter end. But after almost 9 hours of ferocious fighting the battle was an end. The Norman victory had been total and Harold vanquished, his body mutilated and unceremoniously buried on the shoreline he had so desperately sought to defend. It was later recovered by his wife Edith Swannesha and re-buried in secret but with great solemnity at Bosham Church, near Chichester Harbour.

So had the last Saxon King of England died. On Christmas Day, 1066, William of Normandy was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey and in that moment so died Saxon England.

He landed on the South Coast of England did not seem to have a plan of action or even any idea of what to expect in this hostile land.

William did erect a prefabricated castle on the shore and drew his ships ashore and into a palisade.  Then he wasted valuable time in foraging or pillaging, burning and devastating the surrounding area in the hope that these actions would bring Harold, whose patrimony Wessex was, and his Saxon army to battle.

Meanwhile Harold had taken his entire army north to Yorkshire to face the invasion by his treacherous brother, Tostig, former Earl of Northumbria and Harald Hardraada, King of Norway.

This was the opportunity that William failed to seize.  The road to London was undefended and wide-open.  He should have taken advantage of this chance and force-marched his troops to take control of the capital and thus England itself.  His fleet could have sheltered in the Thames Estuary and maintain his communications with Normandy.

Harold was celebrating his victory at Stamford Bridge when he received news of William’s landing.  He never wasted a minute and assembled as many of his forces as he could, then forced-marched them to London and onto Hastings, where he arrived an exhausted army.

Incredibly William, an experience soldier, allowed him this time at least 16 days. Next he allowed the Saxon army to establish its shieldwall on Senlac Hill, a steep hill, surrounded by marshy ground which negated the Norman advantage in cavalry.  This hill controlled the egress from Hastings and should have been occupied soon after the Normans had landed.

The battle, which now started, was a straight combat between an elite cavalry force and an elite infantry army.  Both of the armies were s evenly matched that the battle swung to and fro for the entire day.

The Normans tried to force their horses through the Saxon shieldwall, which stood firm.  The housecarls wielded their large Danish axes, which were able to cleave a man from brow to waist, to deadly effect.

An advantage came to the Normans during the late afternoon, when their Breton allies gave way and fled downhill.  This caused many of the Saxon fyrd to pursue them.  These men were slaughtered.

William began to use a series of feigned retreats to whittle down to untrained and undisciplined fyrd which made up the mass of the Saxon Army.  Eventually the shieldwall had to contract and William was able to establish his archers on the hillsides.  They fired over the shieldwall, which now began to crumble.

Now William was able to use his cavalry to its full advantage and launched a series of fierce charges against the now weakened shieldwall.  Harold’s line finally broke and the Last Saxon King of England was killed.

The battle was over and the Saxon Dynasty died in the fading light of that October day.  However William had triumphed mainly by brute force, rather than generalship, tactics or finesse.  He did possess a great deal of luck, one attribute that Napoleon said was a major gift to any general.

Perhaps it’s time to rectify that situation.

The Defenders

The common misconception is that, before the Normans arrived in England, the English were Nordic barbarians. This is simply not true. The English of the early eleventh century were a cultured people, particularly the nobility. Extravagant dress was the order of the day at the court of King Edward the Confessor (AD 1042-1066). The Normans are even on record as thinking the English fashion “effeminate.”

Many in the English upper classes could read and write, and literature was prized. As a society, the English were pious, although the English Church was not necessarily orthodox, as its isolation provided some freedom from canonical rigidity. Of all the “crimes” of which the Normans accused the English nation, only religious unorthodoxy, really “different-ness,” held any weight, and even this claim was largely a matter of semantics. At this time, the English language was very closely related to German, and is commonly called “Old English,” and most English people were of Germanic descent.

In the English army, cavalry was nonexistent, and the chief defensive tactic involved the construction of a shield wall. The entire army would form a massive line, about eight men deep, every soldier overlapping his shield with that of the man to his left. This tactic provided excellent protection from an advancing enemy, but at the cost of maneuverability.

Finally, the English government was quite unlike that of any other European nation. The real power in England rested in the hands of seven earls. The kingship did not necessarily pass from father to son, and neither was the king all-powerful. The successor-who had to be descended from Alfred the Great (9th century AD)-would be a man of standing in the nation, and had to be approved by the witan. The witan were essentially a “proto-parliament,” a council that advised the king. In theory, any freeman could serve on the council, though in practice such suffrage as it permitted was generally reserved for the nobility. There were, however, also various local assemblies where peasants served in greater numbers.

The Invaders

The invading Normans, as most historians describe them, were barbaric by comparison. The flamboyant clothing of the English nobility was shunned in favor of more practical dress that served for hunting and sports as well as for battle. By and large, the Norman court was illiterate-William the Conqueror never learned to read or write. Poetry and literature were scorned as “priestly” pastimes, and religion served a political purpose. William the Conqueror deliberately used the church to discredit King Harold. Although Catholic historians often mention the duke as having been a friend of the church, his aggressiveness suggests that he was far from a saint. Understandably, being strongly connected with the mainstream church, the Catholics of Normandy were extremely devout-in word if not in deed.

Two hundred years earlier, a group of Norsemen (Vikings) had conquered the territory of Normandy, giving their name to the land. By the time of William the Conqueror, these Norsemen had become Normans, but their language, although ostensibly a dialect of French, still contained much of the old Scandinavian speech, and the Normans were as warlike as their fathers had been. Before William conquered England, he had conquered several parts of France and even ravaged Sicily.

The Norman army had one of the more modern cavalry armies of Europe. Chivalry, the great knightly code, was still in its infancy at this time, but William’s most important troops were already his knights. Chivalry was merely another excuse to make war-which is essentially what it remained throughout the Middle Ages. At Hastings, only two thousand Norman cavalrymen destroyed an eight-thousand-man English shield wall.

Finally, Normandy was an utter autocracy. There were no advisory councils, and barons were expected to give their undying support to the duke, whether they agreed with him or not. This was a thoroughly feudalistic society-and a relatively brutal one.

The Results

Out of the joining of these two very different nations came the England and the English culture we know today. It is impossible to guess what England might have been had things gone differently, because the last nine hundred years of English history are the result of William’s victory.

We can, however, study what happened after his conquest. There can be little doubt that the initial effects of the Norman victory were catastrophic. Villages were razed, thousands of peasants were mercilessly slaughtered, and most common people were soon living in a kind of poverty heretofore unknown. No longer could a peasant take his complaint to a council, but must instead face a lord who didn’t speak that peasant’s language.

In fact, some the more lasting effects of the Norman invasion can be seen and heard every moment of the day. The conquest certainly brought England out of isolation and into contact with mainland Europe and its ideas, yet it also permanently stratified English society and political structure along class lines, and it “re-sanctified” the legitimacy of the hereditary nobility that endures in English custom even to this day. Moreover, the very fact that you are reading this article in a language called “English” is testament to the lasting impact of the conquest. Previously, Old English was a predominantly Germanic tongue. After the Normans arrived, Old English began to absorb words from Norman- and High French, as well as from Latin. The mish-mash that resulted is the language we now speak.

As famous as 1066 and Harold’s last battle is the Bayeux Tapestry, a Norman work of art that immortalized events and the final moments of Harold’s life. For centuries, the version of history taught as fact is that depicted in the Tapestry; Harold, so the Norman story goes, was hit in the eye with an arrow at the height of the battle. With the death of their King, the English army was defeated. However, the events received as fact for hundreds of years are, in fact, wrong.

It is certainly true that Harold and William brought their armies to Hastings and there met in battle. However, the story related in the Bayeux Tapestry was conceived over a century later by French nuns who had only fragmentary accounts of events on which to base their tapestry. To understand what really happened on that day in 1066, one must be in possession of certain facts that the originators of the tapestry were ignorant.

First, it is necessary to understand that a group of nuns living in a convent in France had little or no contact with the outside world; while they had correct knowledge of the arms and armor used by both sides at Hastings, they were utterly devoid of any military experience; they lived in an age of total female repression where women were utterly excluded from military matters.

Second, it must be understood that the eyeslit of an English helm was little more than an inch (about 3cm) across. While Norman helmets were visorless and sported only a nose guard to protect the wearer’s face, English helms at that time were based on the Anglo-Saxon design, featuring a half-face visor that left only the wearer’s mouth and jaw exposed. Even at close range, with an unimpeded aim and no distraction, only a highly proficient archer would be capable of hitting such a minute target. At Hastings, as at every other battle of the era, the archers were positioned at the farthest limits of bowshot, well back from the savage melee of swords, axes and spears that constituted the center of the fight. The method of archery used under such circumstances was not to loose specific shots at individual targets, but to shoot upwards, over the heads of one’s own infantry, to pour arrows down like rain on the enemy. To prove this it is necessary only to glance again at the helmets worn by fighting men at the time; both Norman and English helms were conical, specifically designed to deflect arrows and weapons falling from above.

Third, Harold’s army was constituted according to the Anglo-Saxon method, which derived from the older tribal formations of the Celts and the Saxons; the elite nobility of Harold’s army, the thegnes (sometimes rendered “thanes”), fought as a single unit massed around the king. In England at the time, tartan was used to denote rank; the king wore seven-colored tartan, his thegnes and nobility wore five or six colors. Beyond the immediate ranks of the king and his retinue, the peasant infantry and archers then formed the main body of the army. A similar arrangement was used by the Normans; the king at the centre of the cavalry, mainly consisting armored knights, with vast numbers of spearmen and archers in support.

Picture the scene; Harold and his thegnes, a mass of men in identical armor, the king distinguished only by a single additional color in his tartan, swept up in the heart of the battle while archers on both sides rained down arrows. At the maximum range of a Norman bow, it would be impossible to distinguish the king of either side from the battling men around him. While it is not impossible to think that, given the sheer number of arrows fired, a number of shots might find their marks by chance in the eyeslits of English helms, the odds of actually hitting Harold himself are inconceivable.

So what happened? Let us move the camera closer; zoom in to the melee and focus on Harold himself in the thick of battle. An arrow strikes, by chance, in the eye of a thegne fighting close at his side. The thegne falls and a cry goes up among the Norman knights; “The English King is dead!”; they are mistaken, but the same mathematics that apply to the archers also apply to Harold’s own men; the vast majority of the English army are far from their king, cannot see or hear him, and in any case have never met the man himself. The cry is taken up, first by the French and then the English; Harold’s army begins to crumble, morale shattered by the presumed death of their king.

It is a matter of historical fact that Harold died at the Battle of Hastings, but the evidence thus far leads us to theorize so; to prevent a rout, Harold sweeps off his helm and declares himself to be alive. His thegnes are immediately emboldened, but the Norman knights close enough to hear the king’s voice immediately hack him apart.

To prove the theory, let us return to historical fact; before the Norman invasion, it was a saying in England “that man is a coward who leaves his king on the field in death“; with Harold’s fall, his thegnes stood their ground and fought to the last man. The rest of Harold’s army, peasant levies all, routed and fled, leaving the military commanders of the country to die with their king. Consequently, the Battle of Hastings was decisive simply because following it, there was no one left alive to rally another army to throw back the invaders and England was conquered at a stroke.

But what of Harold? Remember that the Bayeux Tapestry was fashioned long after the events themselves, by women who were not there. However, Norman records following the battle attest that Harold’s body was recovered from the battlefield. As was the style among the English nobility at the time, Harold was heavily tattooed; the body presented to William was in pieces, recognizable only by the tattoos on his arms and torso. The same Norman records mention no arrow wounds; Harold was hacked to death by Norman swords, exactly as illustrated above. The story of King Harold dying from an arrow in the eye is a total fabrication, born of a rumour on the battlefield and cemented in history by the fanciful account drawn up long years after his death.