The Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066

Claimants for a crown
The throne of England had been a long-contested prize by 1066. In 1016 Canute the Great received baptism and the crown, and a Norman wife, Emma , daughter of Duke Richard the Fearless, the widow of King Ethelred. Canute captured Emma, and for reasons not now clear (but perhaps no more complex than simple female vanity and ambition) she gave her consent and became Queen of England for a second time.This act denied her two sons, the athelings Edward and Alfred, who withdrew into a long exile at the Norman court. Their elder half-brother Edmund Ironside waged a very brief war against Canute before he died later in 1016. He had held the south of England below the Thames by treaty with Canute. Ironside's baby son Edward was whisked away to safety in Germany, where he grew up at the German and Hungarian courts and married a German princess. He was remembered to the folk in England as the exile.

In 1035 Canute sent to Robert the Devil duke of Normandy, offering to divide half of the kingdom of England with Robert's cousins the athelings. But Duke Robert was away just then on pilrimage to Jerusalem; and shortly after Canute sent his offer he died and his throne was quickly occupied by his illegitimate son Harold I, popularly known as Harefoot. He had the support of England's strongest earl, Godwin of Wessex. Edward and his brother decided that the time had come at last for them to seek to England to defend their rights, which the offer of Canute had admitted. So with troops from Normandy and Boulogne, and using Boulognnais ships, the two athelings fared oversea. Edward landed near Southampton and fought a successful battle. But the countryside did not rally to his cause as he had hoped they might; so he retired back to the mainland to await news of his brother. But Alfred did not come. It was learned soon after that he had answered an invitation of the wily Godwin to a parley; but at the meeting Alfred and his men were treacherously seized and delivered over to Harefoot. He imprisoned Alfred and blinded him so savagely that he did not long survive. Harefoot lived another four years. His half-brother Hardicanute, Emma's and Canute's legitimate son, assumed the crown in 1040 with Godwin's backing. And Edward the atheling was invited over to live at the English court. Two years later, Hardicantue perished at a banquet from overeating. Edward was hailed by the witan as the next king of England.

Now for the contenders: Hardicanute had entered into a treaty with king Magnus of Norway, to the effect that if either should die childless the other would inherit his lands. Magnus defied Edward and his crowning as illegal. But his war to subject Denmark took all Magnus' time and attention until his death not long afterward. Robert the devil had also died on his way home from Jerusalem, and his heir was his little bastard son William. The magnates of Normandy did not take well to the idea of being ruled by a child and a bastard, not when there were so many legitimate cousins and uncles available: so the duchy was delivered up to nearly fifteen years of anarchy. During this time, little William Bastard's life was despaired of; but his guardians, dying left and right, managed to safeguard their lord till he arrived at his majority in 1045. With the support of his sovereign king Henry of France, William managed to survive the next five years and grew stronger. His marriage to Matilda, the daughter of Flanders, in 1051 caused a break with France and a war that lasted until 1060, when king Henry died. Duke William was by then lord of Maine and most of Brittany. The new king of France was a boy who was in awe of the Norman warlord. In 1064 came a windfall: Harold Godwinson the earl of Wessex, crashed in a ship on the coasts of Ponthieu, and the count who was a client of duke William's gave up the Englishmen to him. William held Harold hostage until he swore to be his vassal in England for certain holdings and to help William gain the throne. This much is irrefutable fact. The English historians admit as much. Where the disagreement comes in is regarding a much earlier promise of Edward's to duke William, that he would make him his heir to the kingdom of England. The promise, if ever there was one, must indeed have been a very long time before: as Edward had left the court of Normandy way back in 1041 or '42. There was one rumored meeting in the interim between William and his royal cousin, 1051, when William visited England very briefly before his marriage. The promise could have been given then, or confirmed. Edward was at that time on very bad terms with earl Godwin and his family, who were banished that same year. King Edward was looking out for himself and could name his heir as he pleased. He was more Norman than English in his sentiments anyway, having stayed the main part of his young adult life in Normandy. He preferred to speak French, and there is evidence that he was on very friendly terms with his cousin duke Robert during the period of exile. But whether or not the promise in fact had ever been given or confirmed, it was soon rendered moot. The earls forced king Edward's hand and Godwin effected a complete return to royal favor. The witan sought for an heir for the childless king. Edward the Exile was invited to take up his heritage. He did so in 1057, but died upon arriving in England before king Edward could even meet with him. Nevertheless, he publicly recognized the Exile's son Edgar the Atheling as heir to his father's claim on the crown. So the English were not in anywise unduly concerned about their future: until earl Harold managed to get himself captured by the Normans and made all those oaths to gain back his freedom. But that was not even particularly significant either until 1065 when king Edward fell mortally ill. Everyone knew that William bastard was holding earl Harold to his promises as the witan met to discuss the succession.

The Year 1066
Even as Edward breathed his last in the first week of 1066, they argued that a mere boy (Edgar the Atheling) could not lead the kingdom in a war against Normandy. Harold, since earl Godwin's death in 1053, had been as the king's right arm and leader of the army (even bearing the title subregulus). To Harold, then, the witan turned and gave their promises of support. Harold Godwinson was crowned Harold II on the same day Edward was buried.

Duke William sent envoys to remonstrate with Harold over his broken oaths. But to no avail. The king and his people prepared for invasion. All summer the southern coasts were watched by the fyrd, while duke William gathered troops and ships at the river Dives. The Norman army was joined by volunteers from Brittany, France, Flanders, and Normans from Italy and Sicily. The English king, foresworn and stigmatized by Norman propaganda, was excommunicated and the kingdom of England placed under the ban of Rome.

Then it was, that the old Norwegian claim was resurrected. Tosti, King Harold's younger brother, had until recently been Earl of Northumbria; but for the crimes of being rapacious and corrupt in his rule he had been banished. Early during the summer, Tosti raided rather fecklessly up the east coast of England, then sailed to the court of king Harald Hardrada, reminding him of the treaty between Hardicanute and Magnus. Hardrada was Magnus' successor and gladly seized this opportunity to expand his realm into England. Even while the Norman armada was awaiting favorable winds in the Somme estuary - to which they had moved on 12 October - a mighty Norse battle fleet put into the Humber and disembarked at Riccall. On 20 September, Hardrada and Tosti met the army of the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, Edwin and his brother Morcar. The invaders won a complete victory and Hardrada obtained the fealty of the earls and principal men. Five days later, Harold II caught the Norse by surprise at Stamford bridge, as they awaited further hostages from York. In an all-day battle the vikings were practically annihilated and Hardrada and Tosti slain.

Three days following Stamford bridge, duke William's army landed in Sussex. The coasts were clear, as the fyrd had eaten up all their food and been dismissed to their homes. King Harold's men were still recuperating at York when word came of the French invasion. He wasted not a day getting together all his troops who could ride and struck the road for London.

Harold II's army was what had survived Stamford bridge, minus the wounded and those whose horses had perished, plus latecomers to the muster at London. The latecomers would not have possessed very many horses. That is why they were left behind in the first place. King Harold did not wait for them now either. He collected what fresh mounted troops there were and in two days he covered the sixty-odd miles to Caldbec hill, where he camped on the night of 13-14 October. The local levies of Sussex and Kent were on hand to avenge their pillaged farms.

After a fruitless exchange of envoys, Harold II and duke William prepared for battle.

The Battle of Hastings
The road to London crossed the summit of a barren ridge (Senlac Hill, 5 miles from Hastings) about a mile south of the edge of the forest, and there Harold II planted his standards, the Dragon of Wessex and his personal banner of the Fighting Man. The main body of fyrd levies remained back in the trees, apparently because the troops refused to fight in such a narrow place. But more likely because they were disaffected by the king's excommunication and the ban, and a pervading sense of doom (this is manifested in the tone of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the only English source we have for their side of the campaign). In the hour of battle, Harold II had less than half his army drawn up around him.

The invader army was even so apparently not quite so large as the engaged portion of the English army. A best reckoning of army strengths allows c. 10,000 men on each side, with the English having a slight numerical advantage. The armies could have well been larger, but there is no way to tell. A smaller English army would not have been able to take full advantage of the length of the ridge in sufficient depth to fulfil the extreme density required (according to the original sources) for the English phalanx.

William opened the battle with an all-out attack upon the entire English position. First the marksmen emptied their quivers and retired: then the horse and foot labored up the slopes. By prior arrangement with the French right wing, the knights performed a feigned flight, which drew down much of the English left wing in pursuit. The Bretons on the Norman left might have also been ordered to do the same; but instead of a feigned flight, the Bretons withdrew in earnest, pursued successfully by the English right. After hard fighting, the Normans assaulting Harold II in the center also fell back in disorder down the hill. The French had turned about and attacked the English who had pursued them; but everywhere else William's army was coming apart. He probably had held back a reserve of knights around himself and the papal banner: this is implied by the original sources, which claim that as his Normans were beginning to rout away he bared his head of helm and hauberk, and, riding in front of them, rallied them with his own voice and appearance. Obviously, he was not engaged in the fighting up to this point, or else he would himself have been swept up in the rout. And equally obvious is the impossibility of a single man being able to rally thousands of retreating troops. He must have had a sizeable body of knights to make himself noticeable and with which to stem the withdrawing tide by riding in front of it. The Normans were rallied, sorted out and returned to the attack. The French were withdrawing by then, having heard rumors of William's demise. He rallied them and led a fresh attack upon the English left, which, deprived now of the advantage of the high ground, was methodically destroyed by weight of numbers. Troops were sent to succor the Bretons, who had been driven right into the marshy flats of Asten brook. But the renewal of the Norman assault on the English center had not gone well at all. In fact, Harold's best troops were winning, until William led reinforcements of the French and Norman cavalry from the victorious right wing up onto the ridge and charged straight at Harold's command post. By this point it was growing dark. The English had held out all afternoon. But now a random arrow supposedly pierced the king in the face. Gyrth and Leofwin were already dead, probably on the lower slopes with their men of the right and left wings. (Although their bodies conceivably could have been carried up and laid near Harold's standards during a lull in the fighting.) There was no one to hold the English on the field and they withdrew into the night-shrouded forest.

Had one of the Godwinsons lived they might have continued the war. They did not need to win the battle of Hastings; they merely had to survive and hurt the invading army, which they had done well. Reinforcements would have come in a few days to the English army, but not so readily to William's with the Channel between and his fleet dependent on the wind. William's injured army was spared another battle. The deaths of all three Godwinsons has to rank as one of the great one-sided flukes of war. Their demise on the field of battle, so closely fought, was viewed by Englishmen for centures as the will of God.

Duke William wended his way toward London during the next two months, laying the countryside waste in a serpentine course through southern England. Edwin, Morcar and the Londoners proclaimed Edgar the Atheling their king and tried to organize a resistance. But the calamitous events of that year had taken their toll: the main mass of English people felt leaderless and cowed. The northern earls, the dignitaries of London, the clergy and even Edgar himself then approached the Duke of Normandy with peace terms. William entered London in triumph. At Westminster he was crowned on Christmas day by the archbishop Aldred of York, as England's third king in less than a year.

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Article added: 2005-07-23 @ 7:40 pm | Last Modified: 2006-03-24 @ 5:14 am

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