On January the fifth 1066 the King of England, Edward the Confessor died, leaving the crown to Harold apparently on his deathbed. Having no heirs of his own, Edward had left behind a four way rivalry for the crown, a rivalry that would see Englishmen fight an invading force for the last time, even to this very day.
Because there were no actual rules of succession in Anglo-Saxon England, when a king died, the crown would go to anyone who could prove they had a birth right to it, or who could grab it before anyone else.
Upon the death of Edward, (named the Confessor after he had built Westminster Abbey), there were four contenders to the throne. The closest blood relative to Edward was Edgar the Atheling, a Saxon Prince, albeit a sickly fourteen year old boy. Next was Harold Godwinson, a powerful and noble man, who was very popular with the people of England at the time. He was first choice with the Kings Council (Witan), to succeed Edward the Confessor. He was also said to be the choice of the outgoing king on his very deathbed, however only Harold was there to bear witness to this, so there is some room for doubt as to whether he actually did say it. Then of course there was the William, the Duke of Normandy, a distant cousin of Edward said to have been promised the throne. Of course this claim was to be challenged by Harold along with his huge English support. As a child in 1016 Edward had been taken to Normandy, for his own safety, when England was invaded by King Canute. He stayed on the island until he was himself crowned King of England in 1042. Edward invited William of Normandy to his court in 1051, when he was supposed to have promised to make him heir. The fourth contestant was Harald Hardrada, the Viking king of Norway, and direct descendant of the kings of England through King Canute, who reigned from 1016 to 1032. The Vikings had been invading England for a long time, settling mainly in the north from the 860's. Canute had been king of England, Denmark, and Norway. England had been ruled by Norwegian kings, right up to 1042, when Saxon King Edward the Confessor snatched it from them. Hardrada himself wanted to be King of England, literally because he wanted more power. He was however unpopular here, and feared enough to strike dread into the hearts of his enemies.
The first battle to challenge Harold's crown was the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25th 1066. Here Hadrada was helped by King Harold's brother Tostig, who had been exiled from England. Harold and his men broke through the ranks of the Viking invaders, and eventually won what proved to be not only a bloody battle, but a costly battle to boot. Although his victory at Stamford Bridge was impressive, (both Hadrada and Tostig were killed that day), a shattered and depleted army now had to make their way to the south coast, for what is now known as the Battle of Hastings.
On the 29th of September 1066, William the Duke of Normandy landed the first of many shiploads of soldiers at Pevensea Bay. They had sailed across the English Channel and landed unchallenged, because Harold was still busy marching on Stamford Bridge. When the ships were beached, the sailors, the sergeants, and squires unloaded the ships; carried out shields and saddles, landed the war-horses and the palfreys.
Of the army, the archers came ashore first, each with his bow strung, and a quiver full of arrows at his side. All dressed in short garments, ready to attack, to shoot and to wheel about and skirmish. All stood ready and well equipped and ready for a fight. However when they scoured the whole shore, they found not a single solitary armed man!
Meanwhile Harold was still at York celebrating his great victory at Stamford Bridge, over Harald Hardrada and the treacherous Earl Tostig. He then had to resettle the government of the counties which King Harald Hardrada had overrun. It was then that the news reached him that Duke William of Normandy and his invasion force had landed on the Sussex coast. The battle at Stamford Bridge had followed a forced march to North Yorkshire from the south of England. The battle had been fought on the 25th of September; news of the Norman invasion reached Harold on October the 1st. It wasn't as if the Norman invasion hadn't long been expected, but the timing couldn't have been worse, as Harold and his men now marched south.
Harold arrived in London on 6th October 1066. There he halted for six days, during that time giving orders for recruiting forces from the southern and midland counties. He also sent out the order for his fleet to reassemble off the Sussex coast. Such was Harold's popularity that his call to arms was met almost instantaneously. Unfortunately the best of his men had just marched to Stamford Bridge and back, and with a fierce battle in between journeys, one could say that those alive and uninjured were somewhat exhausted. Many of those who volunteered to fight alongside their great king were untrained and inexperienced, but they were ready to give their lives for him, and most of them did.
As soon as Harold had a small army, he began to march south through Surrey then into Sussex. Harold was a popular King and he had proved himself during his brief reign to be a just, wise and brave man. But he was so incensed by the news of William's landing on English soil, that the preparation for this particular battle was all too hasty, as was his plan to actually surprise his enemy. He now faced a foe that was equally brave and as skillful as him, who was prepared for all eventualities, and was waiting for the English army to meet them. When King Harold realized that his hopes of surprising his adversary were in vain, he changed his tactics, halting about seven miles from the Norman lines at Senlac (now called Battle, although in typical ironic fashion evidence has been found that suggests the Battle itself was fought in nearby Crowhurst).
As Harold and his men descended upon the south coast, he sent along some French speaking spies, just to find out how William was prepared for the coming battle. He was said to be horrified to learn that there were more Priests in Williams’s camp than he had fighting men. This report proved to be false, as although only priests would have shorn hair in an English army, most of the Norman fighters had shaved heads. Yes the Normans were prepared; they had even taken the time to build a castle at Pevensea, described here in the Norman chronicles.
"They took counsel together, and looked for a good spot to build a castle on. They had brought with them in the fleet, three pre-built wooden castles from Normandy, all in pieces, ready for fitting together, and they took the materials of one of these out of the ships, all shaped and pierced to receive the pins which they had brought cut and ready in large barrels; and before evening had set in they had finished a good Castle on English ground, and placed their stores there. All then ate and drank, and were glad to be ashore"
So William's strategy involved horses and castles, Harold's did not, also Harold's army was inferior in numbers. In fact it is said that many of Harold's officers suggested he retreat back to London and destroy everything they left behind that might help or feed their Norman pursuers. This advice was unquestionably the wisest, for the Saxon fleet had now reassembled in the English Channel, and had intercepted all William's communications with Normandy. They had cut off William's supply lines, meaning that when their stores became low they would have to march upon and attack London. Had Harold taken this advice he would probably have witnessed his rival's destruction by famine and disease, without having to strike a single blow. Harold however was not prepared to retreat, He would not burn houses and villages, and neither would he take away the substance, of his people. Harold had sworn oaths upon sacred religious relics.
In a bid to persuade Harold not to take part in the battle himself, his brother Gurth said; "My brother, thou canst not deny that either by force or free will thou hast made Duke William an oath on the bodies of saints. Why then risk thyself in the battle with a perjury upon thee? To us, who have sworn nothing, this is a holy and a just war, for we are fighting for our country. Leave us then alone to fight this battle, and he who has the right will win." Typically Harold replied that he couldn't look on while others risked their lives for him.
Men would hold him a coward, and blame him for sending his best friends where he dared not go himself. He resolved, therefore, to fight, and to fight in person; but he was still too good a general to be the assailant in the action; and he deployed his army with great skill along a ridge of rising ground which opened southward, and was covered on the back by an extensive wood. He strengthened his position by a palisade of stakes and osier hurdles, and there he said he would defend himself against whoever should seek him.
The Anglo-Saxons had no cavalry at their disposal and few archers, but they struck a defensive position on a hilltop, and formed a tight shield wall with their battle-axes at the ready. Their main weapons were the Danish battle-axe (a two-handed, long-handled battle axe with a heavy chopping head) and a long double-edged sword.
William joyfully advanced his army from their camp on the hill over Hastings, nearer to the Saxon position. He will have been aware by then how much of an advantage he had in the coming battle, yet he still sent forward his summons, giving Harold the opportunity to surrender.
"A monk, named Hugues Maigrot, came in William's name to call upon the Saxon King to do one of three things: either to resign his royalty in favor of William, to refer it to the arbitration of the Pope to decide which of the two ought to be king, or let it be determined by the issue of a single combat. Harold replied, 'I will not resign my title, I will not refer it to the Pope, nor will I accept the single combat". King Harold was a brave man, but no more likely to surrender his crown upon losing a dual than he would be at the words of an Italian priest.
William was unpaved by King Harold's refusal, but as he calculated his next move, he sent back his priest.
"Go and tell Harold that if he will keep his former compact with me, I will leave to him all the country which is beyond the Humber, and will give his brother Gurth all the lands which Godwin held. If he still persists in refusing my offers, then thou shalt tell him, before all his people that he is a perjurer and a liar; that he and all who shall support him are excommunicated by the mouth of the Pope, and that the bull to that effect is in my hands."
Hugues Maigrot delivered this message in a solemn tone and the Norman chronicle says that at the word "excommunication" the English chiefs looked at one another as if some great danger were impending. One of them spoke as follows:
"We must fight, whatever may be the danger to us; for what we have to consider is not whether we shall accept and receive a new lord, as if our king were dead; the case is quite otherwise. The Norman has given our lands to his captains, to his knights, to all his people, the greater part of whom have already done homage to him for them: they will all look for their gift if their duke become our king; and he himself is bound to deliver up to them our goods, our wives, and our daughters: all is promised to them beforehand. They come, not only to ruin us, but to ruin our descendants also, and to take from us the country of our ancestors. And what shall we do? Whither shall we go, when we have no longer a country?"
The English promised, by a unanimous oath, to make neither peace nor truce nor treaty with the invader, but to die or drive away the Normans.
The 13th of October was occupied in these negotiations, and at night the Duke announced to his men that the next day would be the day of battle. That night is said to have been passed by the two armies in very different manners.
The Saxon soldiers spent it in joviality, singing their national songs, and draining huge horns of ale and wine round their campfires.
The Normans, when they had looked to their arms and horses, confessed themselves to the priests, with whom their camp was thronged, and received the sacrament by thousands at a time.
On the 14th of October 1066 the great battle dawned. As previously mentioned, the Saxons had no cavalry and only a few archers. But on top of a hill they made a wall of shields and those behind that wall rained projectiles down on the Normans. William's forces were separated into three columns. The Bretons were on the left, the Normans were in the middle & Flemings were positioned on the right. At the head of each column stood archers, behind whom there wer
e ranks of infantry and cavalry. The battle began with William's archers opening fire followed by an infantry assault.
What were to ensue was a fierce and blood bath, and a battle won by the men of William of Normandy. He would then be crowned king of England on Christmas day that same year.
This was the last time England ever bore arms against an enemy invasion. It was not the last time we were invaded. Day after day, week after week, month after month and so on. The invaders don't have to sneak an entire army over the sea and fortify their positions ready for a battle; they know there will be no battle. England (as well as Scotland, N Ireland, and Wales) is open to all who wish to invade, they can get off a boat or a plane and walk right in, some have even arrived through the channel tunnel. They don't meet any resistance, indeed they are given a free reign to do what they like here. They are even afforded free housing, education, and medical treatment; over the years they have been given their own places of worship, and their own places to bury their dead.
Poor old King Harold lost an eye, and of course his life in the Battle of Hastings, and although the odd prince might try his hand at combat in whichever war we are engaged in, the politicians who continually drag us into these conflicts in faraway lands will never lead the troops. They won’t risk sending their children to risk their lives either. They will inform us of defense cuts in every budget speech though. How can they sleep at night, knowing that they are sending yet another generation to fight and die, and then telling our old folk to wrap up warmer, in their own homes, every winter?
