1066
Leading up to the battle
Seventeen kings ruled England, either by birth, military force or election by the Witan between 871 A.D and 1087 A.D. The definition of a king was difficult to define in those days. It was more a case of the dominant kingdom, such as Wessex, supplying the king or more accurately, the Bretwalda or overlord. Whilst kingdoms were always on a semi war footing with each other, it is a matter of conjecture who finally could be called the first "KING OF ENGLAND". Many historians consider Athelstan to be the first acknowledged true king of England. Wessex became the predominant Saxon kingdom in England. The southern Kingdom's power was such that thirteen kings from Alfred the Great to Harold II originated or had some affiliation with Wessex. The only diversion were the three Viking kings, Sweyn Forkbeard, Canute and Hardicanute and of course, William I (The Conqueror ) from Normandy. |

It must be remembered that in the 10th and 11th centuries, most of Europe was much different to the way it is now. In those days most countries were operating on a feudal system. European countries were not always run as the king and his loyal subjects. Almost without exception, countries were divided up into regions or compartments that had their own ruling bodies and run by Dukes, Earls or Lords. To make matters worse they were usually at one another’s throats in the pursuit of power. The King of the country had little power over these areas or rulers. Normandy, for instance, the home of William the Conqueror was one such place. This came about when the then King of France, Charles the Simple by way of the treaty of Clair sur Epte in 911, gave away part of his land to the north west, now known as Normandy, to the Viking Rollo. This was on the understanding that he would no longer keep invading them. Normandy, or land of the Northmen, became a duchy. Normandy was situated in a fertile and prosperous part of France and thanks to succeeding strong leadership, the area flourished. The normal course of events in those times was to think about expansion. By the time of the Battle of Hastings, the Norman’s had a foothold in many countries such as Spain and Italy, probably due to their Viking ancestry.The Normans became French in language, culture and religion but Normandy was still operating on the feudal system, which was totally alien to the people of England. England, on the other hand, was much more established as a country. Although it was still divided into larger versions of the counties which exist today, it had a much more sophisticated level of central government that had been developed over the previous six or seven hundred years. England was renowned for being a centre of culture and learning. The King of England was the king, and all were his subjects. To understand why the Battle of Hastings took place it is necessary to look at the family history of Harold and William to see how they were inextricably linked. Only then can the prelude to the battle be seen In any real context.The die was cast in the reign of English King Ethelred the Unready (978-1016). In 1007, Ethelred married Emma, who was the sister of King Richard of Normandy. Emma was the epitome of the powerful woman. No sooner had she arrived in England, than she got to work introducing her Norman will on the people of England. Her first task was to bring over many Norman servants and friends and introduced many to officialdom. Emma had three children with the King. Alfred, Edward and Goodwife. The country was still not at peace at this time. In 1013 England was invaded yet again by the Danes. To secure the future of her children, they were sent to Normandy for safe keeping. When Ethelred died in 1016, Emma married the Danish as well as English King Canute (1016-1035).The marriage of Emma to King Canute if nothing else provided a level of good relations between England and Normandy due to the Viking extraction of the Normans. The turning point was the murder of Alfred in 1036.After the death of King Canute, his son Hardecante was crowned. Wishing to show some remorse for the untimely death of Alfred. He summoned Edward to England. On his arrival he was declared the heir to the throne. The time Edward had spent in Normandy had completely converted him to the Norman way of life. It is uncertain if he could even speak English with any fluency. After the death of Hardecanute in 1042, Edward became King of England. He was popularly known as Edward the Confessor.Like his mother Emma, Edward continued to introduce many Normans to high office and their customs to the English (Saxon) way of life. Whether this was intentional or just natural is open to debate. As can be imagined, this was not very popular with the English people, especially the Godwin, who held most of the power in the country at the time. Godwin, father of the future King Harold II, was probably the most powerful man in the country at the time.Godwin had many sons, but it seems only one daughter, Edith, who married Edward in 1045. Great resentment mounted between Godwin and Edward as to who held the power base in England. Edward because he was king and Godwin because he saw the erosion of his status and the Saxon way of life. It is considered that the breaking point came in 1051 when Edward’s brother-in-law, Eustace of Boulogne, was involved in a fracas at Dover where a number of Eustace's men were killed. This angered Edward and he ordered Godwin to burn the town down. This he refused to do. For his refusal Harold Godwin chose to exile him and his family.Now that Edward was the unopposed ruler he invited William the Duke of Normandy to England and nominated him to be the next heir to the throne. About a year later Godwin returned. He used his status and resources to oust many of the Normans who had taken over high office positions. Probably the most important person to be removed was the Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert of Jumieges. He was replaced by Stigand and promptly excommunicated by the Pope, as you could not remove an Archbishop from office whilst still alive.Despite the resentment of Godwin. The vow made by Edward the Confessor to make William his heir on his death changed dramatically on the king’s actual death bed on the 5th January 1066. He was alleged to have said to Harold Godwinson, son of Godwin. “I commend my wife to your care and with her my whole kingdom“.King Edward was buried in Westminster Cathedral, followed soon after by the crowning of Harold Godwinson as King Harold II. Duke William of Normandy was expected, however, to be the next King of England. Saxon versus Norman. The scene was set.The battleOn the Bayeux tapestry, the members of the congregation shown as witnessing the event are facing Harold, but their eyes are turned towards Halley's Comet, which is depicted in the sky as a portent of the doom to come. Harold is seen receiving news of the Comet with fear in his eyes.These bad omens for Harold were important to William of Normandy, who was set on claiming the English crown for himself - omens as important as the 'promise' of 1051 and the 'oath' of 1064. This was because, despite his pre-eminent position, he required the active co-operation of his nobles for the great venture he was planning - the venture to invade England and become the English king. William could not just demand support from his nobles, he had to convince them of his case. He needed to show his followers that his claim was a lawful one, and that he had God on his side. So when he decided on invasion, he took elaborate measures to ensure he had strong support, and even sent an envoy to the Pope asking for his blessing.William did not move immediately. He only began plans for an invasion after Tostig arrived in neighbouring Flanders, looking for support against Harold in a projected invasion of Northumbria. This was the lever that William needed: with Harold occupied in the north, William could invade in the south. Whether or not he thought God was on his side, William's preparations were very down to earth.On top of anything else, William must have been painfully aware that his claim to England's throne was actually the least legitimate of all the putative contenders. It rested entirely on a spurious promise, made over 15 years previously, and on the fact that William's great-grandfather was Edward's maternal grandfather. Harold had an equally weak blood claim, through the brother-in-law of King Cnut, although it was he who was Edward's last nominated heir. There were others with much stronger blood claims, among them Swegn Estrithson, King of Denmark, who was the nephew of King Cnut; and Edgar the Aetheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, from whom Cnut had wrested the kingdom in 1016. Aetheling actually means 'throneworthy' and was the title given to the most legitimate heir; but a legitimate blood claim was only part of the issue. The crown would go to the claimant who could muster most support amongst the 'great and the good' of England. In January 1066, Edgar Aetheling was a minor, and with the wolves breathing at the door, the English magnates could not afford to risk the kingdom in such inexperienced hands. So they turned to Harold, the obvious power behind the throne, who, as we have seen, had prepared his ground well.Immediately after Edward's death, the cards were flying and everyone was gambling madly. Tostig enlisted the help of a powerful Joker in the pack, the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada, an adventurer who had fought for the Byzantines in the Varangian Guard and was now trying to recreate the Viking kingdom of Northumbria. William had the other Joker, the Pope, in his pocket, and was drawing his aces around him. He toured Normandy, visiting each of his most powerful barons in person, and also made deals with neighbouring magnates like Eustace of Boulogne and the exiled Count Alan of Brittany. He promised them land and positions within his new kingdom, which they in turn could grant to their followers in return for loyal service.In May 1066, Tostig made his first, abortive, attempt to invade England. Harold called out the English levy (the fyrd), which was an army of English peasant farmers obliged to fight for their king when required to do so, and kept it out. He wanted to be ready to face the invasion fleet that William had built and mustered at Rennes on the Norman coast. But William did not come. Instead, William watched, and he waited, and he made his meticulous preparations. These included the gathering of all the great magnates of Normandy, called to attend the dedication of his wife Matilda's new abbey at St Etienne, in Caen, on 18 June 1066. There William asked for the blessing of God on his invasion plan, and ensured that he also had the backing of man.In July, William's invasion fleet moved north to Dives, but still it did not cross the Channel. The sources say that the leader was waiting for fair weather, but he may equally have been awaiting news that Tostig had made his move. Either way, it was a perfect strategy. The English fyrd was a levy of peasant farmers, who by August were clamouring to be released so that they could take in their harvest. Harold had no option but to let them go. On 20 September 1066, Harald Hardrada and Tostig sailed up the Ouse, with more than 10,000 men in 200 longships, to launch their long-awaited invasion of Northumbria. Earls Edwin and Morcar came out to meet them with a hastily assembled levy that consisted mainly of their own personal retainers. They were defeated at Fulford outside York, and their forces were so decimated that they were unable to play any further part in the campaigns of that year.Harold reacted by scraping together a scratch force of his own, made up largely of his own housecarls and his 'thegns'. He raced north, calling up all the shire levies he could muster on the way. In four days he marched 180 miles - to surprise Hardrada and Tostig, east of York, at Stamford Bridge, on 25 September. Before the battle began, Harold offered Tostig his earldom back if he would change sides, but Tostig threw the offer back in the king's face. The Norwegians held a strong position, defending the bridge on the north-eastern shore of the River Derwent. Legend has it that a lone axeman held the bridge against all-comers for hours, until a sneaky Englishman paddled under the bridge in a barrel and thrust a spear up through the wooden slats. Once the bridge fell, the battle was a foregone conclusion. Both Hardrada and Tostig fell beneath the Raven Banner in a last, desperate stand. Harold had won the day, but at a price. His army was tired and badly mauled, and he had lost the forces of both the Earl of Northumbria and the Earl of Mercia.This was the point at which William acted. Having sailed his fleet to St Valéry sur Somme, he waited for the wind to be in the right direction, and two days after Stamford Bridge, he sailed. His fleet consisted of almost 700 ships of classic Norse design, headed by the Mora, which is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry with a carved dragon figurehead on its prow, and a trumpeter sounding signals at its stern. Most sources claim that William's forces made landfall at Pevensey, but this may just be because Pevensey was the best-known port on the southern English shore. Recent work by amateur archaeologist Nick Austin suggests he may have found the actual site of William's landing, and first encampments, at Wilting Manor, outside Hastings. Once ashore, William ordered that some of his boats be symbolically burnt, while the rest were dismantled and pulled ashore. An earth embankment was built across the harbour mouth to protect the ships from the weather, and a castle was constructed at the top of the hill. The remnants of these may still be seen today. Then the Normans pillaged and burned the surrounding area, in order to force Harold to come south and defend his people. Harold did not hesitate. Having heard of William's landing while at York, he raced his army down the old Roman road of Ermine Street, stopping on the way at his foundation of Waltham Abbey, to pray for victory. By 12 October, he was back in London and gathering what forces he could to face William. By the 14th, he was on the way to Hastings.William received news of Harold's approach from Vitalis - a prominent vassal of Odo of Bayeux, who is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry bringing the message - and marched out to face the English king.The Battle of Hastings took place at a site now known as Battle on 14 October 1066. Harold drew up his army in three wedges on Senlac Ridge, overlooking the battlefield. With him he had little more than 5,000 footsore and weary men, ranged against a Norman force of up to 15,000 infantry, archers and cavalry. Facing such odds, Harold had no choice but to fight a defensive battle. He was forced to rely on the much-vaunted English shield-wall, behind which his men could stand and let the Norman attacks break themselves.The tactic was a great success. Again and again, the Norman knights hurled themselves against the English shields, but as the Bayeux tapestry shows, they were unable to make any headway. Then, on the Norman left, the Bretons under Count Alan began to give way. Orderic Vitalis takes up the story:'The ferocious resolution of the English struck terror into the foot-soldiers and knights of the Bretons and other auxiliaries on the left wing; they turned to flee and almost the whole of the Duke's battle line fell back, for the rumour spread that he had been killed. But the Duke, seeing a great part of the opposing army springing forwards to pursue his men, met them as they fled, threatening and striking them with his spear.'Baring his head and lifting his helmet he cried: "Look at me, I'm alive and with the aid of God I will gain the victory!" No sooner had the Duke spoken these brave words than their failing courage was restored, and surrounding several thousand of their pursuers, they mowed them down almost at once.' The whole incident is portrayed on the Bayeux tapestry. It was the turning point of the battle. Now the English wall had broken, and the Normans were able to lever open the cracks. Exhaustion and weight of numbers also took their toll. Gyrth and Leofwine, the two remaining brothers of Harold are depicted being cut down on the tapestry, and Harold was soon to follow. We see him on the Bayeux tapestry taking an arrow in the eye and then being ridden down by a Norman cavalryman, one of four who managed to break through the English line and trample Harold into the ground. Though the English still fought on bravely after their king had fallen, their cause was lost, and eventually they fled into the night.Tradition has it that William gave thanks to God for his victory and ordered that all in his army should do penance for the souls that they had killed that day. He himself paid for the foundation of Battle Abbey on the spot where Harold fell.The body of Harold was eventually recovered after a long search, but its face was so badly disfigured that they had to bring it to his concubine, Edith Swan-neck, to identify by the intimate marks upon his body. Initially, William had the body buried next to the battlefield, with a headstone reading, 'Here lies Harold, King of the English', but after Harold's name was blackened by later Norman propaganda, the headstone was removed, and the body was disinterred and taken to Harold's abbey at Waltham.The contest for England was not yet over, however. William kept his army in Hastings for about a week, then he marched through south-eastern England, via Dover and Canterbury, to London Bridge. Finding this too heavily defended, he continued along the southern bank of the Thames to Wallingford, sending a detachment to take Winchester on the way. Wallingford was the easternmost ford of the Thames, and was defended by an ancient Anglo-Saxon burgh (a fortified town) under the command of the king's thegn Wigot of Wallingford.By now it was December, and the long campaign had sapped the English will to resist. Dover and Southwark had been razed to the ground, and William now had control of Canterbury, the religious centre of England, and Winchester, the ceremonial seat of the English kings. At Wallingford, the first English submissions occurred. Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury led a delegation of important English bishops and thegns, who surrendered to William, and Wigot opened the gates of Wallingford to him. By Christmas, the earls Edwin, Morcar and Waltheof, along with Archbishop Ealdred of York, had also surrendered, having ensured that their positions would be secure under the new régime.William was crowned by Archbishop Ealdred on Christmas Day, in Edward's new abbey cathedral at Westminster. This is significant, because the new king chose to be crowned in the same location as King Harold, deliberately stressing the continuity between himself and Edward's old régime. He also ensured that he was not crowned by Stigand, whose legitimacy was questioned by the Pope. During the ceremony, the assembled magnates (both Norman and English) shouted their acclamation of the new king; but their shouts startled the guards outside the cathedral who, fearing an English uprising, promptly set fire to the neighbouring city of London. Orderic Vitalis paints a vivid picture of the terrified congregation fleeing from the smoke-filled church whilst the remaining Bishops hastily completed the ceremony, with the new king trembling from head to foot. It was an interesting start to a completely new era.After the battle | William had achieved in a short space of time a victory that would alter the face of England forever. 7,500 soldiers had taken over a country of one and a half million souls. He had conquered what the Romans, Saxons and Vikings had had to fight long and hard for a piece of. He truly deserved his name of William the Conqueror. England was the richest and most cultured in Europe. Christianity was established and the people had developed a God fearing mentality. The country was admired throughout Europe as a model of how it should be. William understood this well. It was in his interests to maintain it as a viable going concern. At least, this was his plan at the start. He seemed quite prepared to leave the country to administer itself. Unfortunately, things did not quite go to plan. From the time of Alfred the Great, England had developed into something apart from the rest of Europe. This was the reason it was the subject of constant invasion. Usually it was for the country’s riches. William's invasion was for totally different reasons. It was in anger and pride. During the early stages of his administration, he installed many English Lords to positions of power, or at least those who accepted him as the new king. Another dichotomy was that he had to reward his own people who had supported him on this crusade. He possibly made a huge mistake by promising riches and wealth to them. He must have calculated that to introduce too many Normans to England in a short space of time could have destabilized the country and caused n anti-Norman backlash. Being an island race, the English, have always had a morbid dislike of foreigners, especially the French. It is an attitude that still prevails today. Many vendettas had to be settled. William understandably could not grant power to those who had fought against him at Hastings. These people had their land confiscated. This was in sharp contrast to the actions of Alfred when he defeated Guthrum. William would probably have liked to have been magnanimous in victory, but he learnt from an early stage in his life that this did not pay and that strength was respected. Maybe if Alfred had been more like William, this battle would never have taken place. William was determined to succeed but he still had to carry out his promises to his counts and knights. The allocation of land to Normans was becoming more and more resented. By 1069 an uprising forced William to show his hand more forcefully. He became ruthless. Any sign of insurrection or revolt was brutally quashed before it could get out of hand. By the time he had died in 1087, there was virtually no part of England that was controlled by an Englishman.

About 25% of the available land was acquired for his own purpose and another 25% went to the church. This was a necessary obligation as the invasion was with the blessing of Rome. The rest was divided between his trusted and loyal servants. These amounted to only 10 or 12 people. These huge land grants were subject to conditions. William knew that a country that was not prepared for war would soon end up in one, as the weakness of a country was an invitation for invasion, as the Saxons had found out before getting organised. He decided therefore, that to be a landowner would entail military duty. The country would be semi-war-ready at all times. The tenants in chief would be responsible for raising an army in times of crisis. The tenants in chiefs, in turn, sub divided further to vassals, who were responsible for providing a fighting Knight, along with everything else he would need in battle. Depending on how large the holding was related to the number of Knights that tenant in chief supplied. The Knights function was also to protect his peasant farmers, some of whom were wealthy landowners in their own right before the invasion. It was a form of pyramid of allegiance that had to be sworn. Everybody had a overlord with whom he had to swear allegiance and was the basis of the feudal system. Failure to respond to the overlords request, resulted in the loss of land and privileges. The land could not be sold, partitioned without the overlords consent. Everybody was answerable to a superior who he had sworn fealty too. The restrictions were great, but is instilled a sense of purpose and belonging. Everybody eventually was answerable to the Crown.
William had problems with the English adapting to the new regime. He even had problems with his Norman tenants in chief. They had delusions of grandeur but were crushed by William. By 1069 the problems were beginning to mount. He called all his Tenants in chief and major landholders to Salisbury where he laid down the law and requested that they swear an oath of allegiance to him. William was very clever in the way he allocated the land holdings or manors. By issuing in such a way that they were dispersed up and down the country, each tenant in chief was unable to rebel or muster enough men to challenge William. If William was a hard man, everybody knew their position in life and what was expected of them. This was the basis of the class structure that exists today.

William did not totally dismantle the Saxon system of government. He saw that it had some good points which he left alone or developed. He was particularly insistent on retaining the tax system of geld and retained the process of Shires and Hundreds on which it was based. He also retained the process of local law. The Witan was also retained but with a Norman attendance. Many of the administrative processes were left intact. He invaded a rich country, so why change a system that worked. He also respected the land granted to Danish settlers in Danelaw. Many of the freedoms and rights enjoyed by London were retained. William seemed to want to retain as much of the English way of life as possible. He might have realised that any threat to his kingdom was more likely to come from a Norman usurper.

William introduced the position of sheriff. These were officials of the Crown who were responsible for the administration of the royal estates and shires and who collected the draconian taxes on the king’s behalf and were responsible for leading the king’s militia in times of unrest. The administration of the law and the jury system used throughout the world today and introduced by the Vikings was kept in place. William embarked on a survey of his conquest, the like of which had never been attempted anywhere else in the world at that time. In 1085 William wanted to know exactly what he had in his possession. Not just the broad details but everything. He wanted to know the population and the status of them, who owned what land, what was on that land, how many animals were on that land, the type of land, how the land was cultivated and what was grown - all for the purposes of taxation. This was an onerous job for the commissioners especially appointed to carry out the task. This eventually became known as the Domesday Book. The survey was stored in the treasury in Winchester. The calculation of tax due was passed to the tenants in chief. The affect of his savage taxes ricocheted down to the peasant. Everybody was affected.

If William became the monarch of law and order, his methods were severe in the extreme. As mentioned above, a quarter of England was retained by him for his personal needs. He was an avid hunter and the preservation of the fallow deer became an obsession. Anybody caught hunting on his land could expect blinding or mutilation, or if they were lucky, executed. These kangaroo courts were set up spontaneously to administer justice. A fair trial could depend on your status. Peace was not easily won by William. Many English had died in the initial battle but it dimmed into insignificance to those who would die in his quest to unify the country under his power. in Yorkshire, following a massacre of Norman knights, he undertook a scorched earth and murdering policy that took years to recover. Many of the nobility or landed Saxon gentry that existed only a few years earlier became penniless. This role reversal led to uprisings which William dealt with. Some totally refused to accept the regime and left their homes to become outlaws. Possibly the most famous was Hereward the Wake, a Lincolnshire landowner, who after the invasion absconded to the marshes where he, until 1071, fought against William and all he stood for.

William embarked on a castle building scheme to protect his vulnerable areas and to house the appointed tax collectors (not the most popular of people). He was responsible for the Tower of London. He built Battle Abbey to commemorate the Battle of Hastings.

If we cannot condone William's violent actions, he can be given the credit for moulding a sense of patriotism. Everybody had a position, a status and duty. From this, a country can only be strong. It was just as well because the Vikings had not finished with England. Two attempts at invasion were beaten back by William. William invaded Scotland and Wales with success. William was slowly doing what the Vikings had done with Canute. Whereas England was part of a Danish Empire, It was now an extension of Normandy with the English Channel separating the two. Warfare changed, Instead of fighting on foot as the Saxon's had done, the use of cavalry, first seen at Hastings, was now used to good advantage. The use of horses also allowed great distances to be covered in much shorter time. The invasion of Scotland that the Romans found difficult was achieved by William. All roads would have lead back to William. He was not only the King of England but of Normandy, now the most powerful kingdom in France. | |