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Why Did William Win the Battle of Hastings?

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Submitted By deboyfusco
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Why did William win the Battle of Hastings?
William, Duke of Normandy, won the Battle of Hastings on the
14th of October 1066. One of the main reasons he achieved this was because he was very well prepared. In this essay I will explain further how William won the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Preparation
William assembled a great army of armoured knights, soldiers and archers. He also had a huge amount of ships to carry his army over the English Channel. William used the very clever trick of retreating down the hill to make the English follow and lose their ground. After that, the Norman army quickly doubled back on themselves and surrounded and killed the helpless English. As well as all this, William had a store of the finest weapons in France.
Leadership
William was one of the bravest people of his time. When his army was having difficulties during the battle, he bravely led his army back up the hill to make another attack upon the English. Due to
William's intelligence, he arranged his army in long rows, archers at the front to try and soften up the English's shield wall, footsoldiers in the middle, and the cavalry at the back for a big attack.The retreating trick explained in the above paragraph also shows great leadership.
Luck
Luckily for William, the wind changed direction in his favour on his journey north to England. When Harold had been fighting the
Vikings in the north of England, some of his best troops were killed, giving a huge advantage to the Normans. Very luckily for the Normans, Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye at a key stage of the battle, leaving the Saxons without their leader.
Another advantage to the Normans was that the Saxons were already exhausted after their battle with the Vikings and then had to march straight away on the long trip from Stamford
Bridge to Battle.
My Conclusion
Overall I think that the main reason for William winning the
Battle of Hastings was that he was much better prepared than
Harold. This is because while he was able to train his horses to charge at the enemy, Harold was still up north fighting another tiring battle.

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