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Volume 1 | Issue 1 - Conflict
Article by Dr Martin Ryan. Edited by Liam Geoghegan. Additional Research by Liz Goodwin. Illustrated by Ben Ferguson.
On the evening of the 4th January 1066, King Edward ‘the Confessor’ died after a lengthy illness. The next morning he was buried and Harold Godwineson was crowned king of the English at Westminster Abbey. Edward died childless, but, according to one contemporary source, had on his deathbed made Harold – his brother-in-law and one of the most powerful earls in England – his heir. Harold’s claims to the throne were supported by the majority of the English aristocracy, but there were others, chief among them William, duke of Normandy, who sought to press their own claims.
In the autumn of 1066, William landed with an army on the south coast of England, near Pevensey. At this time, King Harold was occupied in the north seeing off an invasion attempt by Harald Hardrada, the king of Norway. Harold defeated the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge, near York, and hurried south to face William. The two armies met on the morning of the 14th October a few miles north of Hastings. A near contemporary English account records that Harold’s army was taken by surprise and had little time to take up proper positions before being engaged by William’s men. Despite this, the English army occupied the higher ground; Harold’s standard was raised at the top of a low ridge that sloped gently downwards in the direction of William’s oncoming army. For the English, the battle was to become a defensive one as they struggled to maintain their shield wall in the face of successive assaults by the Norman archers and cavalry. The overwhelming picture from the sources is of confusion – real and feigned retreats by the Normans, repeated break-aways from the line by English soldiers, rumours of the death of William that were only silenced by the duke removing his helmet. The battle lasted for the whole day. Finally, as dusk approached, Harold was killed and, despite one last rally, the resistance of the English army was broken.
William’s victory at Hastings has come to be seen as a turning point in English history, a moment in which something decisive changed forever. Yet, even with Harold dead, William’s grip on the English throne was not secure. The Battle of Hastings was not the Norman conquest of England, but the first step in a long and protracted campaign to subjugate a hostile population.