Fifty Things You Need To Know About British History. Hugh Williams

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       CHAPTER 5

       The Battle of Hastings

       1066

      The Battle of Hastings represented the start of the last great foreign invasion of Britain. The Norman Conquest unified the country under a powerful monarchy and provided it with the foundations of the medieval state.

      In the centuries leading up to the Norman Conquest of Britain, the future of Europe turned on the ambitions of individual men. The continent was in turmoil as peoples from its different parts travelled from their homelands in search of opportunity elsewhere. Powerful men grabbed land and held on to it during their lifetimes, but their successors were likely to lose it if they did not display the same aggressive qualities. Anglo-Saxon England might have been extinguished if Alfred had not turned the tide against the Danish invaders in 878 AD. Nearly two hundred years later the future of Britain and Europe might have evolved in a very different way if King Canute had reigned for longer. He was a Dane who became Emperor of Denmark, Norway and England. In England the successive Viking invasions had brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish cultures together, and Canute consolidated this process allowing both to prosper. However, when he died in 1036 his great empire broke up and England was once again ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings. But their survival depended entirely on their individual strengths and weaknesses. The country was eyed greedily by the Vikings, who by now had rivals to the south. In France the Normans were looking for new territory into which they could expand.

      The Normans were, in fact, descendants of Vikings who had originally moved into France in the early part of the tenth century. By the time of the Norman Conquest they had become French-speaking Christians, but they had not lost the Viking taste for adventure and war. By 1066 they had already invaded Italy where they were the rulers of lands throughout the south. Only five years before the Battle of Hastings, in 1061, Roger, ‘the Great Count’, was with his brother Robert, organising the invasion of Sicily, which would eventually provide the Normans with a powerful Mediterranean base. They were an energetic and fierce race described by one contemporary chronicler, Geoffrey Malaterra, as ‘altogether unbridled unless firmly held down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger and cold … given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasures of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war.’ These were the people who were about to capture all of Britain.

      To a certain extent the Normans, like their Viking predecessors, were pushing at an open door in their plans to invade Britain. Edward the Confessor became King of England in 1042. He was a grandson of Richard, Duke of Normandy, through his father’s marriage to Richard’s daughter, Emma. His father, Ethelred, had been a disastrous King who failed to protect his people from the predatory Vikings and his marriage to Emma, who brought to his court a train of Norman followers, only increased his unpopularity. After Ethelred died, Canute succeeded him and Edward fled to Normandy, returning to the throne a few years after Canute’s death. By this time he had developed Norman tastes.

      Edward the Confessor, as his name implies, was as much a priest as a king, adopting the ideal of chastity even though he was married. His religious activities earned him sainthood, but his political incompetence at a time of national danger prepared the way for the final collapse of Anglo-Saxon England. His enjoyment of Norman ways caused resentment among his Anglo-Saxon subjects, particularly Earl Godwin of Wessex who was at one point driven into exile in Flanders, but returned to secure his place in the kingdom with popular support. By 1066, when Edward the Confessor died, England once again looked like a prize worth taking. It was unsettled – the Anglo-Saxons resented the power and influence that had been given to Norman intruders; it was ungoverned – Edward had not passed any laws or concerned himself unduly with the management of his country; and it had no heir – Edward’s devotion to chastity had seen to that.

      There was no precise formula for the succession of a new king in Anglo-Saxon England. The nearest blood relation to Edward was a boy called Edgar the Atheling, but the Witan, the assembly that chose the next monarch, rejected him in favour of Godwin’s son, Harold of Wessex. England’s enemies saw their chance. The King of Norway, Harald Hardrada, declared himself the true successor, and attacked, supported in his claim by Harold of Wessex’s brother, Tostig. William, Duke of Normandy, announced that Edward had promised him the throne and prepared to attack as well. Harold, the last King of Wessex, heir to Anglo-Saxon England’s last brief surge of glory, was trapped. While he waited and watched for William to arrive along the south coast of England he heard news that Harald Hardrada had landed in the north-east and had defeated the northern earls. Turning away from his southern watch he marched north and at the end of September 1066 met his Viking enemy at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. The story goes that before the battle Harold rode out to meet his disaffected brother, Tostig, who was now his mortal enemy. He offered him a third of his kingdom and his own life if he would desert the Norwegian king. Tostig asked him if there was anything he was prepared to give to Harald Hardrada. Harold of Wessex replied: ‘Seven feet of ground or as much more as he is taller than other men.’ Tostig then said: ‘We are united in our aim. Either to die with honour, or else conquer England.’ A furious battle then took place. Harald Hardrada fought like a man possessed but was slain. Eventually the whole of his army was destroyed: his men were cut down and killed as they ran for their boats to get home. Harold of Wessex had won a huge victory. As he led his exhausted forces back towards York he heard news that William had arrived off

      the south coast.

      After a four-day ride, Harold reached London. Much of his army followed him on foot and had not arrived by the time William had landed and begun to carry out raids in the immediate vicinity. Harold rounded up what troops he could to reinforce the exhausted victors of Stamford Bridge and on 14th October took up his position on Senlac Hill in Hastings. Harold and his army fought to the last against the Norman invaders but the Norman cavalry supported by their archers proved too strong for them. Harold was killed and his army scattered. The last Anglo-Saxon King of England had held power for only a few months, but he had held it bravely. His country was lost forever. A band of invaders probably not much more than 10,000 in number had captured the country. The Norman Conquest had begun.

      William the Conqueror was shrewd. He made sure that he had papal blessing for his English excursion and he could now proclaim that his victory was ordained by God. He also had other advantages of a rather more practical kind. His principal rival, the King of Norway, had been killed. He had a strong, loyal force of experienced knights and a Church that was well organised and international in its approach. On Christmas Day 1066, he was crowned King of England in London and within two years had brought all of the south under Norman control. The north took a while longer to subdue. Two northern earls, Edwin and Morcar, supported by another Danish invasion, took up arms against the new King but their rebellion was suppressed with fierce savagery. This was a new time in Britain. The confused society that had arisen from the uneasy partnership between Anglo-Saxons and Danes was now ripped away. North and south were united and the country fortified with stone castles: СКАЧАТЬ