The Battle of Hastings was the decisive Norman victory in the Norman Conquest of England. The battle took place at Senlac Hill, approximately 6 miles northwest of Hastings, on which an abbey was subsequently built.
The battle took place on October 14, 1066, between the Norman army of Duke William of Normandy and the English army led by King Harold II. Harold was killed during the battle, shot through the eye with an arrow. Although there was further English resistance for some time to come, this battle is seen as the point at which William gained control of England.
Background[]
Harold, next to the King, was the most powerful man in England; he claimed the throne of England for himself in January 1066, soon after Edward the Confessor died. He secured the support of the Witenagemot for his accession. Some sources say that while Edward had promised the throne to his cousin William, on his deathbed he decided to confer it to Harold instead.
Duke William of Normandy held fast to his claim to the throne. He took Harold's crowning as a declaration of war. William had been establishing policy in England for over 15 years, and was not ready to give up his position so easily. William planned to invade England, and take the crown for himself. The initial difficulty was that the Norman army was not powerful enough, so nobles as far as southern Italy were called to convene at Caen, in Normandy. There, William promised land and titles to his followers and that the voyage was secured by the Pope himself. William assembled a fleet of around 700 ships - a staggering logistical feat - and sailed for England.
On September 28, 1066 William, after being delayed by a storm in the English Channel, asserted his claim to the English crown by military force, landing unopposed at a marshy, tidal inlet at Bulverhythe, near the town of Hastings. The beachhead is within two miles of the Senlac battlefield, is sheltered, and has access to high ground.
Upon hearing the news of the landing of the Duke's forces, the English King, Harold II, who had just annihilated an invading Norwegian Viking army under King Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson (Harold's brother) at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, near Jorvik, hurried southward to meet the invaders. His brother, Earl Gyrth urged a delay while more men could be assembled, but Harold was determined to show his people that he could defend his new kingdom decisively against every invader. He departed on the morning of October 12, gathering what available forces he could on the way. After camping at Long Bennington, he arrived at Senlac Hill the night of October 13.
Harold deployed his force, astride the road from Hastings to London, on Senlac Hill some six miles inland north-west of Hastings. Behind him was the great forest of Anderida (the Weald), and in front, the ground fell away in a long glacis-like slope, which at the bottom rose again as the opposing slope of Telham Hill.
The English Army[]
The Saxon army was around 7,500 strong, and consisted entirely of infantry. Many members of the army rode to battle, but once at the appointed place they dismounted to fight on foot.
The core of the Saxon army was made up of full-time professional soldiers called Huscarls. They had a long-standing dedication to the King, and would fight to the last man if necessary. Their armour consisted of a conical helmet, a chain mail hauberk, and they carried a kite-shaped shield. Their primary weapon was the Danish battleaxes which they wielded with two hands, although every man carried a sword as well.
The bulk of the army, the fyrdmen, were part-time soldiers drawn from the landowning minor nobility. These thegns were the land-holding aristocracy of pre-conquest England and were required to serve with their own armour and weapons for a certain number of days each year.
The Saxons' most formidable defence was the shield wall, in which all the men on the front ranks locked their shields together. In the early stages of the battle, the shield wall was very effective at defending against the Norman archery barrages. The entire army took up position along the ridge-line; as casualties fell in the front lines the rear ranks would move forward to fill the gaps.
The Norman Army[]
Norman Infantry
The Norman army was estimated to be 8,400 strong and consisted of, at most, 2,200 cavalry, 4,500 infantry and 1,700 missile troops (archers and crossbowmen). William's strategy relied on archers to soften the enemy, followed by a general advance of the infantry and then a cavalry charge. The Norman army was made up of nobles, mercenaries and troops from France, to as far as southern Italy.
The Norman army's power derived from its cavalry which were reckoned amongst the best in Europe. They were heavily armoured, and usually had a lance and a sword. As with all cavalry, they were generally at their most effective against troops whose formation had begun to break up.
Apart from the missile troops, the Norman infantry were probably protected by mail and armed with spear, sword and shield, like their Saxon counterparts.
The inclusion of large numbers of missile troops in William's army reflected the trend in other European armies for composite forces who combined on the battlefield. The bow was a relatively short weapon with a short draw, but was effective on the battlefield at this time. Hastings also marks the first known use of the crossbow in English history.
Prelude to Battle[]
On the morning of Saturday, October 14 1066, Duke William of Normandy arrived, flying the Papal banner, and gathered his army below the English position. The Norman army was of comparable size to the Saxon force and was composed of William's Norman, Breton, and Flemish vassals and allies along with their retainers, and freebooters from as far away as Norman Italy. The nobles had been promised English lands and titles in return for their material support, but the common troops were to be paid with the spoils and treasure, and hoped for land when English fiefs were handed out. Many had also come because they considered it a holy crusade, because the Pope had decided to bless the invasion. The army was deployed in the classic medieval fashion of three divisions, or "battles" — the Normans taking the centre, the Bretons on the left wing and the Franco-Flemish on the right wing. Each battle comprised infantry, cavalry and archers along with crossbowmen. The archers and crossbowmen stood to the front for the start of the battle.
William's minstrel and knight, Ivo Taillefer, begged his master for permission to strike the first blows of the battle. Permission was granted, and Taillefer rode into the English rannks alone while he sang an early version of The Song of Roland. An English champion strode forward, and Taillefer slew him before being killed himself.
The Battle[]
William relied on a basic strategy with archers in the front rank weakening the enemy with arrows, followed by infantry which would engage in close combat, and finally culminating in a cavalry charge that would break through the English forces. However, his strategy did not work as well as planned. William's army attacked the English as soon as they were ready and formed up. The Norman archers opened fire with several volleys, but many of the arrows hit the shield wall and had very little effect. Believed to have softened the Saxons up, William ordered his infantry to attack. As they charged up the hill, the English threw down whatever they could find, stones, javelins, maces. The barrage inflicted heavy casualties amongst the Norman ranks, causing the lines to break up.
Death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings
The infantry charge reached the English lines, where fierce hand-to-hand fighting took place. William had expected the Saxons to be faltering, but something was going wrong. The arrow barrage had little to no effect, and nearly all the English troops still stood, their shield wall intact. As a result, William had to order his cavalry charge far sooner than expected. Despite their careful breeding and training, faced with a wall of axes, spears and swords, many of the horses shied away. After about an hour of fighting, the Breton division on William's left faltered and broke completely, fleeing down the hill. Realising they would be quickly outflanked, the Norman and Flemish divisions were repulsed with heavy casualties and retreated along with the Bretons. Unable to resist the temptation, many of the English broke ranks, including hundreds of fyrdmen and Harold's brothers, Leofwine and Gyrth. In the following confused fighting, William's horse was killed from underneath him, and he toppled to the ground. Witnessing the apparent death of their leader, the Normans panicked and took to flight. However, William took off his helmet to show he was alive and rallied his army.
William and a group of knights attacked the pursuing, now dispersed English, who were no longer protected by the shield wall and cut down large numbers of fyrdmen. Many did not recognize the Norman counter-attack until it was too late, but some did manage to scramble back up the hill to the safety of the huscarls; others, including Harold's brothers, were not so fortunate. The two armies formed up, and a temporary lull fell over the battle. William took advantage of this lull to ponder a new strategy. The Normans' near-rout had turned to William's advantage, since the English lost much of the protection provided by the shield wall. Without the cohesion of a disciplined, strong formation, the individual English were easy targets. Keeping this in mind, William launched his army at the strong English position yet again. The strategy worked, and many of the English huscarls were killed.
With a large number of English fyrdmen now holding the front rank, the disciplined shield wall that the housecarls had maintained began to falter and this presented an opportunity to William. At the start of the battle, William's bowmen had fired directly into the English force, and was thus ineffective because of their shields. Though many on the front ranks still had shields, William ordered his archers to fire directly over the shield wall, so their arrows landed in the clustered rear ranks of the English army. The archers did this, and with great success. It was at this point that King Harold was hit in the eye by an arrow. Many of the English were now weary, and lost the discipline of the shield wall. William's army attacked again, and managed to make small chinks in the shield wall which they were able to exploit, and the Saxon army began to fragment. William and a handful of knights broke through the wall. Without their leader, and many of the nobles now killed, hundreds of fyrdmen routed the field. The housecarls kept their oath of loyalty to the king, and fought bravely until they were all killed.
The bodies were cleared from the battlefield, William's tent pitched and a celebratory dinner held. Though casualties are entirely speculative, it seems likely that around 5,000 English and 3,000 Normans were killed during the battle.
Aftermath[]
Only a remnant of the defenders made their way back to the forest. Some of the Norman forces pursued the English but were ambushed and destroyed in the dusk when they ran afoul of steep ground, called, the "Malfosse", or "bad ditch". William rested his army for two weeks near Hastings, waiting for the English lords to come and submit to him. Then, after he realised his hopes of submission at that point were in vain, he began his advance on London. His army was seriously reduced in November by dysentery, and William himself was gravely ill. However, he was reinforced by fresh troops crossing the English Channel. After being thwarted in an attempt to cross London Bridge, he approached the city by a circuitous route, crossing the Thames at Wallingford and advancing on London from the north-west.
The northern earls, Edwin and Morcar, Esegar the sheriff of London, and Edgar Atheling, who had been elected king in the wake of Harold's death, all came out and submitted to the Norman duke before he reached London. William was crowned king on Christmas Day, 1066 at Westminster Abbey.