Battle of Hastings

It’s called “1066 Country” for a reason. In a quiet area in the South Downs of Kent stands the village of Battle. Despite its now peaceful atmosphere, it, along with Hastings, is famous as being the site of one of the most significant turning points in British history. The Battle of Hastings has carved a spot in the British annals as being the last successful invasion of England and as marking the end of Anglo-Saxon England and the beginning of French Norman rule. As Roberts tells us, “William’s conquest of England gave an abrupt turn to the path of English history. It imposed on England an alien aristocracy, introduced into the kingdom feudal institutions, and linked England—commercially, ecclesiastically, and culturally—with Europe, not Scandinavia” (68).

The immediate causes of such sweeping change are simple. In January 1066, the death of King Edward (called “the Confessor”) left the kingdom without a definite heir. Contention broke out among competing factions, and eventually Harold Godwinson accepted the crown, only to be immediately a traitor and a liar by William. One reason for William’s outrage is that supposedly, in 1064, or maybe early in 1065, “Harold visited Duke William in Normandy. He went, say the Norman sources, as Edward’s ambassador, to swear an oath confirming an earlier promise of the English crown” (Morgan 102). Yet another story gives a second explanation: “Harold falls into William’s hands by mischance, is forced to swear the oath, and returns shamefacedly to a horrified King Edward” (Morgan 102). In both cases, the English crown is promised to Duke William by Harold, making his taking the crown an act of treason, even if the oath had been given under forced conditions. Thus William, who has been painted as more bent on taking England’s wealth rather than the kingship, took Harold’s crowning as justification for launching a full-scale invasion of the island country.

Harold’s armies, exhausted after winning a decisive victory over two rivals also vying for the kingdom, Harold’s brother Tostig and the King of Norway, met William’s on 14 October 1066. The battle was evenly pitched, and according to Roberts, “William had some 5000 troops, Harold perhaps 7000, though many were untrained, ill-equipped recruits. On both sides the soldiers wore chainmail and conical helmets, carried shields, and fought with spear and sword” (72-73). Although the odds didn’t show a clear favor early in the battle, the tide of the fighting turned in favor of the Normans when Harold’s army “seem to have been enticed down the slope in pursuit of real or feigned retreats, and then cut off and overwhelmed” (Morgan 103). Harold’s army was broken up and after a hard fought battle, William emerged victorious when at the end of the day, “Harold was killed, shot through the eye by an arrow as tradition supposes, then hacked to death by Norman knights, one of whom cut off his leg” (Hibbert 39). Harold's death is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, below. The spot where Harold fell is now marked by the high altar of Battle Abbey.


There are different perspectives to take in this story. One viewpoint is that of the conqueror and his knights; to them, the battle was merely a conquest in pursuit of a rich country under the guise of bruised honor and the perceived denial of rights to the crown. In this case, the name William the Conqueror seems fitting. But a second perspective, in which William is merely and sarcastically called “the Bastard,” involves that of the English people, who would now be subjected to uncaring, Norman overlords. Whichever perspective you take in the story, whether in support of the conquered or the conqueror, the fact remains that “the Battle of Hastings represented the victory of new tactics over old, of a mobile cavalry, supported by archers, over a massed infantry wielding ax and spear” (Roberts 73). And in the end, that is the only difference that matters.

From this turning point battle came the vast influence of French on the English language and the Norman feudal system. The unassuming farmland of this former battlefield made an impression on me not only for the gorgeous scene it presented, and but also for my knowing that one of the most important battles in the story of Britain took place there.

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Works Cited

Hibbert, Christopher. The Story of England. London: Phaidon, 1992.

Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1984.

Roberts, Clayton, and David Roberts. A History Of England: Prehistory to 1714. Upper
Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998.