Why Will Won.

There are many reasons why William the Conqueror won the Battle
of Hastings, so this essay will be formatted from least known to
most known respectively top to bottom. Right then, let’s begin with:

William’s Luck
This one I feel most people overlook, but I believe William got
extremely lucky with the weather, timing and the overall stupidity of
his opponents. Firstly, the wind was blowing in a south-westerly
direction when William tried to first invade. Now, for those less
well-versed in Geography, England is north-east of France, so
William’s invasion was postponed. England was fighting the Viking
army, rapidly using up resources and men, so when the wind changed
in William’s favour, not only was William and his army stronger, but
Harold was also weaker, leading to an easy win for the Normans,
although it makes you wonder: What if the Normans came first and
not the Vikings, would our lives be any different? Never mind,
History is forged on facts not fiction. OK, next paragraph!

William’s Skill
Next, William was a master tactician and fighter, that fact is
undoubtable, but it’s his execution that astounds me. Firstly, I’m
sure that if Harold was put in the same circumstances as William, by
having to battle the wind, and being rumoured to be dead on the
battlefield he probably couldn’t have handled it, let alone handling it
as well as William did. All these points are a testament to William’s
skill, and his clever use of the “retreating trick” further backs this
up. For those wondering, William made his army temporarily run
away, luring some of Harold’s fyrdsmen (farmers who are also part-
time soldiers) off the high ground, thus trapping them in the bog
below and allowing for an easy kill. Now, time for Harold’s
misfortunes.

Harold’s (lack of) skill.

This seems rather obvious, but Harold was far from the master
tactician status that William had achieved, so I am not surprised
that William won. Harold made many mistakes, one of which being
him not thinking. That’s it, no thought whatsoever. He didn’t think
about his two foes and saving an army to help them fight one or the
other, and he trash-talked (mocked/made fun of) Harald Hardrada,
leading to an all-out brawl, which could have been resolved peacefully
and have led to an inter-connected economic system, resulting in
peace, and possibly a bigger UK and possibly a continuation of the
British empire well after the Victorian era. But all this goes to show
how senseless Harold was, but not all his shortcomings were borne of
his lack of skill, which brings me to my final point:

Harold’s bad luck.

Not many misfortunate events happened to Harold within the first
few weeks of the mantle of king befalling Harold, but The Normans
arriving shortly after a bloody battle with the Vikings surely
qualifies. I believe historians say Harold got extremely unlucky, as a
lot of documentations from the time are likely written by either
Normans or the English, so in France they probably have the right
end of the story, whilst over here, we’re stuck with the prejudiced,
biased English.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I personally believe the main reason William, Duke of
Normandy, now known as William the conqueror, won was his
incredible luck. The odds were, to quote the Hunger Games “ever in
his favour” and I’m sure that if the Normans and Vikings swapped
turns to invade England, we’d have a completely different, far less
civilised and frankly more violent, past, present, and even future.