THEBATTLE OF HASTINGS

14 OCTOBER 1066
 WHEN KING EDWARD DIED IN
1066, THREE MEN WANTED TO
BE THE NEXT KING OF ENGLAND
• HAROLD GODWINSON, an English
nobleman popular with the other nobles and
with the ordinary people but not related to the
royal family
• HARALD HARDRADA, King of Norway, who
was descended from earlier Scandinavian
rulers of England
• DUKE WILLIAM of Normandy in northern
France, who was distantly related to earlier
English kings
Harold was accepted as King by the
Witan (King’s Council)
Harald Hardrada landed in northern England but King Harold
and his army surprised and defeated the Norwegians, killing
Hardrada. This 19th century painting shows the Norwegian
king in blue in the centre of the picture.
While the English army was still in the north,
William landed on the south coast of England
King Harold had to march back three hundred
miles to oppose the Norman army
 On 14 October 1066, three weeks after their victory over the Norwegians, the
English army took up position on the top of a hill near Hastings, on the road
William would need to take to reach London. Here is the hill and the monastery
which was built on it after the battle
 And here is the view the English had as they looked down from
the top. The Normans probably formed their battle line
somewhere near the single line of trees in the centre of the picture
This is model shows the probable positions of the opposing armies.
This time we are looking up the hill again, from behind the
Norman army. The English are in two lines with the best trained
and best-equipped soldiers in front
The English army was larger but the Normans had more knights on
horseback so King Harold kept his men standing at the top of the
hill. Here they could form a barrier with their shields
 The Normans, who were attacking uphill, failed to break through
the English line and, when they heard a rumour that William had
been killed, they turned and fled. William himself took off his helmet
and rode in front of his men, urging them to return to the fight.
 Many of the English had made the terrible mistake of
rushing down the hill to chase the enemy. When the Normans
turned to fight again, they found it easy to attack the English
as they were no longer protected by a solid wall of shields
After this success, the Normans twice pretended to flee. Again
the English chased after them but suffered heavy losses when
the Normans turned round and attacked again.
 After more heavy fighting, the Normans finally
broke through the English lines and King Harold
himself was killed. The remaining English fled
from the battlefield and William had won.
After the Norman victory, William took away the lands of nearly all
the English nobles and gave them instead to his own followers. The
Normans built great castles all over England to protect themselves.
 The ordinary people farmed the land as before and continued
speaking English but the ruling class was now French-speaking.
Gradually the Normans became more English but you still needed
French to show you were important. In 1300, more than two hundred
years after the Battle of Hastings, an English writer, Robert of
Gloucester, wrote these words (translated from the French he wrote
in).

• `... unless a man knows French he is

thought little of. But humble men keep to
English and their own speech still. I reckon
there are no countries in the whole world
that do not keep to their own speech, except
England only.'
During the 14th century English finally replaced French as
the language of the law courts and of the schools but the
English language was now very different from the English
spoken before the Battle of Hastings:

• Before 1066, English, like modern German, had many

different endings which had to be added to verbs and
nouns to show their grammatical role. By 1400, most of
these endings had disappeared.
• Before the Normans came, English usually combined
simple words and syllables of its own to make new words,
just as modern German and Chinese do. After 1066
English began to borrow foreign words instead – chiefly
from French but later also from many other languages
Because the battle had such important results, 1066 is a date everyone in
Britain remembers, even if they forget everything else they learned in
school history lessons. There are also many resources available on the
Internet for those who want to learn more about the battle and its
background:

• Woodlands Junior School in Kent has a lot of useful

information on its history homework site, which is the
source for several of the photos in this presentation:
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/bt.html

• Another site lets you see the whole of the Bayeux

Tapestry, a 70-metre-long piece of embroidered cloth
telling the story of Harold and William in pictures with
Latin captions. The tapestry was made on the orders of
William’s brother, who was a bishop in France:
http://hastings1066.com/baythumb.shtml
You have already seen several scenes from the tapestry. Here
you can see William crossing the English Channel and also
pictures of an earlier voyage by Harold to France
Here you can see the death of King Edward, Harold receiving the
crown and the appearance in April 1066 of Halley’s Comet, which
many thought was a sign that disaster would come
Here we can see royal meals being prepared. The Latin words mean: `Here
meat is being cooked and here the servants have served it. Here they have
taken their meal and here the bishop blesses the food and drink.’
The battle is frequently re-enacted. Many photos were taken at a re-
enactment in 2006, in which thousands of people took part
Here are some of the Norman cavalry. Notice the chain
mail they are wearing. Only a minority of the soldiers in
each army could afford this
Here is an English soldier with a lot less protection!
And here is King Harold himself
The Earliest Recorded Reference to Nottingham

868 Her for se ilca here innan Mierce to Snotengaham, 7

þær wintersetl namon; 7 Burgræd Miercna cyning 7 his
wiotan bædon Æþered b Westseaxna cyning 7 Ælfred
his broþur þæt hie him gefultumadonb, þæt hie wiþ þone
here gefuhton; 7 þa ferdon hie mid Wesseaxna fierde
innan Mierce oþ Snotengaham, 7 þone here þær metton
on þam geweorce, 7 þær nan hefelic gefeoht ne wearþ, 7
Mierce friþ namon wiþ þone here;
(from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a year-by-year
account of English history written in Old English
and begun in the late 9th. Century)
 Modern English translation
868 In that year the same[i.e Danish] army went to
Snotengaham [i.e. Nottingham] in Mercia [a
kingdom in central England] and took up winter
quarters there. King Burgred, of Mercia and his
council asked Ethered, king of Wessex [the
southern English kingdom] and his brother Alfred
to help them fight against that army. They entered
Mercia with the forces of Wessex and came to
Snotengaham where they found the Danes inside
the fortress. There was no serious fighting and the
Mercians made peace with the invaders.