Hastings 1066: Harold Godwinson's Two Forced Marches and Feigned Flights

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Edward the Confessor died on January 5, 1066, and the English nobles elected Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex. Two rivals claimed the throne: Harald Hardrada of Norway, through an old Scandinavian treaty, and William of Normandy, who said Edward had promised it to him and Harold had sworn an oath to uphold his claim. Harold massed his army on the south coast, but on September 8 he had to send the fyrd home, since its farmers owed about two months' service and the harvest could not wait. Almost at once Hardrada and Harold's exiled brother Tostig landed in the north with some 300 ships, won at Fulford and took York. Harold marched about 200 miles north and destroyed them at Stamford Bridge on September 25.

Northerly winds had held William's fleet in Normandy for weeks. They shifted on September 27, and William landed at Pevensey the next day, raised a prefabricated wooden castle at Hastings and ravaged the country. Harold marched south at about 27 miles a day, leaving his archers behind, and on October 14 formed a shield wall on Senlac Hill. The wall held through archery, infantry and cavalry attacks until parts of it broke ranks to pursue. Harold was killed, and William was crowned on Christmas Day 1066.

• Norwegian survivors of Stamford Bridge were allowed to sail home in just 24 of their 300 ships.
• William built an estimated 700 ships in nine months and recruited knights from Brittany and Flanders under a papal banner.
• When a rumor spread that William had died, he pushed back his helmet to show his face and stopped the rout of his Breton left flank.
• Norman cavalry repeatedly staged feigned flights, then wheeled on the English who chased them onto open ground.
• About 4,000 English and 2,000 Normans died, and William later had the ridge leveled to build Battle Abbey, its altar said to mark where Harold fell.