THEBATTLE OF HASTINGS 14 OCTOBER 1066

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THEBATTLE OF HASTINGS14 OCTOBER 1066
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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

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Harold was accepted as King by the Witan (Kings
Council)
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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.
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While the English army was still in the north,
William landed on the south coast of England
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King Harold had to march back three hundred miles
to oppose the Norman army
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.'

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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

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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.k
  ent.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 Williams brother, who was
  a bishop in France
• http//hastings1066.com/baythumb.shtml

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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
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Here you can see the death of King Edward, Harold
receiving the crown and the appearance in April
1066 of Halleys Comet, which many thought was a
sign that disaster would come
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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.
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The battle is frequently re-enacted. Many photos
were taken at a re-enactment in 2006, in which
thousands of people took part
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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
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Here is an English soldier with a lot less
protection!
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And here is King Harold himself
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OVER TO YOU.

• Use one of the websites mentioned above to find
  out more about the Battle of Hastings. Write
  about 150 words and illustrate your answer with
  one or more pictures from the Internet
• The sites below give you detail of two other
  battles which are frequently re-enacted.
  
• Find out when the battles took place, who
  were the two sides, what they were fighting about
  and how often re-enactments take place
• http//www.gettysburgreenactment.com/index.htm
• http//www.fusiliers.net/wargaming20.htm

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• 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)

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Modern English translation

• 868 In that year the samei.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.