This Week in History! - September 27, 1066 AD
The IRHS Society of History and Philosophy
King Harold Godwinson of England (referred to as Harold)
King Harald Hardrada of Norway (referred to as Hardrada)
Duke William the Bastard of Normandy (referred to as William)
On the 27th day of September, 1066 AD, Duke William the Bastard of Normandy sat sail from the mouth of the Somme river, thus beginning one of the greatest campaigns in human history, the Norman Conquest of England. The story of the Normans, however, begun much earlier. Over a hundred years before, in 911 AD, a group of Viking raiders, referred to as the Northmen, under the leadership of one Rollo, settled in modern day Normandy. These Northmen, or Normans as they were later called, agreed to protect the Kingdom of West Francia from further Viking raids under the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. The Franks had hoped that the Normans would adopt the civilized ways and - in part - they did, but the Norman warrior traditions never ceased to exist. In the hundred years that ensued, many Normans lead great conquests to all the corners of Europe. William was one such man.
Born in 1028 AD as the son of Duke Robert the Magnificent, William was a descendent of the legendary Rollo. During his early life, he was acquainted to King Edward the Confessor of England who was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. Edward’s heavy dependence on the Normans sparked an interest for English politics for many powerful Norman nobility, therefore, when Edward died heirless, William fancied the English throne. The Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson, was the immediate successor of Edward, thus claiming the throne for himself. William, on the other hand, claimed that Harold was unfit to rule and that the throne should belong to him. Yet another man, King Harald Hardrada of Norway, contested the succession. According to a pact struck between Magnus the Good of Norway and the previous English king, Harthacnut, he was the legally the successor to the English throne in the event that a king died heirless.
All three men prepared for war, but the wind favored Hardrada. As the wind blew from North to South, William was stuck in Normandy, but Hardrada was able to sail from Norway to Yorkshire without much difficulty. Harold was not expecting a Viking invasion, and thus stayed near London anticipating an attack from the Normans. In the meantime, Hardrada had already disembarked and defeated a fyrd army in Fulford. After hearing the news of the English defeat, Harold rushed his men up North to face the more urgent threat. Battle was drawn at Stamford Bridge, as the English forces caught the Vikings in their sleep. The great Viking army suffered heavy losses and their king, Hardrada, was killed. The remaining Norwegians returned home. Of the 300 longships that sat sail for England, barely a tenth made it back. Harold had won, but his victory was short lived. The wind had changed directions.
William landed near Pevensey in Sussex on the 28th of September, and erected a fortress at their landing site. Meanwhile, Harold remained in Stamford after defeating Harald Hardrada in the previous days. Upon receiving news of the arrival of the Normans, he promptly set off with his elite huscarls on a forced march to London, where he sent out a call to arms to the surrounding areas. In less than a week, Harold raised an army of fyrdmen roughly the same size as the Norman army, though some contemporary sources put the English numbers at 400,000 to 1,200,000 men (vastly outnumbering the Normans). However, the accuracy of these documents is often questionable at best. Eager to draw Harold to battle, William raided the coastal areas and sent out propaganda humiliating him. Harold, in response, lead his army south hoping to catch William off guard and decimate the Normans just like the Vikings in Stamford Bridge, but this plan would never come to fruition. On his way towards the coast, the English army was sighted by Norman scouts. William was ready.
On the 10th of October, both armies met near the town of Hastings. Harold, with his relatively inexperienced fyrd army, formed a shield wall atop a small mound, and William in turn formed up at the bottom. A long and brutal battle ensued. From the morning to the afternoon, waves after waves of Normans flung themselves at the English line, but Harold’s men held firm. Suddenly, as if the Normans lost heart, their formation began to crumble. The English, delighted to finally see the Normans retreat, broke shield wall and gave chase. It was clear to many Englishmen that they had won the day. William, on the other hand, believed otherwise. As the English army approached the foot of the mound, the Norman infantry turned around and the cavalry crashed into the English flanks. In the chaos, Harold was killed. Some say that they saw him struck down by several Norman knights while others claim that he was killed by an arrow to the eye. Regardless, the King of England was dead. On Christmas Day of 1066, William was named King in Westminster Abbey and the history of England was changed forever.
Although William’s conquest occurred almost a thousand years ago, he left a long lasting legacy, the effects of which can often still be seen today. After his coronation in 1066, William sat off replacing the English elites. The Anglo-Saxon thanes were replaced by Norman knights, who built many castles across the country. The old social elites fled to all corners of the known world. Some even traveled as far as Constantinople, where they were recruited as Varangians, the personal guards of the East Roman Emperor. Normans flooded the country in a massed migration to England, and the Anglo-Saxon language took an unexpected turn after the arrival of Norman nobility as many new words were accepted, such as Pork, Lamb, and Beef, slowly transforming it into what we now call “Middle English”. In the following century, Normans ruled the land of the Britons, but, as was true for any great family, prosperity would not last. After then untimely death of the third Norman monarch, Henry I, a bloody civil war began as Henry’s wife, Matilda, battled his nephew, Stephen, for the throne, launching the country into anarchy and effectively ending the Norman era.
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