Battle of Hastings: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Hastings - Prelude

Battle of Hastings - Prelude

On September 28, 1066, William of Normandy, asserting by arms his claim to the English crown, landed unopposed at Pevensey after being delayed by a storm in the English Channel. Legend has it that upon setting foot on the beach, William tripped and fell on his face. Turning potential embarrassment in front of his troops into a face-saving exercise, he rose with his hands full of sand and shouted "I now take hold of the land of England!" (This bears suspicious resemblance to the story of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain; and was probably employed by William's biographer to enhance the similarities between Caesar and William.) On hearing the news of the landing of the Duke's forces, the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II, who had just destroyed an invading Norwegian army under King Harald Hardråda hurried southward, gathering what forces he could on the way.

Harold deployed his force, astride the road from Hastings to London, on Senlac Hill some six miles inland from Hastings. To his back was the great forest of Anderida (the Weald) and in front the ground fell away in a long glacis-like slope, which at the bottom rose again as the opposing slope of Telham Hill. The later town called Battle in the modern county of East Sussex was named to commemorate this event.

The English force is usually estimated at seven to eight thousand strong, and consisted entirely of infantry (the English rode to their battles but did not fight from horseback). It comprised the English men-at-arms of the fyrd, mainly thegns (the English equivalent of a land-holding aristocracy); along with some local peasant levies, lesser thegns and a core of professional warriors, the King's royal troops and bodyguards, the Housecarls. The thegns and housecarls, probably veterans of the recent Stamford Bridge battle, were armed principally with swords, spears, and in some cases the formidable Danish axes, and were protected by coats of chainmail and their circular shields. They took the front ranks, forming a 'shield wall' with interlocking shields side by side. Behind the thegns and housecarls, the lesser thegns and peasant levies were armed with whatever weapons they had at hand: the entire army took up position along the ridgeline. (As casualities fell in the front lines the lesser thegns and peasants would move forward and fill the gaps.) However, the English had just come from the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where they had successfully fended off the Vikings but were in no shape to fight again.

On the morning of Saturday, October 14, Duke William gathered his army below the English position. The Norman army was of comparable size to the English force, and composed of William's Norman, Breton and Flemish vassals along with their retainers, and freebooters from as far away as Norman Italy. The nobles had been promised English lands and titles in return for their material support: the common troopers were paid in booty and "cash", and hoped for land when English fiefs were handed out. The army was deployed in the classic medieval fashion of three divisions or "battles" - the Normans taking the centre, the Bretons on the left wing and the Franco-Flemish on right wing. Each battle comprised infantry, cavalry and archers along with crossbowmen. The archers and crossbowmen stood to the front for the start of the battle.

Legend has it that William's minstrel and knight Ivo Taillefer, begged his master for permission to strike the first blows of the battle. Permission was granted, and Taillefer rode before the English alone, tossing his sword and lance in the air and catching them while he sang an early version of The Song of Roland. The earliest account of this tale (in The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio) says that an English champion came from the ranks, and Taillefer quickly slew him, taking his head as a trophy to show that God favored the invaders: later 12th century sources say that Taillefer charged into the English ranks and killed one to three Englishmen before suffering death himself.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Prelude", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki