The Battle of Hastings (took place on October 14, 1066) is a battle between the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold Godwinson and the army of the Norman Duke William.
After the death in 1035 of the great Danish king Kanut (Knut), the powerful northern empire he created, which included England, began to fall apart. Soon the struggle for the English throne ended with the victory of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty. 1042 - Edward the Confessor, eldest son of Ethelred II, becomes king of England.
The entire period of Danish rule, that is, 28 years, Edward spent in Normandy with his uncle Richard II, Duke of Normandy, and then with his successor and only son, Wilhelm Bastard. Having no children himself, he, already when he was king, about 1051, promised the English crown to William in gratitude for the asylum that was provided to him by the rulers of Normandy.
But after the death of Edward in early January 1066, the Anglo-Saxon assembly of the nobility (Witenagemot) elected Harold Godwinson, the second person in the state, the brother of Edith, the wife of King Edward, as the new English king. Perhaps this choice was influenced by the dying will of Edward the Confessor, and the support of the "Danish" party - Harold had a mixed, Anglo-Danish origin.
But as soon as Harold ascended the throne of England, William II of Normandy remembered both what Edward had promised, and his agreement with this promise, which he forcibly wrested from Harold in 1064. He immediately began to raise an army to win back his "legitimate" inheritance. Because for such a large-scale and long-term military operation far outside Normandy, he could not count on a simple feudal militia, since homage (oath of allegiance) meant only forty days of military service (at least in similar circumstances), most of his army consisted of units of mercenaries or feudal lords, attracted under the banner of William by promises of land and profit in England.
The exact number of his troops is unknown. Estimates vary from 7,000 to 50,000 across different sources. The upper border seems completely unrealistic, because it required a one-time transfer of the army across a wide sea strait. And this would require hundreds of large ships, which could hardly be in the economic possibilities of Normandy. So, an estimate of 10-15,000 soldiers seems more likely, and closer to 10. Indeed, even for such an army, a considerable fleet was needed, given that the horse knights were the main force of William.
Wilhelm's army and navy were ready by mid-summer, but the departure was delayed for a long time - either due to unfavorable weather conditions, or in anticipation of favorable news. We are talking about the invasion of the troops of King Harald III of Norway, the Severe, whose army landed in early September in the north of England.
Of course, in this situation, Harold had to throw all his strength to repel the Norwegian attack and thereby expose the southern coast. Today it is impossible to judge whether there was some kind of agreement between Wilhelm and the king of Norway, but the situation seems very conducive to such an alliance. However, events, be that as it may, have gone in such a way that does not give us the opportunity to assume the existence of such a secret agreement.
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Finally, on September 27, the wind changed; perhaps news came from the north, and the next day Norman troops began to land on the southern coast of England near Pevensie. There, William built a powerful log fort on the seashore - a commendable prudence - and sent detachments of cavalry to ravage Sussex in order to gather more supplies. The main forces, meanwhile, remained in place, awaiting further developments.
Meanwhile, Harold was able to successfully solve one of his problems. The strong Norwegian army, already capturing York, was defeated by Harold's forces on 25 September in a heavy battle at Stamford Bridge. During this battle, King Harald the Severe himself died, and his brother Harold Tostig, who supported him. It should be noted that this battle summed up the two hundred years of struggle between the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans - and what an evil irony of fate that this outstanding victory is only 20 days away from the greatest defeat. The Normans, having lost the age-old war, nevertheless won with the hands of their French great-grandchildren.
After the victory, Harold had no time to rest. Straight from the battlefield, with his battered army, he swiftly moved south. Only for a few days, from 6 to 11 October, he stayed in London to recruit the militia and gave his housecarls an opportunity (the housecarls - horse and foot royal squad - the most professional and trained Anglo-Saxon soldiers) to rest a little.
In the afternoon of October 13, he was in the vicinity of Hastings, having covered almost 100 km in less than two days. Choosing a hill 13 km northwest of the city, Harold took up a defensive position, because he was confident that William would attack at the first opportunity. As with the Norman army, the exact size of Harold's Anglo-Saxon army is unknown.
By indirect indications - the description of the battle itself, the width of the front of the Anglo-Saxon army, etc. - it is possible to estimate Harold's army at 7-10,000 people, including 3,000 huscarls. More impressive numbers are known from the sources, but they are unlikely given the limited area of the battlefield.
Later historians suggested that if Harold had waited a few more days, the Northumbrian and Mercian militias might have joined him from the north, and it would have been possible to attract the people of the south of England. True, there are serious reasons to doubt that the northern militias were recruiting at all. As for the southern counties, Harold clearly considered his position both politically and militarily rather precarious, so that it was in his interests to achieve a resolution as soon as possible.
Harold believed (and, apparently, correctly) that the enemy was superior to him in manpower and that, apart from the Huscarls, whose ranks had thinned out after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, his army was much less equipped and trained than the Norman mercenaries. Therefore, he decided not to attack, but to defend himself: he ordered his equestrian huscarls to dismount, and they, together with the huscarls-infantrymen, formed the center of his defensive line at the top of an elongated hill.
The rest of the army - the fird, or militia, was flanked on both sides of the huscarls: 300-400 meters along the front, in a dense foot formation, 20 men deep. Harold's army awaited a Norman attack in the early morning of October 14th. Therefore, it can be assumed that on the evening of October 13, the Anglo-Saxons hastily erected a notch or even a palisade-palisade in front of their positions - there is no exact information on this.
Shortly after dawn on October 14, the Norman army began an offensive against the positions of the Anglo-Saxons. Traditionally, archers began the battle (including a number of crossbowmen - it should be noted that the first documented use of crossbows in medieval Europe). However, because they had to shoot from the bottom up, the arrows either did not reach, or were reflected by the shields of the Anglo-Saxons, and in the presence of a (probable) palisade, the effectiveness of direct shooting approached zero.
Having shot the ammunition, the archers pulled back behind the line of the spearmen, and they, in turn, rushed to the offensive, but were met with a rain of darts and stones, and after a short hand-to-hand fight, they were thrown back by the huscarls, armed with swords, spears and huge one and a half meters, with two blades, fighting axes. After the infantry offensive was drowned out, Wilhelm threw his main force into battle - the cavalry - and with the same result.
The terrible "Danish" axes, which, according to contemporaries, cut a rider with a horse, did their job. As a result, the attack did not give the expected result; moreover, the left wing of the Norman army, which consisted of less staunch Bretons, was crushed and put to flight. Carried away by the sight of the retreating enemy (and from the description of the course of the battle it becomes clear that this was by no means a false retreat), the Anglo-Saxon militias of the right flank immediately rushed down the slope in pursuit.
Meanwhile, rumors spread through the ranks of the Norman army that William had been killed, and general panic broke out for a short period of time. Then, taking off his helmet so that everyone could see his face, Wilhelm galloped along his retreating army, and the cavalry gathered strength again. It was also possible to stop the Bretons, who, turning around, hit the militias. Wilhelm also supported this attack on the right flank of the Anglo-Saxons. The cavalry quickly gained the upper hand over the pursuers who had scattered along the slope and did not expect such a turn of events, as a result of which almost all of them were killed.
But this particular success did not at all determine the outcome of the battle. The main Anglo-Saxon forces continued to actively resist. Wilhelm again led the cavalry to the center of the Anglo-Saxon army and was again repulsed with heavy losses. Then, in the hope of luring some more of Harold's troops out of their positions, William told the Normans to pretend they were on the run.
Perhaps this tactic was suggested to him by the previous episode with the real retreat of the Bretons. Despite Harold's strictest order not to leave positions in any way, only the housecarls followed him, and a significant part of the militia again fell into William's trap - they were surrounded and destroyed at the foot of the hill when William led the second counterattack. But the rest of the Anglo-Saxon army stood firm and fought off one Norman attack after another.
In this situation, Wilhelm temporarily abandoned continuous head-on horse attacks. For the next few hours, the Normans alternated archery and crossbow fire with foot and horse attacks. Wilhelm ordered the archers to shoot with a canopy and at large angles so that arrows from bows and crossbows fell on the Anglo-Saxon army from above. This led to significant losses in the most combat-ready part of the Anglo-Saxon army, but even at the beginning of the evening, Harold's army still firmly held positions on the hill, although, unable to rest from constant shelling and attacks, the British soldiers almost collapsed from fatigue.
But just at this moment of the battle, an accidental arrow hit Harold in the eye and mortally wounded the monarch. The Normans immediately rushed to a decisive attack, and the Anglo-Saxons, who had lost their command, disrupted the formation. The less reliable militia fled, and soon there were only huscarls on the hill, closing ranks around the body of their dead king. But their position was now absolutely hopeless - the Normans surrounded them on all sides and, as a result, crushed them. By nightfall, the Normans had finally taken possession of the hill. The Battle of Hastings was over.
No battle has been won with more difficulty than the Battle of Hastings, and no victory has more global consequences. It would seem that this was only the final battle in the war for the throne of a small island kingdom. In fact, the Battle of Hastings served as a turning point: it is from it that history begins the countdown of a whole series of events, and ends with the creation of the Anglo-Saxon-Norman state of the Plantagenets.
Immediately after the Battle of Hastings, William captured Dover and advanced to London. The capital initially rejected his demand for surrender. Then William began to ravage the surrounding countryside, and London quickly surrendered. William's claim to the throne was recognized, and on Christmas Day 1066 he was crowned at Westminster Abbey as William I, King of England. This bastard duke entered world history as King William the Conqueror.
A. Domanina