The Battle of Hastings

1066.

It's a date that absolutely everyone knows.

Pretty much everyone also knows that it's the date of the Battle of Hastings.

But what actually went down at the Battle of Hastings?

Well...

In January 1066, King Edward the Confessor died without any children.  He never quite got around to telling anyone who he wanted to take over as king.

There are rumours that he may have told his wife he wanted Harold Godwinson to be king, but no one was quite sure.  However, on 6 January 1066, the Witenagemot (The wite-what now?!  Witenagemot is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning a 'meeting of wise men' - they were the King's advisers, basically) named Harold, previously a pretty powerful nobleman, as King.

Harold wasn't the only one after the throne, though.  His own brother, Tostig, was also sniffing around, as was Norwegian King Harald Hardrada and, of course, William, Duke of Normandy.

(Last surviving photograph of
Harald Hardrada)

After scrapping in the North with Tostig and Harald Hardrada (who had sneakily joined forces), King Harold managed to defeat them.

Unfortunately whilst Harold was up in Yorkshire, celebrating his victory with pork pies and tea cake, William's Norman forces had landed in the South.

Harold rushed back down South, gathering an army as he went, and even tried to surprise William's forces.  Unfortunately, a scout reported the location of the English army, and William marched his forces to meet them.

It is estimated that King Harold had about 7,000 men in his army, whereas William had about 10,000.  Despite this, the English army put up a good fight, and the Normans had to resort to sneaky tactics.  They pretended to run away in panic, and then turned on their attackers.

King Harold was pretty close to making it to the end of the battle, but he looked up at the wrong moment and ended up with an arrow in his eye (or so some people say).  Arrow or no arrow, his troops gave up without him to lead them and retreated.

The battle lasted about the length of a school day, and by the end historians think that around 6,000 soldiers had died.

Thinking that the English would now welcome him with open arms, William was surprised to meet resistance from other English nobles who also wanted to be king.  They weren't so keen on the idea of Norman rule, even if they were bringing with them great words like embezzle and purloin and beef.

After a bit more marching and a few scuffles, William finally defeated all the challengers and made it to London, where he was crowned King on 25 December 1066.  He had truly conquered England.  Which was probably why they called him William the Conqueror.

WIN.

Sound smart!

"No one is actually sure whether or not Harold Godwinson died from getting shot in the eye with an arrow.  The Bayeux Tapestry shows two men, one with an arrow in his eye and one under the hooves of a horse, under the caption 'Harold the King is killed', so no one is sure which is supposed to be Harold, or if they both are."

"The exact date of the Battle of Hastings was 14 October 1066."

"The Normans killed at the Battle of Hastings were buried in a communal grave that no one has found yet.  Fancy going on a grave hunt?"

Some other fun sources

A pretty cool animation of the Bayeux Tapestry!

A Horrible Histories clip (of course)

Ok, not technically a source, but a nifty, fun game that lets you recreate the Battle of Hastings, complete with medieval taunts!

http://www.funny-games.biz/1066-game.html