Line of Fire (9/41) : The Battle of Hastings "1066"
For educational purposes
The great battle fought near the English seaside town of Hastings on October 14th 1066 was perhaps the most significant in England's history.
The great victory won that day by Duke William of Normandy over Harold II of England was to shape forever the destiny of a nation.
For at the end of a day of furious battle, the sun set not only on the dead and wounded who littered Senlac Hill, but also on the entire Anglo-Saxon way of life.
The great battle fought near the English seaside town of Hastings on October 14th 1066 was perhaps the most significant in England's history.
The great victory won that day by Duke William of Normandy over Harold II of England was to shape forever the destiny of a nation.
For at the end of a day of furious battle, the sun set not only on the dead and wounded who littered Senlac Hill, but also on the entire Anglo-Saxon way of life.
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00:00You
00:30In
00:50the attractive English county of Sussex, visitors from all over the world are drawn
00:55to one historic location. Almost 1,000 years ago, this was the setting for one of the most
01:03significant military encounters of all time.
01:20On the 14th of October 1066, two great medieval armies gave their all in battle, the English
01:29against the invading Normans. On a low ridge beside the road to London, an English army
01:41took up its positions on the instructions of their king. 7,000 infantrymen formed into
01:47a solid wall of shields. Against them stood the Normans of Duke William, a force similar
01:55in size but including mounted cavalry amongst its number. At stake was a prize that both
02:03leaders believed was rightfully theirs, the throne of England itself.
02:08At 9 o'clock in the morning, battle commences. 7,000 men on each side. Enormous, terrifying
02:16noise that was taking place on this site, Saxons shouting out, out, out, Normans wanting
02:23to come claim the throne of England. In the hours that followed, the Battle of Hastings
02:35was bitterly fought out. It may still be the most important day in the whole of English
02:42history. The Battle of Hastings was a fundamental shift in English history. England in the 9th
02:50and early 10th century was part of the Scandinavian world. Hastings put it into the continental
02:55and particularly the French world. The tumultuous events of October 1066 ultimately
03:02stemmed from a simple political question. Who had the right to be the king of England?
03:10The answer would be decided on this truly historic battlefield. It was a complex issue
03:17involving three great medieval powers, England, Normandy and the Vikings of Scandinavia.
03:26When we enter the world of dark age politics, we enter a very murky world indeed. And what
03:34we have here is a complex situation which is triggered by the fact that the incumbent
03:40king of England, known as Edward the Confessor, has no son and heir. He has no daughters either,
03:47so there's nobody to take the throne on his death. And obviously his death is approaching.
03:55There were three main claimants to the throne. The boy, Edgar Atheling, had a strong claim
04:03as the great-grandson of King Æthelred, but his youth counted against him. The blood
04:11claim of Harold Godwin was far more tenuous, but he had the crucial support of many leading
04:18English noblemen. He was desperate to rule his country, but across the channel in Normandy,
04:26the ruling Duke William was convinced of his right to the English throne.
04:33Edward had informally promised the throne and the succession to a distant blood relative
04:39of his, a distant but still nonetheless a genuine relative, who was William, Duke of
04:44Normandy. What actually happened in practice is that as soon as Edward dies, the throne
04:50is usurped by Harold Godwinson, who has a claim to the throne of England through the
04:57fact that his sister was married to Edward the Confessor. Now he usurps the throne of
05:03England and takes it for himself, which clearly is like a red flag to a bull to someone as
05:10decisive and full of action as William, Duke of Normandy.
05:15The bio-tapestry shows a furious King William receiving news of the coronation. It also
05:22shows his reaction. He calls a council of war and orders a huge fleet to be assembled
05:29to carry an army to England. His preparation in France was enormously effective.
05:37He'd got the political and religious support of Emperor Henry IV and the Pope. He had gathered
05:44together a very effective force which comprised not only Normans, but a large number of mercenaries
05:51and knights without land, who he promised land to. He'd built a navy, and so he'd prepared
05:58extremely well. We can clearly see this fleet on the tapestry,
06:03along with the weapons and other supplies, to be used by his men. William was intending
06:10a full-scale invasion of England. Through the summer, the English army was
06:21ready. In the summer of 1066, an invasion army made ready on the Normandy coast. Significantly,
06:29it included men trained in a distinctively Norman branch of warfare. These were William's
06:35mounted troops, his cavalry. The big difference and the vital difference
06:44between the two armies was the Normans had 2,000 cavalrymen, whereas the Saxons rode
06:51to battle, then they dismounted in the old Danish-Scandinavian fashion, and they fought
06:56on foot. The Normans were highly trained horsemen. It was in the Norman psych that a man on horseback
07:03was regarded as the great warrior. The horseman was worshipped, whereas in the Saxon terms,
07:11the man that took the most worship was the infantryman. That is the difference between
07:15the two armies, the cavalry. But like in today's armies, two armies fighting, one
07:21with tanks, one without. King Harold of England was soon to learn
07:29the effectiveness of Norman cavalry, but as 1066 unfolded, the Norman threat was not his
07:37only problem. His own brother, Tostig Godwin, had been exiled to Flanders the previous year,
07:44but in May 1066, Tostig arrived at the Isle of Wight with a fleet of ships. He proceeded
07:53to plunder the south coast of England as far as the port of Sandwich. In response, Harold
08:02mobilised an army, but his brother sailed north before battle could be joined, halting
08:08in Scotland, where he enjoyed the protection of the Scottish king, Malcolm.
08:16King Harold's difficulties now increased. In addition to the Saxon claim and the Norman
08:25claim, there's also a Scandinavian claim to the throne of England, which goes back three
08:31or four generations, and as a result of that, King Hardrada of Norway decides that he will
08:39come to England and compete for the throne. To finally confuse the situation, Hardrada
08:46is supported by Tostig, who is Harold of England's brother. So you have this incredibly complex
08:52and dangerous situation, which is clearly only going to be resolved by force of arms.
08:59By August 1066, Hardrada was in the Norwegian territory of the Orkney Islands, with over
09:0610,000 warriors under his command. Harold now faced the daunting prospect of war on
09:15two fronts. Perhaps Harold now considered the meaning of the comet that had appeared
09:26in the sky earlier in the year, as depicted on a memorable panel of the bio-tapestry.
09:33We now know that this was the famous Halley's Comet, but in those superstitious days, many
09:41believed comets to be a sign of impending doom. As autumn approached, the situation
09:52was potentially disastrous for the English leader. His cause was not helped when he was
09:59forced to disband his own army. As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes, his soldiers had fulfilled
10:07their allotted period of duty. Under the terms of obligation of the time, King Harold was
10:14forced to pay them off and allow them to go home. These were the soldiers that made up
10:21the bulk of English armies of the age. They were common subjects, men whose obligations
10:27to their king included the requirement to carry out military service. In medieval England,
10:35they were known as the men of the Feard. The Feard was what today we would call a militia,
10:43and a Feardman was somebody whose full-time job was in the civilian economy. In Anglo-Saxon
10:50England, he was probably a farmer, and the Feardman spent his days raising crops and
10:58supporting the civilian economy. In time of war, he could be briefly spared. Normally,
11:04they were called up for two months at a time, but in times of extreme emergency, that period
11:11could be extended, and during 1066, believe me, they were very, very busy people. But
11:17if you took the Feardmen away from their farms for too long, the crops go bad, and everybody
11:22starves to death. It does you no good to keep the Feardmen away from their farms. Otherwise,
11:27there's no point in defending your country, because you'll all starve to death anyway.
11:34Harold's army was stood down on Friday, September the 8th, 1066. Shortly afterwards, the combined
11:42forces of Harold Hardrada and Tostig Godwin sailed into English waters in Northumbria,
11:50carrying out bloody coastal raids as they swept south towards the Humber estuary. Their
11:56objective was clear – to capture the great fortified city of York.
12:04In response, the loyal English earls Edwin and Mawker now raised an army of resistance,
12:12and, on the 20th of September, 1066, the invaders and the defenders met just two miles outside
12:21York. This was the Battle of Fulford Gate, a bloody infantry engagement from which the
12:29Norwegians emerged triumphant. Harold's reign was now in serious trouble.
12:37Without a standing army, he already knew that William's arrival from Normandy was imminent.
12:44Now he learnt with horror of invasion from the north. But his reaction was courageous.
12:52He decided to march north to engage Hardrada in battle, even though he would have to muster
12:59his army as he went. In just four days, he travelled the 200 miles from London to Tadcaster
13:08in Yorkshire, arriving on Sunday the 24th of September. In the course of the journey,
13:16he gathered together a force of some 7,000 men.
13:22Harold's march north to deal with the threat of Harold Hardrada was a very bold move. It
13:29took considerable organisation, and to arrive up in the north and discover that his local
13:37forces had already been defeated and still go into battle suggests a general who has
13:43the confidence of his troops. On Monday the 25th of September 1066, King
13:51Harold Hardrada and his ally Tostig must have felt pleased with themselves. That morning,
13:59at their base at Rickle near Stamford Bridge, the victorious commanders prepared to dictate
14:05peace terms to the defeated northern Englishmen. But now an astonishing sight began to emerge
14:14– a dust cloud coming from the direction of York. The awful truth quickly dawned upon
14:22the Norsemen. It was King Harold of England's army, and it had caught them completely by
14:30surprise. Desperately, the invaders attempted to form themselves into a defensive shield
14:38wall, but the ferocity of the English soldiers proved decisive.
14:46In the shield wall, the men would stand shoulder to shoulder with the interlocking shields,
14:59which would provide a defensive front that the opposition would then have to try and
15:04literally hack their way through. It was a very standard set of tactics which was practised
15:10by the Viking armies and by the Anglo-Saxons. So that would be recognised by both Harold
15:16Godwinson and King Hardrada's forces when they arrived. So the type of battle that they
15:22fought used essentially very similar tactics. Both sides had the shield wall, they stood
15:28shoulder to shoulder, they came in, they locked together and it became a close quarter slugging
15:34match with cutting weapons and axes and swords. Behind the shield walls you would have archers
15:41who would try and find gaps in the opposition's ranks, but the archers were very much a secondary
15:48force. The real fighting and the real emphasis were on the men in the front ranks. They were
15:53the best armoured, they had the best weapons and they had the best equipment.
15:59Little is known of the action at Stamford Bridge, but Harold's best troops would have
16:05made an undoubtedly terrifying sight in combat. These were the crack units of the English
16:13army, the Housecarls.
16:17The Housecarls were the elite of English soldiers in the 11th century. They were personally
16:28bound to the king or to the great nobles. They were pretty expert fighting men.
16:37Typical Housecarl armour consisted of a conical helmet and a chainmail shirt, known as a hauburg,
16:44both of which were derived from Norman design. The influence of the Normans could also be
16:52seen in the lances and swords carried by many of the Housecarls, and also in the kite-shaped
16:59shields carried by many.
17:05The traditional Saxon round shield would also have been in evidence, but it may be that
17:12shields of any type had little role to play at Stamford Bridge.
17:17The Housecarls' love of offensive fighting meant that, in battle, they often chose to
17:23strap their shield behind their backs. This freed both their hands to wield one of the
17:29most terrifying weapons of the age.
17:33They had awesome, fearsome weapons, the double-handed axe, which was quite capable of chopping
17:38a man's head off, chopping a man in two even, and even taking the head off of a horse.
17:43Believe me, you would not want to face one of these men. They were really frightening men.
17:50As the Battle of Stamford Bridge unfolded, the axe-wielding Housecarls fought alongside
17:56the ordinary foot soldiers, armed with their swords, clubs and shields, and it was this
18:02combined force of Englishmen that carried the day.
18:09At some point, the Norwegian king, Harald Hardrada, was killed.
18:16Not long afterwards, the rebellious brother of the English king was also dead, and the
18:22invading army was en route.
18:25By early evening, King Harald of England had proved himself a leader in battle.
18:33Assessing Harald's military leadership is quite difficult. The march up to the north
18:40to deal with Harald Hardrada speaks of a fairly decisive soldier, and the victory he won against
18:47Harald Hardrada was a pretty impressive victory.
18:50He clearly was an opportunist. For example, he gets to York on the 24th of September and
18:56immediately attacks Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge on the 25th, seeing that Hardrada's
19:02forces were divided. They were not all together, and there is some evidence perhaps that some
19:07of them didn't even have their armour with them. So in that sense, I think tactically,
19:11he's quite astute. When you get to Hastings, though, that's somewhere where I think his
19:19shortcomings have shown up.
19:22Just a few days after King Harald's greatest achievement, he received the news that he
19:28was dreading. William of Normandy was on English soil, and his army was with him.
19:44If Harald's achievement in marching north to victory was remarkable, then William's
19:49success in putting together an invasion fleet was equally impressive.
19:56By mid-September, an armada of over 600 ships sat at anchor at Saint-Valet-sur-Seine, waiting
20:05for the right wind to carry them across the Channel. As many as 7,000 men waited for the
20:13order to sail, but for a fortnight, the wind refused to change. It must have been difficult
20:20for William to maintain morale and discipline, especially as his troops were not just his
20:26fellow Normans.
20:29He was faced with the task of offering people a big bag of loot. Land, money, anything you
20:41could ask for. Salvation. The Pope was offering salvation. All you've got to do is cross over
20:47to England, and you will get loot and salvation. I think that anybody'd wait an extra two weeks
20:54in return for loot and salvation, especially when you consider they were following somebody
20:59who was a proven, successful military leader.
21:04William of Normandy has a number of major advantages over Harold of England. Harold
21:11had only been king for nine months. William had been in command for a number of years
21:16and also had quelled rebellions within his own country. He was known to be brave, he'd
21:22proved himself in battle, and therefore he had a reputation, a military reputation, which
21:28is an important factor.
21:34On Wednesday the 27th of September, the wind changed at last, and William's flagship,
21:47the Mora, raised anchor and set off at the head of a truly impressive force.
22:04The following day, the Normans arrived at Pevensey on the south coast of England, which
22:13was quickly taken, along with the nearby town of Hastings.
22:21After building fortifications at both locations, William pondered his next move. Soon, the
22:29English king had to do likewise.
22:34Around October 1st, less than a week after defeating the Vikings, he received the grim
22:41news from the south. Another great battle loomed, but many of the best English troops
22:48had been lost at Stamford Bridge. Harold faced another exhausting march if he was to engage
22:55William quickly, but that is exactly the course of action that he decided upon.
23:04Taking his surviving elite troops with him, he set off on the 200-mile journey to London,
23:11where he succeeded in putting together another army of 7,000 men. He then headed west towards
23:19William's position. In total, the whole process took just 13 days.
23:28He seems to have felt that he had to dispose of William quickly. William was encamped right
23:36in the heart of his earldom, and there were difficulties there. He himself, his blood
23:42claim was not too good, and therefore if he didn't dispose of enemies quickly, he might
23:47seem to be weak and other claimants might come forward. So that there was a pressure
23:52on Harold, he disposed of Harold Hardrada and got the advantage of surprise. He may
23:59have hoped to do that again.
24:02Harold might well have waited before moving south of London to give battle. The logic
24:10of waiting is that his men were exhausted after a long march north and a long march
24:15south. Many of his forces have yet to be gathered. Certainly the full potential might of the
24:24English mobilised army was not there, and that by waiting he could only get stronger,
24:31whereas William at the end of a long supply chain in a hostile country could only get
24:37weaker.
24:40We will never know for sure if a less hasty deployment of English troops would have influenced
24:46the result of the battle of Hastings. What is certain is that on the 13th of October
24:531066 Duke William was informed of the imminent arrival of his enemy. The following morning
25:02the English and the Normans faced each other. They were just a few miles away from the town
25:08that would give the forthcoming battle its name and its place in history.
25:38King Harold chose to position his men on a low ridge in open country near to the London
25:52Hastings Road. It was a defensive arrangement, forcing William to take the initiative. In
26:03the middle of his line were his elite troops, the Housecarls and Thanes, many of them survivors
26:10of the Battle of Stamford Bridge. On the flanks he positioned his regular troops, the men
26:17of the Feard. These regular soldiers were far more lightly armoured than the Housecarls.
26:26Typical battle dress consisted of a leather jerkin and trousers, with the legs also bound
26:31in leather. Principally it was the axe that gave the man of the Feard his greatest strength,
26:39but at Hastings it was the defensive power of his shield that King Harold first sought
26:45to employ. Well this area we're standing on now is known as the Lower Terrace and it was
26:52in this area that on that day in 1066 this is where the Saxon army was stood. They were
26:59placed in 10 to 12 rows deep across an area of about three quarters of a mile and they
27:06were looking out across the battlefield over here at one of the strongest fighting forces
27:11in the world. The level of this battlefield has risen by about twelve feet since those
27:29days in 1066 and it was an incredible task for the Normans to actually come up this hill.
27:36The only way that William could get at him was to approach from an opposite hill, go
27:43down into a valley and up the hill to attack a fairly narrow front. Possibly as many as
27:57seven thousand men formed a line almost half a mile in length, with the shields of the
28:03leading troops joining together to form a shield wall. The shield wall permits you to
28:13defend. It's a very strong form of defence. You stand behind your shield. It doesn't allow
28:19you to attack aggressively, but it permits you to stand there and defend yourself till
28:26the cows come home. Cavalry can charge a shield wall, but the horses will stop before
28:32they get to the shields because to the horses it's like charging a wall and horses are far
28:37too smart to charge a wall, so horses will stop before they get there. And even people
28:42when they attack a shield wall they have tremendous problems getting past those big
28:46shields. As long as those shield walls held, Harold wins.
28:53The English force was impressive, but it was not as substantial as it could have been.
29:00Archers were few in number and the English fought entirely on foot. By contrast, the
29:09similarly sized Norman army included as many as two thousand mounted knights, armed with
29:16deadly spears. These were professional soldiers, many of them veterans of successful campaigns
29:31in regions such as Italy, Brittany and France. Significantly, it was against the French in
29:40the year 1053 that the Norman knights first adopted a cunning tactical manoeuvre. This
29:47involved lines of cavalry pretending to retreat. The idea was to draw out an enemy line and
29:55then turn on them. Against the French, this feigned flight had worked. On the morning
30:03of the 14th of October 1066, perhaps William considered the tactic again. But as he ordered
30:10his men into battle positions, he organised them into three divisions. At the rear was
30:19the cavalry, each knight protected by a halberd and helmet, similar to those worn by the English
30:27troops. Typically, the Norman knight was armed with the spear and his most precious weapon
30:34of all, his steel sword, intended to be used as a slashing implement, as the bio-tapestry
30:42makes clear. In front of William's cavalry came his infantry. Like the men of the English
30:52feared, these foot soldiers were often lightly armoured, although some men were able to enter
30:58battle with the protection of chainmail. At the very front of his army, he positioned
31:09his complement of archers. These were the most lightly armoured of all the Norman troops
31:19and with good reason. They were intended to be highly mobile soldiers, armed with a short
31:26bow, a weapon whose arrows proved highly effective at a range of up to 300 yards.
31:33The army of William was split really into three sections. Where we're standing now stood
31:42the Breton troops. On the far side of the battle stood the Frankish and Flemish troops
31:47and these were mercenary soldiers. These were soldiers that had been brought over on promise of land
31:52in England if they were to conquer England. In the centre stood the Norman troops.
32:03The difference between the Saxons and the Normans, of course, is that the Normans had
32:08a better array of tactical options open to them. And what we'll see in the Battle of
32:14Hastings as it develops is that William is able to use the three different elements of
32:20his army to vary the tactics, whereas essentially the Saxons lined up on the hill only have
32:28one tactic, which is to stand shoulder to shoulder with your shields locked together
32:33and come to grips with the enemy if he advances upon you.
32:38William's intention was to use his archers to soften up the English line with short bow fire.
32:45Protected by this fire, his infantry would then advance, followed finally by the cavalry.
32:55At nine o'clock in the morning, the Norman trumpet sounded.
33:00The Battle of Hastings had begun.
33:04The first action of the battle was when the Norman archers moved to within about 150 yards
33:11of the Saxon troops. They fired their arrows into the Saxon line.
33:15To little effect, the arrows just embedded into the Saxon shields.
33:24The archers' attack was not decisive. The English shield wall held.
33:30William now pressed forward with an infantry advance up the ridge and into the English line.
33:37The hand-to-hand fighting was ferocious. But again, the Normans failed to break through.
33:45Within minutes, William's foot soldiers were returning to their own lines.
33:52The cavalry now charged. But the Norman knights also failed to break the tenacious English line.
34:01Many mounted men perished, and still the English shield wall held.
34:09But now came a moment of drama that would profoundly influence the course of the day's events.
34:16As the fighting continued, on the left flank of William's line, a rumour began to spread through the Breton troops.
34:27The apparent news was the worst possible. Their leader, Duke William, was dead.
34:36Fearing that the battle was now lost, they turned to the English line.
34:42Fearing that the battle was now lost, they turned and fled.
34:47The Bretons, running up this steep slope behind me, found themselves in trouble and they began to retreat.
34:54The Saxons thought, good, we're on to a good thing, we're winning, and they raced after them down into the valley.
35:00It was a fatal move.
35:05Terrible casualties were inflicted upon the retreating Normans.
35:09But now the truth about King William became clear. He was not dead after all. It had been just a rumour.
35:20Seeing what was happening, the Norman leader bellowed his presence to his men.
35:26He went out to the front, pulled his helmet up to show who he was, encouraged his troops to go forward,
35:34and organised horsemen to support the Bretons on the left.
35:39The fighting spirit of his men was immediately restored, and it was the English who now found themselves in a desperate situation.
35:48Those troops who had advanced against Harold's orders were now trapped in open ground,
35:55and William now proved the power of his cavalry.
36:00The Norman knights in the centre wheeled round, the Saxons were trapped, they were chopped to pieces,
36:05and the Saxon line at the top of this ridge began to become more and more stretched.
36:12It was a very important part of the battle, and we are now standing on the position of that Breton army in 1066.
36:21King Harold had lost his right flank, but the battle was by no means over.
36:36Around midday, the fighting lulled as both commanders considered the position.
36:44William knew that it would be extremely difficult to win a battle lasting more than one day.
36:51He would have to go all out for victory that afternoon.
36:56Again, the battle was joined, as all sections of the Norman army attacked the English position.
37:04Bowmen, foot soldier and mounted knight combined their efforts.
37:11Soon, holes began to appear in the English line.
37:16King Harold's two younger brothers were killed, but still the English line was strong.
37:22King Harold's two younger brothers were killed, but still William was aware of the slowness of his offensive.
37:30So he decided to adopt a new tactic, to finish the English off for good.
37:37The failed English attack, designed to take advantage of this bit of retreat on the part of the Normans, gave William an idea.
37:47And the idea was, if they'll break ranks and attack when they think we're retreating a little bit, what if we retreat a lot?
37:57Perhaps remembering how the feigned retreat tactic had worked for the Normans 13 years before, he gave the order for the cavalry withdrawal.
38:07His judgment was correct.
38:10On not one, but two occasions, the Norman cavalry made fake retreats.
38:17Sure enough, on each occasion, the English troops followed down the hill, only for the cavalry to wheel round and surround them.
38:28The cavalry began to pretend to run away.
38:32The Saxons, not learning their lesson from earlier in the day, started running after them again, thinking, hey, we're winning.
38:37And they started running after them down into the valley again.
38:41Same thing happened. Normans wheeled round, they were trapped in the valley, they were chopped to pieces.
38:53It was important because it meant that the English vacated the hill which the Normans had been attacking during that day.
39:01And by doing that, exposed themselves and enabled the Normans effectively to break the line.
39:08I do think we need to be aware that this feigned withdrawal blends into something else that the Normans were doing, which was perhaps a little bit subtler.
39:16That they were using their combination of different arms to gradually break down the coherence of the Saxon shield wall.
39:23Infantry, archers, cavalry charges.
39:27And those different arms all require a slightly different formation to deal with best.
39:33And by using those arms in a judicious mixture, you gradually break down the cohesion of the English shield wall.
39:42By the middle of the afternoon, William knew that the tide of the battle was with him.
39:48But still the English resistance continued.
39:52Now, the Norman commander ordered his archers to change their targets and concentrate their fire on the lightly armoured soldiers of the English rear with devastating effect.
40:18Many men were lost in the attack.
40:21William said that rather than fire the arrows straight at the Saxon line, fire them into the air.
40:28Fire them into the air and let them rain down on the Saxon troops.
40:32It was a brilliant move. You can imagine the terror of this rain of arrows coming out of the sky at you.
40:50The use of archers was decisive in helping break up the solidity of the English shield wall.
40:58Once that wall begins to break into segments, then cavalry can pour through the gaps, get round the back and it becomes a situation where the height that the horseman has is a very significant advantage.
41:17Soon, the English troops received news of an even more devastating blow.
41:24It was during this period of attack, we're coming now towards the evening time, that Harold was actually struck by an arrow from the sky.
41:33He was wounded badly in the eye, fell to the ground, the Norman knights now with this line at the top being forever stretched, broke through.
41:42On the bio-tapestry, this historic moment is depicted clearly.
41:48Underneath the words, Hick, Harold, Rex, Interfectus est.
41:56King Harold has been killed.
42:02Now we come to the spot where Harold actually fell.
42:07Now, if you can imagine that day, 1066, Harold, severely wounded in the eye, falls to the ground, surrounded by his loyal housecarls who will give their lives to him, fight to the very, very last.
42:21The Norman knights now have split their way through this stretched line of Saxons and they make their way for Harold.
42:30Eventually, the housecarls are destroyed. Harold is chopped to pieces by Norman knights.
42:37Harold's death sealed the Battle of Hastings. Duke William of Normandy had won.
42:45Actually saying why a battle is won and lost simply is very difficult.
42:52A very crude answer might be that whereas Harold was killed, William, according to William of Poitiers' accounts, had three horses killed under him.
43:06If, instead of a horse being killed under him, he was killed, the entire battle would have gone the other way.
43:14To rally the troops, to hold the line and also to take decisive action against the English incursion on his left carried the day.
43:22It was quite a question. The battle was won by the better leader on the day, and I think William was.
43:30As dusk fell on the 14th of October 1066, the battlefield of Hastings was a scene of carnage and the English nation had suffered a terrible defeat.
43:44We will never know how many thousand men died that day.
44:00During the days that followed, according to one popular English account, the body of King Harold was taken to Waltham Abbey for burial, as William set off to secure his rule in England.
44:16Two weeks before the Battle of Hastings, William of Poitiers was killed by the English.
44:22Two weeks before the Battle of Hastings, Harold Hardraddy had a claim to the English throne, and he was killed at Samford Bridge.
44:31Harold Godwinson's brother, Tostig, had a claim to the English throne, and he was also killed at Samford Bridge.
44:39On the morning of the Battle of Hastings, Harold had brothers, and by the end of the day, they were dead.
44:44On the morning of the Battle of Hastings, Harold was a live English king, and at the end of the day, he was dead.
44:51Who was left? The King of Denmark, but he was not there on the ground with an army.
44:56Edgar Atherling, he was a boy.
44:59William, at the end of the Battle of Hastings, was the only man in England with a claim to the throne and an army to back it up.
45:07William, at the end of the Battle of Hastings, was the only man in England with a claim to the throne and an army to back it up.
45:14No one else had the stomach within England to fight, and eventually the remaining English nobles and bishops and archbishops and so forth do a deal with William.
45:27On Christmas Day 1066, in Edward the Confessor's great abbey at Westminster, Duke William of Normandy was crowned King William of England.
45:44Over the following years, William succeeded in establishing his authority across the country.
45:51In the north, this often involved terrible bloodshed.
45:56But by the time of the Norman king's death, 21 years later, in 1087, there could be no doubt that he had changed the English nation forever.
46:07Norman conquest turned England into a feudal society, a very different sort of social and political structure from the Scandinavian Anglo-Saxon structure it had before.
46:20England had a new system of economic organization, a new system of military organization, a changed system of government.
46:31So from an elite point of view, England was a changed state.
46:37But really, all that changed in the Battle of Hastings was that one group of Scandinavian ganger thugs had been replaced at the top of the English state by another group of Scandinavian ganger thugs.
46:54This is a place of pilgrimage. People come from all over the world to stand on this spot.
46:59On the 14th of October every year, it's a garland of flowers.
47:03Harold had his sympathizers, without a doubt.
47:06Bad luck, Harold. Better luck next time.
47:32To be continued...