Following King Harold Godwinson’s climactic victory at the Battle of Stanford Bridge, and the death of Harald Hardrada, what did he do when news reached him that William of Normandy’s army had landed further south? How did the two armies finally come together for one of the most totemic clashes of all time, on the morning of the 14th of October 1066? What exactly unfolded during the infamous Battle of Hastings? And, how did Harold truly meet his grisly end? Join Tom and Dominic as they unfold, in spine-tingling detail, the build up to and events of one of history’s greatest collisions: Harold Godwinson vs William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What led to the Battle of Hastings?
And we heard how Hardrada was cut down and killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. by the English King Harold Godwinson, formerly Earl of Wessex, in one of the greatest victories ever won by Anglo-Saxon, or indeed English, arms. So Tom, Stamford Bridge was the 25th of September, and we heard how at the turn of October, Harold heard the terrible news of the landing of William of Normandy.
And so now, less than three weeks later, he is at or just outside Hastings, and he is facing another mighty, epoch-defining showdown. So it's the 14th of October. He's, of course, facing William of Normandy. And what follows is the most famous and arguably the single most decisive battle in all English history.
Absolutely. And the one I would say that is most familiar probably to anyone who has even the faintest interest in history in England, certainly. Scenes from the battle will be familiar to most people who live in this country. The idea of the English battle lying on Senlac Hill, this great hill outside Hastings. The Normans serried in their armour on their horses at the foot of the hill.
The Norman knights charging the English shield wall. King Harold, as the shadows lengthen over the battlefield as the sun sets in the west, struck by an arrow in the eye. And the accounts of the battle that we have, you mentioned one, possibly written only a few months after Harold's death. are detailed and vivid in a way that the sources for Stamford Bridge simply aren't.
So we talked in the previous episode how King Harold's Saga, the great account by Snorri Sturluson, dates to almost two centuries after 1066. But we have accounts of Hastings that are incredibly close to the battle. So most famously, we have the Bayeux Tapestry, which is not a tapestry, but a great embroidered cloth over 200 feet long.
And it illuminates not just the battle, but the events leading up to it. We've already had reference to it and indeed to its aftermath. And another source we've also already mentioned in this series, William of Poitiers, who had served William as a soldier before becoming his chaplain. And he gives, again, a detailed account.
But as you said, amazingly, we have an account that is even more contemporary. Probably written in around Easter 1067, so fewer than six months after the battle. And for a long while, the authenticity of the Carmen, the song of the Battle of Hastings was furiously debated. It kind of appeared almost from nowhere in the 19th century.
And there were lots of people who thought it might have been a medieval fake. But I think it's now pretty widely accepted to have been written by a bishop who served William's wife, Matilda, as her chaplain. So we have these two chaplains, William of Poitiers and this bishop who wrote The Carmen.
And this enables us to get up close to the build up, the actual events, the aftermath of Hastings in a way that, well, I mean, to quote Michael Lawson, whose book on the battle is probably the best one that there is. He's written about it. The more is known about Hastings than any battle fought in the West since the end of the Roman Empire. But inevitably, having said that, there are caveats.
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Chapter 2: What were the strategies of William and Harold?
the consensus is shifting back to the idea that the English battle line wasn't just on the hill, but went right the way down to this kind of slightly boggy valley. And that is under the influence of Michael Lawson's definitive book on the battle, came out in 2002, mentioned it several times. And he points out that Carmen explicitly states that the English occupied the valley as well as the hill.
I've mentioned that the hill is called Senlac. Yeah. There are historians who say, well, this is a totally made up name. It's very late. Improbable that this was the name by which it was known. And they point out that Saint-Lac, I mean, it could be a lake of blood, so it could be a name that is applied to it after the battle.
But Lawson suggests that in Old English, it would mean Sandy Brook, and that perhaps this is what the English were defending at the foot of the hill. Because right to this day, if you go to the battlefield, you'll find that the foot of the hill is kind of very boggy.
And he points out as well that there's evidence in the Bayeux Tapestry, which has a scene in which French cavalry are being brought down by what look like stakes in a body of water. So... The implication of that, if Lawson is right, is that Harold's army must have been pretty large. I mean, you know, numbering in the tens of thousands.
It is true that the English sources that are written in the early 12th century, Sir William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntington, all these people we've had cause to mention. They say that Harold's army is small, that it's small relative to the Normans. But I think you'd have to say they would say that because they don't want to admit that a large English army has been wiped out.
And it is certainly the case, as we've talked about before, that it is well within the capabilities of the English state to summon an army in tens of thousands. And even though we're told that Harold didn't wait for all the men that could have come Even so, I think there's no reason to doubt that he could have been in command of a really sizable army.
But the honest truth is, is that certainty on this is impossible. We just don't know.
Do you know what baffles me about historians of battles? It's always baffled me. They hate saying, we don't know. they'll spend decades fussing about like where they stand, this side of the field or that side of the field. I mean, come on, who cares? We know how the battle ended and that's what matters.
I know it's a weird thing to say about other historians, but this sort of battle, this mad battle pedantry when you cannot possibly know just fills me with total bewilderment.
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Chapter 3: How did the Battle of Hastings begin?
Lots of his men would be wounded. He'd have the sea at his back. He'd have a fleet coming towards him. You know, he can't afford this stalemate. And so it is crucial for him and for the Normans. to finish off Harold. Absolutely essential. And this is why I think the death of Harold has this kind of iconic, almost legendary quality to it. Homeric quality to it.
Homeric quality to it, because it really is the key moment in the battle, and therefore in the whole process of the conquest. And of course, the story of how he dies is one of the most famous in all of English history. That an arrow hits him in the eye. And... Where does this story come from? So famously, it is supposedly shown on the Bayeux Tapestry.
You have two figures, one seemingly with an arrow in his eye. He's got his hand to the shaft of the arrow, it looks like, trying to pull it out. And then there's another is being struck down by a Norman horseman. And above these two figures, you have the Latin text. Hick Harold Rex Interfectus Est, here King Harold is killed.
Chapter 4: What were the key moments during the battle?
Is this evidence for the fact that Harold was killed by an arrow in his eye? You might think so when I tell you that around 1080, just over a decade after the Battle of Hastings, a martyrs of Monte Cassino, the guy who wrote about how brilliant the Normans were, the monk of Monte Cassino, He reports that Harold had died after being hit in the eye.
And William of Malmesbury in the following century, the English writer, he reports that the arrow point had gone straight through his eye socket and deep into his brains and that this had finished him. So listeners might think, well, this seems to be an open and shut case. But this is medieval history, so obviously it's not. That would be far too easy.
So the Bayeux Tapestry, there are problems with it. So first of all, which of the two figures is King Harold? Is it the one with...
the arrow in his eye or is it the one who's being cut down with people often say these are two scenes involving the same person so like a strip cartoon like a strip cartoon but they're not because they look different is that right they've got different kit they're clearly not the same person I mean unless you know Harold's put down one weapon and picked up another after being hit by the I mean I don't think so there's an even more damaging detail
which is that we know the tapestry was very heavily restitched in the 19th century. And we have an illustration, a copy of it that was made in 1730. And this shows that the warrior who seemingly has the arrow in his eye seems actually to be holding a spear. And obviously that is kind of problem if you're adducing it as evidence that Harold was hit in the eye.
Amartas, so I mean, he's writing in 1080. So is that evidence? Again, a problem that we don't have the original Latin text. We only have a much later French translation. So again, that may be untrustworthy. And the intriguing thing is, is that the very earliest sources, so that's the Carmen and William of Poitiers, they do not make any mention at all of the arrow in Harold's eye.
Although William of Malmesbury does explicitly mention it though. He does. It's not like we can say, well, okay, it didn't happen. There are sources that hint that it does. But William of Malmesbury is writing, I mean, two generations later. Yeah, but he must have got it from somewhere. He's not going to make it up, is he? Clearly, there are traditions, I think, floating around.
So what about the other traditions? So William of Poitiers, who's writing, is a very early source. He says nothing at all about the means and method of Harold's death, does he? No, he doesn't. But...
Yeah, so let's forget him. Well, no, let's not forget him because I think, you know, the dog that doesn't bark in the night is a clue. Well, here's a dog that does bark.
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