THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ANGLO-NORMAN ENGLAND

ENGLISH DEFEAT TO THE NORWEGIANS: THE BATTLE OF FULFORD GATE

September 1066 AD. The same sea storm on 12 September 1066 AD, which had caused damage to the English fleet, and forced that of William the Bastard, into the port of St Valery, also allowed the fleet of the Norwegian King, Harald Hardrada to sail down the east coast of Scotland. In addition to his own Norwegians, battle hard-ened during their recent war in Denmark, he had Danes, Swedes, Irish Norse, Iceland-ers, Greenlanders, men from the Faeroes, Orkney, Mann, the North of Scotland, and the sundry Isles. The fleet was about 360 ships strong giving a possible force of 12,000 fighting men. After a couple of minor landings along the English coast, Harald sailed to Scarborough on the Northumbrian coast. On or around 15 September he landed and burned the town. The fleet then sailed down to the Humber River, which it reached on 18 September. Sailing up the Humber in the north east of England, then up the River Ouse, the Norsemen reached the village of Riccall where they beached the ships and made camp. They were some miles from York (the old Viking town of Jorvik,) then the capital of Northumbria. For many years York had been the capital of an Independent Norse state and Harald Hardrada may well have expected a warm welcome; Tostig, on the other hand, having been expelled as Earl of Northumbria and had many of his men killed in the city, would have been more circumspect. The next day, having donned their armour, the Norsemen marched on York.

But northern England was now firmly Englisc. It no longer identified with any heroes except the English kings Alfred and Athelstan and Edward. The Viking invasion was seen as a retrograde move. One that reminded the north of war and death. Conse-quently, outside the city Earl Morcar of Northumbria, his brother, Earl Edwin of Mer-cia, and Earl Waltheof of Northampton waited for him. With the three young and in-experienced Earls were their Huscarls and such elements of the Fyrd and Select Fyrd of their shires as they had managed to assemble; in the short time they had since the invading fleet had been sighted.

Although outnumbered, the English had the advantage of terrain. The battleground they had chosen was swampy meadow situated between the Ouse and the road the Norsemen had been following from Riccall to York.

The English army formed up in a line whose right flank was anchored on the eastern bank of the Ouse, then stretched across the Fulford meadows to the track, and finally to a ditch on the side of the track. Here the ground was soft marsh, thus protecting their flank. The line was several ranks deep, with the Huscarls in the front of the cen-tre. Behind them, and supporting the flanks were the Thegns and Ceorls of the Fyrd.

Hardrada lined up his army opposite the English. He put his best men in the centre of the line, where he was stationed, and on the left side of the line, where they stretched out to the eastern bank of the Ouse. This ground was considerably firmer than that on his right flank and would therefore enable him to use his best warriors to the best ad-vantage. He stationed his less experienced warriors on the right flank, extending them to the point where the ground became too soggy to support a man’s weight. He ex-pected nothing more of his right flank than to hold their ground against the more ex-perienced English who were facing them. He unfurled his battle banner, ‘Land-Waster’ (an old Black raven type Viking design,) and waited for the English to ad-vance.

As with so many times throughout the History of the English Folk, the English warri-ors came on, shields locked together, swords and battle axes rhythmically drumming against their war-boards, their war cry rising above the sound of steel on wood, a war cry that as I’ve mentioned before, was heard in the days of Athelstan, Alfred and Hengest and before, a war cry as old as the English Race itself, “UT, UT, UT, UT!” “OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT!” within minutes of the two sides clashing the Norse on the right flank began to crumble and they gave ground along the track. To counter this, Hardrada ordered his left flank to spread out toward the centre so that they could hold the left and as much of the centre as possible without weakening the shield wall too much. He then called on his personal hearth troops (house body guard,) who were gathered around him in the centre, and wheeled them to the right and struck the ad-vancing English on their left flank.

Being struck so suddenly and unexpectedly by a force that was superior both in num-bers and experience, the English left flank quickly crumbled and dissolved into small groups who fought desperately as they were driven back, not toward their old line, but toward the ditch and the bogs. The morale of Harald’s right flank, now that the pressure was off them, quickly revived and they joined the rout. Slowly and bloodily, the Norsemen commenced to roll up the broken English right flank, over by the Ouse, which was bent backward. When a shield wall is ‘rolled’ up like this it collapses quickly. Within minutes the entire English line then collapsed and the English army of the north began to brake and flee in total disorder. Following the battle, York ac-knowledged the inevitable, and surrendered to Harald and Tostig. In exchange for not having the city subjected to a sacking, the burghers had to supply food, transport and hostages. It is thought that it was also demanded that Northumbria should supply, not only more supplies, but also fighting men. There must have been a feeling of hostility, however as, to ensure that they would fulfil their commitments, Harald Hardrada de-manded an additional 100 hostages.

The date and place for the delivery of the hostages was Sunday, 25 September, at Stamford Bridge.