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

THE ENGLISH SHIELD WALL STILL HOLDS

As the autumn afternoon wore on the English still stubbornly held the blood soaked ridge. William knew his situation was becoming increasingly serious, for there was little time left before sun set. Whenever the lightly armed and un-armoured Fyrdmen had left their position to pursue the fleeing Norman cavalry they had been turned on in their turn, and cut down by the wheeling knights; the English numbers on that terri-ble blood and carnage strewn ridge had been thinned (Malmesbury considered the success of the feigned flight as the turning point of the battle). Many Huscarls and Thegns had already been killed and wounded, their places were being filled by the less well-armed Fyrd behind who posed less of a threat to the Normans; yet at no time had the Normans been able to gain a firm foothold on the top of that bloody ridge. The position was made worse by the numbers of killed and wounded Norman men and horses, now lying in bloody heaps in front of the English shield wall, producing yet another and yet one more additional obstacle. The Norman knights had been in their saddles for most of the day, their horses were scared and blown.

AD 1066: Saxon Huscarles go sweeping into the Normans with Dane Axes. (‘Blood Bath on Senlac Hill’ Artist: Huscarl. Permission by Copyright only.)

Many had lost their mounts and were now forced to continue the fight on foot. Wil-liam himself, as Poitiers assures us, had already lost three horses killed under him dur-ing that long bloody day.

Wace, who perhaps received much oral tradition, and who we must use with care, none the less provides the most stirring stories; how Robert Fitz Erneis rode for the English standard, killing one man with his sword before being cut down himself with axes as he was trying to beat down the English Dragon standard; or how the English-men from Kent and Essex fought so well; and how a wrestler ducked the Duke’s blow and dented William’s helmet with his axe before retiring back into the shield wall only to be killed by the lances of the “Bastard’s” bodyguard.