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

HAROLD HEARS OF THE NORMAN LANDING

Following his overwhelming victory on the 25 September over Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge, Harold assembled his battered army in and around York. Whilst celebrating his victory over the Norsemen, with a victory feast, the news arrived that Harold knew would come sooner or later, that William the Bastard, had landed near Pevensey in Sussex.

October 1066 AD. Harold departed York early on the 1 October. Leaving behind those of his army who were unfit to travel and the northern earls whom he ordered to assemble fresh troops, he rode back to London as quickly as possible with his Huscarls who were fit, and arrived in London on 5 October. He left the northern Earls to call in their fresh troops with the help of a newly appointed royal Staller (a trusted overseer,) Marlswein. In London, Harold and his brothers Gryth, Earl of East Anglia, who had been with him at Stamford Bridge, and Leofwine, Earl of East Mercia, who had been overseeing the south of England in the King’s absence, began to make plans for their campaign against the Norman invaders. Harold had reached London in less than five days, where he and his brothers Gryth and Leofwine waited for the English army to reorganize, fresh Fyrdmen coming in and the wounds of those Huscarls who had moved with Harold to London, were cleaned and covered. A monk took a formal message to William, and a Norman monk was sent back with a response, rejecting any deathbed nomination of Harold by the late King Edward, offering to take the matter to litigation or, failing that, settling the question by single combat, which was something William knew, Harold wouldn’t except, and that he himself knew he might not win, but he offered it any way. Wace makes it clear, that the King’s brother, Gryth, suggested that Harold decline battle but ravage the countryside to deny provisions to the enemy before allowing Gryth to risk a battle. Harold refuses to hurt his own people, and replying, “That the Normans were doing enough of that, to cause his people harm, so he would not cause his people more distress.” Deciding on leading his army himself, in some ways the idea was tactically sound; certainly by waiting Harold would grow stronger in numbers while William the Bastard would become more desperate. However, Harold waited only five or six days in London, probably until the 11th, before setting out with the fighting men at his disposal. He marched between 50 and 60 miles a day, moving through the Andredsweald to arrive on the 13 October at Caldbec (Senlac,) Hill, where he stood the assembly point called the Hoar Apple Tree, one mile from the forest edge. The London road via Rochester or Dover together with that via Lewes and Chichester met close by here before continuing the eight miles to Hastings. It is usually assumed that King Harold intended to surprise William as he had surprised Hardrada and attack the Norman camp (perhaps even at night, which again would have been tactically sound) as Poitiers asserts. It is also possible however, that Harold may have attempted to bottle up the Normans in the Hastings peninsula to contain them until the English army had grown in strength; Poitiers mentions 700 ships sent to deny any withdrawal by sea. In the event Harold was given no choice, for it was William the Bastard who made the first move.

Norman scouts, seven miles from Hastings, came galloping back during daylight with the news that the English army was marching south. William ordered the whole camp to stand to arms and foragers were called in. the Norman troops remained at arms all night expecting the English to attack, while the priests heard confessions throughout the hours of darkness. William of Malmesbury and latterly Wace contrast this piety with the Englishmen drinking and laughing the night away, (if many of us had have been there, that night in the English camp, and not knowing if we would see the end of the following day, and leaving our souls to god, and our fate in the hands of the three sisters of the fates,* I would say that we too would be enjoying what would per-haps be our last few hours on earth.) But since the English army had just completed a hurried march this perhaps would seem extremely implausible.

*THE THREE SISTERS OF FATE

The Daughters of Night called Wyrd, Metod and Sculd. They are the Spinner, Measurer and Cutter of the threads of life that are woven into the Web of Wyrd (or fate). The first sister, Wyrd, spins the thread and it is she who determines its quality. Metod measures the thread and determines its length. Sculd cuts the thread and by the nature of the cut, be it clean or ragged she determines the manner of each death. We know these midnight women, the Wyrd Sisters, as Past, Present and Future. Each day they draw water from the Spring of Destiny and return to their dark cave where they spin and weave the destinies of men. On the night of a full moon they gather round the pool and call down the shimmering light into the sparkling water. Wyrd is everywhere and all the inhabitants of all the worlds are within her power.

Or as English Anglo-Norse ancestors would have said:

Or in modern parlance ‘what will be will be.’ So you may as well go well!