Why Did William Of Normandy Win the Battle of Hastings?
In my essay I will be assessing the key factors and series of events that led William of
Normandy to triumph in the Battle of Hastings. On the other hand; why did Harold
Godwinson lose; was it bad luck or bad tactics? I will also be answering key points
such as: Who was better prepared for the battle? What advantages and
disadvantages did each have?
In 1066 Edward the Confessor; the king of England at the time- unexpectedly died on
th
the 4 January - with no heir to the throne. Of course that sparked a huge problem
and chaos erupted and all the powerful earls and lords claimed to be king. Eventually
three candidates arose for the claim to the English throne they were: Harold
Godwinson- the Earl of Wessex, Harald Hardraada of Norway and William Duke of
Normandy.
However, Edgar the Aetheling was the rightful heir to Edward the Confessor and
should have been crowned King of England. Unfortunately he was only ten years old
when Edward the Confessor died and couldn’t manage to rule an entire country.
Harold Gowinson's claim to the throne of England was:
Harold was Edward the Confessor’s brother-in-law, who had married Harold's sister,
Edith. He was also the Earl of Wessex; one of the most powerful Nobles in England
and had been an advisor to Edward the Confessor. Harold was the richest man in
England. His family had established alliances with all the major nobles of England.
Harold also claimed that he had been chosen by Edward the Confessor to be the next
King of England. When King Edward the Confessor lay dying his wife Edith and Harold
were at his bedside. According to Harold, King Edward's dying words were:
"l commend my wife and my entire kingdom to your care.” lncidentally Harold
crownedhimselfkinganyway.
Harald Hardraada’s Claim to the throne of England was:
ln 1016 the Viking King Canute became King of England, Denmark and
Norway. He ruled until 1035. King Canute was succeeded by Hardicanute who
ruled England until 1042.King Hardicanute had no heir and promised the
English throne to King Magnus of Norway. The Saxon, Edward the Confessor,
seized the English throne in 1042.King Magnus of Norway was too old to battle
Edward the Confessor for the English throne .Magnus's son and heir was
Hardraada. Hardraada’s family was very powerful and he believed he should
be king through his great family connections.
William of Normandy’s Claim to the throne of England was:
William justified his claim through his blood relationship with Edward the Confessors
they were distant cousins. William also claimed that Edward the Confessor had made
him as his successor. William claimed Harold Godwinson had sworn a sacred oath of
his right to the throne. When Harold broke the oath William received religious
backing from Rome to start a Holy Crusade against Harold.
l think that Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy had the stronger cases to be
king because they had connections with Edward the confessor and both claimed that
Edward had said they should be his successor. Now with three contenders that could
all be king the only way to resolve it would be war!
ln the spring of 1066, Harold Godwinson was in his third month as the Anglo-Saxon
King of England. He expected William of Normandy to attack so he placed his troops
along the south coast waiting for an invasion. However the wind was blowing in the
wrong direction for William to invade, so after months of waiting Harold sent his men
home. Meanwhile Harald Hardraada and Harold’s brother Tostig invaded the north
east coast from Norway with a vicious Viking army. A message was quickly sent to
Harold – who then quickly re-gathered a small fraction of his army and also recruited
amateurs such as farmers. Whilst Hardraada was terrorising the north east coast
Harold and his army rapidly marched up to Stamford Bridge in an incredible four days.
The battle of Stamford Bridge itself was a very bloody one with eventually Harold
Godwinson prevailing. Hardraada’s army arrived first and placed themselves on one
side of the bridge with a big Viking swinging an axe to kill anyone that dared pass.
Slowly Harolds men were killed but the reason Harold won in the end was all down to
good tactics. Harold knew that he would have to kill the Viking on the bridge but how?
Very cleverly he sent a man in a barrel down the river with a hole in the top. Once the
barrel was directly underneath the man with the axe the man inside rammed a sword
up through his legs and right up into his body. Without hesitation Harold’s army ran
over the bridge and attacked. In the end Hardraada was killed with an arrow to his
throat. Hardraada’s army had come with 350 ships and only left with 24...
I think Harold was weaker after the battle of Stamford Bridge because he had lost a
lot of men and the ones that survived were exhausted if not injured. Also very
irresponsibly in celebration of victory he allowed his men to get drunk which in due
course led to his defeat at the battle of Hastings.
William in the meantime had been preparing for the forthcoming battle and had been
gathering a huge army and lots of weapons and horses. William tried everything he
could think of to raise the spirits of his men, as a last and desperate attempt to lift
morale he had the body of the patron Saint of St. Valery exhumed. He then paraded it
in front of his men and had them implore the Saint for a favourable change in wind. His
men were now ready for battle and focused on winning against Harold Godwinson.
William’s army used bows and arrows, horses and brave men on foot that carried
swords, spears and shields. With all this as an advantage- William suddenly had a
stroke of good luck just four days after the battle of Stamford Bridge the wind changed
direction and William invaded the unprotected South coast of England. This gave
William a huge advantage as Harolds men were still in Stamford Bridge and most were
in fact drunk. This was one of the main contributing factors on why William won the
battle.
After receiving the message that William had invaded the south coast Harold tried to
re-gather his men but his best soldiers were still drunk and he told them to follow him
down to Hastings when they were sober. As an incentive Harold had promised if he
won he would give each of his men some gold. Harold and his army of 7000 exhausted
men were first to arrive in Hastings. Harold placed his men at the top of the hill. This in
theory was a great advantage as William’s men and horses would find it harder to run
uphill.
Harold’s weapons were Fryd-Part time soldiers with large two handed axes. If they
missed with it with their first attempt they would be in trouble as they realistically only
had one chance to kill as then they would be stabbed by the opposition because they
didn't have chance to take another swipe because it was so heavy. Moreover, Harold's
force was inferior to the Norman's army. William had 4000 knights but Harold did not
have any. While William's army was small in comparison to Harold's total force,
probably no more than 12,000 men in total, he had many more archers than the
English, and perhaps most importantly, the archers were formed in units. The English
archers were not in units, they were deployed at random.
Once Williams’s army arrived in Hastings at the bottom of the hill the battle was due
to begin. Both Harold and William were both apprehensive but at the same time
ready for a long fought battle. The first attack came from Williams’s army which took
Harold’s army by total surprise The Anglo-Saxons were over the moon so when the
Normans started to walk away Harold's men ran down Senlac Hill and started chasing
them away. Cleverly William and his men turned around and started to kill. A huge
proportion of the Anglo-Saxons were killed at the very premature stages of the battle.
Harold had made a huge mistake so he tried to retreat his men but every time he did
that, the Normans struck back and the Norman knights were having a terrible effect on
Harold’s army's morale. Unlike Harold, William had cleverly assessed his opponent’s
tactics and Harold’s tactics were the same as in previous battles so William had a huge
advantage against Harold. At this stage William’s army was tearing Harolds apart.
Harold’s exhausted army couldn’t simply fight back strongly enough.
Eventually Harold died when he was shot with an arrow that pierced his eye which ;
then knocked off his horse and his body was well and truly hacked to pieces. He was
also allegedly disembowelled. Once the Anglo-Saxon king had died; his remaining men
immediately began to run in fear of their lives.
In my opinion the main reason William won the battle was that his men were better
prepared and had arguably the better weapons. Also Harold’s men were still
exhausted from the
Battle of Stamford Bridge and the trek of marching from Stamford Bridge to Hastings.
Finally after the battle many people had criticised Harold for not taking onboard the
feedback from previous battles but regardless of that William had still had great
tactics and was blessed with a bit of good luck.
In the end William of Normandy was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066;
although he still had many ongoing problems such as rebellions which would challenge
his position as king of England.