Harold was expecting trouble in 1066, would protect everyone, the peasants would pay for this protection by working the land, and the clergy would pray for everyone. In the secular world, the monarch was at the top of the pyramid, with each layer of nobility… obligations - lists 14 names and the number of ships they were required to provide for the invasion fleet, with some being obliged to provide over 100 each. Even without this, a terrible omen appeared in the sky in April 1066, forewarning of imminent disaster: Halley's Comet. and kept his army on the south coast of England for much of the summer, awaiting an invasion force that couldn't sail due to unfavourable winds. This would have been a logistical nightmare for both armies. Marc Morris suggests that around 25 tons of grain and 30,000 gallons of water would be needed every day to keep the Norman army of 7,000 men and 2,000 horse alive on basic rations. To keep morale high, meat, fish, wine and ale would also have been required. In addition, the waste all these people and animals produced needed to have been dealt with to avoid disease. The Norman army coped well with the delay: they stayed at the coast waiting patiently and, according to William of Poitiers, behaving remarkably well. But on 8 September 1066, Harold dismissed his army, no longer able to feed them, hoping the approaching autumn would delay William until the next year.

Unknown to Harold, there was an imminent threat from another quarter. Harald Hardrada, king of Norway (and with an exceedingly tenuous claim to the English throne), had decided to invade the north of England to claim the crown for himself. The sudden appearance of an invading army in the north of the country forced Harold to march his just-disbanded army to York, where he defeated Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September.

The Norman landings

After a month of waiting, the winds changed and William was able to set sail on either 27 or 28 September. He landed his fleet of perhaps 700-800 vessels of all kinds on the south coast at Pevensey just one or two days later. It is said that on disembarking William tripped and got a mouthful of sand. Turning it to his advantage, just as Caesar had done over 1100 years previously, he said he already had the soil of England in his grasp.

Interestingly, William probably had no idea at this point who he would be fighting: news would have reached him of the Viking attack in the north, but not of its victor. This news, we are told, reached him at the start of October, and wasn't taken as a good sign. Edward the Confessor's Norman adviser and friend, Robert the Steward, delivered the message and warned William to 'stay behind his fortifications'.

News of William's invasion reached Harold probably on 1 October - at roughly the same time that William received word of Harold's victory - while Harold was resting his army at York. He therefore had to return to the south coast, via London probably to arrange new levies to fill his army, arriving on 13 October. In the meantime the two sides communicated through messages. William offered Harold the earldom of Wessex if he were to step down as king; 'Harold, rather less generously, promised to let William return to Normandy unmolested if he made reparations for the damage he caused.'

Unsurprisingly, neither side backed down and the stage was set for a second battle, at least for Harold. Having travelled the length of the country twice in a month (and fought a battle in between), Harold was forced to meet William, and with an ill-prepared army. Perhaps Harold should have waited longer in London for reinforcements: his family and the medieval chroniclers, as well as most historians, all thought so. But every day he delayed gave the Normans more time to pillage the countryside around Hastings, and to kill and maim the local peasantry. It is also possible that Harold attempted to take the enemy by surprise by attacking sooner than expected, rather like he did at Stamford Bridge.

The Battle of Hastings

Whether Harold intended to surprise William or not, on 14 October 1066 it was Harold who was surprised and taken unprepared by the approach of the Norman army. and inspired by the Pope's endorsement of the venture. William, forewarned of Harold's approach from London, had kept his army up all of the preceding night in readiness, and set out at sunrise to find him. The two forces met at Senlac, about six miles inland from Hastings, at roughly nine o-clock in the morning. A sudden rush to arms followed, with William reportedly in such a hurry that he put his mail shirt on back-to-front.

We don't know who had the larger army, as both sides insisted theirs was the smallest.. Harold had the better ground (he was uphill), but William the better tactics, considerably more archers, and cavalry. It would seem that Harold, in his haste to reach the invading army, hadn't recruited enough men: the Bayeux Tapestry, for example, shows just one English archer, compared with dozens on the Norman side.

Despite these discrepancies, the battle was hard-fought and lasted all day. While the English held the higher ground and didn't break rank they stood a chance of winning, even against cavalry, who couldn't charge up such difficult ground. The shield wall served them well, as contemporary chronicler and chaplain to William, William of Poitiers, wrote: 'It was an unheard-of kind of combat, with one side launching ceaseless attacks and manoeuvres, the other standing firmly as though rooted to the ground.' There was one Norman though, who according to the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio ('Song of the Battle of Hastings') eventually convinced an English warrior to leave the shield wall. The Norman, Taillefer, rode between the armies jeering at the English and juggling his sword, encouraging any man who dared to try his luck in single combat. Eventually, one Englishman became so irritated that he went forward to cut the Norman down, but failed. Instead, it was the Anglo-Saxon who was run through with the knight's lance, before being decapitated and having his head displayed as a trophy.

After a hard morning and afternoon of fighting, the Normans turned tail and seemed to flee the battlefield. There are differing accounts of why this happened: maybe a rumour spread that William of Normandy had been killed, or perhaps it was a ruse that turned into a real panic. Whatever the cause, all sources state that William had to take off his helmet and assure his troops that he was alive before they calmed. But importantly, it encouraged the English to break rank, leaving the safety of their shield wall and hilltop position to pursue the Normans down the hill. With the Anglo-Saxons now on equal ground, Norman superiority became clear. By the time the Normans were finished with them, there weren't enough English left to form an effective shield wall. Still they might have fought on, but for the news that Harold had fallen.

Popular myth says that Harold was shot in the eye with an arrow, but this is based on a misreading of the Bayeux Tapestry and the reports of later writers. Contemporary chroniclers tend not to mention an arrow, but the Carmen states he was hacked to death by William and his knights. There could also be a pleasanter - although much less likely - end to Harold's tale: the rumour goes that he was rescued after the battle and somehow survived his wounds to live out his days as a monk, either in Essex or at a local abbey.

Once the English king was killed, there seemed little point for the remains of the exhausted and defeated army to continue the fight. Instead, those who could turned and fled. Most did not get very far: they were chased by the victors on horseback and were cut down. According to William of Poitiers, 'Far and wide the earth was covered with the flower of the English nobility, sitting immediately below the monarch in terms of blood and title; or the quality of being noble (virtuous, honourable, etc.) in character. and youth, drenched in gore.' But not only the English suffered: as the Normans pursued the English into the night, many were killed when they rushed unawares into an old rampart.

Aftermath