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- [00:00]
Tom Holland
Thank you for listening to the Rest is History. For weekly bonus episodes, ad free listening, early access to series and membership of our much loved chat community, go to therestishistory.com and join the club that is thereestishistory.com.
- [00:19]
Dominic Sandbrook
This episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile.
- [00:22]
Tom Holland
Normal is a relative term. So it used to be considered perfectly normal to go down to the Westminster Pit in London and to watch a monkey fighting a dog called Puss. And people used to think it's actually perfectly reasonable and a normal way to behave. But of course now people would consider that slightly alarming and high phone bills.
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Dominic Sandbrook
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Tom Holland
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Dominic Sandbrook
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- [01:26]
Tom Holland
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Dominic Sandbrook
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Tom Holland
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Dominic Sandbrook
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Tom Holland
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Dominic Sandbrook
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Tom Holland
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Dominic Sandbrook
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Tom Holland
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- [02:24]
Dominic Sandbrook
See site for details.
- [02:37]
Tom Holland
Sudden looking towards the forest, the Duke saw glimpses of English columns and a great glittering of spears spilling out from the trees. There came troops of men and then emerging into full view, an entire army. There was a hill near the forest, set beside a valley and the ground had been left untilled because the terrain was so rough. Advancing in massed order which is the English custom. They seized possession of this place and readied for battle, ignorant of war as they are. The English scorn to ride horses, preferring instead to trust in their strength and stand fast on foot. And they count it the highest honour to die in arms in defence of their native soil, so as to prevent any foreign yoke being imposed upon it. The King of the English, preparing to meet the enemy, climbed the hill and strengthened both his wings with noble men. On the very summit of the hill, he planted his banner and ordered his other standards as well to be set up. All his men dismounted and left their horses in the rear. And then, taking their stand on foot, they let the trumpets sound for battle. So that's a source called the Song of the Battle of Hastings, probably written within months of the battle. And we'll come back to exactly what that source is. But listeners who have stuck with us through this mighty series will remember that last time we followed the heart stopping, blood curdling drama of Harold Hardrada's invasion of Northern England. And we heard how Hardrada was cut down and killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge by the English king, Harold Godwinson, formerly Earl of Wessex, in one of the greatest victories ever won by Anglo Saxon or indeed English arms. So, Tom, Stamford Bridge was the 25th of September, and we heard how at the turn of October, Harold heard the terrible news of the landing of William of Normandy. And so now, less than three weeks later, he is at or just outside Hastings and he is facing another mighty, epoch defining Showdown. So it's the 14th of October, he's of course, facing William of Normandy. And what follows is the most famous and arguably the single most decisive battle in all English history.
- [05:10]
Dominic Sandbrook
Absolutely. And the one, I would say, that is most familiar probably to anyone who has even the faintest interest in history in England. Certainly. And scenes from the battle will be familiar to most people who live in this country. The idea of the English battle lying on Senlac Hill, this great hill outside Hastings. The Normans serried in their armor, on their horses at the foot of the hill, the Norman knights charging, being the shield wall, King Harald, as the shadows lengthen over the battlefield, as the sun sets in the west, struck by an arrow in the eye. And the accounts of the battle that we have you mentioned, one possibly written only a few months after Harold's death, are detailed and vivid in a way that the sources for Stamford Bridge simply aren't. So we talked in the previous episode how King Harald's saga, the great account by Snorri Sturluson dates to almost two centuries after 1066. But we have accounts of Hastings that are incredibly close to the battle. So most famously, we have the Bayo tapestry, which is not a tapestry, but a great embroidered cloth over 200ft long, and it illuminates not just the battle, but the events leading up to it. We've already had reference to it and indeed to its aftermath. And another source we've also already mentioned in this series, William of Poitiers, who had served William as a soldier before becoming his chaplain. And he gives again, a detailed account. But as you said, amazingly, we have an account that is even more contemporary, probably written in around Easter 1067. So fewer than six months after the battle. And for a long while, the authenticity of the Carmen, the song of the Battle of Hastings, was furiously debated. It kind of appeared almost from nowhere in the 19th century and there were lots of people who thought it might have been a medieval fake. But I think it's now pretty widely accepted, accepted to have been written by a bishop who served William's wife, Matilda, as her chaplain. So we have these two chaplains, William of Poitiers and this bishop who wrote the Carmen. And this enables us to get up close to the. Build up the actual events, the aftermath of Hastings in a way that. Well, I mean, to quote Michael Lawson, whose book on the. On the Battle is probably the best one that there is. He's written about it that more is known about Hastings than any battle fought in the west since the end of the Roman Empire. But inevitably, having said that, there are caveats. So all those things that people think they know about the Battle of Hastings, did the English really confine themselves to just standing on a hill? Did the Norman knights really charge the shield wall? Was Harold really slain by an arrow hitting his eye? I mean, as we will find out, these are all issues that are furiously debated. And so to match that quotation from Michael Lawson about us knowing more about Hastings than any battle since the end of the Roman Empire, here's one from John Gillingham. Almost the only thing about the Norman Conquest that isn't controversial is the fact that the Normans won the Battle of Hastings. So there is lots to discuss.
- [08:26]
Tom Holland
Yeah. So, I mean, the version that I grew up with, you know, that we studied at school, was very dramatic. The Normans charge, Harold is hit by the arrow. All of these great excitements, but they're all in the balance, aren't they? So that's the fascinating thing.
- [08:40]
Dominic Sandbrook
I think the alternative theories are just as exciting and thrilling right there's no question this is an extraordinary, terrifying bloody conflict. No doubt about that. It's just that some of the details are up for debate and we'll be looking at them.
- [08:54]
Tom Holland
Okay, so let's pick up from where we left off with William before. So before we got into the story of Harold Hardrada, listeners may remember that we left William, he'd gathered his forces, he is this great name, he's a great draw. He's got people from all over France, hasn't he, to join his, I was about to say his crusade. And it does have a little bit of that quality.
- [09:15]
Dominic Sandbrook
Slight quality, yeah.
- [09:17]
Tom Holland
Right. But he's been kicking his heels in frustration on the coast of Normandy because as this Carmen, this song describes storms and ceaseless rain prevented his fleet from making the crossing. And obviously Harold had decided that William wasn't coming. So what changes?
- [09:34]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, I imagine that the news that Harold across the Channel in England has stood down his men has reached William and it's four days after Harold has sent his men back to get the harvest in. And so on, on the 8th of September, on the 12th of September, William decides, I think that this is too good an opportunity to miss, even though the winds are still against him. So he orders his fleet on 12 September to leave port and to sail out into the Channel. But these winds, as we've said, are still contrary. They're still very, very difficult to navigate. And people may remember that Harold had sent his fleet back to London and it gets caught up in a terrible storm and large numbers of ships are shipwrecked. It seems that the same storms that damage Harold's fleet so badly blows Williams off course. Some of his ships are wrecked and the vast body of the, of the fleet have to take refuge not in an English port, but, but in a port further up the French coast. So specifically a place called St. Valerie sur Somme. So that's north of Normandy itself.
- [10:44]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [10:44]
Dominic Sandbrook
And it is closer to the English coast than William had previously been, but it is still separated from England by kind of 50 miles of storm lashed seas. And William is chastened, I think by the near disaster that his fleet has suffered. And so he decides he's not going to risk that anymore. And the contrary winds blow for a further fortnight, you know, and this is a huge problem. He's no longer in Normandy for a start, so he can't command resources in the way that he'd been able to do previously. He's lost lots of his ships, his supplies are running out. There's all that issue with getting rid of the horses, urine, all that kind of stuff. So it's an incredible tribute, I think, to his powers of leadership that he does seem able to hold this expedition together. But you can imagine him. Well, in fact, he's described as looking up at the weathercock on top of the church in St. Valerie, kind of, you know, just waiting for the winds to change.
- [11:40]
Tom Holland
And do you think he knows that Harald has dispersed the feared. Do you think he knows that he's sent his army back to get the harvest?
- [11:47]
Dominic Sandbrook
I'm sure he must have done right. It seems the only explanation for why he would have risked sailing out four days after Harold had done that.
- [11:55]
Tom Holland
And also it might be hard to muster another force a year's time. People like, what, they didn't even go the first time. I'm not going again.
- [12:00]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah, I mean, I think he absolutely feels, you know, it's now or never. And so on the 27th of September, at last the weathercock turns, the winds have changed, the sea stands fair for England. And so William gives his men orders to embark. And at high tide, which is in the the mid afternoon, the horses are led up ramps onto the transport ships. The Carmen describes William's men rushing to take their places like a flock of ducks, doves heading to a dovecot. And just before sunset, the Norman fleet is ready to set sail and William's own flagship leads the way. And this is a ship called the Mora, which is a gift from his wife. The stern post has a wonderful figurehead, the figure of a boy blowing a trumpet. And we're told a lantern was slung high on the masthead as a guiding beacon and the sound of a horn signaled the advance. So William leads the fleet out into the darkening channel as the sun sets. And the Mora is a very streamlined ship and in fact it's so swift that by next morning, as the sun rises over the channel to the east, William finds that he's completely on his own. He can't see any other ships, and rather than panic, he displays immense sang froid. He has a hearty breakfast which we're told he waters down with wine. And by the time he's finished it, he goes back up onto deck and there behind him is a great forest of masts. The Norman fleet is still with him. And on they sail to England.
- [13:34]
Tom Holland
So that story seems to me to have the veracity of some of those stories that you have from Harald Hardrada in the Icelandic sagas. I mean, I know they're different literary traditions, but you know, the commander Forged on alone. Then he noticed that nobody was with him, but he didn't lose his cool. He drank a flagon of wine and then continued. And soon his men caught him up. I mean, that feels like, to me, like, I think I've heard that story about 40 times about different people.
- [13:56]
Dominic Sandbrook
I think the difference, though, is that these are being told by people who were there. Who were there, or who, you know, were absolutely familiar with the details of the expedition.
- [14:04]
Tom Holland
So you're like. You're like Arion talking about Ptolemy when he met the talking snake in the desert. King wouldn't lie and he was there. So, I mean, obviously it happened.
- [14:12]
Dominic Sandbrook
No, because Aryan was writing centuries later, whereas these are people who are writing a few years later and are surrounded by people who'd been on the moon.
- [14:18]
Tom Holland
But you're saying leave everything that they tell you.
- [14:20]
Dominic Sandbrook
I think it's unlikely that they would just make up details that everyone would have been able to scoff at.
- [14:27]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [14:27]
Dominic Sandbrook
The details may be slightly spiced up. I think that probably the details we're getting from the Carmen and from William of Poitiers in the main are fairly accurate, because there are so many people who'd be reading them that they would know if they weren't.
- [14:40]
Tom Holland
Let's get to what we do know. So we definitely know that they are heading for this natural harbour protected by a spit of land called Pevensey Bay. And they arrive, what, 9:00 in the morning?
- [14:52]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yep. And Pevensey Bay, it's a natural harbour. It's kind of lagoons, really, and it's tidal and it's protected by a spit of land that sticks out on the western side. And on the western side, there's a crumbling Roman fort and there's a little port, and that's Pevensy itself. But there's a problem, which is that Pevensey and this Roman fort, although the Normans are very quick to fortify and kind of boost the defences, it's not easy to get from there to the main road that leads to London, because essentially you have to ride all the way around the lagoon and it's about, you know, 20 odd miles to do that. So some of the. The ships are pulled up there, but there's the real sense that actually Pevensey itself is not a good base. And so what they do is start looking further east to the town of Hastings.
- [15:43]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [15:43]
Dominic Sandbrook
And Hastings is much more conveniently linked to London. So the main road from Hastings goes along a kind of high ridge and it's surrounded on either side by Trees, and then down by mud flats, kind of leading down to the lagoon of Pevensey Bay and on the other side as well. So it's kind of like a peninsula. And William decides that he will make this his base. And he and his relative and a childhood friend of his called William Fitz Osborne, then, having reached Hastings, reconnoitre the terrain. And they realize very rapidly that Hastings is a kind of natural trap, because it is open to attack from the sea. Equally, this single road leading northwards to London is so fringed on either side by creeks that it is the only way out from Hastings. There is no other way to escape it. And that in turn means that if there is an amphibious attack, so if Harold comes down along the road from London with his infantry, and if a naval force attacks Hastings from the south, then the Normans will be surrounded. So in lots of ways, it's an insane place for him to stay. William orders, inevitably, a castle to be built at Hastings. So the Normans have now built one at Pevensey, they've now built one at Hastings. And he sends his horsemen out to ravage the villages that surround Hastings. Hastings is in Sussex, and Sussex is Harold's native county. So there's clearly good propaganda value to be had for William in burning down the villages that Harold properly should be defending. But it does seem kind of madness for the Normans to stay in Hastings because the risk of being trapped there is so enormous. And why, having brought all their horses, you know, all this proficiency they have in building makeshift castles, why would they stay there? Why are they not spilling out across Sussex? Because they are massively risking a pitched battle if they do stay there. And the Norman way of war is to avoid battles. You know, we'd mentioned William had only ever fought in one battle. And William of Poitiers describes the Norman way of war, that it is to strike fear by frequent, lengthy expeditions across enemy territory, to lay waste harvests, fields and halls, to plant castles and garrisons wherever they would cause maximum damage, to overwhelm the enemy by engulfing him in a great multitude of troubles. And Harold, when he's brought the news of William's landing, he knows that is the Norman way of war.
- [18:13]
Tom Holland
Okay, in that case, given that the Normans have this very tried and tested way of waging war that actually always works for them, why is William doing something so unorthodox? Why is he staying port? And why is he not going and harrying everybody and building castles and laying waste to the countryside and all the stuff that he would normally do when he was fighting in France.
- [18:32]
Dominic Sandbrook
I think it goes back to what we talked about in a previous episode, that William knows the only way he can possibly secure the crown of England is by defeating and killing Harold in a pitched battle. And to draw Harold into a battle, he has to give Harold the serious prospect that he'll be able to wipe William out. So, in a sense, what William is doing is offering himself and his army up as bait. And of course, it is a completely desperate gamble because he knows that he's staking everything he's achieved over the course of his rule. In fact, he's staking his own life. But he has invaded England in the conviction that God is on his side. And what he is aiming to do is to put that conviction to the test.
- [19:13]
Tom Holland
And you really think that affects his strategy? That he thinks because God is with me, I'm gonna change the way I fight and risk everything on one throw the dice? Or do you think he just thinks the only way of doing this actually, is to risk everything on one throw the dice and also God's with me. So that's brilliant, too.
- [19:30]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, I think it's both.
- [19:31]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [19:31]
Dominic Sandbrook
I mean, it is excruciatingly dangerous, but he has no choice. I think he knows how formidable the resources that England commands are and he, I think, doesn't trust his capabilities to defeat them.
- [19:46]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [19:46]
Dominic Sandbrook
With winter closing in, so therefore he has to have the battle.
- [19:50]
Tom Holland
Yeah, I was wondering about that, because the harrying and stuff, you can do that if you've got a base to go back to, but if he doesn't really have a base and he doesn't have a heartland there, you know, that's a kind of weird strategy, to just be rampaging randomly around the country with nowhere to. To hole up in. I guess.
- [20:06]
Dominic Sandbrook
Right. He needs to bring the English to submit before winter kicks in. And there's a further dimension to this, which is that there's a kind of game of bluff and double bluff being played between William and Harold, because, of course, Harold has been on a spying mission to Normandy. So he has seen the Norman way of war. He is going to act on his expectations as to what the Normans will do. And what Harold thinks the Normans will do is to send their horsemen fanning out across the heartlands of Wessex, plundering granaries, seizing the harvest, torching villages and rough and ready castles being built along the kind of the trace lines of all this devastation. That is Harold's nightmare. And when the news is brought to him in York that Must be what he immediately thinks is going to happen. And so he thinks, you know, he's got to spare his falcon Folden, his, His people and his native land from such a fate. And I think it's possible to imagine that William is kind of outsmarting him and thinking, yeah, that is what Harold will think, that is what will draw him south, that is what will lure him into staking all on a pitched batt that actually Harold otherwise probably would not have risked.
- [21:20]
Tom Holland
Right, so, because it does seem weird that Harold, when he's got his, his men are exhausted, the whole of the country is with him, that he doesn't just wait. And I suppose he's thinking, you know, I just can't afford to have him rampaging around the countryside. And, you know, and there's also this issue of the harvest, right, they haven't brought in the harvest, that everything is delayed. If people start to starve, then, you know, that will undermine the legitimacy of his regime, all of that kind of thing. So that must be playing on his mind as well.
- [21:47]
Dominic Sandbrook
All the sources agree that Harold returns from York at a pretty furious pace. And when he reaches London, he does not wait for troops that he has summoned. He's not prepared to sit it out. And both his mother and his brother Gearth urge him to delay his advance, but he won't. I. I think the reason for that is that he wants to keep William bottled up. And the reason that William is staying where he is is because William is thinking that this is what Harrold is going to be doing.
- [22:17]
Tom Holland
Right?
- [22:17]
Dominic Sandbrook
So I think William is outsmarting Harrold and so Harold, he has his brother Gearth with him, he has his brother Leofwine with him. I don't think he has Edwin and Morcar with him. Maybe he does. It's not clear. Their presence isn't mentioned.
- [22:30]
Tom Holland
Makes sense to leave him in the north. I mean, the north's only just been recaptured.
- [22:33]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah, I think so. Anyway, he decides that he's going to accept the bait. He's going to go and confront William. And so it is on the evening of the 13th of October that scouts come galloping into the Norman camp, reporting that white dust has been seen in the distance and the usurper is closing in.
- [22:52]
Tom Holland
Crikey, it's exciting. And the interesting thing here is that you say William has outsmarted Harold, but Harold has stolen a march on William. He's arrived far, far more quickly than William expected. I mean, in the last episode we poured a little bit of skeptic not Scorned. But we were a tiny bit sceptical about some of the stories about Harold's speed going up to Stamford Bridge. But coming back down, he really has kind of beaten all land speed records. And, you know, the sources we have suggest that William is genuinely discomforted by this. There's a lot of confusion in the Norman camp. They didn't expect the Saxons to arrive so quickly.
- [23:25]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah. So he has to call back all the people who are out foraging. He gives his men a kind of hurried command to prepare for battle that evening. And so as dusk settles over, the Norman camp, swept by clamor and confusion, and William, it is said, puts his mail shirt on the wrong way. And again, this is seen as a potentially a bad omen.
- [23:46]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [23:47]
Dominic Sandbrook
But this sense in which William and Harold are playing chess with each other continues because William, rather than staying in Hastings, he is now resolved to try and take Harold by surprise. So what he says to his men is to take the road from Hastings, even though it is now getting dark, to advance along this road, you know, with the marshes on either side, and to go out from Hastings with its castle, with its ships, with its opportunities for, you know, escaping back across the Channel to go inland and to try and meet the English before the English are ready for battle. So they march through the night, three, four, five miles and steadily to their right beyond the dense woods on their flank. The sky is lightning. Dawn breaks. Still no sign of the enemy. And then at around 8 o'clock, this incredible scene that you read from the Carmen, the sight of the English emerging from a wood onto a hill, their spears glittering. And I think it's hard not to imagine that William, at that moment, as you might have said, if you've done this in Adventures in Time, permitted himself perhaps a thin wolfish smile.
- [25:01]
Tom Holland
Yeah. His cold eyes glittered with greed.
- [25:04]
Dominic Sandbrook
Because what he is seeing is that Harold's men are still assembling. They haven't drawn up their battle line, and clearly they are assuming that they're going to have time to advance on Hastings and take the Normans by surprise. But instead, it's the Normans who have taken the English by surprise. And William doesn't hesitate. He sends his archers, he sends his horsemen towards the hill on which the English are massing. And they haven't yet kind of formed their shield wall, so they are very vulnerable to arrows to see what can be inflicted on them before the shield wall is fully formed. It is shortly after 8am on the 14th of October, 1066, and the battle of Hastings has begun.
- [25:47]
Tom Holland
Crikey. We've had a lot of cliffhangers on the Rest Is History in the last 750 episodes. But surely this is the greatest cliffhanger in all English history. Return after the break to discover what happens at the Battle of Hastings.
- [26:04]
Dominic Sandbrook
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- [28:33]
Tom Holland
With everything hanging in ominous suspense and the dread scourge of death still waiting to start its reaping of the battlefield, a Norman knight, great souled and valiant in the extreme, rode out before the countless army of the Duke. He cried out words of encouragement to the men of France and dampened the spirits of the English. Then, tossing his sword up high into the air, he juggled with it. A certain Englishman, witnessing this solitary figure emerge from the serried ranks of the Normans and make sport with his sword, was fired with the ardor proper to a soldier scorning his own life. He sprang forward to meet his death. The juggler, who went by the name of Taillefer, spurred his horse forwards as the Englishman came within range. He ran the Englishman's shield through with his sharp headed lance and hacked off the head from the fallen body with his sword. Then, turning towards his fellow warriors, he lifted up his trophy and demonstrated to them that they had had the best of the opening of the battle. All rejoiced and at the same time called upon the Lord. So that, according to the author of the Song of the Battle of Hastings, the Carmen was how the Battle of Hastings began. And again, Tom, it does have to me the quality of a story that I think I've heard many times before in battles stretching back thousands of years. But you are, for once, very unusual in your own episodes. You are less skeptical.
- [30:10]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, clearly there are problems with it, because we do know that the battle actually begins with William's archers raining arrows on the unformed shield wall of the English.
- [30:19]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [30:20]
Dominic Sandbrook
And as you say, Taifer's juggling sounds like something that you get from a chivalric romance. And in fact, later accounts of it make it explicit. So one of them says that Tayopha sang before the Duke of Charlemagne and Roland, you know, this great epic.
- [30:35]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [30:36]
Dominic Sandbrook
Of chivalry and knighthood that was so popular in France that he's consciously modeling himself on that. And this echo is a trend that you definitely see in William of Poitiers, who is always comparing William not so much to figures from chivalric romance, but to figures from antiquity. And later historians do that too. So William of Malmesbury, there's an absolutely classic example. He describes how William steps out from his ship, wades through the English waters onto the beach at Pevensey, and that as he lands, he stumbles, and a knight watching him says, it's all right, look, he is holding up sand in his hands. He has England in his grasp. And this echoes a scene from Suetonius's Life of Julius Caesar where Julius Caesar does exactly the same. And it may well influence a similar story in Snorri's account of Harald Hardrada. So there's this sense of, you know, these kind of episodes being recycled and recycled.
- [31:30]
Tom Holland
The sagas are a little bit like Bond films and there's a slight element of this here, isn't there?
- [31:35]
Dominic Sandbrook
Possibly. But there is an alternative explanation, which is maybe the Normans are actually knowingly influenced by, say, chivalric romance or the lives of Julius Caesar or whatever, and that it's impacting their behavior. And you might say that a pitched battle, precisely because it is so rare, is the perfect opportunity to make a name for yourself. And again, just to reiterate, the Carmen is written probably only a few months after the Battle of Hastings. Is it likely he'd have made it up completely? I don't know. So I am less sceptical about this than I might normally be. And I like the idea, you know, that knights and maybe even William himself are consciously modelling themselves on figures from the past. And it is interesting that again and again William is being compared to Julius Caesar because, of course, Julius Caesar had led a successful invasion of Britain. I don't know.
- [32:31]
Tom Holland
Well, people always have models at the back of their minds, don't they, that they try to live up to. And as you point out in your notes, everybody who goes into this battle, they'd fought in battles before, but they also have an image in their minds of how they think people ought to behave in battles. And they're conscious of themselves. They're conscious that behind them are centuries of tradition and history and heroism and whatnot. So we talked about how Harald Hardrada had his great banner, the land waster. I mean, Harold Godwinson has his banner. And that in itself is a kind of, I don't want to say a kind of cosplay. But, you know, you have a brilliant banner because that's what you think people do. And he's got his fighting man, hasn't he?
- [33:10]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yes.
- [33:11]
Tom Holland
And also the wyvern.
- [33:12]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yes. So the wyvern is a two legged dragon. And again, this is a banner that reaches back centuries. So just as the Normans may well be modeling themselves on figures from ancient Rome, Harald is drawing on traditions that derive from his Danish side. So his mother is Danish. So, you know, the fighting man, the banners, all this kind of stuff. But also these are traditions that reach back centuries and centuries. In Wessex and on both sides, the combatants are aware of themselves as protagonists in very, very ancient traditions. That is why it is hard, I think, to distinguish the element of kind of overt melodrama from the narratives, because I think that many of the fighters are themselves kind of consciously playing with that.
- [34:00]
Tom Holland
Right. Yeah.
- [34:01]
Dominic Sandbrook
The other thing about Harald's banners, we know that they are definitely there because they are described as being planted on the highest point of the hill below which the Norman army is gathered. And in due course, Harold will die there and William will build a great abbey, and the altar of this abbey will be planted on the site where Harold died. That is the one kind of aspect of the English dispositions that we can be relatively confident in. But what about the rest of the English army? How are they kind of drawn up? And this is very, very contested. It's a topic that's been kind of a live one for well over a century. So Freeman, the Regis professor of history at Oxford, who we opened this whole series with. Yeah, he thought that the English battle stretched from the summit of the hill all the way down the slope to a valley at the foot of the hill where there was very boggy terrain.
- [34:59]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [35:00]
Dominic Sandbrook
And that's one theory. The other theory, which became much more popular in the 20th century, is that the English were bunched on the crest of the hill and that their flanks were kind of protected by the rough vegetation that the author of the Carmen mentioned specifically.
- [35:13]
Tom Holland
Okay.
- [35:14]
Dominic Sandbrook
And opinion on this has kind of swung this way and that. And I would say probably the consensus is shifting back to the idea that the English battle line wasn't just on the hill, but went right the way down to this kind of slightly boggy valley. And that is under the influence of Michael Lawson's definitive book on the battle, came out in 2002, mentioned it several times. And he points out the Carmen explicitly states that the English occupied the valley as well as the hill. I've mentioned that the hill is called Senlac.
- [35:43]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [35:44]
Dominic Sandbrook
There are historians who say, well, this is a totally made up name. It's very late improbable that this was the name by which it was known. And they point out that Sanlac, I mean, it could be a lake of blood, so it could be a name that is applied to it after the battle. But Lawson suggests that in Old English it would mean Sandy Brook, and that perhaps this is what the English were defending at the foot of the hill. Because right to this day, if you go to the battlefield, you'll find that the foot of the hill is kind of very boggy. And he points out as well that there's evidence in the Bayer tapestry, which has a scene in which French cavalry are being brought down by what look like stakes in a body of water. So the implication of that, if Lawson is right, is that Harald's army must have been pretty large. I mean, you know, numbering in the tens of thousands. It is true that the English sources that are written in the early 12th century, so William of Malmsbury, Henry of Huntington, all these people we've had cause to mention, they say that Harold's army is. Is small, that it's small relative to the Normans. But I think you'd have to say they would say that because they don't want to admit that a large English army has been wiped out.
- [36:55]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [36:55]
Dominic Sandbrook
And it is certainly the case, as we've talked about before, that it is well within the capabilities of the English state to summon an army in tens of thousands.
- [37:04]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [37:04]
Dominic Sandbrook
And even though we're told that Harold, you know, he didn't wait for all the men that could have come, even so, I think there's no reason to doubt that he could have been in command of a really sizable army. But the honest truth is, is that that certainty on this is impossible. We just don't know.
- [37:20]
Tom Holland
Do you know what baffles me about historians of battles? It's always baffled me. They hate saying we don't know. They'll spend decades fussing about, like, where they're standing this side of the field or that side of the field. I mean, come on, who cares? We know how the battle ended, and that's what matters. And it's a weird thing to say about other historians, but this sort of battle, this mad battle pedantry, when you cannot possibly know, just fills me with total bewilderment.
- [37:46]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, but I think also with Hastings, there is one thing that we definitely know, which is that the English have occupied a position which William and his forces find impossible to outflank. So I think that's kind of the debate. You have to explain how and why that is the case.
- [38:02]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [38:02]
Dominic Sandbrook
Because clearly that is the key to the whole course of the battle.
- [38:06]
Tom Holland
The English are on this hill. Right. And dislodging them is going to be a hell of a job. Plus, so if they fight and it's inconclusive, which a lot of battles can be quite inconclusive, can't they? That's a bad blow for William because he really only has one go at this.
- [38:23]
Dominic Sandbrook
Effectively. Harold has then won, I think.
- [38:26]
Tom Holland
Okay.
- [38:26]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah.
- [38:27]
Tom Holland
Oh, this is such a tragic story. This is.
- [38:29]
Dominic Sandbrook
So the job of the English is to hold the hill.
- [38:31]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [38:32]
Dominic Sandbrook
And by holding the hill, you're blocking the advance along on the road to London.
- [38:36]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [38:36]
Dominic Sandbrook
You're bottling the Normans up. And if you hold the hill, then you can wait for reinforcements and you can wait for that fleet that is sailing towards Hastings.
- [38:44]
Tom Holland
There must be a part of you, Tom, that's tempted to change the end of this story, just it makes it a better episode.
- [38:49]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, we'll see. There are twists still to come, but clearly the Normans know this and they, they know that their job is not just to clear the English out of the way, but I think specifically to kill Harold, because Harold is the key. Eliminate him and then the way to the English throne is open for William. And everything that happens on the 14th of October 1066, this terrible blood soaked day I think is determined by those two mutually opposed objectives. And the key to the English defense is something we've already mentioned. It's this shield wall. Trained infantry, probably several, maybe many ranks deep. And certainly in the front line of the shield wall, the English infantry are at least as well armed and armored as the Normans. So they've got spears, they've got swords, they've got their famous axes, they're wearing chainmail helmets, shields. And even though many undoubtedly do fall to the Norman archers as they're struggling to form their shield wall, once they have taken up position, once those shields have been locked, then their position is pretty, I mean, pretty formidable.
- [40:00]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [40:00]
Dominic Sandbrook
And you know, I mean it's kudos to the Normans because they're at the foot of the hill, they've got to go up this very rough terrain, there's this shield wall, they know how formidable English infantry is. BLARING OF TRUMPETS the English are beating their weapons on the shields. They've got their brilliant war cry of.
- [40:24]
Tom Holland
I mean, terrifying, like a Canadian talking, trying to say the word out.
- [40:30]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yes. Ice hockey team.
- [40:31]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [40:32]
Dominic Sandbrook
So what are the Norman tactics faced with this? They obviously have their war trumpets too. They have their battle cry, Deus A, which is kind of basically God's on our side, I think is less intimidating than, yeah, rubbish myself, but. And also William has two particular divisions, two particular types of, of men that Harold doesn't. So these are archers, including crossbowmen. The English don't have crossbowmen. They don't seem to have had many archers. Certainly on the Bay of Tapestry there's only one English archer. And of course the Normans have cavalry. And as the author of the Carmen said in that Opening passage, they have left their horses at the rear. So they have horses for riding to battle, but they don't use them actually in battle. And the traditional understanding of how Hastings plays out is that the archers fire volleys at the English lines. Presumably people fall, and the cavalry then charge up the hill to try and inflict damage on the kind of the resulting gaps in the shield wall. And this is what is shown on the Bay of Tapestry. It's what's shown in the Ladybird book, which was my kind of introduction to this. It's pretty much taken for granted that this is the rhythm of the day. But again, to quote Michael Lawson, who's being cheerily revisionist about this, he writes, as far as cavalry goes, one can acknowledge that possession of it gave William tactical options not available to Harold, and that at points in the battle, it may have been of great importance without concluding that it was inevitable that its actions would prove decisive.
- [42:00]
Tom Holland
So what's he mean by that? What's he basically saying?
- [42:02]
Dominic Sandbrook
So, essentially, what he's saying is that cavalry may well not have played the key role in the battle that traditionally people have thought. And he gives various reasons for thinking this. So the hill is pretty steep, the terrain is rough. This is always being highlighted. And I think that the combination of those circumstances would have made it difficult for cavalry to make the kind of charge that you see illustrated on the Bayer tapestry. Also, the fact the battle lasts as long as it does, because. Spoiler, it, basically, it goes on all day from, you know, early morning to sunset.
- [42:38]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [42:39]
Dominic Sandbrook
It suggests that if the Norman cavalry are galloping up the hill and attacking the English army, they're not being very effective. They are probably not doing mass charges with, you know, their lances couched beneath their arms in the manner of King Arthur's knights? That's a style of fighting that hasn't yet been perfected. And also, bear in mind the horses are not wearing armor, so they are very, very vulnerable to, you know, if they're going up into close quarters, you've got all these kind of terrifying people with their mustaches and their axes, Right? Yeah.
- [43:08]
Tom Holland
It's only so many times you can coax a horse up a hill to charge a shield wall. I mean, I would guess the number of times is probably one.
- [43:13]
Dominic Sandbrook
And so the implication of that is that actually Hastings may have been much more of a clash of infantry against infantry than has traditionally been assumed. So, again, to quote Lawson, could it be, despite the prominence given by the Bayer tapestry to the French cavalry, that Hastings was so long and Hard fought because much of the day was taken up by struggles between dense bodies of infantry on both sides, of a type with which the Anglo Saxons had long been familiar. And because the Normans had retained their Scandinavian ancestors practice of deploying their foot soldiers in this fashion too, again, we can't know for sure, but I think, I mean, when you read it, you think, yes, actually that does instinctively make sense simply because the battle goes on so long.
- [43:52]
Tom Holland
Yeah, that does make sense. And so what we can say plausibly about the battle is that for hours and hours, it's like a sort of cross between a battle and a rugby match, or sort of old fashioned, that kind of football that people play in kind of Derbyshire villages where everybody dies, where for hours and hours the Normans throwing themselves against this shield wall, and the English shield wall is basically holding firm. And it's just a grueling battle of kind of, It's World War I, but fought out in the 11th century, kind of a grueling battle of attrition. And, you know, plausibly it could have ended in a stalemate, but it doesn't. And part of this is because, well, there's this very famous scene. So tell us about this very famous scene, which involves a lot of helmet removal.
- [44:36]
Dominic Sandbrook
Right. So the basic rhythm of the day, as you said, is not in dispute. William of Poitiers sums it up that it was an unheard of kind of combat with one side launching ceaseless attacks and maneuvers, the other standing firmly as though rooted to the ground. And I think the sporting metaphor is very good. It's a football team, you know, solid wall of defense, trying to keep out strikers. It's, you know, all of that. But as you say, there are then two dramatic developments. And the first of these, we don't know exactly when it occurs, but presumably after a good deal of fighting, William's left wing is in trouble. It's flagging against the English battle line and it starts to break and run down the hill. And at the same time, a rumor sweeps the Norman lines that William himself is dead. And William rides up to where his men are running in route down the hill and he supposedly takes off his helmet. He cries out that he is alive and he manages to halt the route. And William of Poitiers, writing about his hero, says that he strengthens his men in resolve and they then return to the attack with renewed vigor.
- [45:42]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [45:43]
Dominic Sandbrook
So that seems to have been a genuine route. But then following that, the French lines, the Norman lines, they seem to break again. And this happens twice. And These two breaks, we're told, are feigned. They are designed to lure the English out of position so that the shield wall is broken. And sure enough, the English, rather than holding to their defensive positions, think that there is a chance to finish the battle off once and for all. And they follow the retreating enemy down the side of the hill. But it's a trap. Their ranks are broken and they are now easy prey for the Normans on their horses. And this is where cavalry really comes into its own. And perhaps thousands are killed. I mean, we don't know. But certainly the slaughter is. Is very great. And this is the great error the English make, and it's an error that people may remember. We did an episode on the Battle of Tor where Charles Martel and the Franks are praised for not breaking their line, even though they know they've won. And likewise at Agincourt, Henry V does not let his line break. He keeps his men to their positions. When you're holding a defensive position, breaking that defensive position is to give the enemy the chance of victory. And that is essentially what seems to have happened. And presumably this is happening in the late afternoon, because we know that as the shadows lengthen, as the sun starts to set, the fighting becomes more and more intense. William, we're told, has three horses killed unto him. The fourth horse that he's given is presented to him by Eustace of Boulogne, who people may remember a few shows back, which precipitated the exile of the Godwins. So he's a guy who has form with the Godwins and the Godwinsons. So he gives William his fourth horse. And it's now perhaps that Harold's two brothers, Leofwine and Girth, are both slain. And according to the Carmen, Geirth is killed by William himself. So William's feats of arms, we will. We'll be looking at them. So Geith and Leofwine are both dead, but even with them cut down, it still seems that the English line is holding. And we have to presume that Harald at this point is still alive, because it seems that as long as he is there, the English have hope. By this point, it's clear the English are not going to win. But as we said, if they can just hold their position, win through to the knight force, a draw that effectively would be as good as a victory.
- [48:10]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [48:11]
Dominic Sandbrook
And William would. Then, you know, he'd be isolated, lots of his men would be wounded. He'd have the sea at his back, he'd have a fleet coming towards him, you know, he can't afford this stalemate. And so it is crucial for him and for the Normans to finish off Harold. Absolutely essential. And this is why I think the death of Harald has this kind of iconic, almost legendary quality to it.
- [48:35]
Tom Holland
Homeric quality.
- [48:36]
Dominic Sandbrook
Homeric quality to it, because it really is the key moment in the battle and therefore in the whole process of the conquest. And of course, the story of how he dies is one of the most famous in all of English history that an arrow hits him in the eye. And where does this story come from? So famously, it is supposedly shown on that Bayer tapestry. You have two figures, one seemingly with an arrow in his eye. He's got his hand to the shaft of the arrow. It looks like trying to pull it out. And then there's another is being struck down by a Norman horseman. And above these two figures, you have the Latin text, Hic Harold Rex interfectus est. Here, King Harald is killed. Is this evidence for the fact that Harald was killed by an arrow in his eye? You might think so when I tell you that around 1080, just over a decade after the Battle of Hastings, Amartus of Monte Cassino, the guy who wrote about how brilliant the Normans were, the monk of Monte Cassino, he reports that Harold had died after being hit in the eye. And William of Malmsbury, in the following century, the English writer, he reports that the arrow point had gone straight through his. His eye socket and deep into his brains and that this had finished him. So listeners might think, well, this seems to be an open and shut case, but this is medieval history, obviously. Obviously it's not. That would be far too easy. So the Bayer tapestry, there are problems with it. So first of all, which of the two figures is King Harold? Is it the one with the arrow in his eye or is it the one who's been cut down with.
- [50:10]
Tom Holland
People often say these are two scenes involving the same person.
- [50:13]
Dominic Sandbrook
So like a strip cartoon.
- [50:14]
Tom Holland
Like a strip cartoon. But they're not. Because they look different. Is that right?
- [50:17]
Dominic Sandbrook
They got different kids. They're clearly not the same person. I mean, unless, you know, Harold's put down one weapon and picked up another after being hit by the. I mean, I don't think so. There's an even more damaging detail, which is that we know the tapestry was very heavily restitched in the 19th century, and we have an illustration, a copy of it that was made in 1730. And this shows that the warrior who seemingly has the arrow in his eye seems actually to be holding a spear.
- [50:47]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [50:48]
Dominic Sandbrook
And obviously, that is kind of problem if you're adducing it as evidence that Harold was hit in the eye, Amartus. So, I mean, he's writing in 1080. So is that evidence, again, a problem, that we don't have the original Latin text, we only have a much later French translation. So, again, that may be untrustworthy. And the intriguing thing is that the very earliest sources, so that's the common. And William of Poitiers, they do not make any mention at all of the arrow in Harold's eye.
- [51:18]
Tom Holland
Although William of Malmesby does explicitly mention it, though.
- [51:22]
Dominic Sandbrook
He does.
- [51:22]
Tom Holland
It's not like we can say, well, okay, it didn't happen. There are sources that hint that it does. So.
- [51:28]
Dominic Sandbrook
But William of Malmesbury is writing, you know, I mean, two generations later.
- [51:31]
Tom Holland
Yeah, but he must have got it from somewhere. He's not going to make it up, is he?
- [51:34]
Dominic Sandbrook
Clearly, there are traditions, I think, floating around.
- [51:36]
Tom Holland
So what about the other traditions? So William of Poitiers, who's writing is a very early source, he says nothing at all about the means and method of Harold's death, does he?
- [51:48]
Dominic Sandbrook
No, he doesn't.
- [51:49]
Tom Holland
But. Yeah, so let's put. Forget him.
- [51:51]
Dominic Sandbrook
Well, no, let's not forget him, because I think, you know, the dog that doesn't bark in the night is a clue.
- [51:56]
Tom Holland
Well, here's a dog that does bark. This is your Carmen, your song of the Battle of Hastings. So you said, written what, Easter, 1067, probably so. Quite early.
- [52:05]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah.
- [52:06]
Tom Holland
And this story is very different. So tell us this story.
- [52:09]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah, so this is so interesting. So it is very, very different to the traditional arrow in the eye story. So what the Carmen says is that William and Eustace of Boulogne, So those two again, the Normans and their French allies are pressing for victory. And William and Eustace see Harold standing undaunted, and to quote the Carmen, fiercely hacking to pieces those Normans who were besetting him. And William and Eustace are joined by two other men, both of whom are named two other warriors. And the four men so led by William then attack Harold en masse. And to quote the Carmen, the first, that would be William, cleaving his breast through the shield with his point, drenched the earth with a gushing torrent of blood. The second smote off his head below the protection of the helmet, and the third pierced the innards of his belly with his lance. The fourth hewed off his thigh and bore away the severed limb. And adding to the general quality of the violence of the scene is the strong likelihood that thigh is a euphemism for genitals in that account.
- [53:11]
Tom Holland
So the severed limb is. They basically castrated him. Correct.
- [53:15]
Dominic Sandbrook
Yeah.
- [53:16]
Tom Holland
Crikey. I hope that version's not true. Cause I like King Harold.
- [53:19]
Dominic Sandbrook
I mean, what are we to make of this? It has to be said that this account has been widely discounted on the basis that if William really had taken part in this attack on Harold and felt him, you know, this would be a feat of arms to be bruited across not just Normandy, but the whole of Christendom. But there is a slight issue because actually, is it the kind of feat of arms that William would want to be promoted and sung about? So one historian who did trust the story in the Carmen, who did believe it and was utterly disgusted by it, like you, Dominic, was our old friend E.A. freeman, the Regis professor of history at Oxford in the late 19th century. You know, he wrote this great six volume history of the Norman Conquest. And in his third volume, which recounts the Battle of Hastings, he observes that William himself seems to have been ashamed of what had happened. And citing William of Malmsbury, Freeman writes about the mutilations inflicted on Harold. He writes, such was the measure which the boasted chivalry of Normandy meted out to a prince who had never dealt harshly or cruelly by either a domestic or a foreign foe. I mean, the Welsh might disagree with that, but whatever. But we must add in justice to the Conqueror that he pronounced the last and most brutal insult to be a base and cowardly act and he expelled the perpetrator from his army. So that would be the guy who supposedly carrying off maybe the genitals, we don't know. And there is a more recent historian, Mark Morris, in his book on the Norman Conquest, who likewise believes the story and points out further reasons for doubting that William, if he really had taken part in the butchery of his great rival for the throne, why he would not have wanted it proclaimed abroad. William is fighting beneath a banner that has been given him by the Pope himself. And we've talked about how this is very controversial. The papal backing for the invasion of a Christian country. And for William to cut down and butcher an anointed king would only have enhanced the criticisms. Dominic, you described the death of St Olaf, the martyrdom at Stiklestad.
- [55:33]
Tom Holland
Yeah.
- [55:34]
Dominic Sandbrook
And actually the description of the death of Olaf at that is very similar.
- [55:40]
Tom Holland
Yeah. Surrounded by his enemies, Calvarneson, Thorir, the hound, with his magic cloak, they stab him and the bloke plunges a spear into his Leg and then his shoulder and all this. That would be an interesting claim. Do you think that the death of St Olaf is modeled on the real life death of. Of Harold?
- [55:55]
Dominic Sandbrook
I think that it's reminiscent of a kind of brutality, a style of fighting that was celebrated by the Vikings and is still being celebrated in the sagas in the 12th and 13th centuries, but is no longer celebrated in a Latin Europe that has become increasingly chivalric.
- [56:15]
Tom Holland
Right.
- [56:15]
Dominic Sandbrook
William is behaving like a hero from a Norse epic in the Carmen. He is not behaving like a chevalier. And I think that you could see, therefore, that there might be reasons why in the wake of Hastings, he might have wanted to cover it up. And this may even be a reason why the Carmen is, you know, ends up buried for as long as it does. You know, it's a bit of an embarrassment. The author hasn't got the memo. Personally, I think the Carmen's account, again, it's the earliest, is likelier than the fact that Harold died with a. An arrow in his eye.
- [56:46]
Tom Holland
It's ultimately not as good, though. The narrow, we love the arrow, I.
- [56:50]
Dominic Sandbrook
Suppose, but the quality of brutality, I mean, is very, very true to the brutality and horror that is the fate of the English in the battle. Because with Harold dead, the English are clearly defeated. And the strong probability is that it's going to be difficult for the English to carry on the fight now against the victorious Normans. You'll note that I heroically resisted the temptation to open this episode with a reading from Millennium, but I can't resist the temptation to finish it. So go for it. We don't know how Harrol died exactly, but one thing is certain. That Norman horseman trampling Harold down left him as just one among a heap of corpses piled around the toppled royal banner, just one among the fallen on a day of slaughter fit to put even Stamford Bridge into the shade as darkness fell and what was left of the English turned at last and fled into the gathering darkness to be hunted throughout the night by William's exultant cavalry. It was the reeking of blood and emptied bowels, together with the moans and sobs of the wounded that bore prime witness to the butchery William had gambled and he had won.
- [58:05]
Tom Holland
Terrible scenes there at the Battle of Hastings. So we will be back for the final episode in this mighty series, the conclusion of the darkest moment in human history, the Norman Conquest of England. And of course, if you want to hear that episode right now, and you're not a member of the Rest Is History Club, you know what to do. You sign up@therealStishistory.com. goodbye. Goodbye.