Kings and Conquerors

Background

The Normans’ ancestors were ‘Norsemen’ from Scandinavia. They were Vikings: a generic term for Norwegian, Swedish and Danish seafaring invaders who terrorised and controlled much of northern Europe from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. They first conquered England in 1013, led by Sweyn I, and again in 1066 as Normans.In 912, fertile lands in northern France captured by the Viking leader Rollo were ceded to him in a treaty with King Charles III of France. These `Northmen’ became known as Normans and their French territory was called Normandy. They adopted Christianity, and became powerful and prosperous rulers. Norman knights provided land and funding for the establishment of many impressive churches and monasteries. In 1036 William II, born at Falaise Castle, became Duke of Normandy.

Edward the Confessor, king of England, had close ties with Normandy. His maternal grandfather was Duke Richard I of Normandy, who was the paternal great-grandfather of Duke William of Normandy.On 5 January 1066, Edward died without an heir. William claimed that Edward had promised him the English throne. However, the Anglo-Saxon Witan (Great Council) elected Harold Godwin, Earl of Wessex — the country’s most powerful lord — as king. Norman chroniclers claimed that Harold had sworn an oath of allegiance to William in 1064, but Harold repudiated the oath.

Harold swears oath (Bayeux Tapestry)

William, insisting on his right to the throne, had little difficulty assembling an army to invade England when he promised English land to his knights. His promise to improve the church in England also earned him the support of the Pope. William’s cause appeared as a just crusade. Meanwhile Harold organised his Saxon army to defend England’s south coast.

Statue of William, Falaise

On 28 September 1066, William’s army landed in England at Pevensey Bay, near Hastings, without opposition. A week earlier, Harold’s army had been forced to hurry away to Yorkshire where a Norwegian army had landed to fight for their king’s claim to the throne.According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, came by surprise with all his fleet up the Ouse towards York. There Earl Edwin and Earl Morcar fought against him, but the Norwegians won. Then Harold took the Norwegians by surprise beyond York at Stamford Bridge. After a very fierce fight, King Harald Hardrada of Norway was killed.Victorious but exhausted after the battle with the Norse invaders at Stamford Bridge and a 250-mile march back to the south of England, Harold encountered William’s Norman army near Hastings on 14 October 1066.The Battle of Hastings

Over 7,000 men fought long and hard at the Battle of Hastings. Harold positioned his elite troops — ‘housecarls’ — on top of Senlac Hill, near Hastings. Their line held against all the efforts of Norman archers.Saddles and stirrups greatly aided William’s noble knights on horseback, who wielded long and deadly lances and carried kite-shaped shields that protected the body and legs. Infantry in chain mail and archers armed with the old and deadly Viking short bow accompanied the knights.Eventually, the Normans feigned a retreat, and when Harold’s foot-soldiers broke ranks to pursue them down the hill, Norman knights wrought havoc among them. When Harold fell, mortally wounded, the battle was effectively over. Some 4,000 lay dead on the battlefield.

William spent the following weeks in thanksgiving, recuperation and consolidation of Norman power. The coronation of King William I of England was held in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. The Abbey had been built by Edward the Confessor. To give thanks to God for victory, William ordered that an abbey should be built on the site of Harold’s death. The ruins of Battle Abbey and the battlefield can still be seen today.

Shortly after the battle, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William, ordered the story of the Norman Conquest to be embroidered in the Bayeux Tapestry (1067—1082), which is preserved in the Musée de la Reine Mathilde in Bayeux, France. Its 79 linen panels, 70 metres long, record the reasons and preparations for William’s invasion and the Battle of Hastings. It contains 1512 figures in 72 scenes, accompanied by Latin inscriptions. It was probably made in England between 1070 and 1100, and tells the story from the Norman point of view, in more detail than contemporary writings.Another source of information is the twelfth-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Other records created soon after the Battle of Hastings include the Chronicle of Chronicles (before 1118), The Chronicle of Battle Abbey (before 1107), the Acts of the Norman Dukes (1070) and the Acts of William, Duke of the Normans and King of the English (1071—1076).