Battle of Hastings, The

by Harvey Wood, Harriet; Wood, Harriet Harvey

  There is one further factor that should be taken into account in the consideration of these sources. All of them, with the exception of Henry of Huntingdon (a cleric but not a monk) and Snorre Sturlason and just possibly the Bayeux Tapestry, are monastic productions. This has important implications. This was the age of the trial by ordeal, and the justice of a cause was proclaimed by the outcome of the trial. All these authors would have believed devoutly in the divine justice, manifested by the outcome of the trial. English misfortunes and defeats are commonly recorded throughout the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from Alfred’s wars against the Danes onwards, with the formula ‘as God granted it for the sins of the people’. Harold is reported by many of these historians to have exclaimed the night before the battle that God would judge between William and him. To those who wrote about the event afterwards, on both sides, it would appear clear that He had done so.

  NOTES

  i The Hot Gates, Faber 1970, p.20.

  ii The ealdorman, a nobleman who was very often a member of the royal family, was appointed by the king (it was not a hereditary title) and was responsible for the welfare and good government of his shire, for maintaining the king’s rights in it and organizing its defence.

  iii The title ‘Atheling’ generally signified a prince born of the royal blood and eligible, in principle, to become king. It was normally given only to the son of a reigning king.

  iv Handfast marriage was marriage without the benefit of clergy; the term derived from the Old Norse term, handfesta, to strike a bargain by the joining of hands and such marriages were common in England and elsewhere and generally known as marriage more Danico, although the Danes do not seem to have been any more addicted to it than many other nations. The great advantage of it was that it did not prohibit a political or diplomatic marriage at a later date. Cnut’s liaison with Ælfgifu of Northampton was probably such an arrangement, since he was clearly regarded as free to marry Emma during Ælfgifu’s lifetime.

  v Sir Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford 1962, pp.401–02 (cited in future as ‘Stenton’).

  vi Encomium Emmae, ed. Alistair Campbell, Cambridge University Press 1998, pp.41–42. It has been suggested (Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith, Blackwell 1997, p.245) that both Edward and Alfred came, but separately, and that Edward beat a hasty retreat on finding less support than he had expected.

  vii Frank Barlow, Edward the Confessor, 1979, p.72.

  viii Ælfric, Catholic Homilies, (cited in future as Barlow) ed. B. Thorpe, Ælfric Society, London 1844, I, p. 212.

  ix William of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi, (quoted in future as GG), ed. and trans. R. H. C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press 1998, p.19.

  x David C. Douglas, ‘Edward the Confessor, Duke William of Normandy, and the English Succession’, English Historical Review (1953), pp.526 ff.

  xi Eric John, ‘Edward the Confessor and the Norman Succession’, English Historical Review, 371 (1979), pp.255–56.

  xii David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror, University of California Press 1964, pp.59–60.

  xiii The Waltham Chronicle, ed. and trans. Leslie Watkiss and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press 1994, p.45.

  xiv Eric John, op. cit., p.260.

  xv R. Allen Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, Boydell Press 2000, p.114.

  xvi The Life of King Edward who Rests at Westminster, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992 (cited in future as Vita Ædwardi Regis) p.51.

  xvii Richard Gameson points out that this is one of the four times when the bare Tapestry narrative includes any descriptive or adjectival comment, which gives the phrase added significance (‘The Origin, Art and Message of the Bayeux Tapestry’, The Study of the Bayeux Tapestry, ed. R. Gameson, Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge 1997, p.187).

  xviii Eadmer, History of Recent Events in England, trans. Geoffrey Bosanquet, The Cresset Press 1964, p.6.

  xix Ibid., p.8.

  xx Ian W. Walker, Harold, the Last Anglo-Saxon King, Sutton Publishing, Stroud 2004, pp.228–30.

  xxi James Campbell, ‘Norwich’ in M. D. Lobel (ed.), The Atlas of Historic Towns, 1975, II, 1.

  xxii Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, Blackwell, Oxford 2001 (cited in future as Wormald), p.x

  xxiii James Campbell, The Anglo-Saxons, Penguin Books, London 1991, pp.244–45.

  xxiv R. W. Chambers, England Before the Norman Conquest, Longman Green & Co. 1926, pp.229–30.

  xxv Stenton, p.473.

  xxvi GG, p.153.

  xxvii The Beginnings of English Society, Penguin 1982, p.61. I am much indebted to Professor Whitelock’s invaluable book throughout this chapter.

  xxviii There is no similar record of gifts sent to Athelstan four years later when Henry the Fowler, King of Germany, asked for an English bride for his son Otto. Athelstan sent two more of his half-sisters, Eadgyth and Ælfgifu, presumably so that the king could have a choice. Eadgyth was chosen; Ælfgifu was later married to Konrad the Peaceable of Burgundy.

  xxix Historia Anglorum, ed. T. Arnold, London 1879, pp.5–6.

  xxx Ælfric’s Colloquy, ed. G. A. Garmonsway, Methuen’s Old English Library 1961, pp.33–34.

  xxxi C. R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art, Manchester University Press 1982, p.219.

  xxxii Dorothy Whitelock, op. cit., pp.223–24.

  xxxiii Manchester University Press, 1982.

  xxxiv Encomium Emmae Regina, ed. Alistair Campbell, Cambridge University Press 1998, pp.19–21.

  xxxv Dodwell, op. cit., p.30.

  xxxvi Dodwell, op. cit., pp.33–34.

  xxxvii Dodwell, op. cit., p.35.

  xxxviii The precise nature of her relationship has never been clear but was obviously long-standing since it produced several children. It cannot have been blessed by the Church, since Harold was able to make a political marriage to the daughter of Earl Ælfgar in 1066, while Edith was, it is assumed, still alive.

  xxxix Domesday Book: a complete translation, ed. Ann Williams and G. H. Martin, Penguin 2003, p.856.

  xl Ibid., p.410.

  xli op. cit., p.191.

  xlii Asser’s Life of King Alfred, Penguin 1988, p.90.

  xliii James Campbell, Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, Hambleden Press 1986, p.158.

  xliv Frank Barlow, The English Church 1000–1066, Longman 1963, p.38.

  xlv David Bates, William the Conqueror, Tempus 1989, p.159.

  xlvi Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (quoted in future as Eccl. Hist.), ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford 1990, p.39. In fairness he adds that the charter was also witnessed with a cross by William’s uncle Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen, who (one would hope) could have written his name. On the other hand he records, as a matter of surprise, that William’s son Henry ‘acquired some literacy’ when he reached the age for schooling (Ibid., p.215) and thus presumably the soubriquet Beauclerc. The implication that Henry’s brothers failed to do so is inescapable.

  xlvii David Bates, Normandy Before 1066, Longman 1982, p.xiii.

  xlviii trans. R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry, J. M. Dent 1962, pp.100–101.

  xlix trans. R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry, J. M. Dent 1962, p.300.

  l Ibid., p.236.

  li W. P. Ker, The Dark Ages, Nelson 1955, p.57.

  lii Vegetius, De Re Militari, 69.

  liii Richard Abels, Alfred the Great, Pearson Education 1998, pp.198–99.

  liv Domesday Book, p.136.

  lv C. Warren Hollister, Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest, Clarendon Press 1962, p.84.

  lvi English Historical Documents 1042–1189 (quoted in future as EHD), ed. David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway, London 1981, p.905.

  lvii GG, p.107.

  lviii English Historical Review, XXV (1910), 287–93.

  lix R. Allen Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, The Boydell Press 2000, p.39.


  lx ‘Military Service in Normandy before 1066’, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. Matthew Strickland, The Boydell Press 1992, p.29.

  lxi B. S. Bachrach, ‘Some observations on the military administration of the Norman Conquest’, Proceedings of the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, viii.

  lxii GG, p.103.

  lxiii There are many more specialized publications available on the subject.

  lxiv Snorre Sturlason, King Harald’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, Penguin 1966, p.151.

  lxv Ibid., p.148.

  lxvi Wormald, p.133.

  lxvii Barlow, p.240.

  lxviii Barlow, p.246.

  lxix EHD, p.225.

  lxx Ann Williams, Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England, c.500–1066, Macmillan 1999, p.148.

  lxxi EHD, pp.225–26.

  lxxii GG, p.103.

  lxxiii David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror, University of California Press 1964, p.184.

  lxxiv H. A. L. Fisher, History of Europe, Edward Arnold, London 1936, p.199.

  lxxv He was granted the pallium by Pope Benedict X, himself deposed as an ‘intrusive’ pope almost immediately afterwards, which compounded his illegality.

  lxxvi EHD, p. 691.

  lxxvii John Julius Norwich, The Middle Sea, Vintage 2007, p.119.

  lxxviii Catherine Morton, ‘Pope Alexander II and the Norman Conquest’, Latomus, XXXIV, 1975, pp.362–82.

  lxxix Walker, op. cit., p.169.

  lxxx The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, ed. and trans. Eleanor Searle, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford 1980, pp.20–21.

  lxxxi EHD, p.226.

  lxxxii Domesday Book, p.979.

  lxxxiii GG, p.109.

  lxxxiv R. Allen Brown, op. cit., p.135.

  lxxxv Snorre Sturlason, King Harald’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, Penguin 1966, p.147.

  lxxxvi Ibid.

  lxxxvii Ibid., pp.149–50.

  lxxxviii Ibid., p.152.

  lxxxix Guy of Amiens, Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press 1999, p.5. Quoted in future as Carmen.

  xc ‘The Pevensey Campaign: brilliantly executed plan or near disaster?’ in The Battle of Hastings, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and Brewer 1999, p.139.

  xci GG, p.117.

  xcii GG, pp.121–23.

  xciii Vita Ædwardi Regis, p.53.

  xciv John Gillingham, ‘William the Bastard at War’, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. Matthew Strickland, Boydell Press 1992, p.158.

  xcv EHD, p.227.

  xcvi The Waltham Chronicle, p.49.

  xcvii J. F. C. Fuller, ‘The Battle of Hastings 1066’ in The Battle of Hastings, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and Brewer 1999, p.167.

  xcviii It is highly unlikely that cross-bows were used at Hastings and none is illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry. The word ‘balistus’ used by William of Poitiers may mean a sling for stones.

  xcix GG, p.127.

  c Whitelock, Douglas, Lemmon and Barlow, The Norman Conquest, its setting and impact, Eyre and Spottiswoode 1966, pp.107–08.

  ci Ibid., pp.109–10.

  cii R. Allen Brown, ‘The Battle of Hastings’ in The Battle of Hastings, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and Brewer 1999, pp.212–13.

  ciii Bernard S. Bachrach, ‘The Feigned Retreat at Hastings’, in The Battle of Hastings, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and Brewer 1999.

  civ GG, p.137.

  cv R. Howard Bloch, A Needle in the Right Hand of God, Random House 2006, pp.167–69.

  cvi GG, p.139.

  cvii Correspondance de Napoléon 1er (1858–69), vol. 15.

  cviii GG, p.149.

  cix Orderic Vitalis, Ecclesiastical History, ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts 2002, bk. IV, p.203.

  cx Ibid., p.233.

  cxi Ibid., p.351. William did not die until 1087.

  cxii M. Townend, Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relationships between Speakers of Old Norse and Old English, Turnhout, 2002.

  cxiii William of Malmesbury, History of the Kings of England, II,§227.

  cxiv EHD, p.311.

  cxv A detailed account of the survival of Englishmen under the Normans can be found in Ann Williams, The English and the Norman Conquest, Boydell and Brewer 2000.

  cxvi Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford 1962, p.678.

  cxvii N. F. Blake, ‘The genesis of The Battle of Maldon’, Anglo-Saxon England 7 ed. Peter Clemoes, Cambridge University Press 1978, p.124.

  cxviii R. H. C. Davis, ‘The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, EHR, vol. 93, no. 367 (April 1978), pp.241–61.

  cxix ‘Latin Poetry and the Anglo-Norman Court 1066–1135: The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, Journal of Medieval History 15 (1989), pp.39–62.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  PRIMARY TEXTS

  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, ed. Earle and Plummer, OUP 1952, 2 vols.

  Ælfric, Colloquy, ed. G. A. Garmonsway, Methuen’s Old English Library, 1961.

  Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 vols., George Routledge & Sons, 1931–53.

  Asser, Life of King Alfred, ed. and trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Penguin, London 1983.

  The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, ed. and trans. Eleanor Searle, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 1980.

  Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Sherley-Price, Penguin, London 1955.

  Beowulf and The Fight at Finnesburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber, D. C. Heath & Co., 1950.

  R. W. Chambers, England Before the Norman Conquest, Longmans, London 1926.

  Domesday Book: a complete translation, ed. Ann Williams and G. H. Martin, Penguin, London 2003.

  Eadmer, History of Recent Events in England, trans. Geoffrey Bosanquet, The Cresset Press 1964.

  Encomium Emmae Reginae, ed. Alistair Campbell, Cambridge University Press 1998.

  English Historical Documents:.

  500–1042, ed. Dorothy Whitelock, Eyre Methuen, London 1955. 1042–1189, ed. David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway, Eyre Methuen, London 1981.

  The Life of King Edward who rests at Westminster, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992.

  Guy of Amiens, Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press 1999.

  Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People, ed. and trans. D. Greenway, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 1996.

  King Harald’s Saga, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, Penguin, London 1966.

  Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History, books III and IV (vol. II), ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 2002.

  Orkneyinga Saga, the history of the Earls of Orkney, trans. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin, London 1978.

  The Waltham Chronicle, ed. and trans. Leslie Watkiss and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 1994.

  William of Malmesbury, The History of the English Kings, i, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 1998.

  William of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi, ed. and trans. R. H. C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press 1998.

  David M. Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry, Thames and Hudson, London 2004.

  SECONDARY SOURCES

  Frank Barlow, Edward the Confessor, Eyre Methuen, London 1979.

  Frank Barlow, The English Church 1000–1066, Longman, London 1979.

  Frank Barlow, The Godwins: the Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty, Pearson Longman, London 2002.

  David Bates, William the Conqueror, Tempus Publishing, Stroud 2004.

  David Bates, Normandy Before 1066, Longmans, London 1982.

  R. Howard Bloch, A Needle in the Right Hand of God, Random House, New York 2006.

  Andrew Bridgeford, 1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry, Harper Perennial, London 2004.

  F. W. Broo
ks, The Battle of Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire Local History Society, York 1956.

  R. Allen Brown, The Normans and the Norman Conquest, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1985.

  A. H. Burne, The Battlefields of England, Penguin, London 2002.

  James Campbell, The Anglo-Saxon State, Hambledon Press, London 2000.

  James Campbell, Essays in Anglo-Saxon History, Hambledon Press, London 1986.

  James Campbell, ed., The Anglo-Saxons, Penguin Books, London 1991.

  Marjorie Chibnall, The Debate on the Norman Conquest, Manchester University Press 1999.

  J. H. Clapham, ‘The Horsing of the Danes’, English Historical Review XXV (1910), 287–93.

  Peter A. Clarke, The English Nobility under Edward the Confessor, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994.

  C. R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1982.

  David C. Douglas, William the Conqueror, University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles 1964.

  E. A. Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, its Causes and Results, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1867–79, 6 vols. (especially vols. 2 and 3).