To gain a clear understanding of why the battle of Hastings occurred, you should be aware of the political and cultural histories of England and Normandy before the battle, the intertwined relationships of England and Normandy, the relationship of the English royalty to the Norman dukes, and, lastly, the principal personalities: Harold Godwinson, Duke William, and Edward the Confessor. Armed with this knowledge, it will be very apparent to you why the battle occurred and why it was inevitable in the context of history, as history developed. "What if's" are not relevant and will not be entertained in this introduction to the battle of Hastings. You don't have to read this introduction; you can go directly to the part that deals with the battle of Hastings itself, but that would be like reading about the battle of Waterloo without knowing anything else regarding Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars--in essence, it would be incomplete.

The First Invasion: The Celts
About 700 B.C. the Celts invaded the island. This is the first known successful invasion of the island. The invasion, which occurred over a period of about 400 years, ended about 300 B.C. Whereas the Iberians were still in a Bronze Age civilization, the Celts had advanced into the Iron Age. The Celts' superior weapons, more powerful bodies, and warlike dispositions were more than the Iberians could cope with. The Iberians who survived were pushed into the western and northern wildernesses (Wales and Scotland). Eventually, a major Celtic tribe, the Brythons, came to be know as Britons and the island as Britain.

The Second Invasion: The Romans
In 55 B.C., Caesar attempted to invade Britain but failed. He tried again in 54 B.C. and succeeded but did not occupy or colonize Britain. In A.D. 43, Claudius I. invaded and conquered the whole island, except for indomitable Scotland. Under the Roman occupation, Christianity was introduced and the Britons became peaceful, depending on the Romans for protection. In the fifth century the Roman legions left Britain to attend to military matters at and around Rome.

The Third Invasion: The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
With the departure of the Romans in the first half of the fifth century, the Picts, who had been held in check up to this time by the Romans, began to raid the northern Britons. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 449, a Briton chief asked two Angle chiefs to help him against the troublesome Picts. The Angles were tribes of southern Denmark. Unfortunately for the Britons, this was like putting the fox in the hen-house to protect the hens. The two Angle chiefs, Hengest and Horsa, quickly took care of the Pict problem, then, realizing that they could have Briton if they wanted it, they invited more Angles to Briton, turned against the Britons, and began a campaign to conquer the island that would last 150 years. The surviving Britons, like the Iberians before them, fled into Wales and Scotland. This invasion would, in addition to the Angles from southern Denmark, introduce the Jutes from Jutland in Denmark, and the Saxons from northern Germany into Briton to share in the conquest.

The Formation of Anglo-Saxon England
During the period of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes eventually came to be collectively called the English, which is derived from "Angles." The Jutes and Angles, both being of Danish origin, appear to have intermixed with the result that the Jutes lost their identity. The Anglo-Saxons formed seven major kingdoms, referred to as the heptarchy by historians.  These were the Angle kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, and Kent; and the Saxon kingdoms of Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. Other, smaller kingdoms emerged from time to time but were swallowed up by the heptarchial kingdoms. By the year 600, the three largest kingdoms; Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, dominated the others. The kings were continuously at war with one another to attain supremacy over their neighbors.

The Fourth Invasion: The Danes (Vikings)
In the year 789, three Danish (Viking) ships landed at Dorchester in Wessex. The Danes promptly killed a representative of the king, probably pillaged Dorchester and killed more people, then sailed away. In 793, they raided the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, killing all the monks who inhabited that place. The Vikings didn't bother with England again until 43 years later, in 836. They quickly learned that England was an easy target and made it a point to raid the coast every spring. Although these raids were made by Norwegians and Swedes as well as Danes, they were all Danes as far as the English were concerned. For 15 years they were content with raiding the coast for booty and slaves. In 851, however, instead of sailing back to Scandinavia, a raiding party wintered over on the Isle of Thanet, off the southeast coast of England. Then, in 855, an entire Danish army wintered over on the Isle of Sheppey. With an entire army living just off the coast, the Danes changed their tactics and a true invasion commenced.

In 865, the Danes landed in East Anglia. With little or no show of resistance, the king surrendered and gave the Danes all that they asked for—including horses. With horses, the Danes could penetrate faster and further than ever before and by 866 had captured York, the capital of Northumbria. Within a few years they also took Mercia. Wessex only remained to be taken and the Danes would have conquered all of Anglo-Saxon England. However, the Danes made a military blunder by splitting their forces in two and King Alfred of Wessex only had to contend with half of them, led by King Guthrum, when they attacked. In 878, Alfred met Guthrum at Edington and defeated him decisively. Guthrum agreed to become a Christian and to remove his army from Wessex.

The Danes remained in England; however, they were confined to a large area in the center of the island that was sandwiched between Anglo-Saxon kingdoms; Northumbria to the north and Wessex and Mercia to the south-west, which was called the Danelaw. The southern border of the Danelaw ran roughly on a line from the mouth of the Thames (just north of London) to present day Rhyl, on the coast of the Irish Sea. The northern border was rather jagged and included about one-half of Northumbria and the southern portion of present day south-western Scotland. The city of York was in the Danelaw. Alfred had become the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings and became known as Alfred the Great. Although it is commonly believed that Alfred was the first king to rule all of England, he never managed to do this.

England United Under One King
Alfred the Great died in 899 and was succeeded by his son Edward, who reigned until 924. Edward managed to hold the Danes in check and maintain the balance of power, but little else.

This is a good time to discuss the Anglo-Saxon law of succession. The Anglo-Saxon throne was not inherited as in Europe. When an Anglo-Saxon king died, the Witan, or Great Council, which was a council comprised of lay and clerical leaders, selected a new king. Although the throne usually went to a deceased king's son, and usually the eldest if there were two or more, the Witan had the power to decide otherwise.  The Witan would usually not interfere with the succession of a legitimate son, but would definitely get involved if a king were to die without a son.

When Edward died, his son, Athelstan succeeded him. In 937, at Brunanburh, Athelstan defeated the Danes. As a result, the Danes submitted to Athelstan's authority, and he was recognized as King of England, ruling over all the land south of Scotland. Since England was now ruled by a single king, the former kingdoms were reduced to earldoms and their kings became earls.

The Emergence of Normandy
In 898, a group of Danes, being chased from England by Alfred, migrated across the Channel to the Seine River valley where they settled. In this new location, they were known as Northmen, or Normans. As time progressed they gained control over a wide area on both sides of the river. In an effort to control them, the French king, Charles III., formally granted this land to the Norman leader, Rolf, and created him a duke. Under the feudal system, Charles was now Rolf's feudal lord and, theoretically, this relationship should have stopped the Norman aggressions. However, this did not work; the Normans continued to increase their domination of the area and Normandy, the name by which the dukedom became known, continually grew larger. Finally, 50 years later, in 965, the French king and Norman duke agreed to a peace treaty called the Treaty of Gisors. The result of this was profound. In short, the Normans quickly merged themselves into the French culture, soon becoming indistinguishable from the native French. Normandy also became a center for Christianity.

The Danes Conquer England
Although Athelstan had subdued the Danelaw and became King of England, the Danes, or Vikings, were still a threat and the Danish invasion had not come to a conclusion. Athelstan died in 939 and was succeeded as follows:  by his two brothers, Edmund (939-946) and Edred (946-955); then by Edmund's sons, Edwy (955-959) and Edgar (959-975). Edgar had two sons: Edward, 13, and Ethelred, 9. Edward became king and in 979, was murdered by Ethelred's supporters, and Ethelred became king. Ethelred was officially Ethelred II., is known to history as Ethelred the Unready, but was originally Ethelred the Unred. The name Ethelred, in Anglo-Saxon, means "noble counsel." the word "Unred" is the antonym of Ethelred and means "no counsel." As can been seen, Ethelred's contemporaries were making sport with his name by constructing such an oxymoron. Based on what was to happen during his reign, it is obvious that Ethelred was either counseled very badly by his advisors or he was counseled wisely but unwisely disregarded that counsel.

In 981, approximately the middle of Ethelred's reign, the Danes (from Denmark) began to raid England again. Between raids, they would often sail across the Channel to take refuge in Norman ports. Although the Normans didn't raid England themselves and were on comparatively good relations with the English, their Viking heritage caused them to assist their kinsmen from Denmark, much to the chagrin of Ethelred. In 991, Ethelred appealed for Papal intervention, with the result that the Pope persuaded Ethelred and the current Duke of Normandy, Richard II., to agree to not assist one another's enemies. However, the Danes continued to raid England and Richard continued to turn his head as his people assisted them between raids. Finally, in desperation, Ethelred decided to make Richard's sister, Emma, his queen, reasoning that the marriage link between the the English royal house and the house of the Duke of Normandy would encourage Richard and his successors to stop assisting the Danish raiders.  This marriage took place in 1002 but, unfortunately for Ethelred, did not save the kingdom. The marriage would also figure prominently in events that would occur 64 years later and result in the battle of Hastings.

In 1003, a Danish army led by King Sweyn Forkbeard began an invasion of England that would last until 1013. During these ten years the Danes made numerous incursions on English soil to spread death and destruction (and carried off booty and slaves), and Ethelred demonstrated a propensity for always mustering his army where the Danes were not. In August 1013, when the situation looked very bleak, Ethelred sent Emma and their two sons, Edmund and Alfred, to Normandy, where they took refuge with Emma's brother, Richard II. Later in the same year Ethelred was soundly defeated by Sweyn, gave up his kingdom, and followed his family to Normandy.

The Danish Kings
Sweyn died on February 3, 1014, and therefore had no time to enjoy the fruits of his victory. The Danes chose his son Canute (Cnut, Knut) to succeed him but the Witan decided differently and recalled Ethelred from Normandy. Ethelred ruled until his death in 1016, and was succeeded by his son, Edmund. However, Edmund only held sway over Wessex while Canute claimed everything to the north of that. The two were in a military stalemate until Edmund's untimely death in 1016. With Edmund out of the way, Canute became king of England. This was the beginning of the Danish dynasty, which was destined to be short-lived. Canute had two sons: Harold Harefoot, whose mother was Canute's mistress, Algifa of Northampton; and Hardecanute, whose mother was Emma, the widow of the former King Ethelred. Canute married Emma in order to marry into the Saxon royal family, which could not help but to strengthen his own position and that of his heirs.

In 1035, as Canute lay dying, he expressed his desire to be succeeded by Hardecanute, his younger, legitimate son. However, Hardecanute was in Denmark at the time and couldn't leave because of a threatened Norwegian invasion. Therefore, the Witan named Harold Harefoot regent until Hardecanute could return.  In 1036, Alfred, the second son of Ethelred and Emma, who was living in Normandy and who was Hardecanute's half-brother, arrived in England along with 600 men at arms, stating that his purpose was to visit his mother. Either Harold Harefoot feared that Alfred's real purpose was to stir up trouble to take the crown for himself or, more likely, Godwin encouraged him to believe this.  Whatever the case, Godwin intercepted Alfred on his way to London. What happened next is best illustrated by a ballad that was written shortly after the incident by the chroniclers:

But then Godwin prevented him, and placed him in captivity,
Dispersing his followers besides, slaying some in various ways;
Some of them were sold for money, some cruelly murdered,
Some were put in chains, and some were blinded,
Some were mutilated, and some were scalped.
No more horrible deed was done in this land
After the Danes came and made peace with us here.
We can now but trust to the dear God
That they who were so pitiably killed
Rejoice joyfully in the presence of Christ.

Threatened with every kind of injury, the prince still lived
Until the decision was taken to convey him
To the city of Ely, in chains as he was.
As soon as he arrived, his eyes were put out on board ship
And thus sightless he was brought to the monks.
And there he remained as long as he lived.
Thereafter he was buried, as well became his rank,
With great ceremony, so honourable was he,
At the west end of the church, very near the tower
In the south aisle. His soul is with Christ.

The Danish Dynasty Ends
By 1037, with Hardecanute still away in Denmark, Harold Harefoot was made king. He died in 1040 and was succeeded by Hardecanute, who died in 1042, probably by poisoning, and was in turn succeeded by his half-brother Edward, the other son of Ethelred and Emma.

It is now necessary to go back and forth between England and Normandy because it is at this point that the lives and careers of King Edward, William of Normandy, and Harold Godwinson become closely entwined.

William, Duke of Normandy
William was born in 1027 or 1028, the illegitimate son of Duke Robert I. of Normandy and Robert's mistress, Herléve. In 1034, Robert astounded everyone by designating William his successor to the throne of Normandy. He ensured this by having all the leading men of Normandy swear loyalty to William and also by convincing King Henry I. of France to recognize William as Robert's heir. Afterwards, Robert departed on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, during which he died in 1035, and William became duke at the age of seven. Throughout his minority, he survived only because of the protection given to him by two of his uncles. The first was his great-uncle Robert, the Archbishop of Rouen.  When Robert died in 1037, his uncle Walter, who was Herléve's brother, guarded him closely.

In 1046, William's cousin, Guy of Burgundy, organized a secret plot to wrest Normandy from William. William, being illegitimate, had few supporters, so his position was extremely precarious. Luckily, his uncle Walter was informed of Guy's plot and William was able to escape in the nick of time. Riding all night, he arrived at King Henry's court the next morning and requested his aid to put down the rebellion. Henry considered Guy somewhat of a threat to himself; William, on the other hand, being only 18 years old and with little respect within Normandy, he considered no threat at all. He therefore decided to support William and, at the battle of Val-és-Dunes, in 1047, Guy was defeated. It is said that William acquitted himself well in this combat.

In 1051, Count Goeffrey of Anjou, which bordered Normandy on the south, threatened William. William quickly settled this matter, and by 1054, Normandy was militarily and politically preeminent among its neighbors. Seeing William grow so powerful, King Henry decided that he had become too much of a threat and had to be stopped.  He therefore combined with Guy of Anjou to attack Normandy and take it away from William. Henry decided to attack Normandy on its eastern and western borders at the same time; therefore, a part of his army, led by his brother Odo, attacked from the east, while he commanded the other part and attacked from the west. William raised an army to meet King Henry in the west. Meanwhile, Odo, on 1 February 1054, invaded and began to devastate eastern Normandy. In answer to this, William caused a second army to be raised under Robert, count of Eu, which included Roger of Mortemer as one of his subordinate leaders. At the same time that this second army was being raised, Odo's army had reached the town of Mortemer in eastern Normandy and set up headquarters there. Not realizing that there was a Norman army nearby, Odo allowed his army to grow disorganized and commit numerous acts of rape and pillage. It was while Odo's army was in this posture that it was suddenly pounced upon by Robert de Mortemer, who, on 20 February, easily defeated them. When Henry heard that Odo had been defeated he lost heart and left Normandy himself.

In 1057, Henry once again attacked William and, once again, was defeated. Both Henry and Guy died three years later, in 1060, and William became totally secure in Normandy. Henry was succeeded by his son Philip (Philip I.), who happened to be a young child. It so happens that, back in 1051, William had married Mathilda, the daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders. Since Baldwin, in addition to being William's father-in-law, was also King Philip's guardian, William's position was further strengthened.

Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwin
In 1042, the Witan selected Edward, the surviving son of Ethelred II. and Emma, to succeed Hardecanute, the last of England's true Danish kings, thus reestablishing the Saxon royal line.
By this time, Edward was 37 and, because he had lived in the Norman court for most of his life, he was, for all intent and purposes, Norman and showed a distinct dislike for things English. He preferred speaking French to English, French customs, and most of all, the company of Normans to that of Englishmen. He therefore imported many of his Norman friends to keep him company while snubbing his English subjects. Edward was extremely religious and came to be known as Edward the Confessor. Being a somewhat weak king, he was, in politics, thoroughly dominated by Earl Godwin, who had maintained his stature as the most powerful man in the kingdom after the king. Taking Edward's propensity for things and people of Norman origin, Godwin's domination of Edward, indicates that Godwin possessed an unusual degree of personal and political power and influence and that Edward feared him.

In 1051, Eustace of Boulogne, a Norman noble and Edward's brother-in-law, had completed a visit with Edward and was on his way back to Normandy with some men-at-arms. At Dover, he demanded lodging for himself and his men. Since the English thoroughly hated the Normans, and in particular, Edward's Norman friends, they refused and there was a melée between the townsmen and Eustace's party that resulted in several Normans being killed and wounded. Eustace complained to Edward, who ordered Godwin to severely punish the citizens of Dover. Godwin refused to do this, basically for two reasons:  first, that Dover lay in his earldom and, second, he hated Edward's Norman friends and considered them a threat to himself. In fact, Godwin went so far as to demand that Edward turn over the surviving Normans to him for punishment. This was his undoing. Edward, who was usually putty in Godwin's hands, turned on him and accused him of being a traitor and also of the murder of his brother, Alfred, years before. Godwin gathered an army from his earldom and was supported by his sons. In response, Edward raised an army of his own and, since he was king and had the power of mobilizing the fyrd, or national militia, most of the other English nobles, who were jealous of Godwin's power, sided with Edward. However, both Edward and Godwin decided it wouldn't be prudent to start a war and pulled their armies back, reestablishing peace. Godwin attempted to gain Edward's favor again but Edward, who knew he was in a military position to dictate terms, deprived Godwin and his five sons of their lands and banished them from England. But Edward didn't stop with that. Next, he had his queen [Godwin's daughter, Edith] put in a nunnery. Then he made a Norman the Archbishop of Canterbury. And finally, he invited his Norman friends back from Normandy and began giving them the land he had confiscated from the Godwins.

Edward Names William His Heir
Later in 1051, according to the Bayeux Tapestry and unofficial Norman chronicles, William visited Edward in England. During this visit, Edward supposedly promised William that he [William] would be heir to the throne of England if he [Edward] should die without issue. For the simple fact that William had his hands full maintaining his position in Normandy at this time, most historians are certain that this visit never occurred. It is more likely that Robert of Jumièges, the Norman that Edward had elevated to be Archbishop of Canterbury earlier in the year, was ordered to inform William of this while on his way to Rome to be confirmed as archbishop by the Pope. Whether or not the event happened, William ensured that the news was spread throughout Europe and England that he was heir to the kingdom of England. This fact; and it is a fact that he did this, alone lends some validity to the story. If William made the English aware of his claim to the kingdom before Edward's death, Edward must have known about it, and since he didn't refute the claim, it was most likely true.

Earl Godwin Regains Power
Earl Godwin had five sons:  Harold, Sweyn, Tostig, Gyrth and Leofwin. When Godwin and his sons were exiled by Edward, Godwin and his sons Sweyn, Tostig and Gyrth, sailed across the Channel to take refuge in Flanders while Harold and Leofwin went to Ireland. During their exile, they managed to coordinate a seaborne attack on England that they carried off in late 1052. This attack was sponsored by Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, whose half-sister, Judith, had married Godwin's son, Tostig in 1051. Historical accounts conflict as to what occurred; some state that Godwin and Harold were veritably welcomed with open arms by the English population, and others that Harold had devastated the countryside. Since it is certain that Edward was able to exile Godwin and his family because he had the support of powerful earls and the fyrd, it appears likely then that what enabled Godwin and Harold to return was Edward's loss of this support. This is easily explained by Edward's poor treatment of his subjects at the expense of his Norman friends.

Harold Becomes Earl of Wessex
Godwin died of a stroke on 13 April 1053, and Harold became Earl of Wessex and the second man in the kingdom. In 1055, the Earl of Northumbria died and the earldom went to Harold's brother Tostig. Now, with Wessex, Northumbria, Sussex, Essex, Kent, and East Anglia under the control of his family, Harold's position was secure.

Tostig is Exiled
Tostig was Earl of Northumbria until 1065. In 1065, after years of mistreating and terrorizing his people, as if he were a foreign viking, they revolted and declared him an outlaw and invited Morcar, the brother of the Earl of Mercia, to take over Northumbria. The rebels waited until Tostig was away, then they struck, marching on Northampton. Since the rebel forces were too large to handle militarily, Edward sent Harold to Northampton to settle the matter with diplomacy. Harold couldn't save Tostig his earldom, nor the city of Northampton, which the rebels destroyed and many of whose citizens were taken north as captives (slaves), as well as their livestock. Harold and Edward considered this a small price to pay in order to avert a civil war that the king was certain to lose. Tostig was therefore exiled and managed, along with his wife, Judith, and some adherents, to escape to Flanders, where they took refuge with Count Baldwin, Judith's half-brother. Morcar became Earl of Northumbria, which severely weakened Harold's position, for now Northumbria was in the hands of his political enemies. This incident made Tostig a mortal enemy of Harold's and would be one of the major events to affect the outcome of the battle of Hastings.

Harold's Visit to Normandy
In 1064, according to the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold, on orders from Edward, visited Normandy on an embassy to confirm Edward's promise to William that he was to be his heir if he [Edward] died without issue. This visit is not confirmed by any of the Anglo-Saxon chroniclers and can therefore, with most probability, be dismissed as propaganda invented by William to justify an invasion of England for the purpose of taking a throne that he had no right to. If Harold was in Normandy as William later contended, it must have been accidental, not intentional. Harold was certain he would be the next king if Edward died without an heir, and Edward, it was certain, would never have an heir because he was either impotent or homosexual and refused to "sleep" with his wife, or any other woman for that matter. Therefore, Harold would have to have been an idiot to go on an embassy to promise the throne to William, and also to place himself in William's power. During this visit, that may or may not have happened, Harold is said to have taken an oath; however, neither the Bayeux Tapestry nor any of the official Norman chronicles of the time state what that oath was, only that is was an oath. William later contended that Harold had sworn to support William's claim to the throne of England. Harold would never do such a thing unless his life or freedom, or both, depended on it. Since it is stated that he was not allowed to leave Normandy and return to England until he made this oath, it is logical to assume he did it (if in fact it happened) under coercion and that he had no intention of keeping the oath once he was safely back in England. A crucial part of this story is that after Harold had taken the oath, William informed him that holy relics had been inside the alter upon which he had lain his hand. If so, this was a different situation entirely because to break an oath sworn upon a holy relic was to incur eternal damnation upon one's self. Therefore, if this happened, William certainly outwitted Harold. In any case, according to the Tapestry, Harold made an oath to William and was allowed to return to England.