[ HOME ]    [ INTRODUCTION ]    >JANUARY to SEPTEMBER 1066<    [ BATTLE OF GATE FULFORD ]    [ BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE ]
[ WILLIAM INVADES ENGLAND ]    [ BATTLE OF HASTINGS ]    [ FOLLOWING THE BATTLE ]    [ CONSEQUENCES OF HASTINGS ]
[ THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY ]    [ MAP and PHOTO FEATURE No. 1 : HASTINGS BATTLEFIELD ]
[ MAP and PHOTO FEATURE No. 2 : PEVENSEY CASTLE and HASTINGS BATTLEFIELD ]

Edward Dies and Harold Takes the Crown
Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066. On his deathbed, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, with witnesses present, he made the following statement to Harold:

Harold understood this to mean that Edward wanted him to be king. Edward was buried the next day and shortly thereafter, on the same day, Harold gathered an ad hoc Witan that was composed solely of his friends and supporters and had himself elected king. The coronation took place the next day, 6 January. He took this hasty action to prevent the members of the Witan from central and northern England from participating, knowing that they would block his accession. In the eyes of the English nobility, Harold was a commoner; the grandson of a viking warrior who had settled in England two generations earlier, who owed his position solely to his father's [Godwin's] enterprise. For the most part, the nobles did not want a commoner on the throne of England.

From now until mid-September, a series of events would occur in quick succession that would ultimately climax in three important battles: Fulford, Stamford Bridge, and Hastings. In addition to Harold and William, the following people were to play key roles during this period:

Within three days of Edward's death and Harold's coronation, the news had reached Tostig in Flanders. William found out a few hours after Tostig, and Harald Hardraada, King of Norway, probably knew within a week; that is, by 13 January 1066. The news also reached the Pope in Rome at about the same time that it was received in Norway.

Harold's Tenuous Political Posture
Harold's position was very precarious. Outside of the southern earldoms, which were the political heart of England and mostly under the control of his family, Harold was looked upon as a usurper, which indeed he was if one considers the manner in which he had himself elected King. The two northern earls, Edwin of Mercia, and his brother Morcar of Northumbria, controlled all of England about Wessex, which constituted most of the kingdom. To make matters worse, their sister, Aldyth, was the widow of Griffith, the former king of Wales, therefore, Welsh political sympathies were aligned with those of Mercia and Northumbria.

Harold Attempts to Strengthen His Position
Sometime in late February or early March, Harold visited earls Edwin and Morcar in Mercia and Northumbria in an effort to gain their support during the upcoming struggles with Tostig, Harald Hardraada, and William, which he knew were imminent and expected in the summer. On the way, he stopped at York and enlisted the aid of Bishop Wulfstan; the same bishop who had crowned him back in January. During the visit Harold married their sister, Aldyth, making her Queen of England and Edwin and Morcar his brothers-in-law. The purpose of the marriage was clearly to secure Edwin and Morcar as allies and it did not work. Harold would later discover that they would fight to protect their own earldoms but not to help him.

William's Initial Reaction and Plans
William was furious when he heard that Edward had died and Harold had been made king. Claiming to be the rightful heir to the throne, he sent a series of threatening messages to Harold and the English court, advising them that Harold should give up the throne to him or suffer the consequences of it being taken by force. Certainly, William knew this would not work but it was necessary to do within his overall strategy. His next actions were to—

Tostig's Initial Actions and Harold's Reactions
In April, Tostig departed Flanders with a fleet of about 60 ships and his Housecarls to raid, terrorize and plunder England's south-east coast, as well as to harass Harold. It is certain that William was supporting Tostig in this venture and that he was using Tostig to keep Harold busy while he prepared for the invasion. Using hit and run tactics, Tostig kept Harold's forces busy up and down the south-eastern coast. Harold's army was therefore constantly on the move but not accomplishing anything of value, except to ensure Tostig's early departure from his current target. Tostig then entered the river Humber and began to ravage Northumbria and Mercia.   It was mid summer. The weather in the Channel was generally conducive for a cross-Channel invasion. If William intended to invade, Harold knew it would have to be soon, otherwise the weather-window would close. Harold correctly reasoned that earls Morcar and Edwin were fully capable of defending their own earldoms against Tostig's small force, he decided to stay in the south to face the more urgent threat from William. Edwin and Morcar quickly defeated Tostig. Since many of Tostig's men had been forced to fight under his banner, these quickly deserted him, and with a very diminished band of survivors and 12 ships, he sailed north to Scotland, where his ally and blood brother, King Malcolm, gave him refuge. Tostig then contacted Harald Hardraada, King of Norway, with whom he had previously been in contact. Whereas William and Harald Hardraada, his co-conspirators, were interested in taking the crown away from Harold, Tostig was not interested in the crown; all he wanted was vengence against his brother and to have his earldom of Northumbria back, and he was willing to ally himself with anyone who could help him attain these two goals.

Harold Mobilizes
Harold viewed Tostig's falied venture as a warning that William's invasion was imminent. He therefore raised an army and navy. Mobilizing the fyrd in Wessex and his younger brothers' earldoms, he stationed them at strategic locations along the coast. (It must be remembered at this point that Harold could not mobilize the fyrd in Mercia and Northumbria because these were controlled by earls Edwin and Morcar and they did not support Harold's cause.) To bolster the morale and effectiveness of these untrained troops, he placed some of his Housecarls with them. He also stationed his naval force at the Isle of Wight to intercept William's invasion fleet, if it were lucky enough to do so, and destroy as many of William's ships as possible before the fleet reached England.

William's Preparations for Invasion Mature
One of William's first actions, and of paramount importance to the entire concept of the invasion, was to send an envoy to Rome to gain the Pope's support.  The envoy represented that Harold was the arch-enemy of Christianity and the Church. In consequence, the Pope fully supported William's cause and even sent a papal banner to be carried into battle. What was formerly only an invasion had now attained the stature of a crusade, which, at this time in European history, had a profound effect on William's recruitment.

William raised his army with payment of promises. The knights he recruited had to furnish their own horses, men, and equipment. Some agreed to furnish ships. The amount of men and materiel that a knight was required to furnish to support the enterprise was in strict accordance with feudal custom. The rewards, in English lands (to the survivors), if William should win, would be commensurate with each participant's rank and importance. Those who didn't survive received the award of eternal Paradise in Heaven, which they felt was satisfactory compensation.

William spent his money to buy provisions for his gathering army, forbidding them to pillage the countryside. This had a profound effect on the morale and support of the local populations.

By May, William had a fleet of 700 vessels. These craft were built very quickly of green wood and not very substantial in construction. Since it was obvious to William that the invasion would be a one-way trip, they need only be constructed well enough to survive one 20-mile trip across the channel. The way the ships were built proved, in the end, to be a decisive factor in the invasion. They were small, 40-50 feet in length, very wide of beam, and, when loaded, had a draft of only about four feet. Most importantly was the method of propulsion; except for a steering oar, there were no oars, only  large sheet sails which were fixed in position; therefore, William needed a favorable wind in order to sail. The lack of oars was to make room for more troops and horses. The army that would cross the channel in these vessels consisted of about 12,000 men; with 3,000 to 4,000 of these being knights and other mounted troops. Therefore, these 700 ships transported approximately 12,000 troops and 4,000 horses.

Harald Hardraada's Claim to the Throne of England
While William was busy preparing to attack England in the south, Harald Hardraada had been preparing to attack in the north. Harald's claim to the throne of England lay in a pact that had been made years earlier, in 1038 or 1039, between King Magnus of Norway and Harthecanute, in which they agreed that if either died without a direct heir, the other should inherit his kingdom.  Harthecanute subsequently died without a direct heir, and it was Harald's contention that the throne of England should have gone to Magnus and that since it had not, Harald, being his direct descendent and current King of Norway, was the rightful King of England. Harald had been in constant contact with his magnates in the Orkneys and also with Tostig, who was at Malcolm's court.

William Completes His Preparations
On 12 August William had completed his preparations. He had gathered his army and all of his ships at a single point, at the mouth of the Dives. All he needed was a favorable wind. In the meantime, he maintained an iron discipline among his troops and continued to train them for the coming combat, especially the cavalry.

Harold is Forced to Disband the Fyrd
Across the channel, Harold was unable to match William's achievement. Finding it impossible to maintain the fyrd any longer, he disbanded it on 8 September, and returned to London with his Housecarls. He also ordered the fleet to withdraw from the Isle of Wight to London. The fleet sailed on 12 September and many ships were lost in a sudden Channel storm.

William Relocates His Fleet
Hearing that Harold had disbanded his army and withdrawn inland, and finally having a westerly wind,  William sailed out of the Dives on 12 September. The mouth of the Dives is located in the Baie de la seine, approximately five miles east of the city of Caen. This is almost due south of the Isle of Wight, where Harold had had his fleet anchored all summer. It appears evident, then, that it was William's intention to cross the channel directly from the mouth of the Dives sail northward in order to make land somewhere between Portsmouth and Brighton, on Englands south coast, a distance of about 100 miles. However, his fleet was not long at sea before it was struck by the same storm that wrecked most of Harold's fleet that was at that time returning to London. He lost a few ships and was able to gather the rest of his fleet at St. Valery-sur-Somme in the Somme estuary, about 90 miles further up the coast, where they made repairs, then waited for another favorable wind. William's landing and regrouping at the Somme proved very fortunate since it cut the distance the fleet had to sail down to about 65 miles.

This concludes the summary of events
for the period of January to September 1066

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