Today in History: The Battle of Hastings [10/14/1066]

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[bcsco]

Bump for reference later.

[IronJack]

Really not all that huge a battle in terms of the forces deployed. But resounding in its implications. From that point forward, British history took a radically different course, blending the best of Norman organization with sheer Anglo-Saxon yeomanry. The result is one of the most intriguing, puzzling, confounding cultures to ever populate the earth.

[agincourt1415]

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[Professional Engineer]

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[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

The battle was atypical in that it lasted for an entire day. Most battles at this time were decided in the first hour or two.

[bboop]

Thanks for the map, pix. We saw the Tapestry in Bayeux, it is wonderful, very moving. The French school kids were all there, celebrating France's LAST win. We few English-speakers were kind of grumbling ....

[LonePalm]

I had an ancestor present on the Norman side, Sir William le Blount.

One of his descendants, William Blount, signed the Constitution from NC, and was the first governor of TN. Go Normans!

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Thommas]

I really enjoy your bon mots.

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"William of Normandy, v. Odo of Bayeux Harold Godwinson"

Actually, Bishop Odo was William's brother, not his enemy, and Odo rode into battle against the Saxons wearing a white cleric's robes and swinging a club rather than a sword. Clerics weren't supposed to shed blood.

I believe this battle is one of the most important in Western European history.

Michael Frazier

[1066AD]

Great maps.
Senlac = Lake of Blood.

[IronJack]

We saw the Tapestry in Bayeux,

I saw it too. It made me wish I read Olde French. But the feeling passed ...

[IronJack]

The battle was atypical in that it lasted for an entire day.

By the time of the Roundhead revolution, that had changed. Most of the decisive battles of that period were days long. Or sieges that lasted months!

So much decided at Hastings in so little time ...

[middie]

It was a battle and outcome that shaped the political face of Europe for all subsequent history. It was to the ultimate social construct of England as what the The Hundred Years War and the Battle of Crecy were to the concept of nation-statehood and sovereignty across the European continent. Having been posted to Europe for eight of my 30 years and being a military history buff, I walked the Hastings battlefield and noted the valley bowl that denied maneuver to the ragtag group of Brits. Given the venue of the battle, it wouldn't have made any difference in the outcome if the English fighters still enroute at the outset of the battle had made it to the dance on time. William had the English in the same type of narrow, non-maneuver space that keep the Persians in check for four days at Cannae in 416 B.C. when the Greeks keep the Persians bottled-up until force of Persian numbers (1,200,000 v. barely 3,000) simply overwhelmed the defenders.

[ASOC]

Now taken over by the PC police and muzzies.

I feel sorry for those who stayed.

[xone]

'Greeks keep the Persians bottled-up until force of Persian'

Mixing your battles middie!

[curmudgeonII]

There is a tendency to forget about the battle of Stamford Bridge, fought a few days before Hastings. Harold's victory there ended Viking predations in Britain.

[yankeedame]

Battle of Stamford Bridge

Date: Monday, September 25, 1066
Location: Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire
Result: Decisive English victory

Combatants
Norwegians, Northumbrian rebels,v. small numbers of Scots Anglo-Saxon England

Commanders
Harald Hardråde v. Harold Godwinson

Strength
300 ships, 5000 men v. Unknown

Casualties
276 ships, 4500 men v. Unknown

The Battle of Stamford Bridge in England is generally considered to mark the end of the Viking era. It took place on September 25, 1066, shortly after an invading Norwegian Viking army under King Harald Hardråde defeated the army of the northern earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria at Gate Fulford two miles south of York.

King Harold Godwinson of England met Harald with an army of his own, taking him by surprise, unarmoured and unprepared, after a legendary forced march from the south of the kingdom.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (SA 1066), the Stamford Bridge was immediately held by a powerful individual Viking who delayed the approaching English; he was finally brought down by a spear from underneath the bridge.

This delay gave Harald Hardråde time to form his army in a circle on high ground and let the English approach uphill with their backs to the river.

After a stubborn battle with losses on both sides, although particularly bad for the unarmoured Vikings, Harald Hardråde and Earl Tostig both fell.

The arrival of Norwegian reinforcements prolonged the battle, but in the end the Norwegian army was decisively defeated. King Harold Godwinson accepted a truce with the surviving Norwegians, including Hardråde's son Olaf and they were allowed to leave after giving pledges not to attack England again.

This battle marked the end of full scale invasions of England from Scandinavia, and was the turning point of Viking activity in that area.

King Harold's success was not to last, however. Little more than a fortnight after the battle, on October 14, after having marched his army all the way from Yorkshire, he was defeated and killed by Norman forces under William the Conqueror, at the Battle of Hastings. Thus began the Norman Conquest of England.

[middie]

Ritht-O---My prof would be laughing like crazy--Carry on

[middie]

Ritht-O---My prof would be laughing like crazy--Carry on