1066 The Right Way Up - 14th October

A series of all things 1066

Let's hear it for Harold 

by

Helen Hollick

Part two of my counterblast to the Norman propaganda machine, based upon the research for my novel Harold The King (UK Title) / I Am The Chosen King (US title)

The Norman versions of the Battle of Hastings are heavily biased, their explicit purpose: to convince a papal investigation that William's conquest had been justified. Strip away the Norman gilding, and what do you get? Twisted truths and blatant lies. Start with the fact that William had no right whatsoever to claim the English throne.

Typical school-book history states that King Harold II fought with tired men, with only half the fyrd - the army - and without the support of the North. In fact, he showed aptitude and courage, dignity and ability. And the North were not able to come south...

In mid-September, King Harold II had marched from London to York in five days to confront his jealous, traitorous brother, Tostig, who had allied with Harald Hardrada of Norway - who also thought he had a claim to the English throne. The southern fyrd, on alert all summer, had been stood down. Incorrect fact 1) Harold did not march north with the men of the south, he took only his housecarls - his permanent army - north, gathering the men of the midlands to him as he marched. Undoubtedly, the housecarls were mounted for no infantry could cover that distance so quickly. Already the fyrds of the north had fought and lost a great battle at Gate Fulford, outside York. Under Harold, they fought again - this time to win - at Stamford Bridge.

Saxon Housecarl
(Phil Berry who is fighting today at the BoH 
annual re-enatment)

Incorrect fact 2) It was not that the nobility and the men of the fyrd did not want to support Harold at Hastings; they could not, for their numbers were savagely depleted with many of the survivors wounded and exhausted after fighting two battles. It would have been impossible for them to have marched south when news came that William had landed. The northern earls did in fact follow Harold as soon as they could but, of course, by then it was too late.

Should Harold have waited for them? Perhaps, yes, but William had landed on the coast (Hastings) and was preparing to march inland... passing along the only route that led northward. In the Hastings peninsula (as it was then) surrounded on either side by dense woods or marsh. Harold had William firmly penned in... once the Normans got out into the expanse of the Sussex Weald it could take days, weeks, months, to stop them. Harold, therefore had to keep the Normans contained.

The battle that took place seven miles inland from Hastings is almost unique for this period. Fighting was usually over within the hour, two at most. This battle lasted all day. The English, for the most part, stood firm along the ridge that straddled the road out into the Weald, stood shield locked against shield, William's men toiling again and again up that hill. This was deliberate strategy on Harold's part. He and his men had marched to York and back, fought a battle in between. Doesn't it make good sense to make the opponent do all the hard work? 

Where Harold's shield wall is believed to have been
(this has recently been disputed 
- but personally, I dispute the dispute!)

Looking down the Battlefield

Harold stood his men, firm, along the ridge, forming the shield wall. Side by side (to coin an over-used phrase, "shoulder to shoulder") Shouting their contempt, clashing spear and axe against their shields, hurling abuse down that steep, grass hill that so rapidly became a morass of mud and blood: 

"Ut! Ut! Ut! - Out! Out! Out!" 

Three times William was unhorsed. Three times the Normans stormed the Saxon battle line; only the fear of William's wrath held them together, although the Norman writers naturally portrayed their blind panic when, early on, some of the Norman army retreated as 'strategic withdrawal'. (It wasn't - they fled). Only once did Harold's men let him down. The right flank broke - assuming William's men were beaten as they made that run for it, the inexperienced Saxons disobeyed orders and tore down the hill after them. Being cavalry, the Normans were able to re-group quickly. The result was slaughter, every Saxon who ran down that hill was killed.

re-enactors practising on Hastings Beach

Photo : Phil Berry

Nor was William's crossing of the Channel a couple of weeks beforehand as straightforward as his spin-doctors suggested. He had sailed earlier in the summer, but was turned back. Bodies and wreckage on the Normandy beaches were buried in secret. Why? If bad weather was the cause, why the need for a media black-out? A mass cover-up? It is more likely that he met and was repelled by the superiority of the English Navy, a disaster that subsequent propaganda would most definitely suppress.

Incorrect fact 3) And so to Harold's death. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts a man pulling an arrow from his eye, and another being felled by a sword, the words 'Here Harold is killed' above both. Which one is Harold? Well, it is not the one apparently with the arrow! Arrows travel in a trajectory. They go up, form an arc, come down. Can you honestly believe that there stood Harold, an experienced soldier, looking upward as arrows came over? Anyway, there are additional stitch marks extending from what has been thought to be an arrow - that soldier is preparing to throw a spear - he is not pulling an arrow from his eye!

King Harold II of England died at the hands of four of William's ignoble noblemen. They hacked him to death, dismembered and decapitated him. That is King Harold... the one falling and about to have his leg cut off.

The truth of Hastings? Our last English king died slowly and bloodily. He was savagely murdered, hacked to pieces on a battlefield that later became known as Hastings. Ðot wos göd cyning. Harold was a good king. He gave his life defending England from foreign invasion, and has paid the penalty of deliberately twisted truth ever since.

www.helenhollick.net

myBook.to/1066TurnedUpsideDown

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