THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS
The battle of Hastings? What's Hastings?
Well before we get into all the fighting and gruesome deaths, "What's Hastings?". Hastings is not a thing, actually it is a location, it is on the Sussex coast of England where the English channel is particularly narrow between England and France (see picture below). Now that we have that sorted lets move onto who was involved in this battle, the first person is King Harold Godswin of England (known as the "Saxons"), secondly we have; William Duke or Normandy, (obviously referred to as "the Normans"). Wait, but where is Normandy? Good question. Normandy is a region of North western France, just across the English channel from Hastings.
Well before we get into all the fighting and gruesome deaths, "What's Hastings?". Hastings is not a thing, actually it is a location, it is on the Sussex coast of England where the English channel is particularly narrow between England and France (see picture below). Now that we have that sorted lets move onto who was involved in this battle, the first person is King Harold Godswin of England (known as the "Saxons"), secondly we have; William Duke or Normandy, (obviously referred to as "the Normans"). Wait, but where is Normandy? Good question. Normandy is a region of North western France, just across the English channel from Hastings.
A Map of the world with France highlighted in red. A map of France with Normandy highlighted.
Anyway, lets get onto the cool stuff! The battle. Wait a minute, why were people fighting?
Well... there was once a King named "King Edward of England," and he died. He had no heirs but it was known by many English people that he wanted to leave his throne in the hands of his brother-in-law who was Harold Godswin, he was trusted by the people of England so off to coronation we go!
But of course nothing can ever be that easy, especially in medieval Europe so this is when William of Normandy comes into the story. William was actually a cousin of King Edward and claimed that he had been "Promised the throne.", which you can decide whether to believe or not, but by the time William had heard Cousin Edward was pushing up the English Roses Harold was already named King. William was furious as he believed that he should have the throne, and this is when things start to become interesting.
William starts to round up all his mates in Northern France and promises them a bit of action over the ditch, he may have mentioned some land and titles for their efforts as well, anyway, they were keen and he managed to amass 1000 ships for the invasion and lots of experienced blood thirsty soldiers.
Anyway, lets get onto the cool stuff! The battle. Wait a minute, why were people fighting?
Well... there was once a King named "King Edward of England," and he died. He had no heirs but it was known by many English people that he wanted to leave his throne in the hands of his brother-in-law who was Harold Godswin, he was trusted by the people of England so off to coronation we go!
But of course nothing can ever be that easy, especially in medieval Europe so this is when William of Normandy comes into the story. William was actually a cousin of King Edward and claimed that he had been "Promised the throne.", which you can decide whether to believe or not, but by the time William had heard Cousin Edward was pushing up the English Roses Harold was already named King. William was furious as he believed that he should have the throne, and this is when things start to become interesting.
William starts to round up all his mates in Northern France and promises them a bit of action over the ditch, he may have mentioned some land and titles for their efforts as well, anyway, they were keen and he managed to amass 1000 ships for the invasion and lots of experienced blood thirsty soldiers.
A picture showing how the Normans and Saxons were set up in battle.
William wasn't good at keeping a secret so King Harold knew he was in trouble and marched his army down to the coast. William arrived first and set up camp with a nice big ditch and spikey sticks infront of it, and waited.
Harold's army was on horse back, which was an advantage but the Normans seemed to have more advanced weapons and after a hard day battling in the fields Harold was dead. Some say he got a arrow to the eye, and others say he got hacked down by one of the Norman's, either way neither of them seemed like a particularly "pleasant death."
Long live King William.
William marched on up to London, plundering and creating a bit of havoc along the way and claimed the throne of England.
William wasn't good at keeping a secret so King Harold knew he was in trouble and marched his army down to the coast. William arrived first and set up camp with a nice big ditch and spikey sticks infront of it, and waited.
Harold's army was on horse back, which was an advantage but the Normans seemed to have more advanced weapons and after a hard day battling in the fields Harold was dead. Some say he got a arrow to the eye, and others say he got hacked down by one of the Norman's, either way neither of them seemed like a particularly "pleasant death."
Long live King William.
William marched on up to London, plundering and creating a bit of havoc along the way and claimed the throne of England.
A picture of King William of England