Battle of Hastings, The (28 page)
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Authors: Harriet Harvey Harriet; Wood Harvey Wood
There are other sources that mention the battle, mostly only incidentally, but that give details not provided elsewhere. The Latin poem of Baudri, Abbot of Bourgeuil,
Adelae
Comitissae
(c.1100)
,
addressed to William’s daughter, speaks of a hanging in her chamber depicting her father’s victory over the English and asserts that Harold was killed by
an arrow; his account is corroborated in a history of the Normans (c.1080) by Amatus of Montecassino, who says that Harold was hit in the eye by an arrow. On the other hand, it has been suggested
that Baudri’s hanging is an imaginary re-creation of the Bayeux Tapestry, which he might have seen at Bayeux or elsewhere; if this were true, his corroboration of the king being struck by an
arrow would be valueless. There are also the later accounts of Henry of Huntingdon (
Historia Anglorum,
c.1123–33
)
in which the battle is covered fairly briefly, and the
Chronicle of Battle Abbey
(probably late twelfth century), both of which preserve fragments of information that may be authentic among much that is almost certainly not. The Battle Abbey
chronicler, for example, is the only source to give the information that the Normans first spotted the English army emerging from the woods when they paused at Hedgland on Telham Hill to arm
themselves. This is exactly the kind of local tradition about a local holding that is likely to have been remembered locally and to have been unknown to other chroniclers. On other matters, the
Battle Abbey account is of little use. There are, too, the annals of Nieder-Altaich, which mention that in 1066 the Aquitainians fought and defeated the English in a naval battle; whether this is a
confused version of Hastings itself, or corroboration of the statement in the E text of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle that Harold launched a sea attack on
William in 1066 shortly before Tostig’s raid on England cannot now be established.
There is one further factor that should be taken into account in the consideration of these sources. All of them, with the exception of Henry of Huntingdon (a cleric but not a monk) and Snorre
Sturlason and just possibly the Bayeux Tapestry, are monastic productions. This has important implications. This was the age of the trial by ordeal, and the justice of a cause was proclaimed by the
outcome of the trial. All these authors would have believed devoutly in the divine justice, manifested by the outcome of the trial. English misfortunes and defeats are commonly recorded throughout
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from Alfred’s wars against the Danes onwards, with the formula ‘as God granted it for the sins of the people’. Harold is reported by many of these
historians to have exclaimed the night before the battle that God would judge between William and him. To those who wrote about the event afterwards, on both sides, it would appear clear that He
had done so.
NOTES
i
The Hot Gates
, Faber 1970, p.20.
ii
The ealdorman, a nobleman who was very often a member of the royal family, was appointed by the king (it was not a hereditary title) and
was responsible for the welfare and good government of his shire, for maintaining the king’s rights in it and organizing its defence.
iii
The title ‘Atheling’ generally signified a prince born of the royal blood and eligible, in principle, to become king. It
was normally given only to the son of a reigning king.
iv
Handfast marriage was marriage without the benefit of clergy; the term derived from the Old Norse term,
handfesta
, to strike a
bargain by the joining of hands and such marriages were common in England and elsewhere and generally known as marriage
more Danico
, although the Danes do not seem to have been any more
addicted to it than many other nations. The great advantage of it was that it did not prohibit a political or diplomatic marriage at a later date. Cnut’s liaison with Ælfgifu of
Northampton was probably such an arrangement, since he was clearly regarded as free to marry Emma during Ælfgifu’s lifetime.
v
Sir Frank Stenton,
Anglo-Saxon England
, Oxford 1962, pp.401–02 (cited in future as ‘Stenton’).
vi
Encomium Emmae
, ed. Alistair Campbell, Cambridge University Press 1998, pp.41–42. It has been suggested (Pauline Stafford,
Queen Emma and Queen Edith
, Blackwell 1997, p.245) that both
Edward and Alfred came, but separately, and that Edward beat a hasty retreat on
finding less support than he had expected.
vii
Frank Barlow,
Edward the Confessor
, 1979, p.72.
viii
Ælfric,
Catholic Homilies
, (cited in future as Barlow) ed. B. Thorpe, Ælfric Society, London 1844, I, p. 212.
ix
William of Poitiers,
Gesta Guillelmi
, (quoted in future as
GG
), ed. and trans. R. H. C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford
Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press 1998, p.19.
x
David C. Douglas, ‘Edward the Confessor, Duke William of Normandy, and the English Succession’, English Historical Review (1953),
pp.526 ff.
xi
Eric John, ‘Edward the Confessor and the Norman Succession’,
English Historical Review
, 371 (1979),
pp.255–56.
xii
David C. Douglas,
William the Conqueror
, University of California Press 1964, pp.59–60.
xiii
The Waltham Chronicle
, ed. and trans. Leslie Watkiss and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Clarendon Press 1994,
p.45.
xiv
Eric John,
op. cit.
, p.260.
xv
R. Allen Brown,
The Normans and the Norman Conquest
, Boydell Press 2000, p.114.
xvi
The Life of King Edward
who Rests at Westminster, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992 (cited in future as
Vita Ædwardi Regis
) p.51.
xvii
Richard Gameson points out that this is one of the four times when the bare Tapestry narrative includes any descriptive or
adjectival comment, which gives the phrase added significance (‘The Origin, Art and Message of the Bayeux Tapestry’,
The Study of the Bayeux Tapestry
, ed. R. Gameson, Boydell
and Brewer, Woodbridge 1997, p.187).
xviii
Eadmer,
History of Recent Events in England
, trans. Geoffrey Bosanquet, The Cresset Press 1964, p.6.
xix
Ibid
., p.8.
xx
Ian W. Walker,
Harold, the Last Anglo-Saxon King
, Sutton Publishing, Stroud 2004, pp.228–30.
xxi
James Campbell, ‘Norwich’ in M. D. Lobel (ed.),
The Atlas of Historic Towns
, 1975, II, 1.
xxii
Patrick Wormald,
The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century
,
Blackwell, Oxford 2001 (cited in future as Wormald), p.x
xxiii
James Campbell,
The Anglo-Saxons
, Penguin Books, London 1991, pp.244–45.
xxiv
R. W. Chambers,
England Before the Norman Conquest
, Longman Green & Co. 1926, pp.229–30.
xxv
Stenton, p.473.
xxvi
GG
, p.153.
xxvii
The Beginnings of English Society
, Penguin 1982, p.61. I am much indebted to Professor Whitelock’s invaluable book
throughout this chapter.
xxviii
There is no similar record of gifts sent to Athelstan four years later when Henry the Fowler, King of Germany, asked for an
English bride for his son Otto. Athelstan sent two more of his half-sisters, Eadgyth and Ælfgifu, presumably so that the king could have a choice. Eadgyth was chosen; Ælfgifu was
later married to Konrad the Peaceable of Burgundy.
xxix
Historia Anglorum
, ed. T. Arnold, London 1879, pp.5–6.
xxx
Ælfric’s Colloquy
, ed. G. A. Garmonsway, Methuen’s Old English Library 1961, pp.33–34.
xxxi
C. R. Dodwell,
Anglo-Saxon Art
, Manchester University Press 1982, p.219.
xxxii
Dorothy Whitelock,
op. cit.
, pp.223–24.
xxxiii
Manchester University Press, 1982.
xxxiv
Encomium Emmae Regina
, ed. Alistair Campbell, Cambridge University Press 1998, pp.19–21.
xxxv
Dodwell,
op. cit.
, p.30.
xxxvi
Dodwell,
op. cit.
, pp.33–34.
xxxvii
Dodwell,
op. cit.
, p.35.
xxxviii
The precise nature of her relationship has never been clear but was obviously long-standing since it produced several
children. It cannot have been blessed by the Church, since Harold was able to make a political marriage to the daughter of Earl Ælfgar in 1066, while Edith was, it is assumed, still
alive.
xxxix
Domesday Book: a complete translation
, ed. Ann Williams and G. H. Martin, Penguin 2003, p.856.
xl
Ibid.
, p.410.
xli
op. cit.
, p.191.
xlii
Asser’s Life of King Alfred
, Penguin 1988, p.90.
xliii
James Campbell,
Essays in Anglo-Saxon History
, Hambleden Press 1986, p.158.
xliv
Frank Barlow,
The English Church
1000–1066, Longman 1963, p.38.
xlv
David Bates,
William the Conqueror
, Tempus 1989, p.159.
xlvi
Ecclesiastical History
, vol. II (quoted in future as Eccl. Hist.), ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts,
Oxford 1990, p.39. In fairness he adds that the charter was also witnessed with a cross by William’s uncle Mauger, Archbishop of Rouen, who (one would hope) could have written his name.
On the other hand he records, as a matter of surprise, that William’s son Henry ‘acquired some literacy’ when he reached the age for schooling (
Ibid.
, p.215) and thus
presumably the soubriquet
Beauclerc
. The implication that Henry’s brothers failed to do so is inescapable.
xlvii
David Bates,
Normandy Before
1066, Longman 1982, p.xiii.
xlviii
trans. R. K. Gordon,
Anglo-Saxon Poetry
, J. M. Dent 1962, pp.100–101.
xlix
trans. R. K. Gordon,
Anglo-Saxon Poetry
, J. M. Dent 1962, p.300.
l
Ibid.
, p.236.
li
W. P. Ker,
The Dark Ages
, Nelson 1955, p.57.
lii
Vegetius,
De Re Militari
, 69.
liii
Richard Abels,
Alfred the Great
, Pearson Education 1998, pp.198–99.
liv
Domesday Book
, p.136.
lv
C. Warren Hollister,
Anglo-Saxon Military Institutions on the Eve of the Norman Conquest
, Clarendon Press 1962, p.84.
lvi
English Historical Documents
1042–1189 (quoted in future as
EHD
), ed. David C. Douglas and George W. Greenaway,
London 1981, p.905.
lvii
GG
, p.107.
lviii
English Historical Review
, XXV (1910), 287–93.
lix
R. Allen Brown,
The Normans and the Norman Conquest
, The Boydell Press 2000, p.39.
lx
‘Military Service in Normandy before 1066’,
Anglo-Norman Warfare
, ed.
Matthew Strickland, The Boydell Press 1992, p.29.
lxi
B. S. Bachrach, ‘Some observations on the military administration of the Norman Conquest’,
Proceedings of the Battle
Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies
, viii.
lxii
GG
, p.103.
lxiii
There are many more specialized publications available on the subject.
lxiv
Snorre Sturlason,
King Harald’s Saga
, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, Penguin 1966, p.151.
lxv
Ibid.
, p.148.
lxvi
Wormald, p.133.
lxvii
Barlow, p.240.
lxviii
Barlow, p.246.
lxix
EHD
, p.225.
lxx
Ann Williams,
Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England
, c.500–1066, Macmillan 1999, p.148.
lxxi
EHD
, pp.225–26.
lxxii
GG
, p.103.
lxxiii
David C. Douglas,
William the Conqueror
, University of California Press 1964, p.184.
lxxiv
H. A. L. Fisher,
History of Europe
, Edward Arnold, London 1936, p.199.
lxxv
He was granted the pallium by Pope Benedict X, himself deposed as an ‘intrusive’ pope almost immediately afterwards,
which compounded his illegality.
lxxvi
EHD
, p. 691.
lxxvii
John Julius Norwich,
The Middle Sea
, Vintage 2007, p.119.
lxxviii
Catherine Morton, ‘Pope Alexander II and the Norman Conquest’,
Latomus
, XXXIV, 1975,
pp.362–82.
lxxix
Walker,
op. cit.
, p.169.
lxxx
The Chronicle of Battle Abbey
, ed. and trans. Eleanor Searle, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford 1980, pp.20–21.
lxxxi
EHD
, p.226.
lxxxii
Domesday Book
, p.979.
lxxxiii
GG
, p.109.
lxxxiv
R. Allen Brown,
op. cit.
, p.135.
lxxxv
Snorre Sturlason,
King Harald’s Saga
, trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Pálsson, Penguin 1966, p.147.
lxxxvi
Ibid.
lxxxvii
Ibid.
, pp.149–50.
lxxxviii
Ibid
., p.152.
lxxxix
Guy of Amiens,
Carmen de Hastingae Proelio
, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow, Clarendon Press 1999, p.5. Quoted in future as
Carmen.
xc
‘The Pevensey Campaign: brilliantly executed plan or near disaster?’ in
The Battle of Hastings,
ed. Stephen Morillo,
Boydell and Brewer 1999, p.139.
xci
GG
, p.117.
xcii
GG
, pp.121–23.
xciii
Vita Ædwardi Regis,
p.53.
xciv
John Gillingham, ‘William the Bastard at War’,
Anglo-Norman Warfare
, ed. Matthew Strickland, Boydell Press 1992,
p.158.
xcv
EHD
, p.227.
xcvi
The Waltham Chronicle
, p.49.
xcvii
J. F. C. Fuller, ‘The Battle of Hastings 1066’ in
The Battle of Hastings
, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and
Brewer 1999, p.167.
xcviii
It is highly unlikely that cross-bows were used at Hastings and none is illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry. The word
‘balistus’ used by William of Poitiers may mean a sling for stones.
xcix
GG
, p.127.
c
Whitelock, Douglas, Lemmon and Barlow,
The Norman Conquest, its setting and impact
, Eyre and Spottiswoode 1966, pp.107–08.
ci
Ibid.
, pp.109–10.
cii
R. Allen Brown, ‘The Battle of Hastings’ in
The Battle of Hastings
, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell and Brewer 1999,
pp.212–13.
ciii
Bernard S. Bachrach, ‘The Feigned Retreat at Hastings’, in
The Battle of Hastings
, ed. Stephen Morillo, Boydell
and Brewer 1999.
civ
GG
, p.137.
cv
R. Howard Bloch,
A Needle in the Right Hand of God,
Random House 2006, pp.167–69.
cvi
GG,
p.139.
cvii
Correspondance de Napoléon
1
er
(1858–69), vol. 15.
cviii
GG
, p.149.
cix
Orderic Vitalis,
Ecclesiastical History
, ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts 2002, bk. IV, p.203.
cx
Ibid.,
p.233.
cxi
Ibid.
, p.351. William did not die until 1087.
cxii
M. Townend,
Language and History in Viking Age England: Linguistic Relationships between Speakers of Old Norse and Old
English
, Turnhout, 2002
.
cxiii
William of Malmesbury,
History of the Kings of England
, II,§227.
cxiv
EHD
, p.311.
cxv
A detailed account of the survival of Englishmen under the Normans can be found in Ann Williams,
The English and the Norman
Conquest
, Boydell and Brewer 2000.
cxvi
Anglo-Saxon England,
Oxford 1962, p.678.
cxvii
N. F. Blake, ‘The genesis of
The Battle of Maldon
’,
Anglo-Saxon England
7 ed. Peter Clemoes, Cambridge
University Press 1978, p.124.
cxviii
R. H. C. Davis, ‘The
Carmen de Hastingae Proelio
’,
EHR
, vol. 93, no. 367 (April 1978),
pp.241–61.