In 1066, the Normans conquered Anglo-Saxon England – it was a milestone in British history. But now it turns out that a key event in this conquest did not happen as it is written in the history books. Because the 320-kilometer long forced march of the Anglo-Saxon army to the Battle of Hastings is a myth, as a historian has discovered. This was due to a misunderstood passage in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
In 1066, the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, also known as Harald II, ruled England – but not unchallenged. His claim to the throne was first challenged by his own brother Tostig, and later by William II, Duke of Normandy. Harald’s predecessor, the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor, who was later revered as a saint, initially named Harold as his successor, but is said to have revoked this on his deathbed – and instead appointed the Norman Duke Wilhelm as heir to the throne.
Legendary march of the Anglo-Saxons put to the test
These quarrels meant that Harald II had to fight on two fronts in 1066: In September, Tostig and a Norwegian fleet attacked northeast England. The Anglo-Saxon king and his army managed to repel this attempted conquest. However, he found himself in a time crunch when the Normans under William II landed in the south of England in October 1066. According to popular tradition, the Anglo-Saxon army had to cover the 320 kilometers to southern England in a forced march in just ten days before fighting against the Normans in the Battle of Hastings.
But this legendary Anglo-Saxon march to the Battle of Hastings is a mere myth, as historian Tom License from the University of East Anglia has now discovered. Instead of traveling on foot, most of the Anglo-Saxon troops reached southern England by ship. “Harald’s campaign was not a desperate forced march through England, but a clever land-sea operation,” explains License. “The heroic march is a Victorian invention.” License came to this conclusion as he combed through contemporary sources to reconstruct the events immediately preceding the Battle of Hastings.
(Video: University of East Anglia)
By ship instead of on foot
“I noticed that several contemporary authors mentioned Harald’s fleet. Accordingly, Harald sent hundreds of ships south to oppose the Normans,” reports License. The assumption that the Anglo-Saxon king had disbanded his fleet is an error based on misleading wording in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This description of events in September 1066 states that “the ships came home.” This was understood by Victorian historians to mean that King Harald disbanded his navy and sent the ships home after fighting the Norwegians. When the Normans attacked to the south, he had no choice but to send his army there on foot.
But there is no trace of such a forced march by the Anglo-Saxons in contemporary sources: “I looked for evidence of such a march, but didn’t find a single one,” says the historian. In addition, the time information is also not plausible: “The fact that Harald’s exhausted soldiers should have walked around 320 kilometers on foot in just ten days after the battle against the Norwegians is unrealistic,” says License. Given the poor condition of the medieval roads and the exhaustion of the men, such a route could not be completed in such a short time. “And only a crazy or incompetent general would send all his men on foot on such a march if he had ships at his disposal,” said the historian.
“Events of 1066 in a new light”
This means that the common account of the events before the Battle of Hastings is wrong – and the famous march of the Anglo-Saxons against the Normans is a mere myth. “The new findings show the events of 1066 in a new light and highlight a previously overlooked aspect of Anglo-Saxon maritime capabilities,” says Licence. “King Harald was not an exhausted, reactive commander. He was a strategist who used England’s navy to mount a coordinated defense.”
Roy Porter of English Heritage, curator of the Hastings battlefield, has a similar view: “What we know of King Harald’s previous military campaigns fits the idea that he used the fleet to transport his soldiers and fight against William,” says Porter. “There are also references to this in Norman traditions. According to this, the Anglo-Saxon king wanted to use land troops and ships to pinpoint the Normans on the Hastings Peninsula. However, this plan failed: the Anglo-Saxon fleet arrived too late and the Normans were able to gain the upper hand. King Harald II died in the battle and William the Conqueror became ruler of England.
Source: University of East Anglia