THE NORMAN CONQUEST
(Continued)
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1969.
THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS
Duke William's incredible luck continued to hold. All through August,
he had been waiting for winds to come tearing up from the south so that
he might move his fleet northward across the Channel. Had the Norman fleet
arrived in August, Harold would have been ready for it, defeated it, in
all likelihood, and then swept north at leisure to take care of Tostig and
Hardrada.
......Had the winds continued to be wrong through
the fall, or even for another month, William's gathered forces might have
broken up for the winter and to gather them in the spring once more might
have proven impossible.
......As it was, though, the wind might have
done its work to William's order. It came from the south neither too early
nor too late, but just, just right. It turned just in time to bring William
to the southern coast of England on September 28, 1066, three days after
the Battle of Stamford Bridge, when the southern shores were empty of an
organized army.
......The Norman expedition--of which only
one-third was actually Norman, the rest being mercenaries--landed without
opposition in Sussex, near the coastal town of Hastings. Harold, his army,
and his fleet were two hundred miles away.
......William was cautious. He engaged in no
sweeping moves inland. He had no intention of being caught by Harold's thunderbolt
as the Norwegians had been. Instead, he fortified himself on the coast,
within reach of his ships in case he had to retreat, and waited.
......The news of William's landing reached
Harold on October 2. Madly, he raced southward.
......It might have paid Harold to do a little
waiting himself; to let his army rest and regroup; to gather more men, and
rally the countryside. William would keep for a while.
......But this he did not do. Furious at the
fortune that had taken him away from the south at precisely the wrong time
and perhaps over-elated at the successful lightning march that had smashed
the Norwegians, he could think only of a second lightning march. He passed
through London with scarcely a pause to let his army draw its breath and
was on the southern coast by October 13, eleven days after the news of the
invasion had reached him.
......The two armies faced each other, but
with what a difference. William's force had had fifteen days of rest (except
for a little joyous looting) and fifteen days in which to plan the battle
and set up fortifications. The Saxon army on the other hand, had had a harrowing
march northward, had fought a desperate battle, and had then had a harrowing
march southward.
......Saxon and Norman faced each other at
a town called Senlac (since renamed "Battle"). The backbone of
the Norman army consisted of fifteen hundred mounted knights, a tremendous
force at the time, but one that wasn't as overwhelming as it would become
in decades to come. The knights were still but lightly armored and the heavy
armor that was soon to encase knights and steeds and convert them into precursors
of the modern tank was yet for the future. These knights were strongly supported
by archers, with their small crossbows, (The deadly longbow that was to
mark English battle tactics a few centuries later had not yet been developed.)
......The Saxons, for their part, were expert
wielders of the battle-axe, and any Normans who got closer than arrow range
would he cleft by the whirling and deadly axe blade.
......Harold had seven thousand men and
they outnumbered the Normans, but that meant little since at least half
the Saxon army consisted of green peasants who had been drafted on the spot.
Again it would have paid Harold to wait. He was on his home ground. He could
gather together a large number of men if he were patient, including those
of the regular army who had not yet straggled in. He could have fortified
himself in a strong position and waited for William to attack. William would
have been forced to attack sooner or later, or his army would wither away
and reinforcements across the Channel could not easily be counted on.
......If Harold had waited and let his men
rest, he would surely have won.
......But to all the strokes of luck that William
had so far had, there now came the greatest of all. Harold made the decision
of a madman. With his army half-gathered and half-exhausted, Harold decided
to strike.
......Even so, had the Saxons held firm and steady, the battle might at least have been drawn and William's position was such that a bloody, drawn battle would have been no better than a defeat, and he would have had to leave.
......William felt out the strength of the enemy. He sent in his cavalry and it was beaten off. He used his archers and they were countered by slings and spears.
......So William decided to count on the Saxon's lack of judgment, already well-displayed. He ordered his men to turn and retreat quickly, and the Saxons with yells of premature triumph poured out of their line in pursuit. William held his retreat orderly, nor were his men panicked for they knew what they were doing. The maneuver had been carefully planned.
......The Saxons, on the other hand, in wild jubilation dashed forward, each on his own, and when the Normans turned, with a snap, to fight again, they found themselves facing a disorganized horde they could easily cut down.
......Twice this happened, and the Saxons were decimated. All they could hope for now was to save what they could, beat an orderly retreat, find some place where they could lick their wounds, gather reinforcements, and assemble to try a second battle.
......But even that was denied them. Harold's brothers were killed and as the sun was westering, an arrow among many came flying toward the Saxons and struck Harold in the eye, killing him at once. He had been king for ten months.
......The Saxons were now leaderless. The one man of resolution and courage, even if he had been wanting in judgment on this day, was gone, and the day ended in total victory for the Normans.
......That one battle had swung the pendulum. What the Saxons had won in a century of warfare against the Britons; what they had saved in a century and a half of warfare against the Danes; they now lost to the Normans in a single battle in one morning and afternoon, in which the cream of the Saxon nobility was destroyed.
......That one battle decided that England was to be Norman-governed; that it was to be knit, through Norman interest, to the Continent-- that a new civilization was to be built up in the island, with Norman and Saxon finally melting together to form the English of today. Out of the fusion, would come a form of government not quite like any other; one that was to have its own peculiar weaknesses and strengths but which, with that of a daughter nation, was to dominate the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
......If the Battle of Hastings had been won by Harold, how much of this would have come to pass? What might have happened that did not happen because William won? We cannot tell, and yet, considering the unusual history of England after the Battle of Hastings, it passes belief that the battle could have ended otherwise without altering world history drastically. That is why the Battle of Hastings can fairly be included on almost anyone's list of the decisive battles of the world.
......Prior to the Battle of Hastings, England had been invaded over and over again. The Beaker People had come, then the Celts, and then the Romans. The Angles, Saxons and jutes had followed them and after them the Danes and finally the Normans. I have mentioned six conquests of England in this book; the Normans were the sixth conquerors--and the last.
......In the nine centuries since Hastings, no army has successfully carried through an invasion of England, and rarely has one even managed to make a respectable attempt. Our own century has witnessed the most recent threat, and its failure, in 1940.
......The long period of security and freedom from the wars (except for occasional civil broils) could be attributed at least in part to the strong and efficient government given the island by its Norman overlords. And whatever the cause, the long stability gave England its chance to develop its own unique form of government.