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*

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1066 was the year that invasion changed the course of English history.

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A duke became a conqueror.

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He landed here, beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings,

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and brought about the end of Anglo-Saxon England.

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It's a story of great men and great events, of tragedy, heroism and sheer bad luck.

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We call him William the Conqueror,

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but to contemporaries he was William the Bastard.

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His father was Duke Robert of Normandy, but his mother was a tanner's daughter.

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When he was besieging a French town, the citizens threw hides out to remind William of his origins.

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He wasn't amused. When he took the place he had them skinned alive.

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It was a measure of the man.

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By contrast, Harold was described as affable to all good men and the enemy of evil-doers.

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Harold was a son of Earl Godwin, the most powerful man in England after the King,

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at times more powerful than him.

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The family lived here at Bosham in Sussex. Their hall has long gone,

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but the Saxon church in which Harold worshipped still survives.

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In 1064, King Edward the Confessor sent Harold to Normandy.

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He was shipwrecked, fell into William's hands and swore an oath for him.

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Harold promised that when Edward died he would support William's claim to the English throne.

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Whether he made his promise freely no-one knows, but the story of his oath is told in the Bayeux Tapestry.

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This replica panel from the tapestry shows a long-haired, moustached Harold -

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he was a fine figure of a man -

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riding here "ad Bosham ecclesia", to Bosham church.

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He's about to set out on the journey during which he'll swear that fatal oath.

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The oath was broken two years later.

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When Edward died in January 1066 Harold himself was crowned King of England.

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When William heard the news he decided to invade, and spent months preparing a fleet.

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On September the 27th, the invaders set sail in 300 ships.

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On the 28th of September, the invaders landed here on the beach at Pevensey in Sussex.

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Their cavalry was a force to be reckoned with. My horse Thatch has got Norman blood in his veins.

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It can't have been easy bringing 2,000 horses the 100 miles from Normandy in open-top wooden boats.

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Harder still, getting them ashore.

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This was the biggest amphibious operation since Roman times.

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As William scrambled up the shingle he slipped and fell,

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throwing out both hands to protect himself.

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He got up with blood on his face.

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One of his followers said it was a good omen -

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he'd taken hold of England with both hands, meaning to guarantee it to his descendants with his blood.

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This mishap apart, it was a bloodless landing.

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The Normans spent their first day in the Roman fort at Pevensey.

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Then it jutted out into the sea. Now it lies a few miles inland.

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This was an important gain, but one thing must have worried William.

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His invasion had been expected, so where were the Saxons?

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A week earlier, Harold had received disastrous news.

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His country had been invaded - not in the south by the Normans, but in the north by the Vikings,

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who'd landed near York and beaten the local forces.

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Harold's army marched out of London and on September the 25th advanced on the Vikings at Stamford Bridge.

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Harold pounded up this road at the head of 6,000 men.

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He knew all too well who his opponents were -

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Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and his own brother, Earl Tostig.

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Both had claims to the throne.

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Harold planned to take the Vikings by surprise.

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Scouts said they were some distance from their ships, where they'd left their armour.

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The Vikings saw the sun glinting off the armour of Harold's host. It looked like sunlight on broken ice.

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In order to get at the invaders, Harold's army had to cross the River Derwent.

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There was a wooden bridge across it

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somewhere here.

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One of the Vikings had worn his mail shirt that morning. He stood on the bridge armed with a mighty axe.

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He cut down dozens of Saxons.

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Eventually one of Harold's men got into a barrel, went underneath the bridge, taking a spear.

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As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says, "He brogged the giant from below."

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The way was now clear for Harold's men

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to pour across the river and take on their enemies on the ridge opposite.

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The battle was ferocious.

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At its end, both Tostig and Hardrada were dead.

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The invaders had arrived in 300 ships. The survivors needed only 24 to carry them home.

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Harold had destroyed a mighty army.

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'The written accounts of this battle are very sketchy.

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'Archaeologists like Richard Kemp can give us a sense of what it was like.'

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What happened to the warriors who were killed?

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Well, we actually have done an excavation of a local churchyard

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and found people buried there who undoubtedly fell in the battle.

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I've brought along one of the skulls that was excavated from this.

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It shows the signs of the battle in the form of the injuries here.

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This is undoubtedly a sword, whereas this very straight line may well have been caused by an axe.

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If you'd like to handle it, wear gloves. This is mid-11th century,

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and therefore rather precious.

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The injuries are mostly to the skull.

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So we've got straight down wounds.

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Several have taken the top off the skull.

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We've even got one that comes down against the jaw

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and then hits the collar bone.

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Mostly to the upper part of the body. Not people with helmets.

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A helmet would protect you from this sort of wound.

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Another major area of injury is the upper leg and pelvic region.

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- So some of them were hit by spears going in under the shield wall.
- Yes.

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- Bring him down, and once he's fallen, he's hit on the head.
- Yes.

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Once there's a gap in the shield wall and you can get through, you finish the person off with a hack.

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These are evidence, perhaps, that there were two separate people.

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- It brings the reality home.
- Yes.

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That is a considerable injury and this was a field of major slaughter.

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Just three days later, the Normans landed.

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When Harold received the news, he ordered his exhausted army to begin the 230-mile march back to London.

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With Harold away in the north, the Normans moved their base

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along the coast to Hastings, and built a temporary fortification.

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This castle was built later.

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William's problem was simple. He had to beat Harold and take London.

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But he couldn't move north.

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His fleet would be vulnerable if he left it.

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If he stayed put, he risked being bottled up in the Hastings peninsula

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with the sea to his back.

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William's only hope was to force Harold to come to him.

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And the way to do that was to sting Harold into action using sword and fire.

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William sent patrols out all over the area, and remorselessly burned and pillaged the nearby villages.

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The inhabitants took refuge in churches.

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This is Crowhurst, a few miles from Hastings.

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In the weeks before the battle it was utterly destroyed.

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The Domesday Book has one word for the villages William wiped out -

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"vasta" - wasteland.

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William's strategy worked.

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Harold received news of the ravaging of the villages.

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He was Earl of Wessex. These were his people under attack.

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He summoned a council of war, probably to Westminster Hall.

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His advisors urged caution,

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and begged him to let his brother Gyrth lead the army while he stayed back to raise fresh troops.

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This was not Harold's style.

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He said, "It was never my wont to lie in a lair while other men fight.

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"William shall never hear that I dare not look him in the face."

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On October the 12th, Harold marched out of London with his depleted army,

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an army that Steve Pollington understands.

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- How was it organised?
- Beneath the King,

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who was the supreme commander one might say, we had his personal followers.

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These are the men known as housecarls.

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Beneath them we have the thecnas - the theyns. These are men possibly a little like medieval knights,

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bound by duty to follow their lord into battle, and not to leave the field if he didn't.

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Beyond that we have the Anglo-Saxon fyrd -

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the mobile army, the army in the field.

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This business about not leaving the field after your lord had fallen - fine for poets.

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But did it really happen?

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There is evidence from a poem recording events at Malden in Essex in 991,

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in which one of the old retainers of the ealdorman there - a chap called Burkneuth -

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utters some memorable lines from Old English verse which go:

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RECITES IN OLD ENGLISH

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"Thought shall be the harder, hearts the keener, minds shall be the stronger

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"as our strength diminishes."

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Their leader was down, they had no hope of getting away alive, but they stayed behind,

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they fought on until the last man was down.

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Formidable men, aren't they? It's hard not to like them.

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Harold ordered his army to rendezvous at a well-known landmark,

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the hoar apple tree on Caldbec Hill.

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As night fell on Friday, October the 13th, his men made camp.

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A Norman chronicler tells us that the Saxons spent the night before the battle carousing up here.

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He gives us an account of their toasts.

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"Wassail" and "drinkheil".

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He wasn't here. He may have been contrasting the wild English with the pious Normans,

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who spent the night at prayer.

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Many of the Saxons must have known this would be their last night on earth,

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for tomorrow they would fight.

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Early on the 14th, William heard Mass.

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His men were fighting not merely for victory, but for survival.

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He took the holy relics on which Harold had sworn his oath in 1064,

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and at about six o'clock set off to fight a decisive battle.

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As they reached the crest of Telham Hill, the Normans were confronted by an awesome sight.

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Over there, on Senlac Ridge,

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the Saxons were forming up -

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7,000 men, the early sun glinting off swords and axes behind a wall of shields.

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'To get an idea of how Harold's men fought, I'm talking to Alan Jeffery,

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'expert on Saxon tactics, and known to his friends as Alan the Axe.'

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I always think of the axe as being THE Saxon weapon. Was it important?

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It was probably the most important weapon of the time.

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Technique's the only way to survive in that kind of conflagration.

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I have to have a style that will keep me moving and keep you away.

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That was a figure eight.

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In a wide form or a high form it basically takes this shape.

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Now, that's on a wide arc.

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On a higher arc, left hand or right,

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it takes no effort at all for me to do that.

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What is worth bearing in mind, when this hits you I get a rest.

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But if I want to get closer to you,

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it's easy to take your shield away.

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Yeah, I think I get the point.

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- Now, talk me through the axe itself.
- OK.

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It's largely iron - a precious commodity then - with a tempered steel edge

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put along here, heat-welded on.

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It has a diamond section there which gives it more steel.

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In the hands of a skilled person this could fell a human or a horse with little effort at all.

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This was the centre of Harold's line on Senlac Ridge.

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He stood up here with his guard about him.

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His men fought on foot, shoulder to shoulder, like their fathers before them.

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Theyns and housecarls, well armed, were probably in the front rank, the worse armed fyrdmen behind them.

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7,000 men on a front a mile across.

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The army's official war cries were "Holy Cross" and "God Almighty",

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but when the Normans came in sight, these shaggy, bearded warriors beat their shields with their weapons

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and barked out the older, pagan war cry, "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!"

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William had God on his side, and a banner to prove it.

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He had secured the Pope's blessing,

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arguing that Harold had broken an oath sworn on holy relics.

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William's army formed up, with the papal banner, facing the shield wall.

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The Normans were here in the centre, the Bretons were on the left, and the Flemings on the right.

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William's plan was simple. His archers and crossbowmen would wear down the shield wall.

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Then his infantry would tear gaps in it.

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He'd send in the cavalry to break it.

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To the accompaniment of trumpets from both sides, his archers let fly.

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The arrows had little effect,

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either sticking in the shields or passing over the line harmlessly.

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The Saxons held firm under heavy fire.

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William would have to mount a frontal assault against Harold's well-chosen defensive position.

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Battle Abbey was built later. Its construction flattened the slope.

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But it's still pretty steep and it must have been much worse then,

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particularly with 7,000 Saxons up on top.

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The infantry attack was a disaster, and the Saxons pushed the Normans back down the slope.

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William now relied on his cavalry.

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'Thatch and I are being given some hands-on training by Anne Hyland.

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'She's an expert on the medieval warhorse.'

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- Shield first, I think.
- Heavier than you think, your Norman kite-shaped shield.

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- What about the reins?
- Hold those a little bit above the horse's neck,

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- so the shield actually covers your upper body.
- OK.

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- How do I use the lance?
- You can use it

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overarm, as was the normal way, or else, as was becoming much more common, couched.

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- That's tucked under my arm.
- Yes, with a third of the length behind your body,

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and the rest of it pointing at your enemy with all the force you've got. Your stirrup gives you a platform.

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No, don't point it down. You want to level it at your opponent.

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When you set your horse in motion, it's the weight and speed of the horse that delivers the shock.

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Get your reins sorted. You're going in for the real thing now. Get your shield so that you are covered.

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Keep your head pulled in so when you're charging you can eye along and aim.

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Don't take your head off centre. You'll move your horse off centre.

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Like many things in life, it's easy when you've done it once or twice.

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Let's have a go.

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Up with the lance!

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On William's order, all three cavalry contingents - Flemish, Norman and Breton - charged,

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1,000 horsemen thundering up the slope.

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The Bretons hit the shields first.

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They charged here on William's left where the slope is gentlest, making better progress than the others.

225
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Their impact must been terrific but the Saxons fought back hard, bringing horses crashing down.

226
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The Bretons could bear it no longer and folded back down the slope with Saxons roaring down after them.

227
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This wasn't part of Harold's plan, but these men were fighting mad.

228
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The panic spread.

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Across the whole front, William's men recoiled down the slope.

230
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A Norman chronicler admits, "Almost the whole of the army yielded."

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A cry went up that William had been killed. Chaos followed.

232
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It looked as if William's army would collapse,

233
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giving victory to Harold.

234
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As his fate hung in the balance, William rose to meet the crisis.

235
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He galloped forward, pushing his helmet back so that he could be seen.

236
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"Look at me!" he shouted.

237
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"Look at me! I'm alive, and with God's help will be the victor!"

238
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His will prevailed.

239
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The retreating Normans turned,

240
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and the Saxons who had pursued them suddenly found themselves outnumbered and vulnerable.

241
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The Saxons were cut to pieces here, well in front of the shield wall.

242
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The Bayeux Tapestry suggests that it was here that the King's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were killed,

243
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as horsemen swirled around them.

244
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This was the decisive moment. William's personal leadership had rallied his army.

245
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Harold had lost hundreds of his best men.

246
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It was now about 11 o'clock and both sides paused to regroup.

247
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Medieval battles rarely lasted more than an hour or so.

248
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Hastings had already raged for two.

249
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At about 12, battle recommenced.

250
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William of Poitiers, a chronicler, called it an unknown sort of battle,

251
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in which one side launched attacks, the other stood fixed to the ground.

252
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Poitiers says that William launched a number of feigned retreats,

253
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drawing the Saxons down from the shield wall and killing them out in the open.

254
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I don't think they were well enough trained for that. Horses are hard to stop when they move fast en masse.

255
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Probably small groups of knights wheeled up and down these slopes,

256
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eating away at the edge of the shield wall, wearing down Harold's strength.

257
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It was now late afternoon, with dusk coming on fast.

258
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If the Normans were winning, they hadn't yet won.

259
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Harold was still on his feet and his men, although depleted, still held the ridge.

260
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At 7, William turned to his archers,

261
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ordering them to shoot high so that their arrows fell over the tattered shield wall onto the men behind it.

262
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If the tapestry is to be believed, one of them hit Harold in the eye.

263
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Some knights forced their way into the knot of housecarls surrounding Harold, and hacked the King to death.

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With the King dead, panic swept through the English ranks.

265
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The Bayeux Tapestry tells us simply, "The English fled." Many fyrdmen must indeed have slipped away.

266
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Not so the theyns and housecarls who'd fought all day with Harold.

267
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Like the heroes of epic poems, they remained true to their lord.

268
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Here, on grass already greasy with the blood of the slain,

269
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they swung sword and axe until they too were killed.

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There may have been as many as 4,000 dead on this dreadful field.

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00:26:16,875 --> 00:26:22,476
Although the King's brothers could be identified, Harold could not.

272
00:26:22,476 --> 00:26:30,037
His mistress, Edith Swan Neck, had followed Harold to Hastings and spent the day on Caldbec Hill.

273
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As night fell she came up here to Senlac and, with a lover's eye, identified the body she knew so well.

274
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This stone marks the spot where Harold died.

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William was reluctant to grant burial in consecrated ground to a man

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whose ambition had caused suffering.

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But Harold probably lies at Waltham Abbey in Essex.

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He was luckier than his followers whose bones whitened where they lay.

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"They were few in number," wrote a monkish chronicler, "but brave in the extreme."

280
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Soon after Hastings, most of the surviving magnates surrendered

281
00:27:11,723 --> 00:27:16,764
and William advanced on London, crushing resistance as he went.

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The Conqueror was crowned King in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

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Invasion became occupation. The country was carved up among William's followers.

284
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Hundreds of castles were built to enforce their will.

285
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We're never far from evidence of the Conquest.

286
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There had been few castles here before 1066. The Normans built many.

287
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The White Tower in the Tower of London was begun in the Conqueror's reign.

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But the Conquest was more than a change of military architecture.

289
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It brought a new language and a new ruling class.

290
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4,000 Saxon theyns were replaced by 200 Norman barons,

291
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whose dominance sneered out from these great square keeps.

292
00:28:10,932 --> 00:28:14,813
Small wonder that a Norse poet wrote:

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"Cold heart and bloody hand

294
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"Now rule the English land."

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Subtitles by John Macdonald, Subtext for BBC Subtitling, 1997