Gone Medieval - The Story of 1066

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Is 1066 just the Battle of Hastings? Far from it. The war for the English crown was a year-long apocalypse. Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega dissect history's ultimate succession crisis. Follow King Harold as he crushes a Viking armada at Stamford Bridge, only to face William the Conqueror’s brutal heavy cavalry just weeks later. From shattered shield walls to a Christmas coronation that literally went up in flames, Matt and Eleanor relive the ruthless reality of 1066.MORE1066 New Discovery: the Myth of Harold's MarchListen on AppleListen on SpotifyHarold GodwinsonListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega. Edited by Matthew Wilson.The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcastHistory Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™WATCH Matt and Eleanor's documentary The Rise of the Plantagenets on History Hit TV! Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS early access ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From long-loss Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on history hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries

with a brand-new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world, to World War II. Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe. It began with the death of a saint king and a bitter succession battle, followed by an apocalyptic storm, biking invasions, ravaging the north, Norman armadas striking the south and brutal slaughter at Hastings. With an arrow to the Anglo-Saxon king's eye, a new dynasty would be born By the year's end, William, descendant of the Viking King Rollo, would conquer England.

Here on God Medieval, we thrive on this drama. I'm Matt Lewis, and today Dr. Eleanor Yarniger and I are stepping onto the blood-soaked battlefields of a momentous year to uncover the masterminds pulling the strings. We're answering the big questions. Why did the Battle of Hastings really happen? Who were the ruthless players fighting for the crown? And how did that fateful year radically forge a new England? This is an epic saga of slaughtered kings, shattered shields and fragile, world-changing victories.

This is the story of 1066. Welcome to gone medieval. So 1066, it's a year. People have probably heard of it. But what we're going to do is try and pull it apart. And it lends itself to this kind of treatment, I think, because we can start right at the beginning and we can get all the way to the very end. So strapping, because this is going to take a little while. And I think that this is a really important point because I think people say, hear the term 1066.

And they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, the Battle of Hastings. And I'm like, baby, there's so much to get through first. Yeah, yeah. That was one day of it. And I mean, we can start all of this on the 5th of January. So just a few days into the year. We've got Edward the Confessor, who has been king of Anglo-Saxon, England for a couple of decades, old man. married, no children, what's going on there.

Story for another day, perhaps. But he's been ill. He's kind of rushed through the completion of his brand new Westminster Abbey because he needs to be buried somewhere, so he might be buried in the church that he built. So he has it consecrated at the end of 1065 and just five days into 1066, sure enough, the king pops his clogs with no son,

no universally accepted air, and we are starting the year with a problem. And this is a huge problem, right? Because we have to figure out who is going to be his successor. And maybe, allegedly, some people were named. It has been alleged. But how much can we actually know about what happened, you know, and what happened on his deathbed?

Because there are several competing stories, right? Yeah, yeah. And they take hold depending on who is currently in the, descendant because we've gone through a period where he has invited one of his nephews, Edward the Exile, to come back to England when it's pretty clear he's not going to have a son. This is perhaps the last sion of the mail line of the House of Wessex. He's been living off in exile. And so Uncle Edward the Confessor is like, come on home, it'll be great.

But in the long tradition of Anglo-Saxonaires, this isn't always the friendly outreach that it's been positioned as. There has been occasions where people have come back. back under these circumstances only to be seized, blinded, killed, whatever else. So Edward the exile is kind of taking a little bit of a punt coming back from Hungary where he's been growing up with his family, brings his son and his daughters back with him. But then he goes and dies as soon as he gets back to England. So all of Edward the confessor's plans are immediately out the window, though it does leave him with Edward the exile's son. So Edward the confessor's great nephew.

Yeah, great. Edgar the Etheling. So he has that title, Etheling, Anglo-Saxon, meaning something like throne-worthy. So he's in the pool of people who could be considered next in line to the throne. But he is a young boy and Anglo-Saxon England is not fond of young child kings. They tend to pass them over in favour of their uncles and things like that to avoid a minority. So until Edgar comes of age, he's not probably the main option. but he appears to be the only real one from the House of Wessex.

So if Edward lives long enough, perhaps Edgar is his heir. In the meantime, there's lots of other questions about who it might be, the Godwinson family, hugely powerful around this time. Edward, the confessor at most points in his reign, is not getting on well with the Godwins, with Earl Godwin and his children, the Godwinsons. They are hugely powerful imposing themselves on Edward, and he doesn't really enjoy that,

so he's sort of pushing and thrashing back against this. but Harold Godwinson is married to his sister so there is a familial link there Harold isn't a member of the House of Wessex but he is Earl of Wessex now he is Edward the Confessor's brother-in-law does that give him a claim? Maybe

maybe but he's going to rely on claiming that on his deathbed Eddd the Confessor placed the kingdom into his care whatever that means So how do you feel about that, right? Because I have, I suppose, my own interpretation of it. And part of it is based on sort of like how quickly things happen after ever the confessor dies. Because ever the confessor dies. And as you mentioned, we've got this mess. We've got this mess. There's, you know, ethlings. There are Godwinsons. There's all these people about. And very, very quickly, Harold Godwinson is like, it was me. Like, I'm the king, right? And like, I'm sorry, it's that.

That it's sweaty, right? Like, you know, if I really felt that there was a really strong claim that everyone could agree upon, I think it would be a little bit more laissez-faire, I suppose. I can't help wondering whether Edward the confessor's spirit is drifting out of the window. As Harold is like, whoa, you all heard that right. He named me king. And Edward was like, no, no, no, no, no. Not what I meant.

Did he mean protect the kingdom for Edgar to maintain the Royal House of Wessex? And has Harold chosen to interpret that in a specific way? Or was he maybe envisaging avoiding a minority by having Harold as a kind of placeholder king and then it would revert back to Edgar at some point after this? Harold is pretty clear what he wants it to mean. And in that moment, as the man on the ground, that is kind of, what matters. And for those around, in fairness to Harold is what I would say, for those around him, they're thinking, do we want this little kid on the throne? We absolutely do not. Do we want this

proven, established governor who is a capable warrior on the throne? Perhaps we do. Yeah. And listen, I can completely understand that. I do think, as you say, this isn't necessarily the norm in terms of how this particular kingdom works because the English do things differently, right? You know, you do have these moots where everyone gets together and in theory they vote on who the king is, even though it does tend to go down familial lines a lot of the time. And so we do definitely see a bunch of people who are also, let's be honest, it's been kind of a rock few years before 1066. People just periodically take over England.

It happens all the time, right? you never know when the Danes are going to get bored, okay? And you can't have a little boy on the throne because someone's going to have to actually do something about that, right? But I suppose despite the fact that a Dane might come over and be, Canute the Great at any moment and take over England, right? That isn't where Harold sees, I think, the major threat coming from, right? Because I think the first thing that he does almost as soon as, like, poor old Edward is in the ground, right?

The first thing he does is like, okay, well, we better get ready to be invaded by Normans, which I think is an interesting point, right? Because while all this preparing to be invaded by Normans, if there is no Norman claim to the throne. Just a question. Yeah, no, and a fair one. And I think it's also important to think about, does it matter what Edward the confessor planned anyway?

You know, we talk about all of his schemes for Edward the exile, Edgar the Etheling. Did he pick Harold Godwinson? did he offer the throne to William of Normandy, whatever else. Does it matter what the dead king thought? That's not how kingship during this period works. When the king dies, there is an interregnum until a new one is crowned, which means there's no king's peace, there's no law, there is no supreme power in the kingdom,

and that creates problems whenever it happens. So people are always really keen to get that filled quickly. Well, here in Harold, you have a guy who's on the spot. And so if he is chosen by everybody around there in a form of something like a Wittanamont, isn't he just the king? Does it matter who else has a claim? I mean, listen, I think that that is a really strong argument fundamentally, right? You can argue all day long about who was supposed to be what, but what actually matters is who does things, right?

And I think that we see that throughout English history, right? I mean, we could say a lot about that during the anarchy, for example, right? It just depends on who's got a crown on their head. that's what it comes down to, right? But despite all this, you know, we definitely see that Harold is concerned that he's going to have to brace

for William to come over from Normandy, but that's not who shows up first, right? Because, listen, it's your friend and mine, Harold Hadrata. And he is this interesting guy, right? Because he is the king of Norway. He tried to claim the throne of Denmark, I mean, the Denmark-Norway

like a good luck babe untangling those two at this point in time he's actually been a member of the Vergarian Guard like down in Constantinople absolutely impressive stuff and I love his claim because his claim is like

okay so listen listen think who remembers 1038 right in 1038 there was an agreement between Magnus the King of Denmark and Hartha Knut okay

who's Knut Sarah With canutes. And right. And he's like, look, listen, babe, if we both die and we don't have heirs, then we can inherit from each other. We'll inherit from each other. And Magnus had been Harold's predecessor as king of Norway. So thereby, by process of transference. His claim is my claim.

Exactly. I love it because it's so, it is. is so mad. It's mad as a box of frogs, right? It's just like, it's such a funny thing to try to make a claim on it. And I actually, I love it. And it's good as any other. I think it's brilliant. And I think throughout 1066, I like to imagine Harold Hardrida sitting there. I've been down to Constantinople. I've done a bit of warring in France. I've come back. I'm slightly bored now sitting on a throne. Where can I cause trouble? If there isn't a hot spot, where can I create one? And some of his advisors are like, well, there's an interesting thing happened in England. It's like, England. What's my claim to that? Well, we can get around, you know, we can, I think, it feels like he's inventing a reason to get in a ship and go on an adventure again. And I just love that because I like how all of these Norse people are just so into it. They're like, any moment, babe, I might be back in the ship conquering things. And this is kind of the last gasp of it too. Well, I mean, until we got to the, I was about

to say that and then I'm like, no, the Normans, consider the Normans. But it's just like more of a, I think we tend to see more come specifically out of Normandy. And I kind of wish he'd done it. Yeah. I mean, because up until this point as well, so we get, it's recorded that on the same date on the 8th of September 1066, Harold breaks the army up that he'd been having in place on the Isle of White, kind of watching the south coast of England, who for, if not the Normans. But he's been camped there expecting that invasion to come.

And on the same day that he breaks that up, Harold, Harald, Harald. And Rada lands in the northeast of England. And not just alone either, but with Harold's brother Tostig. Listen, it's a bad sign, right? And Tostig, he's just like, I am here to do some light fratricide, which I really respect. Also, you know, like, again, this is very traditional. Like, all this is the sort of stuff I expect to see out of England, right? And it's like he's younger by about seven years.

He, in theory, is the Earl of Northumbria, but he got on his brother's wrong side, as one does. and he was exiled, right? And the thing is with these people, right? If you exile someone, you're kind of asking them to go off and see if they can come back with an army and do something about it. It's almost like a dare, right? Yeah, don't stew on it until you're powerful enough to come back and challenge me. And here's the thing is that I think that partially we've got Toastig who's like, do it, Harold, do it. Why not?

Like, here's a way that we could spin out a really weird justification for this. And I think it goes a long way of showing how bad Harold is actually at the diplomacy part of this game. Right? Because it's like, babe, you've got a brother who's out here literally trying to raise armies against you. He would rather someone else entirely rule as opposed to you. And I think that tells you a lot about Harold Godwinson's inability to think long term. Yeah, yeah. And I also can't help one of the way.

whether is Tostig looking to support a Scandinavian assault on the crown of England? Or is Tostig thinking, Harold, Hardrada, come and help me make myself king of England. And Harold Hardrida is like, okay. Okay, like, sure. That's definitely what will happen when we get there. Yeah, and there is no way of knowing, right? Because, I mean, maybe Tostig thinks that he's saying to Harold Hadrada, would you like to loot? Right.

Like, it's loot in season, baby. And, you know, it has ever been thus. Yeah. Up in Northern England, right? Yeah, like Tostig wondered into Harold's court and could see him bored tapping his arm on his throne. And he's like, I want to come and do a bit of light pillaging with me. It's like I try to get the lads out for paintball now. It's essentially the same thing at the time, right?

But this is a significant test now of Harold's kingship. He's been doing reasonably well. He's been on military maneuvers around Wales, trying to calm descent there. Seems to have been operating as King of England effectively. Seems to have plenty of support. seems to be able to control his kingdom, but suddenly on the 8th of September, he's invaded not just by a Viking army,

but by his own brother as well. This is a really serious test of his metal. Oh, completely. And it is, I think it just bears repeating. Something that is almost expected. We've definitely had Danish kings of England before. And there is this kind of, I suppose, traditional alignment of England with Norway, with Denmark.

There's just sort of this like North Sea triangle, which I think is really cool. And of course it's apogy under Canute the Great, clearly. But still we have, I don't know, I suppose a vernacular now we're so far removed from this. It's like, you know, their languages are mutually intelligible. These are people who are kind of, they've got very similar court cultures. They've got very similar martial cultures, right? And so, yeah, these things happen. But I do think Harold responds to that fairly well.

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it is interesting that we often forget how much of England's focus at this period is on that North Sea side. Europe is there. Yeah. Europe is there. Yeah. But it's maybe not where most of the connections are across the Scandinavian world. there is still a huge Danish presence in England amongst the population where they've settled,

who must feel some kind of link connection still back to that part of the world across the North Sea. So England is almost looking kind of east rather than south still at this point. And I think that that is so interesting, right? And I don't think it's a surprise that we see Tostig and Harold Hadrata arriving in the north, right, as a result of this, because that is where they can more reliably count upon having some kind of support from the locals. Because, you know, if you go with the Danish speaking people, they'll be like, oh, yeah, great.

Bring it back, right, you know. Yeah. And so we get, what, 12 days after they land on the 20th of September, we get the Battle of Fulford. And this is before Harold Godwinson has arrived. So we get two brothers, Edwin and Morkar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, because he's stolen, Tostig's earld them.

They confront Harold Hardrada's army at Fulford. And it doesn't go very well for Edwin and Morkar. They both escape with their lives, but they are defeated. And it's interesting to wonder whether this is buying Harold a bit of time to get there. But you do get the sense in the aftermath of this that Harold Hardrada feels like he's almost conquered the northeast already. This guy is making for York and planning some kind of coronation or where he's going to live in York. Now he's king of the north. And again, these things happen.

These are things that happen all the time. So it makes perfect sense of the time, right? So, you know, we've got this one battle. We have a lot of Norwegian guys running around the joint. And people are like, yeah, this is a threat. That really appears to be the major threat at the time. And this is not, you know, even till we get to the 25th of September, my sister's birthday. So it's one of the few dates I can always remember is the battle stage.

Stanford Bridge. Do you remember Stanford Bridge or her birthday? Hmm. Which one do you use to remember? Yeah, that's why I'm like, is it? Which one? Is it Emily or Stanford? Yeah, I don't know.

So, like, basically that we do have this next confrontation at Stanford Bridge. But I think the important thing to kind of keep in mind here is whereas Fulford is kind of a traditional pitched battle. It's the sort of thing that you would expect. That's not what was happening at Stanford Bridge, is it? No, this seems to be something that Harold is really. good at showing up quickly, moving his armies around his kingdom with speed. It's something, you know, again, going back to the anarchy, something that Stephen will become famous for. It's like he pops up out of nowhere when people aren't expecting him to be there.

Stephen! So Harold Hardrida is, you know, his army's not wearing their armour. They're not prepared for a fight. They think they're taking the submission of the city of York. So they're completely unprepared for this assault. Suddenly, Harold Godwinson arrived. with an English army. Lots of questions about how he's got there. Has he marched and ridden up there? Or has he sailed up there?

Most likely he sailed, I think. We had Tom Licence on God Medieval a little while ago talking about the evidence that they were using ships rather than riding up there because why wouldn't you? Yeah. It's much faster. If nothing else.

Yeah. And so he's arrived there unexpectedly quickly, caught Harold Hardrada's army unawares to the point where they're kind of fleeing across a river and we're left with this one giant Norwegian soldier holding the bridge on his own for as long as he possibly can to give all of his comrades a chance to prepare. Oh, it's very romantic. Poor massive Viking. Poor massive Viking. Bring them back, you know.

And I mean, it is a real situation where they're essentially caught with their pants down, as it were. Like, they're not even in full armor. They're not, they're not ready to go, right? This is a surprise attack. And that is really great for Harold Godwinson because it allows him. this element of surprise, which fundamentally he needs. But it is also, I think, important to point out because it's just, it's not necessarily how things were done. No. At the time. It's not most honorable way of behaving.

No. And I mean, granted, again, we are talking about, um, the beautiful people of the North Sea, right? And who have ever been accused of not necessarily being the most chivalrous. But, you know, I guess to a descent, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, right? And ultimately, assuming that Harold has been almost chosen, but at least accepted as king, this is why people have accepted him. England is being invaded by a foreign nation. They're on English soil.

You want your king to get there and get rid of them. You're maybe not worried about whether he's doing it in a chivalrous manner. You want them gone. This is why people have agreed to make Harold King. and he's proving his metal here. And I mean, fundamentally, you're a bang on. That's what a king is for. The entire system is predicated on the idea that that is what kings are going to do.

And here is Harold behaving like a king. You can't say that he isn't. Is he my favorite Harold in this story? No, I'm Team Hardrata all the way just because I like the chaos. But, you know, it is fundamentally him showing up in the way that he is expected to do. And I mean, spoiler for the result, the Battle of Fulford that had taken place a few days earlier, will be remembered as the last time that a Scandinavian army will win on English soil. Ooh.

Because the Battle of Stamford Bridge does not go well for your boy Harold. No. I think everyone is actually kind of shocked. Everyone is like, what do you mean? Harold Hattrata was killed. Like it doesn't seem to be the way things are supposed to go. I mean, really, I think that's where the smart money was at the time. You know, he just had such an incredible weight of soldiers behind him.

He had an insider in Tostig. He had everything lined up really, really nicely. And it was so easy up to this point. And it just shows you how all of this is a gamble. Fundamentally, anytime you engage in a battle in this way, you are gambling with your life. It's not that easy. And from Harold's, Harold Godwinson's point of view, he's defeated one of the most famous warriors in Europe in that age. he's proven his worth as a king.

He saved England from becoming an outpost in a Scandinavian empire again. But it remains interesting to think, had the result gone differently, what might England have looked like if it was still looking at that North Sea empire? And I just think things would have been really differently. I mean, who knows if that is how things would ossify?

We can't necessarily say for sure that that is how things would always be. But I do think that the way I don't know, England is kind of looking towards France for essentially the rest of the medieval period. That certainly wouldn't have happened. I think that you would still see more of a connection across to Denmark, across to Norway, much more sort of like we see, for example, with the Hanseatic League cities when they start up. I think that that would have been where most of the attention went instead of more along the lines of Latin Christendom.

Which makes it interesting because Scandinavia has so many connections down the far east, of Europe all the way down to the near east in the Mediterranean, that England might have been plugged in to that circuit rather than this one that is looking to maybe go more crusadey during this period and impose itself across there. England might have been, remained a kind of outpost on the loop around the outside of this kind of crusading craze that takes Europe. Do you know, it's beer Europe versus wine Europe. And, you know, England right dead in the middle. Really, it's like, it's a surprise. I know we're uncouth.

We don't mix beer and wine. No, listen. We're not quite that bad. Listen. Not quite that bad. Well, anyway, I think this is as good a place as any to pause because baby, the Normans are coming. Let da-da-da. RIP to a real one.

Morning till I join you, Harold Hardrada. You'll always be in my heart. But another fan favorites on the scene. And that is. of course William. Le Conquerand. This is just a year of icons for you, isn't it? Eleanor's favorites all turning up in a row.

I like it because they're messy, right? It's just like, these are some of the most dramatic ones to ever do it. They're all mean girls. They're all completely self-interested, and they're going to make it your problem. Fantastic stuff. This is historian dreams. They're coming to toilet paper house. So it's three days after the Bachelor of Stanford Bridge, 28th of September.

we get a Norman landing on the south coast of England. And this is maybe what Harold had been scared of, hadn't materialised to this point. He's just beaten a huge Viking army. Must have been quite pleased with himself. Oh, until someone whispered in his ear, we've got another problem.

This is such an interesting thing because essentially what we're seeing here from William's point is like, oh, well, two can play at that game. I too can get a bunch of guys in chips and be here surprisingly fast. It's like curses, right? So I find it quite interesting because they get, you know, obviously everybody in ships, all of these horses that have been hanging out on the Norman coast for weeks, on weeks now.

In theory, you know, like the story, the official story is, oh, the wind was bad? Question mark is like, was the wind bad or was your intelligence good? And was the wind really bad until William the Conqueror when dug up some saints' bones, wave them around the beach and the wind changed? Listen, if a single flap of a butter, flies wings can start a typhoon then, you know, maybe that is what had to happen. You know, sometimes you've got to get some relics involved about it. That's all I can say.

And William's keen on his relics, isn't he? He is. He's big on using religion to back up what he's doing. And I think this is quite interesting because it also shows that William is not just a military leader, right? And a lot of Williams claims very specifically, as we say, are linked to relics because he says, no, no, no, no. I had a conversation with Edward the confessor,

and he said, actually, I'm the special little guy, and I get to be the king of England. And in fact, in fact, Harold Godwinson bloody well knows this. And he knows this because he showed up over here, half drowned in quicksand. We spent a bunch of time hawking, and he swore to me on the relics of a saint that he would support me for the claim of the English throne. And it's a really interesting story that, isn't it?

Because Harold, she says, ends up sort of shipwrecked in Normandy. As you do. As everybody does during this period. Ends up with William. But they seem to get on really, really well. You know, they go on campaign together. There seems to be a mutual respect between them. And the story that the Normans will tell later is that Edward the Confessor had promised

thrown to William. They're related distantly through Edward the Confessor's mother, Emma of Normandy. and that for some reason William felt the urge when Harold came to Normandy to extract an oath from him to support him. And we get this scene in the Bayer Tapestry famously of William standing there with hands on two caskets. And I think for me, the most interesting bit about that scene is the Bayer Tapestry gives us no clue what's actually happening there.

Here we've got Harold with his hands on things. You all know what that means, don't you? Yeah, and this is the thing is it's intensely legible to them. Right. So they understand this to sort of be the case. They clearly understand this to be something that happens all the time, right? Like it's just a, I don't know, when rich guys hang out at any moment, you might bust out the reliquary casks and say some oaths. And to be honest, it genuinely might be something that they do.

You know, swearing oaths of the filety, owes the brotherhood. You know, and this, I think also is not necessarily something we can just write off. Yeah. Right? Because again, why is Harold Godwinson acting so squirly

about how there might be an invasion from Normandy if there had never been a conversation about William the Conqueror being the heir apparent? Because it doesn't make sense otherwise. Maybe he likes camping on the Isle of White in the summer.

Don't we all? To be fair, shout out to the Isle of White. I do like it. Yeah. But we also don't necessarily want to take Norman propaganda at face value either.

Perhaps Harold put his hand on some casks and swore and oath, what was that specific oath? Was that an oath of brotherhood with William? They've been on campaign together. They've got on incredibly well. And William has chosen to say, remember that time Harold came over and swore an oath?

Do you know what that was? Oh, you don't know what that was. Let me tell you what that was. Who remembers? Maybe it was an oath to, I will not get as drunk as I did last night. We're going to have a quiet one, lads, I swear. Right.

If you forget to go and see the Bayer Tapestry while it's over here, I'm going to imagine Harold with his hands on both of those going never again. Never. Exactly. And I mean, this is interesting, though, because apparently Harold thinks William is coming, and William's like, yeah, I am coming, right? And he's amassed this incredible army, and here they come across the channel.

And sort of the first thing they do when they get here, right, is they start building things, which is interesting. And that is a really telling symbol because it means that they are ready to dig in. Yeah. This isn't like Harold Hardrida, who has turned up, landed an army, marched across, fought the first army he comes to and then thinks he's taking a city. They are doing this really carefully. They're taking their time.

They're landing and they're building a beachhead that they can protect. They are here and they are not going home. And this is an important point, I think, because Harold's response to this, I think, is interesting. And obviously hindsight is 20-20. We are all backseat driving. you know, whenever we talk about this because I do think that Harold could have stood to wait, right? Winter is coming.

It is just going to be really soggy for a couple of months. It's like, oh, you want to hang out on the beach? You know, help yourself. Ooh, have fun on the beach, right? And we don't quite understand why he reacts the way he does. There are varying things that we think. Maybe it's because this is essentially like that's his home base. These are his homelands.

And so maybe it just kind of like looks bad that he's sort of like leaving his small folk out to dry if he doesn't go and defend them. Maybe he's a little bit flush on this hairy victory against Harold Hodrodda. But one way or another, he jumps in those boats and he's right on down and he's ready to do the thing, right? Yeah. And Harold has very kindly left him lots of ships beyond as well because they've killed enough of Harold's army that they don't need all of the ships to get them home. So he's probably got extra ships to get back with. And we get this scene where he goes to London first, he gets back to London. And the sources tell us that his family, his brothers in particular, are saying, chill for a bit.

We need to raise a proper army. We need to have a plan of attack. And we need to work out how we're going to do this. And that Harold is like absolutely not where we're going today. And his family are like, that's crazy. And he's like, no, I'm king. We're going today. And like you say, it's interesting to wonder whether he's just overly confident

now because he's just defeated the greatest warrior in Europe maybe. What can this guy from Normandy possibly have in comparison to Harold Hardrada? But there is also the element that the Normans talk about the fact that they set to pillaging and raiding into the countryside because that is, in medieval terms, that is poking Harold in the eye.

His job is to protect those people and if he can't do it, those people start thinking maybe William should be king then. I mean, this is spot on exactly as we said. A king is the person who does the kingly thing, and the kingly thing, in theory, is show up when you are attacked. That's the entire point.

To the ease with which he's provoked might point to a little bit of insecurity on his part, despite the fact he's just beaten Harold Hardrida. He clearly doesn't feel confident enough to, as you say, say to William, you try an overwinter on the beach, and I'll see you in the spring if you make it. And so, and again, that possibly shows that some things were said, something was said somewhere between two men of some description exactly what that is i don't know yeah and william will become incredibly keen to position this as a very religious matter so they will claim

there's papal backing for this assault on england um they claim to arrive under a papal banner later on which doesn't seem to have been granted to them for several years afterwards but you know hindsight is It's a wonderful thing, yes. But there is also this element that William is keen to throw in of pitching Harold as an oath breaker, that he has sworn this religiously binding oath on these relics and he broke whatever that oath was. And William is keen to tell us that it was an oath to back.

Williams' claim to the throne of England. As an oath breaker, he is a perjurer and he doesn't deserve to be a king and he should be deposed. And that becomes kind of the justification, Almost aside from William isn't, I don't think necessarily relying on the fact that Edward said I could be king. Because that's slightly dodgy, isn't it? Because actually the nobility of England have selected Harold. They don't want William.

So that's not a good, strong basis for his claim. His claim is that William is an oath breaker. Do you really want an oath breaker as a king? Or do you want the flame of vengeance that is coming from Normandy? And I suppose that that is also probably part of the reason that Harold is so keen. to get down there and get into an actual battle. Because if he's being portrayed as an oathbreaker on the one hand by William and then his people don't see him upholding his oath as king to protect the realm,

then that is a serious propaganda issue. So as we get closer to 14th of October, the famous date of 1066, I guess, Harold, we're told by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, has left England before all his host has come up. So he's not properly prepared for this. I was really struck and really interested in Professor Tom Licens's idea that Harold is planning to kind of block the beach with his army because he has a fleet that might be coming round to assault the Normans from the beach as well.

So it's possible that Harold has a tactic that we can't quite see at play here. But what is clear is that William also has intelligence of what Harold is doing. Harold is trying to take William by surprise as he'd done with Harold Hardrida, but it's not going to work on William. No, it's not. And fundamentally, William has a game plan, right? So he's got his guys over here. They are at the beachhead. And they also have heavy cavalry. And that's interesting because it's not something that we're used to seeing in terms of English warfare. No? No. It's a huge tactic on the continent. The French are kind of perfecting heavy cavalry at this point. The English will, always they ride to a battle but then you get off your horse

that's too expensive you don't want to be taking that what if your horse gets killed that's it's a huge running it's a very specific set of skills not to sound like Liam Neeson but you have to have a very specific set of skills to ride a horse into battle and fight on horseback and the English simply haven't invested the time and energy in that training they rely instead

on the unity of the kind of the shield wall effect that they're going to use that the man on either side of you is going to protect you and it's your job to protect them and that if you remain linked together then you know the whole is much stronger than all of the individuals within there and they have a very clear way of fighting that is very very different from the norman so what we're seeing when we get to hastings is a real military culture clash being played out yeah and i find this very interesting because fundamentally all of these groups of people that are involved in this whether we're talking about the Danish, whether we're talking about the English, or whether we're talking about the Normans.

They're coming from this older Viking culture where you get on a ship and then you show up and you attack people, right? But when you have a bunch of Norwegians do it, they're not bringing horses over, babe. They're coming off of the boat and they're going to attack everyone. So the shield wall, that's going to work because it's sort of one-to-one. The Normans have become Frenchified Vikings, right? And French people ride horses. So they're like, put the horsey on the boat, which is a... tactic that no one had come up with into this point. It's like, don't you don't take the horsey

on the boat? And they're like, oh, we're bringing all those horsesies on the boat. And so it is interesting to see this happen because I think more or less we can describe war horses as like the tanks of the Middle Ages, right? Yeah. They're very, very difficult to fight if they're running at you. And that just is true, right? So on the one hand, we've got these Normans with this incredible cavalry, they have this mobility as a result of it, but the English, because they are just on foot, they can kind of parry, they can start their shield wall,

they can move very lively, if something that goes wrong, they can pivot easily, right? And so, I don't know, unstoppable force versus actually quite movable object. Like, really, it's... Movable when it wants to move. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Potentially immovable if it doesn't want to.

And again, it's... This is where I think it's interesting that Tom License talks about the idea of this fleet may be coming around. Because there's a couple of things that go on. So Harold takes up a defensive position on top of a hill, Senlake Hill, lays out his shield wall. And it's kind of for someone who has been pictured so far as so keen to get there that he won't even wait for his whole army to arrive, getting there and then standing there. Seems like a slightly weird thing to do. You're imagining Harold going at it full pelt. maybe the site of the heavy cavalry makes them think again

but maybe he is his job is to hold that hill at the top to stop the normans getting off the beach because there's a fleet coming around because lots of norman sources want to talk later I mean it's interesting that there's virtually no bows on the English side in the Bayer tapestry for example Tom license talks about does that mean all the arches are on the ships and they're coming around to attack from the beach possibly but lots of Norman sources are really keen to say that the English know

nothing about war, nothing about fighting. These guys are an absolute joke. And in defense of the English, I'm going to say, yeah, an absolute joke that manages to hold off the Norman cavalry for hours. Make it make sense, right? Because the battle starts at essentially nine. It's like the trumpets go up and now we're having a traditional battle. Like, here we go. It's a battle. Everybody knew where we were going and we're doing it, right? And this is going to continue until sundown. So I'm sorry, that's not a bad army. It's not. Right. You can, can say anything that you want about it, but that isn't a group of people who are bad at what they're doing. And okay, to be fair, pretty sweet position, right? Yeah. Pretty sweet. Because as

long as the shield wall holds, you can't defeat it. And at the top of a hill, it nullifies the Norman cavalry. So they can't launch a massive cavalry charge uphill because it just won't work. So Harold seems to have found a tactic to negate the overwhelming military advantage that the Normans might have had. You know, the Norman cavalry is riding as close as they can chuck in a spear and turning around and going back again. I love this image. I think it's like so comedic go, like, ah, no, come out here.

It's so good. It's so good, right? And I mean, what we do see is that there is some turning point. Okay. And we don't we don't exactly know what this is, right? Because some people say that what happens is that word gets out that William's been killed.

All right. And that And then everyone goes, ah, hell. Okay, well. Nothing left to fight for. Yeah, like, well, I'm going home then, right? Screw this. Other people say that William fakes a retreat. But one way or another, people start leaving.

Yeah. Because even the Norman sources are really unclear about what happened here. Was there a real retreat followed by a feigned retreat? Were there a couple of real retreats that, you know, because the Normans don't really give us a definitive answer. answer to all of this, which suggests that maybe it wasn't part of the real plan? That's kind of what I think, because I think if we were to understand that everybody knew this was going to happen, I think that there would be more clarity in the sources about

it. As it stands, it's like, I don't know, it was crazy. Yeah. And you can see in the Bayer Tapestry, can't you, the bit where William is believed to be dead and he's having to lift his visor on his helmet up and go, guys. It's me. It's me, William. Which is, that's the thing, is that there's so many actual comedic. moments in all of this slaughter, right? And like, listen, I think it kind of doesn't matter. I think that it also takes a good tactical mind to take advantage of the fact that people are leaving as much as it does to come up with it as a trap. One way or another, you are responding

to the realities of the battlefield, right? Yeah. And ultimately, I guess, slightly ironic that the Normans will win the Battle of Hastings by running away. But the sight of them turned, and fleeing does cause this shield wall to break, to lose its discipline, to run down the hill and think they've routed the Normans, and all of a sudden the thing that has served the English all day long, they've just thrown away. And look, it is true. It's kind of a stupid thing to do, but possibly also one of the things that they are attempting to do here is make a little bit of cash, right? Because you've got to understand, like, you're not getting paid for this, right? It's like, this is not a professional army. This is guys who, yeah, they have an interest in kicking invaders

out of their country because, like, that's my pig they're eating, you know, for example. And certainly if you are one of the earls or something like that, you could make some money off this, but otherwise, there's no way for you as a common foot soldier to get any money out of this unless you get something off of a dead guy. Or kidnap someone, kidnapped someone and ransom them. So them running down off the hill might be part. partially them saying, I'm trying to get paid, right? And that makes sense. Whatever happens, shield wall is broken, the English discipline is gone, the Norman cavalry

turns around. And at this point, William spies Harold, slightly isolated, unprotected. And he thinks there's one way to end all of this, really, isn't there? Guys on horses. And this is the thing. It seems like he sends some handpicked guys to go over and there and deal with that, right? And I love calling these things death squads. Yeah, oh, it's good.

People like talking about, they formed a death squad and sent them after Harold. I like, yeah. I like, oh, very tough. Yeah, yeah. And listen, they go over there, and one way or another, it works. William ends up dead. And I don't know where you are with this. I am on the side that says he got got in the leg.

For a couple of reasons in the first place on the Bayou tapestry, it does seem to us that one of the things we were seeing is a big leg wound, right? The arrow we know is not in addition for another couple, 100 years. And that's just like a romantic story. Yeah. Right. The arrow in the eye is kind of the result of a later restitching. You know, and granted, it's a good story. So like don't knock until you tried it.

But fundamentally, he ends up dead. And also, wounds to the legs are a good way to do that. Femoral artery is right there. You would be surprised how many people die of that, you know? And we do have, there's a Norman source called the Carmen, a kind of poem that's written not long after this. And that describes this death squad being assembled and says that Harold is impaled by a lance, disemboweled by a spear,

has his head cut off with a sword. So he's definitely dead. Look, he is not coming back even if he's a zombie at this point in time. It's pretty intense stuff. That's what we can say about how Harold goes down. But, all right, look, that's it. Job done. Battle over.

Harold is dead. But that's one battle. right and like one guy what is this going to to mean right is that just being like oh okay well you've cut the head off the snake or is there more to do i mean i think this is the story of kind of november and december of 1066 is william trying to get to london and be like i killed the king so i'm king now just like edward the confessor said i should be while everyone is in london thinking we don't want norman kings what do what do we do what do oh edgar effling is still around he's maybe 15 at this point.

Poor Edgar. Not ideal. I love Edgar Etheling's story. He is an incredible story. Still maybe not old enough to be king, but a signal I think of the English panic that you get the Archbishop of Canterbury, lots of the earls, including Edwin and Moorcair,

are throwing their weight behind Edgar and effectively electing him as the next king of England. So in many ways, perhaps the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. But William isn't roundly accepted as the king of England. England simply by virtue of having killed Harold, and he struggles to get into London. But what I think is quite interesting about this period is that he does this really good job of locking down these other really strategically important cities. So locks down Dover, which is where the majority of shipping is coming up from, well, France. I mean, like obviously not

Norway. But that's another story. But then he also gets to Canterbury, which, you know, the most important religious site in England. So he's got that under his control. and also Winchester, which is the more traditional capital of England, if such a thing exists. So he clearly has some knowledge of the sites that are important to the English psyche. So he's making these strategic decisions to get to places that mean something. And Winchester is still the Royal Treasury at this point. And Canterbury, you know, if he's positioning this as some kind of crusade against a wayward England, then getting control of Canterbury will be significant to him.

So there are good reasons he's going after those places. But he still can't get into London. He really, really struggles to get into the capital. Yeah, I mean, he gets to Southark. Shout out South London. But, you know, he is unable to actually get across the tents at this point in time. Right. So he's kind of looking at it going, oh, you kind of need to take it.

Right? You have to take London. You have to take London or none of this means anything, right? So he kind of has to go west in order to kind of like try to make the crossing of the tens where it becomes shallower and less wide. But he says, okay, well, while we're here, we're going to do some light pillaging. Of course. Just a little bit of burning. Which is an interesting choice for someone who's like, hello, it's me.

You're legal king, right? You know, usually you don't do that to your own people, right? Yeah. I mean, maybe it's just a bit of leftover Viking. It's just like he can't help it It's just like it's still in there You know And so they have to get all the way to Wallingford

Before they can cross the Thames Efficiently And there must be a welcome sign For William when he gets there Because the Archbishop of Canterbury Turns up there and submits to William Which may show the benefit of having taken control of Canterbury Well that's the thing

If you want to control the church Control their money right You know I don't like to be a hater about the church but let's be honest, right? But it's going to take a little bit more than that, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And from there, William is able to get across the Thames, head back to the east, and he makes it to Berkhamstead, just to the north of London,

fabulous castle, lots of Queens retire there later on in the medieval period, cool place. And there he's met by Edgar the Ethling, Edwin, Morkar, lots of the other nobility who follow the Archbishop of Canterbury's suit and kind of cave into him. Well, in which case, that means there's just kind of like one thing left to do, isn't it? Yeah. Well, stay with us while we take a quick break to find out what that one thing is.

Well, the one thing is, of course, the coronation. Can't have it came without a coronation. Get a nice hat. You have got to get that hat. There's got to be a party. I mean, and I think that this is important because we kind of gloss over this now with coronations. Everyone just goes, oh, you know, big party. you know, ceremony. This is a religious right that happens. When you are crowned king in the

medieval period, it is a sign that God is saying you get to be king, right? And William decides for a very, very traditional coronation date, which is Christmas Day. You can take a punt in the medieval period about anyone who is crowned anything. And if you were like, was it on Christmas? you were going to be right more than 50% of the time because like that is one of the big ones right so it's like doubling it down isn't it you know i'm going to have my coronation day on jesus's birthday and then it's like just just as jesus came into the world william came into your life and uh hmm right yeah yeah yeah but it's not this wonderful party that he expected to be it's chaos yeah i mean it's taking him a lot to get there he must have felt like he'd finally done the job and

here is his big fated moment this is what he invaded england for so that he could sit in Westminster Abbey and undergo a coronation. But he doesn't get the Christmas present he wants. No. And it's like, okay, so he's got the accouturement, right? He's in Westminster Abbey. He's got the Archbishop of Canterbury. Very important.

You've got to have the Archbishop of Canterbury. He's got an extra bishop, which is his half-brother, Odo, the Bishop of Bayou, who's the guy who paid for the tapestry. So thanks, Odo. We love this. I also like to imagine Odo being like, oh, I'm getting involved in this. And they're doing the thing and they're always getting the oil on his head and his arms

and he's got the crown. But there's all this noise outside. Right. And they can hear a bunch of people screaming and shouting. And it sounds like there's a fight ruin outside. It seems to be that they call for the acknowledgement of those gathered for the coronation for William's kingship. And all of the Normans are like, we, we, we.

fantastique. Yeah, exactly. And what actually happening outside, though, people are yellowing. People are shouting. But it's because there's a fire. Like, there's, babe, it's just a fire. Like, it's a medieval city.

Things light on fire. It just is true. But this seems to have been the Norman gods reaction to all of this clamor from the cathedral. You know, people are claiming William, some in French, some in English. Oh, that English sounds absolutely dreadful. It does.

It does. to your delicate French ear. And it sounds a bit like a riot. And so they're like, okay, well, that's it. And it's just kind of misunderstandings on both sides of the board, which means. I find it weird that the guard's response to potential problems inside Westminster Abbey is to set fire to Westminster. It's Vikings again, though, isn't it? They're like, they're like, better be time to burn this.

That it's like, you know, basically. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. All right. Like, we'll just, we'll talk about it later. It's an abbey. It's made a stone. I'm sure it'll be fine, right? And we get lots of stories of those within the abbey, you know, the abbey filling up with smoke as they're all sitting there, trying to watch this coronation starting to go.

It's filling up with smoke a bit. And they all begin to leave, which is not a great sign for, you know, if William was looking for portents for his religiously sanctified conquest of England, this might not have been what he wanted. Everybody is rushing out of the abbey. some apparently to go and help put the fires out, others to go and see what they can steal while London's on fire. But William has no intention of leaving, does he? No, William stays put.

William gets his coronation. He gets it done, which actually, like, ooh, steely determination in the face of actual peril, all right? Like, it does kind of bode well. If you are in the business of being an invading king in a country that needs strong men, right?

And that is the kind of people who are kings here, fundamentally, at this point. But it's also, I mean, it is a fairly ominous way to start a new dynasty, to end such a disruptive year in the history of this kingdom. William is being crowned as arguably the fourth king that year, if you choose to include Edgar Etheling, four kings, two invasions from abroad, one successful, and London burning during William's coronation. Like you can't win them all right. And he won Hastings, which is the big one.

And I think it is interesting because it's like, oh, a chilling portent of things to come, right? Because, I mean, it's going to take a lot. There are going to be things like, of course, the horrible herring of the north, which are coming down the pipeline eventually. And yeah, yeah, it is a signal of bad times to come. come for the locals. And that is fundamentally true. There's no way around that. Yeah. Some quick-fire questions to end on then. All right. In 1066, who, if anyone, had the best claim to the throne? Yes. I don't think that it really matters. I think that you're exactly bang on. I think all of them can make a claim. And it just depends on who is acting in that capacity and who

does the best. Fundamentally, William has the best claim because he was the last man standing. And that is what is true about ruling England at this time. Yeah. I'd probably go for Harold Godwinson simply on the basis that England is effectively an elected monarchy during this period and he appears to have been elected

by everyone to be the monarch. So that's how it works. Given a free choice in 1066, whose army are you joining? You know, I'm Harold Hodrata every day. I don't care. I don't care. Hey, if I was there at Stanford Bridge,

it wouldn't have gone down like that. You'd have held that bridge. Yeah, I would have. Yeah. I think you and me would have been on the same side there because I mean, Harold Hardrider is just too cool, not to fight for, isn't he? He's too cool, man.

Like, that's the thing, is that William 2, bloodthirsty, Harold Gobinson, too much of a, just, you know, a noble boy. You know, like, he's too rich for my blood. I like Harold Hadrata. That's where I'm signing up. Yeah. And I guess to end on, how important is 1066? Can we overstate the importance of it to English history? No.

European history? No, you can't. You can't. There is a clear before and after in terms of culture, in terms of building. practice. As we were saying in terms of where England looks to when it is trading, when it is in dealings with other

nobles, this is effectively the severing of England away from this kind of North Sea way of looking at things. And it's a total realignment. And it's the reason that English sounds the way that it does now. It's the reason why we talk like this and not some form of Scandinavian.

I think it's almost impossible to overstate. You know, historians can be fond of talking about decisive moments in history, turning points in history. And this feels like that that is one of those that does deserve that title because it's the end of an entire political culture in Anglo-Saxon England. It's wiped away and replaced with a French system operated by a minority in government and in power. And as you say, that change of the direction in which England looks, it's like a statue moving

its head, isn't it? England has looked that way for hundreds of years by this point, and all of a sudden it goes from looking east to looking south and becomes entangled in all of that instead of that. And that is a huge change. It's a really, really big deal and it's going to have consequences for everyone. Even the lowliest shepherd in the field is going to be raising sheep whose fleece is going to be sold at champagne fairs instead of in Norway, and that is a change. So probably not a hot take, but 1066 matters. Thank you for joining us today on Gone Medieval from History Hit. Eleanor and I will be back again next week.

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