The
Battle of Hastings
Prepared
by Dennis Ko
1
Introduction
What
does a battle mean to us? Most people say that only terms like “violence”, “casualties”
and “bloody” come into their minds. However, a battle means more than just
those terms. In 1066, a battle in England
bought a huge influence on the people and their culture, the country, and the
way they were looked upon by the world. It was called the Battle of Hastings.
2
The Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred in 1066,
a battle between two countries—England and France. The cause
of the battle was the death of the king of England, Edward. The
throne passed onto Harold Godwinson’s hand, who was a great Saxon warrior, also
a politician. On the other hand, William, the Duke of Normandy and also the
cousin of Edward, in particular was outraged by Harold's coronation, having
been promised the crown by Edward the Confessor in 1051. This was the starting
point of the battle. William and Harold both were prepared for the battle.
However, right at that time, England was
attacked, not by William, but by the Vikings from the North. Harold brought the
housecarl, his bodyguard, with the fyrdsment, the part-time soldiers, to the
North. He arrived at the Stamford Bridge earlier than
the Vikings had expected, and easily won the battle. However, it was not the
time for celebration.
William was ready to attack London while Harold
was fighting with the Vikings, but only waiting for the wind. It was the wind
which saved England, but only
for a while. Before Harold had the time to go back to London, William had
arrived on the coast between Hastings and Eastbourne at a site
now known as Norman's Bay. Harold’s
men had fought a battle on the September 25th of 1066, 260 miles to
the north and were now expected to fight another only a few days later. On the
October 16th of 1066, the Battle of Hastings finally started in East Sussex, a town of Hastings. It took
only one day; thousands of men got killed, including Harold. William won.
3
Impacts of
the battle
Being an
island race, the English, have always had a morbid dislike of foreigners,
especially the French. It is an attitude that still prevails today. The Battle
of Hastings was one of the great reasons for the attitude. In fact, the battle
bought a great change into England, which
impacted today’s society too.
After the
battle, there were several significant changes. First, it was the introduction
of the feudal system to England. William had
earlier developed a centralized feudal state in Normandy. In this
system, the king would usually offer to his warriors a plot of land called a
fief, in exchange for their loyalty. This loyalty is often what held the
kingdom together. Therefore, about 25% of the available land was acquired for
William’s own purpose, another 25% went to the church, and the rest was divided
between his trusted and loyal servants.
Second, perhaps
one of the hardest for the Saxon people to swallow was the stripping of rights
and privileges. The Saxons organized several rebellions. However, they were all
generally poorly coordinated and were easily stamped out. Hence, with the
entrance of William and Norman rule, there was a drastic change in the entire
governmental system of law. In the earlier system of law, governmental
officials called "Earls" often held equal importance to the king. In
addition, the Saxons enjoyed certain freedoms in the years before William.
However, William quickly established a principle of law that was quite
different from what the people had been used to. Under William's law, the king
was the principle authority figure and served as the collective executive,
judicial, and legislative branches of the government. This prevented the people
from having significant say in the workings of the government.
Third, coming
as a result of the battle was the new language and culture that was adopted,
replacing the previous Anglo-Saxon customs of 300 years. This new rule under
William threw out the Anglo Saxon culture and brought a French dialect instead.
4
Visit Hastings
There
are two places that must be visited in order to know more about the Battle of
Hastings, they are Battle Abbey and the Hastings Castle. There were
some conflicts of the history recording. The two armies did not fight in Hastings, but a place
north of the town named Battle. Battle
Abbey was built on the site of the battle for commemorating the event. People
can imagine themselves standing on the very spot where the defeated King Harold
fell. These days, a free interactive audio tour re-created the sounds of the
battle, as you stood where the Saxon army watched the Normans advancing
towards them. With the Saxons occupying the higher ground, the Normans were forced
to fight uphill. The battle raged for some hours with neither side gaining an
advantage, until its course was decided when the Normans pretended to flee, but
then turned back to cut down the Saxons who had broken ranks in pursuit. In
there, the whole battle suddenly was just in front of your eyes.
Hastings Castle is situated
in the town of Hastings, East Sussex. It was
originally built as a motte-and-bailey castle near the shore before the great
battle that changed the course of English history. In 1070, William had issued
orders for the Castle to be rebuilt in stone. The Count of Eu held the Hastings Castle for most of
the Norman period. It had once been destroyed and repaired. Eventually, the
castle was left abandoned.
In
below, it is a map of the Hastings and Battle.
Picture
from http://www.powdermillshotel.com/images/1066%20Map%202003.jpg
5
Conclusion
To
know more about today, one must know about the past. After reading about the
history of the Battle of Hastings, it will be much easier to gain interests in
a place like Hastings, imagine
what happened on those green grasses and how the people from the past felt
during the battle.
6
Reference
http://www.battle1066.com/normans.shtml
http://www.thenagain.info/Webchron/WestEurope/Hastings.html
http://hotels.uk.com/details/7909/Seaspray%20Guest%20House.htm
http://www.hastingscastle.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/ConProperty.170
http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~lha/etour_maps/hastings.html