0:00:02 > 0:00:07*
0:00:24 > 0:00:311066 was the year that invasion changed the course of English history.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34A duke became a conqueror.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39He landed here, beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43and brought about the end of Anglo-Saxon England.
0:00:43 > 0:00:50It's a story of great men and great events, of tragedy, heroism and sheer bad luck.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15We call him William the Conqueror,
0:01:15 > 0:01:20but to contemporaries he was William the Bastard.
0:01:20 > 0:01:26His father was Duke Robert of Normandy, but his mother was a tanner's daughter.
0:01:26 > 0:01:33When he was besieging a French town, the citizens threw hides out to remind William of his origins.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40He wasn't amused. When he took the place he had them skinned alive.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42It was a measure of the man.
0:01:42 > 0:01:50By contrast, Harold was described as affable to all good men and the enemy of evil-doers.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58Harold was a son of Earl Godwin, the most powerful man in England after the King,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01at times more powerful than him.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06The family lived here at Bosham in Sussex. Their hall has long gone,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11but the Saxon church in which Harold worshipped still survives.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16In 1064, King Edward the Confessor sent Harold to Normandy.
0:02:16 > 0:02:22He was shipwrecked, fell into William's hands and swore an oath for him.
0:02:22 > 0:02:29Harold promised that when Edward died he would support William's claim to the English throne.
0:02:29 > 0:02:37Whether he made his promise freely no-one knows, but the story of his oath is told in the Bayeux Tapestry.
0:02:37 > 0:02:44This replica panel from the tapestry shows a long-haired, moustached Harold -
0:02:44 > 0:02:46he was a fine figure of a man -
0:02:46 > 0:02:51riding here "ad Bosham ecclesia", to Bosham church.
0:02:51 > 0:02:58He's about to set out on the journey during which he'll swear that fatal oath.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01The oath was broken two years later.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07When Edward died in January 1066 Harold himself was crowned King of England.
0:03:07 > 0:03:14When William heard the news he decided to invade, and spent months preparing a fleet.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19On September the 27th, the invaders set sail in 300 ships.
0:03:30 > 0:03:37On the 28th of September, the invaders landed here on the beach at Pevensey in Sussex.
0:03:37 > 0:03:45Their cavalry was a force to be reckoned with. My horse Thatch has got Norman blood in his veins.
0:03:45 > 0:03:52It can't have been easy bringing 2,000 horses the 100 miles from Normandy in open-top wooden boats.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55Harder still, getting them ashore.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00This was the biggest amphibious operation since Roman times.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07As William scrambled up the shingle he slipped and fell,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11throwing out both hands to protect himself.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14He got up with blood on his face.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18One of his followers said it was a good omen -
0:04:18 > 0:04:25he'd taken hold of England with both hands, meaning to guarantee it to his descendants with his blood.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29This mishap apart, it was a bloodless landing.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39The Normans spent their first day in the Roman fort at Pevensey.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44Then it jutted out into the sea. Now it lies a few miles inland.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49This was an important gain, but one thing must have worried William.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54His invasion had been expected, so where were the Saxons?
0:04:55 > 0:05:00A week earlier, Harold had received disastrous news.
0:05:00 > 0:05:07His country had been invaded - not in the south by the Normans, but in the north by the Vikings,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11who'd landed near York and beaten the local forces.
0:05:11 > 0:05:19Harold's army marched out of London and on September the 25th advanced on the Vikings at Stamford Bridge.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24Harold pounded up this road at the head of 6,000 men.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28He knew all too well who his opponents were -
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and his own brother, Earl Tostig.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Both had claims to the throne.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40Harold planned to take the Vikings by surprise.
0:05:40 > 0:05:47Scouts said they were some distance from their ships, where they'd left their armour.
0:05:47 > 0:05:55The Vikings saw the sun glinting off the armour of Harold's host. It looked like sunlight on broken ice.
0:05:55 > 0:06:01In order to get at the invaders, Harold's army had to cross the River Derwent.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04There was a wooden bridge across it
0:06:04 > 0:06:07somewhere here.
0:06:07 > 0:06:14One of the Vikings had worn his mail shirt that morning. He stood on the bridge armed with a mighty axe.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17He cut down dozens of Saxons.
0:06:17 > 0:06:24Eventually one of Harold's men got into a barrel, went underneath the bridge, taking a spear.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says, "He brogged the giant from below."
0:06:29 > 0:06:33The way was now clear for Harold's men
0:06:33 > 0:06:40to pour across the river and take on their enemies on the ridge opposite.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50The battle was ferocious.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54At its end, both Tostig and Hardrada were dead.
0:06:54 > 0:07:02The invaders had arrived in 300 ships. The survivors needed only 24 to carry them home.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Harold had destroyed a mighty army.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12'The written accounts of this battle are very sketchy.
0:07:12 > 0:07:18'Archaeologists like Richard Kemp can give us a sense of what it was like.'
0:07:18 > 0:07:22What happened to the warriors who were killed?
0:07:22 > 0:07:27Well, we actually have done an excavation of a local churchyard
0:07:27 > 0:07:32and found people buried there who undoubtedly fell in the battle.
0:07:32 > 0:07:38I've brought along one of the skulls that was excavated from this.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43It shows the signs of the battle in the form of the injuries here.
0:07:43 > 0:07:51This is undoubtedly a sword, whereas this very straight line may well have been caused by an axe.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57If you'd like to handle it, wear gloves. This is mid-11th century,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00and therefore rather precious.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04The injuries are mostly to the skull.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07So we've got straight down wounds.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Several have taken the top off the skull.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16We've even got one that comes down against the jaw
0:08:16 > 0:08:18and then hits the collar bone.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Mostly to the upper part of the body. Not people with helmets.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28A helmet would protect you from this sort of wound.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33Another major area of injury is the upper leg and pelvic region.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38- So some of them were hit by spears going in under the shield wall.- Yes.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43- Bring him down, and once he's fallen, he's hit on the head.- Yes.
0:08:43 > 0:08:51Once there's a gap in the shield wall and you can get through, you finish the person off with a hack.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57These are evidence, perhaps, that there were two separate people.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00- It brings the reality home.- Yes.
0:09:00 > 0:09:06That is a considerable injury and this was a field of major slaughter.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Just three days later, the Normans landed.
0:09:11 > 0:09:19When Harold received the news, he ordered his exhausted army to begin the 230-mile march back to London.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27With Harold away in the north, the Normans moved their base
0:09:27 > 0:09:32along the coast to Hastings, and built a temporary fortification.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35This castle was built later.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41William's problem was simple. He had to beat Harold and take London.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43But he couldn't move north.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47His fleet would be vulnerable if he left it.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52If he stayed put, he risked being bottled up in the Hastings peninsula
0:09:52 > 0:09:55with the sea to his back.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02William's only hope was to force Harold to come to him.
0:10:02 > 0:10:09And the way to do that was to sting Harold into action using sword and fire.
0:10:14 > 0:10:22William sent patrols out all over the area, and remorselessly burned and pillaged the nearby villages.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26The inhabitants took refuge in churches.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29This is Crowhurst, a few miles from Hastings.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34In the weeks before the battle it was utterly destroyed.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39The Domesday Book has one word for the villages William wiped out -
0:10:39 > 0:10:42"vasta" - wasteland.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51William's strategy worked.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Harold received news of the ravaging of the villages.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00He was Earl of Wessex. These were his people under attack.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05He summoned a council of war, probably to Westminster Hall.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07His advisors urged caution,
0:11:07 > 0:11:15and begged him to let his brother Gyrth lead the army while he stayed back to raise fresh troops.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18This was not Harold's style.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23He said, "It was never my wont to lie in a lair while other men fight.
0:11:23 > 0:11:28"William shall never hear that I dare not look him in the face."
0:11:30 > 0:11:36On October the 12th, Harold marched out of London with his depleted army,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40an army that Steve Pollington understands.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44- How was it organised? - Beneath the King,
0:11:44 > 0:11:50who was the supreme commander one might say, we had his personal followers.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54These are the men known as housecarls.
0:11:54 > 0:12:02Beneath them we have the thecnas - the theyns. These are men possibly a little like medieval knights,
0:12:02 > 0:12:09bound by duty to follow their lord into battle, and not to leave the field if he didn't.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Beyond that we have the Anglo-Saxon fyrd -
0:12:14 > 0:12:18the mobile army, the army in the field.
0:12:18 > 0:12:25This business about not leaving the field after your lord had fallen - fine for poets.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27But did it really happen?
0:12:27 > 0:12:34There is evidence from a poem recording events at Malden in Essex in 991,
0:12:34 > 0:12:42in which one of the old retainers of the ealdorman there - a chap called Burkneuth -
0:12:42 > 0:12:48utters some memorable lines from Old English verse which go:
0:12:48 > 0:12:51RECITES IN OLD ENGLISH
0:12:56 > 0:13:02"Thought shall be the harder, hearts the keener, minds shall be the stronger
0:13:02 > 0:13:05"as our strength diminishes."
0:13:05 > 0:13:12Their leader was down, they had no hope of getting away alive, but they stayed behind,
0:13:12 > 0:13:16they fought on until the last man was down.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20Formidable men, aren't they? It's hard not to like them.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26Harold ordered his army to rendezvous at a well-known landmark,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29the hoar apple tree on Caldbec Hill.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34As night fell on Friday, October the 13th, his men made camp.
0:13:34 > 0:13:42A Norman chronicler tells us that the Saxons spent the night before the battle carousing up here.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46He gives us an account of their toasts.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49"Wassail" and "drinkheil".
0:13:49 > 0:13:56He wasn't here. He may have been contrasting the wild English with the pious Normans,
0:13:56 > 0:13:58who spent the night at prayer.
0:13:58 > 0:14:05Many of the Saxons must have known this would be their last night on earth,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07for tomorrow they would fight.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Early on the 14th, William heard Mass.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28His men were fighting not merely for victory, but for survival.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33He took the holy relics on which Harold had sworn his oath in 1064,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38and at about six o'clock set off to fight a decisive battle.
0:14:40 > 0:14:47As they reached the crest of Telham Hill, the Normans were confronted by an awesome sight.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50Over there, on Senlac Ridge,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52the Saxons were forming up -
0:14:52 > 0:14:597,000 men, the early sun glinting off swords and axes behind a wall of shields.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04'To get an idea of how Harold's men fought, I'm talking to Alan Jeffery,
0:15:04 > 0:15:09'expert on Saxon tactics, and known to his friends as Alan the Axe.'
0:15:09 > 0:15:14I always think of the axe as being THE Saxon weapon. Was it important?
0:15:14 > 0:15:19It was probably the most important weapon of the time.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24Technique's the only way to survive in that kind of conflagration.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29I have to have a style that will keep me moving and keep you away.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31That was a figure eight.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36In a wide form or a high form it basically takes this shape.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Now, that's on a wide arc.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43On a higher arc, left hand or right,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47it takes no effort at all for me to do that.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52What is worth bearing in mind, when this hits you I get a rest.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55But if I want to get closer to you,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59it's easy to take your shield away.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Yeah, I think I get the point.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05- Now, talk me through the axe itself. - OK.
0:16:05 > 0:16:11It's largely iron - a precious commodity then - with a tempered steel edge
0:16:11 > 0:16:14put along here, heat-welded on.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19It has a diamond section there which gives it more steel.
0:16:19 > 0:16:27In the hands of a skilled person this could fell a human or a horse with little effort at all.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36This was the centre of Harold's line on Senlac Ridge.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40He stood up here with his guard about him.
0:16:40 > 0:16:47His men fought on foot, shoulder to shoulder, like their fathers before them.
0:16:47 > 0:16:54Theyns and housecarls, well armed, were probably in the front rank, the worse armed fyrdmen behind them.
0:16:54 > 0:16:587,000 men on a front a mile across.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03The army's official war cries were "Holy Cross" and "God Almighty",
0:17:03 > 0:17:11but when the Normans came in sight, these shaggy, bearded warriors beat their shields with their weapons
0:17:11 > 0:17:16and barked out the older, pagan war cry, "Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!"
0:17:21 > 0:17:26William had God on his side, and a banner to prove it.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29He had secured the Pope's blessing,
0:17:29 > 0:17:34arguing that Harold had broken an oath sworn on holy relics.
0:17:34 > 0:17:40William's army formed up, with the papal banner, facing the shield wall.
0:17:40 > 0:17:47The Normans were here in the centre, the Bretons were on the left, and the Flemings on the right.
0:17:47 > 0:17:54William's plan was simple. His archers and crossbowmen would wear down the shield wall.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Then his infantry would tear gaps in it.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01He'd send in the cavalry to break it.
0:18:01 > 0:18:08To the accompaniment of trumpets from both sides, his archers let fly.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16The arrows had little effect,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21either sticking in the shields or passing over the line harmlessly.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25The Saxons held firm under heavy fire.
0:18:25 > 0:18:33William would have to mount a frontal assault against Harold's well-chosen defensive position.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38Battle Abbey was built later. Its construction flattened the slope.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43But it's still pretty steep and it must have been much worse then,
0:18:43 > 0:18:48particularly with 7,000 Saxons up on top.
0:18:58 > 0:19:06The infantry attack was a disaster, and the Saxons pushed the Normans back down the slope.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09William now relied on his cavalry.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14'Thatch and I are being given some hands-on training by Anne Hyland.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18'She's an expert on the medieval warhorse.'
0:19:18 > 0:19:25- Shield first, I think. - Heavier than you think, your Norman kite-shaped shield.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30- What about the reins?- Hold those a little bit above the horse's neck,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35- so the shield actually covers your upper body.- OK.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39- How do I use the lance? - You can use it
0:19:39 > 0:19:46overarm, as was the normal way, or else, as was becoming much more common, couched.
0:19:46 > 0:19:52- That's tucked under my arm. - Yes, with a third of the length behind your body,
0:19:52 > 0:20:00and the rest of it pointing at your enemy with all the force you've got. Your stirrup gives you a platform.
0:20:00 > 0:20:06No, don't point it down. You want to level it at your opponent.
0:20:06 > 0:20:14When you set your horse in motion, it's the weight and speed of the horse that delivers the shock.
0:20:14 > 0:20:21Get your reins sorted. You're going in for the real thing now. Get your shield so that you are covered.
0:20:21 > 0:20:28Keep your head pulled in so when you're charging you can eye along and aim.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33Don't take your head off centre. You'll move your horse off centre.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38Like many things in life, it's easy when you've done it once or twice.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Let's have a go.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46Up with the lance!
0:21:04 > 0:21:11On William's order, all three cavalry contingents - Flemish, Norman and Breton - charged,
0:21:11 > 0:21:151,000 horsemen thundering up the slope.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18The Bretons hit the shields first.
0:21:18 > 0:21:26They charged here on William's left where the slope is gentlest, making better progress than the others.
0:21:26 > 0:21:34Their impact must been terrific but the Saxons fought back hard, bringing horses crashing down.
0:21:34 > 0:21:41The Bretons could bear it no longer and folded back down the slope with Saxons roaring down after them.
0:21:41 > 0:21:46This wasn't part of Harold's plan, but these men were fighting mad.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50The panic spread.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55Across the whole front, William's men recoiled down the slope.
0:21:55 > 0:22:00A Norman chronicler admits, "Almost the whole of the army yielded."
0:22:00 > 0:22:05A cry went up that William had been killed. Chaos followed.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10It looked as if William's army would collapse,
0:22:10 > 0:22:12giving victory to Harold.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19As his fate hung in the balance, William rose to meet the crisis.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24He galloped forward, pushing his helmet back so that he could be seen.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27"Look at me!" he shouted.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32"Look at me! I'm alive, and with God's help will be the victor!"
0:22:33 > 0:22:36His will prevailed.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38The retreating Normans turned,
0:22:38 > 0:22:45and the Saxons who had pursued them suddenly found themselves outnumbered and vulnerable.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17The Saxons were cut to pieces here, well in front of the shield wall.
0:23:17 > 0:23:24The Bayeux Tapestry suggests that it was here that the King's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were killed,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27as horsemen swirled around them.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33This was the decisive moment. William's personal leadership had rallied his army.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Harold had lost hundreds of his best men.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44It was now about 11 o'clock and both sides paused to regroup.
0:23:44 > 0:23:50Medieval battles rarely lasted more than an hour or so.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Hastings had already raged for two.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55At about 12, battle recommenced.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01William of Poitiers, a chronicler, called it an unknown sort of battle,
0:24:01 > 0:24:07in which one side launched attacks, the other stood fixed to the ground.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12Poitiers says that William launched a number of feigned retreats,
0:24:12 > 0:24:19drawing the Saxons down from the shield wall and killing them out in the open.
0:24:19 > 0:24:27I don't think they were well enough trained for that. Horses are hard to stop when they move fast en masse.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32Probably small groups of knights wheeled up and down these slopes,
0:24:32 > 0:24:39eating away at the edge of the shield wall, wearing down Harold's strength.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43It was now late afternoon, with dusk coming on fast.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48If the Normans were winning, they hadn't yet won.
0:24:48 > 0:24:55Harold was still on his feet and his men, although depleted, still held the ridge.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58At 7, William turned to his archers,
0:24:58 > 0:25:06ordering them to shoot high so that their arrows fell over the tattered shield wall onto the men behind it.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11If the tapestry is to be believed, one of them hit Harold in the eye.
0:25:13 > 0:25:21Some knights forced their way into the knot of housecarls surrounding Harold, and hacked the King to death.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34With the King dead, panic swept through the English ranks.
0:25:34 > 0:25:42The Bayeux Tapestry tells us simply, "The English fled." Many fyrdmen must indeed have slipped away.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47Not so the theyns and housecarls who'd fought all day with Harold.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53Like the heroes of epic poems, they remained true to their lord.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58Here, on grass already greasy with the blood of the slain,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02they swung sword and axe until they too were killed.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16There may have been as many as 4,000 dead on this dreadful field.
0:26:16 > 0:26:22Although the King's brothers could be identified, Harold could not.
0:26:22 > 0:26:29His mistress, Edith Swan Neck, had followed Harold to Hastings and spent the day on Caldbec Hill.
0:26:29 > 0:26:37As night fell she came up here to Senlac and, with a lover's eye, identified the body she knew so well.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41This stone marks the spot where Harold died.
0:26:41 > 0:26:47William was reluctant to grant burial in consecrated ground to a man
0:26:47 > 0:26:50whose ambition had caused suffering.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54But Harold probably lies at Waltham Abbey in Essex.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59He was luckier than his followers whose bones whitened where they lay.
0:26:59 > 0:27:06"They were few in number," wrote a monkish chronicler, "but brave in the extreme."
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Soon after Hastings, most of the surviving magnates surrendered
0:27:11 > 0:27:16and William advanced on London, crushing resistance as he went.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22The Conqueror was crowned King in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.
0:27:22 > 0:27:29Invasion became occupation. The country was carved up among William's followers.
0:27:29 > 0:27:34Hundreds of castles were built to enforce their will.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38We're never far from evidence of the Conquest.
0:27:38 > 0:27:43There had been few castles here before 1066. The Normans built many.
0:27:43 > 0:27:51The White Tower in the Tower of London was begun in the Conqueror's reign.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56But the Conquest was more than a change of military architecture.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00It brought a new language and a new ruling class.
0:28:00 > 0:28:054,000 Saxon theyns were replaced by 200 Norman barons,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10whose dominance sneered out from these great square keeps.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Small wonder that a Norse poet wrote:
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"Cold heart and bloody hand
0:28:17 > 0:28:19"Now rule the English land."
0:28:42 > 0:28:47Subtitles by John Macdonald, Subtext for BBC Subtitling, 1997