The Great Turning Points of British History Read Online Free PDF

the campaigning season waned, on 8 September. Harald Hardrada in Norway had, however, spent the summer raising a great host. His arrival was unexpected and he led a formidable force, estimated at three hundred vessels. Hardrada received Tostig’s backing. His first objective was York, England’s second city. Signs are that York closed its gates and awaited Mercian aid. Edwin and Morcar deployed their army outside the city but were defeated by the Norwegians on 20 September. York then had to surrender to Hardrada; it gave hostages and recognized him as king, and he withdrew eastwards to Stamford Bridge, to await the arrival of further hostages. On Monday 25th Harold advanced through York, reaching Stamford Bridge before news could reach Hardrada. The English army attacked and achieved complete victory. Hardrada and Tostig fell and their army was slaughtered. Stamford Bridge was one of the most decisive battles of the age, providing Harold with the kudos of a great warrior-king.
    Across the Channel, William had been completing his preparations. Harold’s departure from the south coast and then the arrival of suitable winds provided the duke with the opportunity to set sail about 26 September. His ships reached Pevensey on the 28th. The next day he moved his forces to Hastings, where he built a castle, and set about ravaging the Sussex coastal plain.
    Harold marched south at speed, at the head of a substantial army. He perhaps hoped to surprise William but his enemies learned of his proximity and marched a short way inland. On Saturday 14 October, Harold deployed his infantry along the crest of a low hill – since occupied by Battle Abbey – confronting Norman attacks up the slope. The battle was long fought and the English army was routed only late in the day, but the outcome was determined by the deaths of Harold and his brothers, leaving the English cause leaderless.
    William responded to victory cautiously, marching first to Dover, which surrendered to him and was garrisoned. At London, the archbishops and surviving earls rallied behind the young Edgar the Ætheling (son of Edward the Confessor’s half-nephew Edward the Exile), the only figure with an incontestable claim by descent. Although he is not known to have been crowned, Edgar was certainly active as king. However, he failed to mobilize a field army and could not stop the Normans firing Southwark. When William crossed the Thames at Wallingford, ravaging in an arc round London, the resolve of the English leadership melted away.
    Despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm among the English, William’s victory was viewed as so decisive an intervention by God that opposition could not be mobilized effectively. The Norman leader elected to be crowned at Westminster, where his relative, Edward the Confessor, lay buried, so reinforcing his claim. His acquisition of the crown marked a political revolution far more marked than Harold II’s. While neither could claim royal descent, Harold was the candidate accepted by pretty much the entire English political class. William was an outsider; his victory came as leader of an army of foreign adventurers, whose lust for the rich estates of his new realm can only have alarmed the English. William must have found himself presiding over a mix of distrustful English magnates, whose language was incomprehensible to him, bishops who viewed him, however unwillingly, as God’s anointed, and his own supporters, whose claims on his patronage would fuel a transfer of lands and resources rarely equalled in English history.
    Norman conquest was not limited to the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom but pushed outwards into both Wales and Scotland within a generation. Following the battle of Mynydd Carn in 1081 the Earl of Chester overran much of North Wales while the Norman lords of Hereford and Gloucester pushed into central and southern Wales. Even Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth accepted the overlordship of William and owed £40 per annum to the king at