71.  King Harold in the North.

There was, in fact, no power to prevent him from establishing his camp, for King Harold (S67) was in the north quelling an invasion headed by the King of the Norwegians and his brother Tostig, who hoped to secure the throne for himself.  Harold had just sat down to a victory feast, after the battle of Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire, when news was brought to him of the landing of William.

It was this fatal want of unity in England which made the Norman Conquest possible.  If Harold’s own brother, Tostig, had not turned traitorously against him, or if the north country had stood squarely by the south, Duke William might have found his fall on the beach an omen full of disaster.

72.  What Duke William did after Landing.

As there was no one to oppose him, William made a fort in a corner of the old Roman wall at Pevensey (S70), and then marched to Hastings, a few miles farther east, where he set up a wooden castle on that hill where the ruins of a later stone castle may still be seen.  Having done this, he pillaged the country in every direction.

73.  Harold marches to meet William.

King Harold, having gathered what forced he could, marched to meet William at a place midway between Pevensey and Hastings, about five miles back from the coast.  Harold had the advantage of a stockaded fort he had built; William, that of a body of cavalry and archers, for the English fought on foot with javelins and battle-axes mainly.  The Saxons spent the night in feasting and song, the Normans in prayer and confession; both were eager to fight.

74.  The Great Battle of Hastings, 1066.

On the morning of the 14th of October the fight began.  It lasted until dark, with heavy loss on both sides.  At length William’s strategy carried the day, and Harold and his brave followers found to their cost that then, as now, it is “the thinking bayonet” which conquers.  The English King was slain and every man of his chosen troops with him.  A monk who wrote the history of the period of the Conquest, says that “the vices of the Saxons had made them effeminate and womanish, wherefore it came to pass that, running against Duke William, they lost themselves and their country with one, and that an easy and light, battle.”  Doubtless the English had fallen off in many ways from what hey had been generations earlier; but the record at Hastings shows that they had lost neither strength, courage, nor endurance, and a harder battle ws never fought on British soil.

75.  Battle Abbey; Harold’s Grave; the Beyeu^x Tapestry.