The two armies faced each other on the overcast October morning, suddenly and unexpectedly small droplets of water began falling from the sky. A phenomenon common in Great Britain in the autumn. As the droplets began to increase in size and the rain fell more heavily, Duke William jokingly remarked that he no longer wanted his kingdom, if this was how the weather was going to be all the time. The battle commenced.
The battle was not good for the Normans, the rain had made Senlac Hill muddy and difficult to ascend. Many horses and men fell, the archers were horribly ineffective in the heavy rain and the men’s morale dropped because of this. Eventually, the Norman left broke and routed. The Saxons did not pursue and the Norman left did not return to the field. Following this, the Norman right broke and ran and the Norman centre was enveloped and destroyed.
Duke William saw which way the battle had gone and fled south. King Harold was wounded, but alive. He pursued William south and discovered his army was encamped in the town of Hastings.
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October 18th 1066: After four days of resting his army, Harold Godwinson attempts to take Hastings from the Normans. He fails and is repulsed. So, instead, he waits and besieges the town.
October 21st 1066: Both armies are becoming restless, the Saxon peasants are eager to get to their harvests. The Norman’s supplies are beginning to run low. The weather has been limiting traffic in the English Channel.
October 23rd 1066: Stormy weather prevents sufficient supplies reaching the Normans.
October 26th 1066: William marches out once more to meet the Saxons. He is defeated once more.
October 27th 1066: William’s nobles attempt to persuade him to return home. He refuses.
November 3rd 1066: Supplies are running low and reinforcements are not forth coming for William. Harold’s troops are now rested and reinforced. They are eager to push the Normans from their homes.
November 7th 1066: Fighting breaks out in Hastings amongst William’s men.
November 8th 1066: A group of knights make an attempt on William’s life. The attempt is foiled though the knights escape capture.
November 9th 1066: William takes part of his forces and returns to Normandy, those who remain are followers of those who betrayed him. They surrender to the Saxons.
November 11th 1066: Harold allows those who betrayed William to live and serve in his army.
November 13th: King Harold dies from the wounds he sustained at Hastings. Various pretenders begin to squabble.
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After the failed Norman invasion and the death of King Harold, England fell into crisis. After a year of chaos Edgar Aetheling, supported by the Danish king Sweyn II, captures York and declares himself King of England, Killing Morcar (another pretender and Earl of Northumbria) in the process. Morcar’s supporters declare for Edgar.
However, he is just one in a sea of pretenders, including Godwine Haroldson and Magnus Haroldson, sons of King Harold, Harold’s brothers Leofwine and Gyrth have declared for Magnus. Edwin, Earl of Mercia brother of Morcar, is another pretender. Malcolm III of Scotland had capitalised on the chaos by invading Cumbria and the Normans look like they wish to try again.