The Battle Of Hastings by Harriet Harvey Wood

From The Week of October 24, 2010

There can be no doubt that Ms. Wood has a soft spot for the Anglo-Saxons who ruled England prior to the Norman Conquest. She makes little bones of her admiration for king Harold Godwinson of England, arguing that William the Conquerer's claim to the English throne was avarice dressed up in the guise of an oath Harold may or may not have given William prior to his being crowned king. But regardless of what one may think of Ms. Wood's sympathies, this much is clear. William's victory at the Battle of Hastings entirely transformed the course of history and changed our world forever.

Upon the death of Edward the Confessor in 1065, Harold, the dead king's brother in law, succeeded him and, in doing so, became the last Anglo-Saxon to sit the English throne. William the Conquerer, Duke of Normandy, upon hearing that Harold had made himself king, planned an invasion of England to crown himself king, arguing that Harold, after a shipwreck in which William came to Harold's aid, had sworn, upon Edward's death, to fight for William's claim to the throne. Considering this then an oath broken, William sailed to Britain, landed an army there and prepared to give battle. It was an ambitious quest, for Harold had the men and the loyalty of the country in his favor. But Harold was at one major disadvantage. While William's troops were rested, Harold had, not three weeks earlier, thrown out of England the last Viking army ever to threaten her shores. Remembered now as the Battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold suffered many losses and burned up much of his supplies in the forced march to reach Hastings where, on October 14th, 1066, he and William fought that changed Europe forever.

The Anglo-Saxon kings never had claims on territorial Europe. They were British men. But when William the Conquerer defeated Harold at Hastings and crowned himself king of England, he founded a line of English kings who had legitimate claims on French territories. Had the Anglo-Saxons continued to rule England, there would have never been the Hundred Years War. There never would have been a Henry II. There might never have been an apostasy of Henry VIII! This one battle, which very nearly went against William, sowed so many seeds of destiny that no one can account for all of them.

The history of this battle, its belligerents, its outcome, and its consequences are all chronicled here by Ms. Wood who, if she is biased, makes up for it with her admirable clarity of thought and reason. This is a tight tale told wonderfully well. Excellent work. (4/5 Stars)