be shot with arrows or killed from
horseback. The English shield wall
held its position, but the English
had lost so many troops that they
could no longer hope to attack the
Normans.
The King Is Dead
King Harold was killed late in the
day. The accounts of the battle
conflict with each other and omit
important information about
Harold’s death. For this reason,
historians cannot determine
exactly how he died. He may have been struck by
an arrow that lodged in his brain, killing him
instantly, but there is no way to be certain.
Harold’s death spelled the end for the English
army. Some small bands of English soldiers fought
fiercely to the death. Most scattered, retreating in
disorder as night fell. The
victorious Normans hunted
them down and
slaughtered them in the
darkness. The next
day, William ordered
the Normans to
bury their dead,
but they left the
bodies of the
English where
they fell, a
clear
warning
against
further
resistance.
1066: A Turning Point — And Not
Few battles have been as decisive as the Battle of
Hastings. Both sides saw the outcome as the will of
God. After the battle, the few surviving English
leaders did not resist William’s advancing army.
Nor did they try to stop his coronation. Everywhere,
William gave English land to his Norman
supporters. The new lords built castles to show that
they controlled the land and its people. When
William faced a rebellion against his rule in the
north of England in 1069, he crushed it ruthlessly,
burning the city of York and leaving destruction in
his wake.
Still, the Normans saw themselves as the heirs to
the Anglo-Saxons. Norman lords replaced English
leaders, but maintained the Anglo-Saxon system of
royal government. They spoke French, but their ties
to Normandy slowly loosened. Over several
generations, the Normans became English, and
English identity expanded to include them.Regan Eby has a Ph.D. in medieval history and lives in British
Columbia, Canada.The words and the figures tell all: "Harold, the
king, is killed" (from the Bayeux Tapestry).