Lecture 10: 1066 Hastings—William Conquers England
o William himself gathered a group of his knights and charged
with them into the mob of advancing Englishmen.x The counterattack was effective, and the English troops were cut
off and slaughtered.x William ordered his troops back up the hill, and the close-range
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of charging and pretending to retreat, in the hope of drawing the
English out of their organized formation on the ridge.x The ranks of the English were beginning to thin, with many of the
more experienced and better armed soldiers having been killed or
wounded and their places in the front rank taken by the less well-
equipped militia and fyrdmen. William began one more major effort
with a barrage of arrows and another general charge up the hill.x This time, the arrows had a more deadly effect on the now inferior
English troops, and one arrow apparently struck Harold in the face
or eye. Accounts differ as to whether this wound was immediately
fatal, but he dropped to the ground.x Meanwhile, William’s men advanced around the edges of the
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the Normans crested the hill and slaughtered the remnants.Outcomes
x On Christmas Day, William was crowned in Westminster Cathedral,
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eliminating the Viking threat and winnowing the ranks of those
who might have opposed him.x The Norman Conquest blended Anglo-Saxon and Norman culture
and reoriented England from Scandinavia to the European mainland.