Hastings: An Unusual Battle

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Stephen Morillo

Published:

2017

Publisher:

Routledge

Historians have refought the battle of Hastings regularly since the days of Freeman and Round, and its importance justifies the attention paid it. Part of the reason academic warriors have covered the ground so often is that the battle is by no means easy to understand. Hastings was unusual. It was unlike the vast majority of medieval battles in three major ways. Tinchebrai, the other great battle in Anglo-Norman history, was decided fairly quickly. It is possible to argue that it was not in hand-to-hand combat, but in larger operations on the battlefield that the presence of cavalry on the Norman side was decisive. The placement of their deaths in the Bayeux Tapestry is consistent with such an interpretation, coming just after the first Norman attack, before William rallies his army, and well before the climactic battle scenes and Harold's death. The Saxons held together for an hour more, or through one more Norman attack.

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