Battle of Hastings essays

Battle of Hastings essays Why did the Normans win the battle of Hastings? The battle of Hastings took place on October 14th 1066. It was between Harold Godwin and William the Duke of Normandy. William won for a number of reasons but here are just two of them. William had more men as well as having more time to prepare. King Harold did not have time to prepare properly for the battle because he had to fight Harold Hadraada and his brother Tostig at Stamford Bridge. After the battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold Godwin heard some bad news. This was that William had invaded. Harold had to march his men south very quickly. Many of his men were exhausted so he had to leave so he had to leave them behind. Some of Harolds best soldiers the housecarls had been injured or even killed in the battle so Harold had a weak army, which was mainly made up of farmers. On the other hand, William had more time for preparations. He had to wait a long time for Harold Godwin to arrive in the south, during this time William could prepare and make up tactics for the battle. After two whole weeks of waiting Harold Godwin eventually reached the south. As soon as William saw him the battle commenced. During the battle, the English fought hard and well but sadly not all was gained. William had more cavalry who wore chain mail armour and fought with spears and bow and arrows. This was an advantage to William because Harold had a few house carts and the rest were all farmers who he picked up on the way to the battle of Hastings, also Harolds men had to fight with spears and battle axes. The Normans eventually won by using an old trick of pretending to retreat. This old trick was pretending to Harold that they were giving up because they had been beating. The Anglo-Saxons were over the moon so when the Normans started to walk away Harolds men ran down Senlac Hill and started chasing them away but unfortunately William and his men...