Lucy Thompson Case
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“The Battle of Hastings was lost by Harold rather than won by William. How far do you agree with this statement?”
The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 when William of Normandy (William the bastard) came to England to take the throne off Harold Godwinson, then known as King Harold II. It took place at Senlac Bridge. There are various different long and short-term reason to which why William won and not Harold.
The fact that William went to the Pope and received the Papal banner off him was very important as William it also helps negate the problem of his illegitimacy. William was able to receive the Papal banner by offering papal fief, promising to reinstate the payment of Peters pence (a tax paid to the Pope) and to reform the Anglo-Saxon Church. The Papal banner was also significant to William as it was a visual indication that he had backing from the Church, helps him recruit more allies and gives him more justification to his invasion.
Another reason why William won was his presence and mobility in battle. When the Bretons heard that he had died and started running off, William rode up on his horse showed them all that he was not dead and managed to regain control of his men. It is also shown that he was very active in battle as at Hastings three horses were killed from underneath him. This helped William win as it raised the morale and rallied his men. He had great tactics also in the way he organised his army (cavalry at the back, infantry in the middle and archers at the front) which he hoped would tire Harolds army out so he could move in for full on attack.
After Harold was crowned King, he attempted to secure the north of England by marrying Edwin and Morcars sister Eadgyth and got rid of his concubine Ealdgyth. By doing this, he believed that whilst he was in the south waiting for William to attack, if anything happened in the north he could rely on Edwin and Morcar to take care of it whilst he was away. However, they were shown to be unreliable as at Fulford Gate when Harald Hardrada and Tostig attacked they ran off, and also didnt show up to Hastings and held back instead.
Also, Harold and his army had just fought at Stamford Bridge when they heard news of William landing in the south and burning/pillaging villages. An exhausted army then had to march another (approx.) 250 miles in five days to fight William. This reduced the effectiveness