The Forgotten Battle of 1066

Most British people can name at least one battle from 1066; the Battle of Hastings. In fact this is the one event that seems to encapsulate the very essence of 1066 as a subject; the killing of King Harold and (almost) inevitable Norman Conquest of England.

Some people can also name a second, earlier encounter; the Battle of Stamford Bridge. It is often reported that this is the battle that fatally injured King Harold’s Saxon army, along with the forced route march from London to York and back again to reach Hastings, making the Norman Conquest of England (almost) inevitable.

But why did King Harold have to march north to save his kingdom and let the Normans land in the south unopposed? The answer is because there was a third battle, one that preceded Stamford Bridge; the forgotten battle of 1066.

For some reason most accounts of the Battle of Fulford Gate held on Wednesday 20^th September 1066 are reduced to a sentence in the preamble to the Battle of Hastings. I find this curious as major engagements are usually considered important in telling the history of campaigns, especially those events that lead to such drastic consequences as seen in 1066; an entire civilisation was destroyed!

For Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway, the invasion of Northumbria represented a tactical masterpiece in his attempt to claim the English throne. He landed his army at Riccall, close to York, which was too far for King Harold to interfere with. He expected some resistance from the local eoldermen of course, they were duty bound to protect the kingdom but he probably anticipated a siege of the walled city of York. What he actually got was a pitched battle at site not of his choosing.

King Hardrada was a very experienced military commander who had only ever been on the losing side once and even then he had been but a boy. He had fought all over the known world from Norway to Russia and onto the Holy Land. Against him at Fulford Gate stood two young brothers, the eorls Edwin and Morcar, and they had chosen a defensively strong position.

The Saxons fielded a mixed force of approximately 4500 men, about 2,000 of which might have been well armed and armoured, the remaining 2500 would have been less well equipped and trained peasants and villagers. Against them the Vikings brought an army of some 7000 Norse warriors with another 3000 guarding the fleet at Riccall. For the early medieval period these figures are impressive and are similar to those engaged later at Stamdord Bridge and Hastings, in other words this was a very serious encounter.

In fact there is much about the Battle of Fulford Gate to occupy the imagination of anyone with an interest in this kind of history. The defence of York by the Saxons has about it a quality similar to the more famous Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) in that a smaller indigenous army attempted to hold back a much larger invader at a strong defensive position. It is almost a hopeless cause but undertaken with admirable bravery on the part of the Anglo-Saxons.

There is also the chance to see how the military mind of Harald Hardrada might have worked in formulating a plan to nullify the advantages of his enemy. Although the battles of this period most often involved the pitting of two shield-wall formations against each other this does not mean that there was not some tactical manoeuvring going on as well. King Hardrda displayed his experience in the way he was able to coax his younger adversaries into making a critical mistake.

The strategic impact of the Battle of Fulford Gate is also important. At the conclusion of the battle the Norwegians found themselves in a seemingly strong position. They had captured the capital of Northumbria and knew that it would take King Harold, who was in London watching the movements of the Normans, some time to arrange a response to the threat that they now posed. At this point it was King Hardrada of Norway who posed the greatest threat to England, that is why King Harold moved north to meet him.

If Eorl Edwin and Eorl Morcar had chosen to act differently, however, then the course of 1066 might have been very different. Although their army was smaller than the Vikings’ it was sufficient to man the walls of York and repel any attacks; a siege would have been necessary. Had the eorls employed that tactic then Harald Hardrada might well have found himself trapped between two Saxon forces when King Harold did move north and the subsequent battle might have left the Saxons in a much better condition to meet the threat of the Normans; but that’s history for you!

HeavensFiction: Dee Ann Waite is Making Penguins Fly with Self-Publishing - Part 1

HeavensFiction: Dee Ann Waite is Making Penguins Fly with Self-Publishing - Part 1
A very interesting account of one writers decision to choose a publishing path for their work.

The Social World of the Anglo-Saxons: The Aethelings and the Eoldermen

As you would expect with any society that was characterised by a hierarchical class system there would be the top class who were defined by their wealth and by the power that they wielded. In the Anglo-Saxon world the upper class were known as the aethelings, who were principally the royal family. The king was the obviously the head of this very exclusive group and he would be joined by his queen, their children who would hold the ranks of prince and princesses, and any other immediate family members such as brothers and sisters who would hold the same rank but be differentiated by their position in line to inherit the throne. 

The position of aetheling granted many privileges but it also bestowed certain responsibilities too. Aethelings were expected to support the king and queen and to lead the army on campaign. Military service was considered important as the cult of the warrior was a mainstay of Saxon culture and it also gave the ambitious a chance to prove their worth against the enemies of the people. Harold Godwinson, when he was Eorl of Wessex, built up a formidable reputation for himself as successful warlord defeating King Gruffydd ap Llwellyn of Wales at the command of King Edward of England.

By their very nature the aethelings were few in number, certainly not enough to govern the whole of the kingdom. To assist in this there was a lower tier to the upper class known as the eoldermen. Again these were rich and powerful men given clearly defined areas of the kingdom to manage. They were responsible for administering the king’s law, taking military action to defend the peoples for whom they were responsible, and seeing that the kingdom was properly administered.

An eolderman usually had the title of eorl and he would be responsible for a whole shire or a particular town. In later days it was not uncommon for some eorls to be responsible for several shires. Although not originally an inherited title by the late 10^th century it had become something of the norm for a particular title to remain with one family, such as Eorl Godwin passing on the Eorldom of Wessex to his second son Harold Godwinson.

Along with members of the aethelings and the archbishops and bishops the eoldermen formed the ‘Witan’. In essence the witan was the king’s council although he was not necessarily bound to call it or accept its’ recommendations. It did have one very important function, however, and that was to decide on who had the best claim to the crown should a king die without an heir; they may even have decided against a named heir if they found him lacking in some way.

In January 1066 England found itself in a situation where childless King Edward died without a named heir. Although the Eorl of Wessex had no direct claim to the crown it was suggested that King Edward favoured him as he lay dying. It was known that the Duke of Normandy also had his eyes set on the English throne but he had very little influence with the Witan. The claim that came from the King of Norway was dismissed out of hand. In choosing Harold Godwinson the Witan functioned well within its’ remit, irrespective of what the pope might think. In their eyes he was the only Saxon capable of fulfilling the duties of the king and they saw no reason why they should bow to a foreign duke with a questionable claim.

The Battles of Brunanburh and of Maldon

The Battle of Brunanburgh is both important and significant to the Anglo-Saxon peoples because not only did it lead to the establishment of England as a single kingdom. It was also widely reported in many different sources and various languages including Old English, Middle English, Latin, Irish, Welsh, and Icelandic.

Under Aethelstan, the King of the West Saxons, the Anglo-Saxon world went through something of a revival following the imposition of Danelaw in 886. He ruled Wessex from 924 to 927 and achieved a notable success in that period by capturing the Viking kingdom of York following the death of its’ King Sihtric in 927. The capture of York meant that Aethelstan became the first Saxon monarch to rule over the whole of the English peoples and hence from 927, until his death in 939, he was known as the King of the English.

Indeed King Aethelstan’s rise to power was formidable. Initially the Northumbrians resisted his claim to lordship as they had always been independent and were naturally suspicious of the southern powers but Aethelstan was strong enough to force the Welsh and Scottish kings to acknowledge his authority. Although this power helped establish King Aethelstan as the supreme force in the British Isles it also had the effect of bringing once hostile neighbours together to try and pre-empt further Anglo-Saxon expansion.

In 937 Olaf Guthfrithson, the Viking king of Dublin, joined forces with King Constantine II of Scotland and Owen of Strathclyde to form an alliance to oppose Aethelstan. Individually neither leader possessed the power to challenge the King of the English but collectively they hoped to overwhelm him. The Welsh, for their own reasons, chose not participate in the campaign. The allied forces invaded north-west England and seem to have caught King Aethelstan unprepared. He quickly raised an army from the Saxons of Wessex and Mercia and marched north to Brunanburh.

The engagement that followed was remarkable no less because even for the early medieval period it was considered to be a particularly bloody affair. This is not surprising in light of the fact that King Aethelstan seems to have wanted one battle to settle matters between himself and the Scots and the Irish.

In the Annals of Ulster the battle is summed up as; “A huge war, lamentable and horrible, was cruelly waged between the Saxons and Norsemen. Many thousands of Norsemen beyond number died although King Olaf escaped with a few men. While a great number of the Saxons also fell on the other side, Aethelstan, king of the Saxons, was enriched by the great victory.”

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle even records the battle in the manner of an heroic poem, contrary to its’ usual style of prose.

Although Aethelstan emerged the victor it is believed that it proved to be one battle too many as it capped the limit on his military achievements. The countries of England, Wales, and Scotland conformed to the boundaries that they more or less occupy today and after the death of Aethelstan Northumbria fell under the rule of King Olaf of Dublin without opposition.

However one thing that cannot be denied is that the success of King Aethelstan created the idea of England as a single entity and that this would prove an irresistible force in the coming years.

The Battle of Maldon

The Battle of Maldon has been made famous by the poem that was written about it not long after the actual conflict. It recounts how, on 10^th August 991, Eorl Beorhtnoth assembled an Anglo-Saxon force to oppose the raids along the coast of Essex by Vikings under the leadership of the Norse chieftain Anlaf.

Eorl Beorhtnoth spurned an offer made by the Vikings to withdraw if the Saxons agree to pay a Danegeld, effectively a sum of gold or silver in the form of a bribe. Instead he assembled his force near the causeway to Northey Island on the River Panta, known today as the River Blackwater. The Saxons then waited for the ebb tide to allow the Vikings to cross the river and begin the battle.

The actual battle conforms to the norm of the early medieval period. The two armies lined up facing each other in respective shield-walls that come together in an attempt to force one or other side backwards. In the Battle of Maldon the men of Essex make a firm stand against the Vikings but then Eorl Beorhtnoth was wounded by a poisoned spear and died. Some of his men flee in panic but others remain to defend their lord’s body and they fight to the last man.

In the poem Eorl Beorhtnoth appears to modern eyes as quite a foolish general, his decision to allow the Vikings to cross the River Panta unopposed is startling, his strong defensive position would have allowed him to inflict serious injuries upon his enemy but instead he holds back and allows them time to assemble their strength. Of course this might not be an actual depiction of events as they happened, the poet remains anonymous and as the poem was written some years after the event it may well have been intended to present a defeat as something of a victory; in spirit at least.

Certainly the courage of the men who remained to defend the body of Eorl Beorhtnoth is held up as an example to others of what it was to be a Saxon. The poem is notable for containing several speeches ascribed to various Saxon warriors that urge patriotism and a determined resistance to the Vikings.

In that respect the Battle of Maldon illustrates one of the two contrary policies pursued by the Saxons in their dealings with the Vikings, one being the use of bribes to avoid conflict and damage to Saxon settlements and the other to actively engage in pitched battles to repulse them. Although Eorl Beorhtnoth fell at Maldon his example was one that many Saxon noblemen looked to follow rather than surrendering to the less heroic example of Danegeld.

One impression that is undeniable from both battles is that the Anglo-Saxons were indeed a very war-like people. The hit and run tactics of the Vikings suited their war-bands well and gave them an advantage over the Saxons in that respect. However, when they were able to field an army the Anglo-Saxons became a formidable foe and were certainly not short on courage or heroes to embody the Saxon spirit.