The Battle Of Hastings Essay

done. Henry claim to the throne was weak as his claim only came from a

When Edward came into power in 1042, England was in a poor state financially and also because of threats of an invasion and this made the first few years of his rule difficult. Edward was faced with many problems which he had to overcome. These problems involved; powerful Earls, (especially the Godwine’s), the foreign policy and the domestic policy. Edward both failed and succeeded in these problems due to a number of factors. These include a lack of knowledge about his kingdom and some may argue that he was naïve in his decisions. With some evaluation, we will be able to judge if Edward was a successful King or not.

Beowulf demonstrated another important Anglo-Saxon characteristic, bravery, when he fought the dragon. Beowulf knew he was old when he decided to face the dragon but did not back down from the fight at hand. He decided to stand and fight the dragon instead of running even when he knew he could not defeat the beast by himself. Like the true hero he was

Part A - The Bayeux Tapestry as a historical source The Bayeux Tapestry is a primary source. The Bayeux Tapestry is a primary source of history because it was created just after the Battle of Hasting, which took place on the 14th of October 1066 A.D/C.E. The Bayeux Tapestry was created in the 11th Century. The person who commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry was Bishop Odo.

William ordered his foot soldiers to fake retreat. This is found in Source 5 because it shows William and Harold’s movements. My opinion is that doing this is very intelligent because doing this tricks the opposing team. This meant that William won the Battle of Hastings because it this meant that the English got confused so they followed the Normans down the hill, therefore breaking the shield wall. When they were at the bottom of the hill, the Normans killed the Bretons quickly so without William making this decision, it would’ve been less likely that the Saxons would’ve won the Battle of

Henry VII took the throne after a battle against the former king Richard III whose forces outnumbered Henrys by two to one. Henry VII had a couple of big problems, one of them was that there were people that had a stronger claim to the throne than he did, his only claim was that god let him win the battle, therefore the nobility didn’t respect him at the beginning of his reign. Another of the problems he faced was the fact that he feared a lot

A reason why Harold Godwin lost the Battle of Hastings is because his army was less prepared, since some of Harold’s foot soldiers were left behind, and some died at Stamford Bridge. Because of this, Harold would have had less people in his army, and some of his best soldiers would have died as well. This would have been quite a disadvantage, as even more of his soldiers died later on, during the journey south. Secondly, another reason why the Saxons lost was that the Saxons were already exhausted from their quite recent battle, at Stamford Bridge, and they also had to go on a long journey to meet William of Normandy’s army. Due to this, as well as the Saxons would have finding it harder to fight, they would have been much more vulnerable.

William was a better leader because although Harold had the upper hand in the battle and they were losing, William managed to outwit and defeat the English. In the Bayeux Tapestry there is a scene depicting that in the days preceding the

The Battle of Agincourt is known as one of the greatest because of the circumstances surrounding it. Arguably, it is among the most distinguished battle wins of the English because nobody expected them to defeat the French. The reason was that the French army had four times more troops than it did, and everyone expected it to lose because of this. However, there are a number of factors that were at play that surpassed the numbers the French had and necessitated the English win. Such factors had to do with the strategies that were employed by the English, the conditions at the battlefield, and, most importantly, the leadership in place.

The battle raged for around two hours before Greene ordered his troops to retreat, giving the British a tactical victory, but enabling Greene’s army to remain mostly intact.

they were organized and knew what to do when the time came to set sail

The kings and warriors are important in Anglo-Saxon culture, “The Anglo-Saxon social structure consisted of tribal units led by chieftains ("kings," or "lords") who, theoretically at least, earned their respect from their warriors (or "retainers," or "thanes," the group being called a "comitatus").”(6). In the Anglo-Saxon culture there are kings then below them are the warriors, and below them are the commoners. The kings had to earn the warriors respect, the kings were known for their fearlessness and heroism. He must share the winnings earned from war with his warriors, and the king must prove to be generous. “Although theoretically the thanes freely agreed to join a king, it was nevertheless vital for one's sense of self to be part of a

A rumor arose in the Norman ranks that William was dead, causing panic. Many of the Saxon fyrdd pursued the fleeing Normans down the hill. William raised his armies morale by loudly announcing that he was still alive. The Normans with new strength fought hard against the Saxons, Harold's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine were both slain on the battlefield.

One other reason that the English were at a disadvantage, is that they “had refused to fight each other in civil war, even when Edward ordered them to do it; but the unlucky Normans, at almost the same time, were ravaged again and again by wars of every size…” (Howarth 63). Clearly, the English were more used to peace, and the Normans were ready and willing to fight on a moment’s notice. They were more prepared, and had a more aggressive society, so they had an advantage before the battle even began.

In order for Alfred to keep peace and defeat the Danes, he had to win many major battles. On Easter Sunday 878, when King Alfred withdrew into the Isle of Athelney, there was every likelihood that before the end of the year Wessex would have been divided out among the members of the Danish army. King Alfred made sure that Wessex would escape that fate. Although Alfred did lose a major battle against the Danes only four years ago, he overcame them in 878 when he won the Battle of Edington. Alfred showed strong resistance by constantly engaging Danish raiding parties from his base in Athelney. After nearly seven weeks of strong battles, Alfred was able to begin defeating the Danes (Stenton 253). Along with Alfred's idea of coercing a recalcitrant peasantry, he had other ways of defeating the Danes as well. Alfred began building warships in order to develop a navy. The ships in which Alfred built were twice as long as those which they were intended to meet (Stenton 253). These