The Story of 1066

Is 1066 just the Battle of Hastings? Far from it. The war for the English crown was a year-long apocalypse. Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega dissect history's ultimate succession crisis. Follow King Harold as he crushes a Viking armada at Stamford Bridge, only to face William the Conqueror’s brutal heavy cavalry just weeks later. From shattered shield walls to a Christmas coronation that literally went up in flames, Matt and Eleanor relive the ruthless reality of 1066. MORE 1066 New Discovery: the Myth of Harold's March Listen on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1066-new-discovery-the-myth-of-harolds-march/id1564113746?i=1000756346504 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sMJLReGobgIlQBhvC0QRk Harold Godwinson Listen on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/harold-godwinson/id1564113746?i=1000639823267 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/62mB8Dx8keYCKe9org33ql Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega. Edited by Matthew Wilson. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff. All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds. Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™ WATCH Matt and Eleanor's documentary The Rise of the Plantagenets on History Hit TV! Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS early access ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Matt Lewis?

  From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places, to tales of murder, power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr Eleanor Jarniger, and some of the world's leading historians as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life, only on History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries with a brand new release every week, exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe.

• 0:40Matt Lewis?

  It began with the death of a saint king and a bitter succession battle, followed by an apocalyptic storm, Viking invasions ravaging the north, Norman armadas striking the south, and brutal slaughter at Hastings. With an arrow to the Anglo-Saxon king's eye, a new dynasty would be born. By the year's end, William, descendant of the Viking king Rollo, would conquer England. Here on Gone Medieval, we thrive on this drama. I'm Matt Lewis, and today, Dr Eleanor Jarniger and I are stepping onto the blood-soaked battlefields of a momentous year to uncover the masterminds pulling the strings. We're answering the big questions.

• 1:24Matt Lewis?

  Why did the Battle of Hastings really happen? Who were the ruthless players fighting for the crown? And how did that fateful year radically forge a new England? This is an epic saga of slaughtered kings, shattered shields, and fragile, world-changing victories. This is the story of 1066. Welcome to Gone Medieval.

• 2:07Matt Lewis?

  So, 1066, it's a year. People have probably heard of it. But what we're going to do is try and pull it apart, and it lends itself to this kind of treatment, I think, because we can start right at the beginning and we can get all the way to the very end. So strap in, because this is going to take a little while.

• 2:22Eleanor Janega?

  And I think that this is a really important point because I think people say, hear the term 1066, and they're like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, the Battle of Hastings." And I'm like, "Baby, there's so much to get through first."

• 2:31Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, that was one day of it. And I mean, we can start all of this on the 5th of January. So just a few days into the year, we've got Edward the Confessor, who's been king of Anglo-Saxon England for a couple of decades. Old man, married, no children. What's going on there? Story for another day, perhaps. But he's been ill. He's kind of rushed through the completion of his brand-new Westminster Abbey because he needs to be buried somewhere soon. He'd like to be buried in the church that he built. So he has it consecrated at the end of 1065. And just five days into 1066, sure enough, the king pops his clogs with no son, no universally-accepted heir, and we are starting the year with a problem.

• 3:16Eleanor Janega?

  And this is a huge problem, right? Because we have to figure out who is going to be his successor. And maybe, allegedly, some people were named. It has been alleged. But how much can we actually know about what happened and what happened on his deathbed? Because there are several competing stories, right?

• 3:37Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. And they take hold depending on who is currently in the ascendant. Because we've gone through a period where he has invited one of his nephews, Edward the Exile, to come back to England when it's pretty clear he's not going to have a son. This is perhaps the last scion of the male line of the House of Wessex. He's been living off in exile. And so Uncle Edward the Confessor is like, "Come on home, it'll be great." But in the long tradition of Anglo-Saxon heirs, this isn't always the friendly outreach that it's been positioned as. There has been occasions where people have come back under these circumstances only to be seized, blinded, killed, whatever else. So Edward the Exile is kind of taking a little bit of a punt

• 4:22Matt Lewis?

  coming back from Hungary, where he's been growing up with his family. Brings his son and his daughters back with him. But then he goes and dies as soon as he gets back to England. So all of Edward the Confessor's plans are immediately out the window. Though it does leave him with Edward the Exile's son. So Edward the Confessor's great-nephew.

• 4:41Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, great.

• 4:42Matt Lewis?

  Edgar the Etheling. So he has that title, Etheling, Anglo-Saxon, meaning something like throne-worthy. So he's in the pool of people who could be considered next in line to the throne. But he is a young boy, and Anglo-Saxon England is not fond of young child kings. They tend to pass them over in favour of their uncles and things like that to avoid a minority. So until Edgar comes of age, he's not probably the main option. But he appears to be the only real one from the House of Wessex. So if Edward lives long enough, perhaps Edgar is his heir. In the meantime, there's lots of other questions about who it might be. The Godwinson family, hugely powerful around this time. Edward the Confessor, at most points in his reign,

• 5:26Matt Lewis?

  is not getting on well with the Godwins, with Earl Godwin and his children, the Godwinsons. They are hugely powerful, imposing themselves on Edward, and he doesn't really enjoy that. So he's sort of pushing and thrashing back against this. But Harold Godwinson is married to his sister. So there is a familial link there. Harold isn't a member of the House of Wessex, but he is Earl of Wessex now. He is Edward the Confessor's brother-in-law. Does that give him acclaim? Maybe, maybe. But he's going to rely on claiming that on his deathbed, Edward the Confessor placed the kingdom into his care. Whatever that means.

• 6:08Eleanor Janega?

  So how do you feel about that, right? Because I have, I suppose, my own interpretation of it. And part of it is based on sort of like how quickly things happen after Edward the Confessor dies. Because ever the Confessor dies, and as you mentioned, we've got this mess. We've got this mess. There is, you know, Ethlings, there are Godwinsons, there's all these people about. And very, very quickly, Harold Godwinson is like, "It was me, I'm the king." Right? And like, I'm sorry, it's that, that it's sweaty, right? Like, you know, if I really felt that

• 6:50Eleanor Janega?

  there was a really strong claim that everyone could agree upon, I think it would be a little bit more laissez-faire, I suppose.

• 6:58Matt Lewis?

  I can't help wondering whether Edward the Confessor's spirit is drifting out of the window as Harold is like, "Whoa, you all heard that, right? You named me king." And Edward's like, "No, no, no, no, no, not what I meant." Did he mean protect the kingdom for Edgar? To maintain the Royal House of Wessex? And has Harold chosen to interpret that in a specific way? Or was he maybe envisaging avoiding a minority by having Harold as a kind of placeholder king? And then it would revert back to Edgar at some point after this? Harold is pretty clear what he wants it to mean. And in that moment, as the man on the ground, that is kind of what matters. And for those around, in fairness to Harold as well, I would say, for those around him,

• 7:43Matt Lewis?

  they're thinking, "Do we want this little kid on the throne? We absolutely do not. Do we want this proven, established governor who is a capable warrior on the throne? Perhaps we do."

• 7:55Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, and listen, I can completely understand that. I do think, as you say, this isn't necessarily the norm in terms of how this particular kingdom works. Because the English do things differently, right? You know, you do have these moots where everyone gets together and in theory, they vote on who the king is, even though it does tend to go down familial lines a lot of the time. And so we do definitely see a bunch of people who are... Also, let's be honest, it's been kind of a rocky few years before 1066. People just periodically take over England. It happens all the time, right? You know, you never know when the Danes are going to get bored, okay? And you can't have a little boy on the throne because someone's going to have to actually do something about that, right? But I suppose despite the fact

• 8:40Eleanor Janega?

  that a Dane might come over and be Canute the Great at any moment and take over England, right? That isn't where Harold sees, I think, the major threat coming from, right? Because I think the first thing that he does almost as soon as, like, poor old Edward is in the ground, right? The first thing he does is like, "Okay, well, we better get ready to be invaded by Normans." Which I think is an interesting point, right? Because why all this preparing to be invaded by Normans if there is no Norman claim to the throne? Just a question.

• 9:14Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, no, and a fair one. And I think it's also important to think about, does it matter what Edward the Confessor planned anyway? You know, we talk about all of his schemes for Edward the Exile, Edgar the Etheling. Did he pick Harold Godwinson? Did he offer the throne to William of Normandy? Whatever else. Does it matter what the dead king thought? That's not how kingship during this period works. When the king dies, there is an interregnum until a new one is crowned, which means there's no king's peace, there's no law, there is no supreme power in the kingdom. And that creates problems whenever it happens. So people are always really keen to get that filled quickly. Well, here in Harold, you have a guy who's on the spot. And so if he is chosen by everybody around there

• 9:59Matt Lewis?

  in a form of something like a Witaningermot... Isn't he just the king? Does it matter who else has a claim?

• 10:05Eleanor Janega?

  I mean, listen, I think that that is a really strong argument fundamentally, right? You can argue all day long about who was supposed to be what, but what actually matters is who does things. Right? And I think that we see that throughout English history, right? I mean, we could say a lot about that during the anarchy, for example, right? It just depends on who's got a crown on their head. That's what it comes down to, right? But despite all this, you know, we definitely see that Harold is concerned that he's going to have to brace for William to come over from Normandy. But that's not who shows up first, right? Because listen, it's your friend and mine, Harold Hardrada. And he is this interesting guy, right? Because he is the king of Norway. He tried to claim the throne of Denmark.

• 10:50Eleanor Janega?

  I mean, the Denmark Norway, like a good luck, babe, untangling those two at this point in time. He's actually been a member of the Vergarian Guard, like down in Constantinople. Absolutely impressive stuff. And I love his claim because his claim is like, okay, so listen, listen, think, who remembers 1038, right? In 1038, there was an agreement between Magnus, the king of Denmark and Harth, the knut. Okay.

• 11:21Matt Lewis?

  Who's Knut's heir in England.

• 11:22Eleanor Janega?

  Who's Knut's.

• 11:23Matt Lewis?

  And Nor, yeah.

• 11:25Eleanor Janega?

  And right, and he's like, look, listen, babe, if we both die and we don't have heirs, then we can inherit from each other. We'll inherit from each other. And Magnus had been Harold's predecessor as king of Norway. So thereby, by process of transfers.

• 11:47Matt Lewis?

  His claim is my claim.

• 11:48Eleanor Janega?

  Exactly. Which is, I love it because it's so, it is so mad. It's mad as a box of frogs, right? It's just like, it's such a funny thing to try to make a claim on it. And I actually, I love it.

• 11:59Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 12:00Eleanor Janega?

  And it's good as any other, I think. It's brilliant.

• 12:02Matt Lewis?

  And I think throughout 1066, I like to imagine Harold Hardrada sitting there. You know, I've been down to Constantinople. I've done a bit of warring in France. Uh, I've come back. I'm slightly bored now, sitting on a throne. Where can I cause trouble? If there isn't a hotspot, where can I create one? And some of his advisors are like, well, there's an interesting thing happened in England. It's like, England, what's my claim to that? Well, we can, we can get around, you know, we, I think, it feels like he's inventing a reason to get in a ship and go on an adventure again.

• 12:33Eleanor Janega?

  And I just love that because I like how all of these Norse people are just so into it. They're like, any moment, babe, I might be back in the ship conquering things. And this, this is kind of the last gasp of it too. I think, well, I mean, until we get to the, I was about to say that and then I'm like, no, the Normans, consider the Normans. But it's just like more of a, I think we tend to see more come specifically out of Normandy. And, uh, I kind of wish he'd done it.

• 12:57Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. I mean, cause up until this point as well, so we get, it's recorded that on the same date, on the 8th of September, 1066, Harold breaks the army up that he'd been having in place on the Isle of Wight, kind of watching the south coast of England, who for if not the Normans? But he's been camped there expecting that invasion to come. And on the same day that he breaks that up, Harold Hardrada lands in the northeast of England. And not, not just alone either, but with Harold's brother, Tostig.

• 13:28Eleanor Janega?

  Listen, it's a bad sign, right? And Tostig, he's just like, I am here to do some light fratricide, which I really respect also. You know, like again, this is very traditional. Like all this is the sort of stuff I expect to see out of England, right? And it's like, he's younger by about seven years. He, in theory, is the Earl of Northumbria, but he got on his brother's wrong side, as one does. And he was exiled, right? And the, the thing is with these people, right? If you, if you exile someone, you're kind of asking them to go off and see if they can come back with an army and do something about it. It's, it's almost like a dare, right?

• 14:05Matt Lewis?

  Go and stew on it until you're powerful enough to come back and, and challenge me.

• 14:09Eleanor Janega?

  And here's the thing is that I think that partially we've got Tostig, who's like, do it, Harold, do it. Why not? Like, uh, here's a way that we could spin out a really weird justification for this. And I think it goes a long way of showing

• 14:26Eleanor Janega?

  how bad Harold is actually at the diplomacy part of this game. Right? Because it's like, babe, you, you've got a brother who's out here literally trying to raise armies against you. He would rather someone else entirely rule as opposed to you. And I think that tells you a lot about Harold Godwinson's inability to think long-term.

• 14:49Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. And I also can't help wondering whether, you know, is Tostig looking to support a Scandinavian assault on the crown of England? Or is Tostig thinking, Harold Hardrada, come and help me make myself king of England? And Harold Hardrada is like, okay.

• 15:05Eleanor Janega?

  Okay, like sure.

• 15:07Matt Lewis?

  That's definitely what will happen when we get there.

• 15:08Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah. And there is no way of knowing, right? Because I mean, maybe Tostig thinks that he's saying to Harold Hardrada, would you like to loot? Right? Like it's, it's lootin' season, baby. And you know, it has ever been thus.

• 15:22Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 15:22Eleanor Janega?

  Up in northern England, right?

• 15:23Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, like Tostig wandered into Harold's court and could see him bored tapping his arms on his throne. And he's like, I want to come and do a bit of light pillaging with me.

• 15:31Eleanor Janega?

  You know, it's, it's like I'm trying to get the lads out for paintball now. It's essentially the same thing at the time, right?

• 15:36Matt Lewis?

  But, but this is a significant test now of Harold's kingship. He's been doing reasonably well. He's been on military maneuvers around Wales, trying to, to calm dissent there. Seems to have been operating as king of England effectively. Seems to have plenty of support, seems to be able to control his kingdom. But suddenly on the 8th of September, he's invaded, not just by a Viking army, but by his own brother as well. This is a really serious test of his mettle.

• 16:01Eleanor Janega?

  Oh, completely. And it is, I think it just bears repeating. Something that is almost expected. We've definitely had Danish kings of England before. And there is this kind of, I suppose, traditional alignment of England with Norway, with Denmark. There's this sort of this like North Sea triangle, which I think is really cool. And of course it's, it's apogee under Knut the Great, clearly. But still we have, I don't know, I suppose vernacular now where we're so far removed from this. It's like, you know, their, their languages are mutually intelligible. These are people who are kind of, they've got very similar court cultures. They've got very similar martial cultures, right? And so, yeah, these things happen.

• 16:46Eleanor Janega?

  But I do think Harold responds to that fairly well.

• 16:51Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's interesting that we, we often forget how much of England's focus at this period is on that North Sea side. It's, you, Europe is, is there.

• 17:02Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah.

• 17:02Matt Lewis?

  But it's maybe not where most of the connections are. Edward the Confessor has perhaps increased those through his mother, Emma of Normandy. There's a slight connection to Normandy, but actually not dealing all of that much with those people. More of the connections are across the Scandinavian world. There is still a huge Danish presence in England amongst the, the population where they've settled, who must feel some kind of link, connection still back to, to that part of the world across the North Sea. So England is almost looking kind of east rather than south still at this point.

• 17:33Eleanor Janega?

  And I think that that is so interesting, right? And I don't think it's a surprise that we see Tostig and Harold Hardrada arriving in the north, right? As a result of this, because that is where they can more reliably count upon having some kind of support from the locals. Because, you know, if you go with the Danish speaking people, they'll be like, oh yeah, great. Bring it back, right? You know?

• 17:53Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. And so we get, what, 12 days after they land on the 20th of September, we get the Battle of Fulford. And this is before Harold Godwinson has arrived. So we get two brothers, Edwin and Morcar, the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria, because he's stolen Tostig's.

• 18:11Matt Lewis?

  They confront Harold Hardrada's army at Fulford. And it doesn't go very well for Edwin and Morcar. They both escape with their lives, but they are defeated. And it's interesting to wonder whether this is buying Harold a bit of time to get there. But you do get the sense in the aftermath of this that Harold Hardrada feels like he's, he's almost conquered the northeast already. This guy is, is making for York and, and planning some kind of coronation or, or where he's going to live in York. Now he's king of the north.

• 18:44Eleanor Janega?

  And again, these things happen. These are things that happen all the time. So it makes perfect sense at the time, right? So, you know, we've got this one battle. We have a lot of Norwegian guys running around the joint. And people are like, yeah, this is a threat. That, that, that really appears to be the major threat at the time. And this is not, you know, even till we get to the 25th of September, my sister's birthday. And so it's one of the few dates I can always remember is the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

• 19:14Matt Lewis?

  Do you remember Stamford Bridge or her birthday? Which, which one do you use to remember the old?

• 19:18Eleanor Janega?

  Like, is it, which one is Emily or Stanford? Yeah, I don't know. So like basically that we do have this next confrontation at Stamford Bridge. But I think the important thing to kind of keep in mind here is where as Fulford is kind of a traditional pitched battle. It's the sort of thing that you would expect. That's not what was happening at Stamford Bridge, is it?

• 19:41Matt Lewis?

  No, this, and this seems to be something that Harold is really good at, showing up quickly, moving his armies around his kingdom with, with speed. It's something, you know, again, going back to the anarchy, something that Stephen will become famous for. It's like he pops up out of nowhere when people aren't expecting him to be there.

• 19:58Eleanor Janega?

  A Stephen.

• 19:59Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. So Harold Hardrada is, you know, his army's not wearing their armor. They're not prepared for a fight. They think they're taking the submission of the city of York. So they're completely unprepared for this assault. Suddenly Harold Godwinson arrives with an English army. Lots of questions about how he's got there. Has he marched and ridden up there or has he sailed up there? Most likely he sailed, I think. We had Tom License on Gone Medieval a little while ago, talking about the evidence that they were using ships rather than riding up there, because why wouldn't you?

• 20:32Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, it's much faster.

• 20:33Matt Lewis?

  If, if nothing else.

• 20:34Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah.

• 20:36Matt Lewis?

  And so he's arrived there unexpectedly, quickly caught Harold Hardrada's army unawares, to the point where they're kind of fleeing across a river and we're left with this one giant Norwegian soldier, holding the bridge on his own for as long as he possibly can, to give all of his comrades a chance to prepare.

• 20:53Eleanor Janega?

  Oh, it's very romantic.

• 20:54Matt Lewis?

  Poor massive Viking.

• 20:55Eleanor Janega?

  Poor massive Viking, bring him back, you know. And I mean, it is a real situation where they're essentially caught with their pants down, as it were, like, they're not even in full armour, they're not, they're not ready to go, right, this is, this is a surprise attack. And that is really great for Harold Godwinson, because it allows him, you know, this element of surprise, which fundamentally he needs. But it is also, I think, important to point out, because it's just, it's not necessarily how things were done.

• 21:23Matt Lewis?

  No.

• 21:24Eleanor Janega?

  At the time.

• 21:25Matt Lewis?

  It's not the most honourable way of behaving.

• 21:26Eleanor Janega?

  No. And I mean, granted, again, we are talking about, um, hmm, the beautiful people of the North Sea, right, and who have ever been accused of not necessarily being the most chivalrous. But, you know, I guess to a extent, what's the sauce for the goose is the sauce for the gander, right?

• 21:46Matt Lewis?

  And ultimately, assuming that Harold has been almost chosen, but at least accepted as king, this is why people have accepted him. England is being invaded by a foreign nation, they're on English soil, you want your king to get there and get rid of them, you're maybe not worried about whether he's doing it in a chivalrous manner, you want them gone, this is why people have agreed to make Harold king, and he's proving his mettle here.

• 22:12Eleanor Janega?

  And I mean, fundamentally, you're bang on, that's what a king is for. The entire system is predicated on the idea that that is what kings are going to do. And here is Harold behaving like a king. You can't say that he isn't. Is he my favourite Harold in this story? No, I'm team Hardrada all the way, just because I like the chaos, but, you know, it is fundamentally him showing up in the way that he is expected to do.

• 22:36Matt Lewis?

  And I mean, spoiler for the result, the Battle of Fulford that had taken place a few days earlier will be remembered as the last time that a Scandinavian army will win on English soil.

• 22:44Eleanor Janega?

  Boo.

• 22:45Matt Lewis?

  Because the Battle of Stamford Bridge does not go well for, for your boy Harold.

• 22:49Eleanor Janega?

  No, and I think everyone is actually kind of shocked. Everyone is like, what do you mean Harold Hardrada was killed? Like, it's, it doesn't seem to be the way things are supposed to go. I mean, really, I think that's where the smart money was at the time. You know, he just had such an incredible weight of soldiers behind him, he had an insider in Tostig, he had everything lined up really, really nicely, and it was so easy up to this point. And it just shows you how all of this is a gamble. Fundamentally, anytime you engage in a battle in this way, you are gambling with your life, it's not that easy.

• 23:27Matt Lewis?

  And from Harold's, Harold Godwinson's point of view, he's defeated one of the most famous warriors in Europe in that age. He's proven his worth as a king, he's saved England from becoming an outpost in a Scandinavian empire again. But, but it remains interesting to think, you know, had the result gone differently, what might England have looked like if it was still looking at that North Sea empire?

• 23:52Eleanor Janega?

  And I just think things would have been really differently. I mean, who knows if that is how things would ossify? We can't necessarily say for sure that that is how things would always be. But I do think that the way, I don't know, England is kind of looking towards France for essentially the rest of the medieval period, that certainly wouldn't have happened. I think that you would still see more of a connection across to Denmark, across to Norway, much more sort of like we see, for example, with the Hanseatic League cities when they start up. I think that that would have been where most of the attention went, instead of more along the lines of Latin Christendom.

• 24:31Matt Lewis?

  Which makes it interesting, because Scandinavia has so many connections down the far east of Europe, all the way down to the, the Near East in the Mediterranean, that England might have been plugged in to that circuit, rather than this one that is looking to maybe go more crusady during this period and impose itself across there. England might have been, remained a kind of outpost on the, the loop around the outside of this kind of crusading craze that takes Europe.

• 24:58Eleanor Janega?

  Do you know, it's beer Europe versus wine Europe. And, uh, you know, England right dead in the middle. Really, it's like, hey, it's a, it's a surprise, I think.

• 25:06Matt Lewis?

  I know, we're uncouth, we don't mix beer and wine.

• 25:07Eleanor Janega?

  No, listen.

• 25:08Matt Lewis?

  We're not quite that bad.

• 25:09Eleanor Janega?

  Listen.

• 25:12Eleanor Janega?

  Well, anyway, I think this is as good a place as any to pause, because, baby, the Normans are coming.

• 25:30Matt Lewis?

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• 26:45Speaker 02

  If you love a good story, why aren't you listening to Dan Snow's History Hit Podcast? It's a show where we tell you every amazing, crazy and important thing that's ever happened in human history. From the perilous voyages of the first Polynesians, the discoveries of Captain Cook, the deadly Viking raids on Britain and Ireland, the rise and fall of the great English kings and queens. We'll tell you how Waterloo was won, the Alamo was lost, and all the history in between. So make sure you check it out, Dan Snow's History Hit, for the best true stories ever told, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:35Eleanor Janega?

  R I P to a real one. Morning till I join ya, Harold Hardrada, you'll always be in my heart, but another fan favourite's on the scene, and that is, of course, William the Conqueror.

• 27:50Matt Lewis?

  This is just a year of icons for you, isn't it? Eleanor's favourites all turning up in a row.

• 27:56Eleanor Janega?

  I like it because they're messy, right? It's just like, these are some of the most dramatic ones to ever do it, they're all mean girls, they're all completely self-interested, and they're going to make it your problem? Fantastic stuff, this is, this is historian dreams.

• 28:11Matt Lewis?

  They're coming to toilet paper your house. So it says, three days after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 28th of September, we get a Norman landing on the south coast of England. And this is maybe what Harold had been scared of, hadn't materialised to this point, he's just beaten a huge Viking army, must have been quite pleased with himself.

• 28:30Eleanor Janega?

  Oh, okay.

• 28:30Matt Lewis?

  Until someone whispered in his ear, we've got another problem.

• 28:33Eleanor Janega?

  This is such an interesting thing, because essentially what we're seeing here from William's point is like, oh, well, two can play at that game, I too can get a bunch of guys in ships and be here surprisingly fast, it's like curses, right? So I find it quite interesting, because they get, you know, obviously, everybody in ships, all of these horses that have been hanging out on the Norman coast for weeks, upon weeks now. In theory, you know, like the story, the official story is, oh, the wind was bad? Question mark, it's like, was the wind bad, or was your intelligence good?

• 29:03Matt Lewis?

  And was, was the wind really bad until William the Conqueror went and dug up some saints' bones, waved them around the beach, and then the wind changed?

• 29:10Eleanor Janega?

  Listen, um, if the single flap of a butterfly's wings can start a typhoon, then, you know, maybe that is what had to happen, you know, sometimes you gotta get some relics involved about it, that's all I can say.

• 29:22Matt Lewis?

  And William's keen on his relics, isn't he?

• 29:24Eleanor Janega?

  He is.

• 29:24Matt Lewis?

  He's big on using religion to back up what he's doing.

• 29:27Eleanor Janega?

  And I think this is quite interesting, because it also shows that William is not just a military leader, right? And a lot of William's claims, very specifically, as we say, are linked to relics, because he says, no, no, no, no, I had a conversation with Edward the Confessor, and he said, actually, I'm the special little guy, and I get to be the king of England. And in fact, in fact, Harold Godwinson bloody well knows this, and he knows this because he showed up over here half drowned in quicksand, we spent a bunch of time hawking, and he swore to me on the relics of a saint that he would support me for the claim of the English throne.

• 30:12Matt Lewis?

  And it's a really interesting story, that, isn't it? Because Harold, should I say, ends up sort of shipwrecked in, in Normandy, falls in with...

• 30:18Eleanor Janega?

  As you do.

• 30:19Matt Lewis?

  Of course, as everybody does during this period. Ends up with William, but they seem to get on really, really well. You know, they go on campaign together, there seems to be a mutual respect between them. And the story that the Normans will tell later is that Edward the Confessor had promised throne to William, they're related distantly through Edward the Confessor's mother, Emma of Normandy, and that for some reason, William felt the urge when Harold came to Normandy to extract an oath from him to support him. And we get this scene in the Bayeux Tapestry famously, of William standing there with hands on two caskets. And I think the most, for me, the most interesting bit about that scene is the Bayeux Tapestry gives us no clue what's actually happening there. Here we've got Harold with his hands on things.

• 31:04Matt Lewis?

  You all know what that means, don't you?

• 31:06Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, and this is the thing, is it's intensely legible to them, right? So they understand this to sort of be the case, they clearly understand this to be something that happens all the time, right? Like, it's just a, I don't know, when rich guys hang out, at any moment, you might bust out the reliquary casks and say some oaths. And to be honest, it genuinely might be something that they do, you know, swearing of the fealty, of the brotherhood, you know, and this, I think, also is not necessarily something we can just write off.

• 31:41Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 31:41Eleanor Janega?

  Right? Because, again, why is Harold Godwinson acting so squirrely about how there might be an invasion from Normandy if there had never been a conversation?

• 31:53Eleanor Janega?

  About William the Conqueror being the heir apparent because it doesn't make sense otherwise.

• 31:57Matt Lewis?

  Maybe he likes camping on the Isle of Wight in the summer.

• 31:59Eleanor Janega?

  I mean, don't we all? To be fair, shout out to the Isle of Wight. I do like it. Yeah.

• 32:03Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, but we also don't necessarily want to take Norman propaganda at face value either. Perhaps Harold put his hand on some casks and swore an oath. What was that specific oath? Was that an oath of brotherhood with William? They've been on campaign together. They've gotten incredibly well. And William has chosen to say, remember that time Harold came over and swore an oath?

• 32:23Matt Lewis?

  Do you know what that was? Oh, you don't know what that was? Let me tell you what that was.

• 32:26Eleanor Janega?

  Who remembers? Maybe it was an oath to, I will not get as drunk as I did last night. We're gonna, we're gonna have a quiet one, lads, I swear, right?

• 32:35Matt Lewis?

  If we get to go and see the Bayeux Tapestry while it's over here, I'm going to imagine Harold with his hands on both of those going, never again.

• 32:40Eleanor Janega?

  Never. Exactly. And I mean, this is interesting though, because apparently Harold thinks William is coming and William's like, yeah, bet. I am coming, right? And he's amassed this incredible army and here they come across the channel and sort of the first thing they do. When they get here, right, is they start building things. Which is interesting. And that is a really telling symbol because it means that they are ready to dig in.

• 33:10Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, this isn't like Harold Hardrada, who has turned up, landed an army, marched across, fought the first army he comes to, and then thinks he's taken a city. They are doing this really carefully. They're taking their time. They're landing and they're building a beachhead that they can protect. They are here and they are not going home.

• 33:29Eleanor Janega?

  And this is an important point, I think, because Harold's response to this, I think, is interesting. And obviously hindsight is 2020. We are all backseat driving, you know, whenever we talk about this because I do think that Harold could have stood to wait, right? Winter is coming. It is just going to be really soggy for a couple of months. It's like, oh, you want to hang out on the beach? Bet, you know, help yourself. Ooh, have fun on the beach, right? And we don't quite understand why he reacts the way he does. There are varying things that we, we think maybe it's because this is essentially like, that's his home base. These are his homelands.

• 34:08Eleanor Janega?

  And so maybe it just kind of like, looks bad that he's sort of like leaving his small folk out to dry if he doesn't go and defend them. Maybe he's a little bit flush on this hairy victory against Harold Hardrada, but one way or another. He jumps in those boats and he's right on down and he's, he's ready to do the thing, right?

• 34:27Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. And Harold has very kindly left him lots of ships behind as well because they've killed enough of Harold's army that they don't need all of the ships to get them home. So he's probably got extra ships to get back with. And we, we get this scene where, you know, he goes to London first, he gets back to London. And the, the sources tell us that his family, his brothers in particular, are saying chill for a bit. We need to raise a proper army. We need to have a plan of attack and we need to work out how we're going to do this. And that Harold is like, absolutely not where we're going today. And, and his family are like, that's crazy. And he's like, no, I'm king. We're going today. And like you say, it's interesting to wonder whether he, he's just overly confident now because he's just defeated

• 35:07Matt Lewis?

  the greatest warrior in Europe, maybe. What can this guy from Normandy possibly have in comparison to Harold Hardrada? But there is also the element that the Normans talk about the fact that they, they set to pillaging and raiding into the countryside. Because that is, in medieval terms, that is poking Harold in the eye. His job is to protect those people. And if he can't do it, those people start thinking, maybe William should be king then.

• 35:34Eleanor Janega?

  I mean, this is spot on. Exactly as we said, a king is the person who does the kingly thing. And the kingly thing in theory is show up when you are attacked. That's the entire point.

• 35:44Matt Lewis?

  To the ease with which he's provoked, might point to a little bit of insecurity on his part, despite the fact he's just beaten Harold Hardrada. He clearly doesn't feel confident enough to, as you say, say to William, you try and overwinter on the beach and I'll see you in the spring if you make it.

• 35:57Eleanor Janega?

  And so, and again, that possibly shows that some things were said. Something was said somewhere between two men of some description. Exactly what that is, I don't know.

• 36:08Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. And William, William will become incredibly keen to position this as a very religious matter. So they will claim there's papal backing for this assault on England. They claim to arrive under a papal banner later on, which doesn't seem to have been granted to them for several years afterwards, but you know.

• 36:28Eleanor Janega?

  Hindsight is 2020.

• 36:31Matt Lewis?

  But there is also this element that William is keen to throw in of, of pitching Harold as an oath breaker. That he has sworn this religiously binding oath on these relics and he broke whatever that oath was. And William is keen to tell us that it was an oath to back William's claim to the throne of England. As an oath breaker, he is a perjurer and he doesn't deserve to be a king. And he should be deposed. And that becomes kind of the justification, almost aside from, William isn't, I don't think necessarily relying on the fact that Edward said, I could be king. Because that's, that's slightly dodgy, isn't it? Because actually the nobility of England have selected Harold. They don't want William. So that's not a good, strong basis for his claim. His claim is that William is an oath breaker.

• 37:16Matt Lewis?

  Do you really want an oath breaker as a king? Or do you want the flame of vengeance that is coming from Normandy?

• 37:22Eleanor Janega?

  And I suppose that that is also probably part of the reason that Harold is so keen to get down there and get into an actual battle. Because if he's being portrayed as an oath breaker on the one hand by William, and then his people don't see him upholding his oath as king to protect the realm, then that is a serious propaganda issue.

• 37:44Matt Lewis?

  So as we get closer to 14th of October, the, the famous date of 1066, I guess. Harold, we're told by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, has left England before all his hosters come up. So he's not properly prepared for this. I was, I was really struck and really interested in Professor Tom License's idea that Harold is planning to, to kind of block the beach with his army because he has a fleet that might be coming around to assault the Normans from the beach as well. So it's possible that Harold has a tactic that we can't quite see at play here. But what is clear is that William also has intelligence of what Harold is doing.

• 38:28Matt Lewis?

  Harold is trying to take William by surprise, as he'd done with Harold Hardrada. But it's not going to work on William.

• 38:33Eleanor Janega?

  No, it's not. And fundamentally, William has a game plan, right? So he's got his guys over here. They are at the beachhead and they also have heavy cavalry. And that's interesting because it's not something that we're used to seeing in terms of English warfare. No?

• 38:49Matt Lewis?

  No. It's a huge tactic on the continent. The, the French are kind of perfecting heavy cavalry at this point. The English will always, they, they ride to a battle. But then you get off your horse.

• 39:03Eleanor Janega?

  That's too expensive. You don't want to be taking that. What if your horse gets killed? That's huge money.

• 39:07Matt Lewis?

  It's a very specific set of skills, not to sound like Liam Neeson, but you have to have a very specific set of skills to ride a horse into battle and fight on horseback. And the English simply haven't invested the time and energy in that training. They rely instead on the unity of the kind of the shield wall effect that they're going to use, that the man on either side of you is going to protect you and it's your job to protect them. And that if you remain linked together, then you're the whole is much stronger than all of the individuals within there. And they have a very clear way of fighting that is very, very different from the Normans. So what we're seeing when we get to Hastings is a real military culture clash being played out.

• 39:50Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah. And I find this very interesting because fundamentally, all of these groups of people that are involved in this, whether we're talking about the Danish, whether we're talking about the English, or whether we're talking about the Normans. They're coming from this older Viking culture where you get on a ship and then you show up and you attack people, right? But when you have a bunch of Norwegians do it, they're not bringing horses over, babe. They're like, they're, they're coming off of the boat and they're going to attack everyone. So the shield wall, that's going to work because it's sort of one to one. The Normans have become Frenchified Vikings, right? And French people ride horses. So they're like, put the horsey on the boat. Which is a tactic that no one had come up with until this point. It's like, you don't take the horsey on the boat. And they're like, oh, we're bringing

• 40:32Eleanor Janega?

  all those horsies on the boat. And so it is interesting to see this happen because I think more or less we can describe war horses as like the tanks of the Middle Ages, right?

• 40:43Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 40:44Eleanor Janega?

  They're very, very difficult to fight if they're running at you. And that just is true, right? So on the one hand, we've got these Normans with this incredible cavalry. They have this mobility as a result of it, but the English, because they are just on foot, they can kind of parry, they can start their shield wall, they can move very lively. If something goes wrong, they can pivot easily, right? And so.

• 41:12Eleanor Janega?

  I don't know, unstoppable force versus actually quite movable object. Like, really, it's

• 41:18Matt Lewis?

  Moveable when it wants to move.

• 41:19Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, that's right. That's right.

• 41:20Matt Lewis?

  Essentially immovable if it doesn't want to.

• 41:23Matt Lewis?

  And again, this is where I think it's interesting that Tom License talks about the idea of this fleet may be coming around. Because there's a couple of things that go on. So Harold takes up a defensive position on top of a hill, Senlac Hill, lays out his shield wall. And it's kind of for someone who has been pictured so far as so keen to get there that he won't even wait for his whole army to arrive. Getting there and then standing there seems like a slightly weird thing to do. You're imagining Harold going at it full pelt. Maybe the sight of the heavy cavalry makes them think again, but maybe he is, his job is to hold that hill at the top to stop the Normans getting off the beach because there's a fleet coming around.

• 42:04Matt Lewis?

  Because lots of Norman sources want to talk later. I mean, it's interesting that there, there's virtually no bows on the English side in the Bayeux Tapestry, for example. Tom License talks about, does that mean all the archers are on the ships and they're coming around to attack from the beach? Possibly. But lots of Norman sources are really keen to say that the English know nothing about war, nothing about fighting. These guys are an absolute joke. And in defence of the English, I'm going to say, yeah, an absolute joke that manages to hold off the Norman cavalry for hours.

• 42:33Eleanor Janega?

  Make it make sense, right? Because the battle starts at essentially nine. It's like the trumpets go up and now we're having a traditional battle. Like, here we go. It's a battle. Everybody knew where we were going and we're doing it, right? And this is going to continue until sundown. So I'm sorry, that's not a bad army. It's not, right? You can say anything that you want about it, but that isn't a group of people who are bad at what they're doing. And, okay, to be fair, pretty sweet position, right?

• 42:59Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 43:00Eleanor Janega?

  Pretty sweet.

• 43:00Matt Lewis?

  Because as long as the shield wall holds, you can't defeat it. And at the top of a hill, it nullifies the Norman cavalry. So they can't launch a massive cavalry charge up hill because it just won't work. So Harold seems to have found a tactic to negate the overwhelming military advantage that the Normans might have had. You know, the Norman cavalry is riding as close as they can, chucking a spear and turning around and going back again.

• 43:26Eleanor Janega?

  I love this image. I think it's like so comedic. They're like, ah, no, come out here. It's so good. It's so good, right? And I mean, what we do see is that there is some turning point. Okay. And we don't, we don't exactly know what this is, right? Because some people say that what happens is that word gets out that William's been killed. All right. And that, and then everyone goes, ah, hell. Okay, well.

• 43:53Matt Lewis?

  Nothing left to fight for.

• 43:54Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, like, well, I'm going home then, right? Screw this. Other people say that William fakes a retreat. But one way or another, people start leaving.

• 44:06Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. Because even the Norman sources are really unclear about what happened here. Was there a real retreat followed by a feigned retreat? Were there a couple of real retreats? That, you know, because the Normans don't really give us a definitive answer to all of this, which suggests that maybe it wasn't part of the real plan.

• 44:25Eleanor Janega?

  That's kind of what I think, because I think if we were to understand that everybody knew this was going to happen, I think that there would be more clarity in the sources about it. As it stands, it's like, I don't know, it was crazy.

• 44:37Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. But you can, and you can see in the Bayeux Tapestry, can't you, the bit where William is believed to be dead and he's having to lift his visor on his helmet up and go, guys.

• 44:44Eleanor Janega?

  It's me. It's me, William. Which is, that's the thing, is that there are so many actual comedic moments in all of this slaughter, right? And like, listen, I think it kind of doesn't matter. I think that it also takes a good tactical mind to take advantage of the fact that people are leaving as much as it does to come up with it as a trap. You know, one way or another, you are responding to the realities of the battlefield, right?

• 45:13Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. And ultimately, I guess, slightly ironic that the Normans will win the Battle of Hastings by running away. But the sight of them turning and fleeing does cause this shield wall to break, to lose its discipline, to run down the hill and think they've routed the Normans. And all of a sudden, the thing that has served the English all day long, they've just thrown away.

• 45:35Eleanor Janega?

  And look, it is true. It's a kind of a stupid thing to do, but possibly also one of the things that they are attempting to do here is make a little bit of cash. Right? Because you've got to understand, like, you're not getting paid for this, right? It's like, this is not a professional army. This is guys who, yeah, they have an interest in kicking invaders out of their country because like, that's my pig they're eating, you know, for example. And certainly if you are one of the Earls or something like that, you could make some money off this. But otherwise, there's no way for you as a common foot soldier to get any money out of this unless you get something off of a dead guy.

• 46:15Eleanor Janega?

  Or kidnap someone, kidnap someone and ransom them. So them running down off the hill might be partially them saying, I'm trying to get paid, right? And that makes sense.

• 46:24Matt Lewis?

  Whatever happens, shield wall is broken. The English discipline is gone. The Norman cavalry turns around and at this point, William spies Harold slightly isolated, unprotected. And he thinks, you know, there's one way to end all of this, really, isn't there?

• 46:42Eleanor Janega?

  Guys on horses. And this is the thing, it seems like he sends some handpicked guys to go over there and deal with that, right?

• 46:50Matt Lewis?

  And I love calling these things death squads.

• 46:52Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, that's good.

• 46:53Matt Lewis?

  People like talking about, you know, formed a death squad and sent them after Harold.

• 46:56Eleanor Janega?

  It was like, yeah.

• 46:56Matt Lewis?

  I like the sound of that.

• 46:57Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, I was like, oh, very tough. Yeah. Yeah. And, and listen, they go over there and one way or another, it works. William ends up dead. And I don't know where you are with this. I am on the side that says he got in the leg. For a couple of reasons, in the first place, on the Bayeux Tapestry, it does seem to us that one of the things we're seeing is a big leg wound, right? The arrow, we know, is not in addition for another couple, 100 years. And that's just like a romantic story.

• 47:25Matt Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 47:25Eleanor Janega?

  Right?

• 47:26Matt Lewis?

  The arrow in the eye is kind of the result of a later restitching.

• 47:29Eleanor Janega?

  You know, and granted, it's a good story. So like, don't knock it till you tried it, but fundamentally, he ends up dead. And also wounds to the legs are a good way to do that. Femoral artery is right there. You would be surprised how many people die of that, you know?

• 47:45Matt Lewis?

  And we do have, there's a Norman source called the Carmen, a kind of poem that's written not long after this. And that, that describes this death squad being assembled and says that Harold is impaled by a lance, disemboweled by a spear, has his head cut off with a sword. So he's definitely dead.

• 48:01Eleanor Janega?

  Look, he is not coming back, even if he's a zombie at this point in time. It's pretty intense stuff. That's what we can say about how Harold goes down. But all right, look, that's it. Job done. Battle over. Harold is dead. But that's one battle, right? And like one guy, what is this going to mean, right? Is that just being like, oh, okay, well, you've cut the head off the snake? Or is there more to do?

• 48:27Matt Lewis?

  I think this is the story of kind of November and December of 1066, is William trying to get to London and be like, I killed the king, so I'm king now, just like Edward the Confessor said I should be. While everyone is in London thinking, we don't want Norman kings, what do we do? What do we do? What do we do? Oh, Edgar Etheling is still around. He's maybe 15 at this point.

• 48:50Eleanor Janega?

  Poor Edgar.

• 48:50Matt Lewis?

  Not ideal. I love Edgar Etheling's story. He has an incredible story. Still maybe not old enough to be king, but a signal, I think, of the English panic, that you get the Archbishop of Canterbury, lots of the Earls, including Edwin and Morcar, are throwing their weight behind Edgar and effectively electing him as the next king of England. So in many ways, perhaps the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, but William isn't roundly accepted as the king of England simply by virtue of having killed Harold. And he struggles to get into London.

• 49:22Eleanor Janega?

  But what I think is quite interesting about this period is that he does this really good job of locking down these other really strategically important cities. So locks down Dover, which is where the majority of shipping is coming up from, well, France. I mean, like, obviously not Norway, but that's another story. But then he also gets to Canterbury, which, you know, the most important religious site in England. So he's got that under his control. And also Winchester, which is the more traditional capital of England, if such a thing exists. So he clearly has some knowledge of the sites that are important to the English psyche. Right? So he's making these strategic decisions to get to places that mean something.

• 50:06Matt Lewis?

  And Winchester is still the Royal Treasury at this point. And Canterbury, you know, if he's positioning this as some kind of crusade against a wayward England, then getting control of Canterbury will be significant to him. So there are, there are good reasons he's going after those places.

• 50:21Matt Lewis?

  But he still can't get into London. He really, really struggles to get into the capital.

• 50:26Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah. I mean, he gets to Southwark, shout out South London. But, you know, he is unable to actually get across the Thames at this point in time, right? So he's kind of looking at it going, oh,

• 50:41Eleanor Janega?

  you kind of need to take it, right? You have to take London. You have to take London or none of this means anything, right? So he kind of has to go west in order to kind of like, try to make the crossing of the Thames where it becomes shallower and less wide. But he says, okay, well, while we're here, we're going to do some light pillaging.

• 51:00Matt Lewis?

  Of course.

• 51:01Eleanor Janega?

  Just a little bit of burning, which is an interesting choice for someone who's like, hello, it's me. You're legal king, right? You know, usually you don't do that to your own people, right?

• 51:11Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. I mean, maybe it's just a bit of leftover Viking.

• 51:14Eleanor Janega?

  It's just like, you can't help it. It's just like, it's still in there, you know?

• 51:19Matt Lewis?

  And so they have to get all the way to Wallingford before they can cross the Thames efficiently. And there must be a welcome sign for William when he gets there, because the Archbishop of Canterbury turns up there and submits to William, which may show the benefit of having taken control of Canterbury.

• 51:36Eleanor Janega?

  Well, that's the thing. If you want to control the church, control their money, right? You know, I don't like to be a hater about the church, but let's be honest, right? But it's going to take a little bit more than that, isn't it?

• 51:47Matt Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. And from there, William is able to get across the Thames, head back to the east. And he makes it to Berkhamsted, just to the north of London. Fabulous castle. Lots of queens retire there later on in the medieval period. Cool place.

• 52:04Matt Lewis?

  And there he's met by Edgar the Etheling, Edwin Morcar, lots of the other nobility who follow the Archbishop of Canterbury suit and kind of cave into him.

• 52:15Eleanor Janega?

  Well, in which case that means there's just kind of like one thing left to do, isn't it?

• 52:18Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. Well, stay with us while we take a quick break to find out what that one thing is.

• 52:33Matt Lewis?

  If you love a good story, why aren't you listening to Dan Snow's History Hit podcast? It's a show where we tell you every amazing, crazy and important thing that's ever happened in human history. From the perilous voyages of the first Polynesians, the discoveries of Captain Cook, the deadly Viking raids on Britain and Ireland, the rise and fall of the great English kings and queens. We'll tell you how Waterloo was won, the Alamo was lost, and all the history in between. So make sure you check it out, Dan Snow's History Hit, for the best true stories ever told, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 53:23Eleanor Janega?

  Well, the one thing is, of course, the coronation. Can't have it came without a coronation.

• 53:28Matt Lewis?

  Get you a nice hat.

• 53:29Eleanor Janega?

  You have got to get that hat. There's got to be a party. I mean, and I think that this is important because we kind of gloss over this now with coronations. Everyone just goes, oh, you know, big party, you know, ceremony. This is a religious rite that happens. When you are crowned king in the medieval period, it is a sign that God is saying you get to be king, right? And William decides for a very, very traditional coronation date, which is Christmas Day. You can take a punt in the medieval period about anyone who is crowned anything. And if you were like, was it on Christmas? You were going to be right

• 54:12Eleanor Janega?

  more than 50% of the time, because like, that is one of the big ones, right?

• 54:16Matt Lewis?

  It's like doubling it down, isn't it? You know, I'm gonna have my coronation day on Jesus's birthday.

• 54:20Eleanor Janega?

  And then it's like, just as Jesus came into the world, William came into your life. And, uh, hmm, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not this wonderful party that he expected to be. It's chaos.

• 54:32Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. I mean, it's taken him a lot to get there. He must have felt like he'd finally done the job. And here is his big fated moment. This is what he invaded England for, so that he could sit in Westminster Abbey and undergo a coronation. But he doesn't get, he doesn't get the Christmas present he wants.

• 54:48Eleanor Janega?

  No. And it's like, okay, so he's, he's got the accoutrement, right? He's in Westminster Abbey. He's got the Archbishop of Canterbury, very important. You gotta have the Archbishop of Canterbury. He's got an extra bishop, which is his half-brother, Odo, the Bishop of Bayeux, who's the guy who paid for the tapestry. So thanks, Odo. We love this.

• 55:07Matt Lewis?

  I also like to imagine Odo being like, oh, I'm getting involved in this.

• 55:10Eleanor Janega?

  And they're, they're, they're doing the thing and they're, they're, oh, he's getting the oil on his head and his arms and he's got the crown. But there's all this noise outside, right? And they can hear a bunch of people screaming and shouting. And it sounds like there's a fight brewing outside.

• 55:27Matt Lewis?

  It seems to be that they, they call for the acknowledgement of the, those gathered for the coronation for William's kingship. And all of the Normans are like, oui, oui, fantastique.

• 55:40Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, exactly. But what's actually happening outside, though? People are yellowing. People are shouting. But it's because there's a fire? Like, there's, babe, it's just a fire. Like, it's a medieval city. Things light on fire. It just is true.

• 55:57Matt Lewis?

  But this seems to have been the Norman guards' reaction to all of this clamour from the cathedral. You know, people are claiming William, some in French, some in English. Oh, that English sounds absolutely dreadful.

• 56:07Eleanor Janega?

  It does.

• 56:08Matt Lewis?

  As a language to your delicate French ear. And it sounds a bit like a riot.

• 56:12Eleanor Janega?

  And so they're like, okay, well, that's it. And it's just kind of misunderstandings on both sides of the board, which means...

• 56:22Matt Lewis?

  But I find it weird that the guards' response to potential problems inside Westminster Abbey is to set fire to Westminster. It's Vikings again, though, isn't it? Just burn it down.

• 56:32Eleanor Janega?

  They're like, better, better be time to burn this. And it's like, you know, basically...

• 56:36Matt Lewis?

  Burn anything since yesterday.

• 56:37Eleanor Janega?

  You can't teach an old dog new tricks, all right? Like, we'll just, we'll talk about it later. It's an abbey. It's made of stone. I'm sure it'll be fine, right?

• 56:45Matt Lewis?

  And we get lots of stories of those within the abbey, you know, the abbey filling up with smoke as they're all sitting there, trying to, to watch this coronation, starting to go. It's filling up with smoke a bit. And they all begin to, to leave, which is not a great sign for, if William is looking for portents for his religiously sanctified conquest of England, this might not have been what he wanted. Everybody is rushing out of the abbey, some apparently to go and help put the fires out, others to go and see what they can steal while London's on fire. But William has no intention of leaving, does he?

• 57:17Eleanor Janega?

  No, William stays put. William gets his coronation. He gets it done. Which actually, like, ooh, steely determination in the face of actual peril, all right? Like, it's, it does kind of bode well if you are in the business of being an invading king in a country that needs strong men, right? And that, that is the kind of people who are kings here, fundamentally, at this point.

• 57:46Matt Lewis?

  But it's also, I mean, it is a fairly ominous way to start a new dynasty, to end such a disruptive year in the history of this kingdom. William is being crowned as arguably the fourth king that year, if you choose to include Edgar Etheling. Four kings, two invasions from abroad, one successful, and London burning during William's coronation.

• 58:11Eleanor Janega?

  Like, you can't win them all, all right?

• 58:13Matt Lewis?

  And he won Hastings, which is the big one.

• 58:16Eleanor Janega?

  And I think it is interesting because it's like, ooh, a chilling portent of things to come, right? Because, I mean, it's gonna take a lot. There, there are going to be things like, of course, the horrible herring of the North, which are coming down the pipeline eventually. And yeah, this, it is a signal of bad times to come for the locals. And that, that is fundamentally true. There's, there's no way around that.

• 58:35Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. Some quickfire questions to end on then.

• 58:38Eleanor Janega?

  All right.

• 58:38Matt Lewis?

  In 1066, who, if anyone, had the best claim to the throne?

• 58:42Eleanor Janega?

  Yes. I don't think that it really matters. I think that you're exactly bang on. I think all of them can make a claim. And it just depends on who is acting in that capacity and who does the best. Fundamentally, William has the best claim because he was the last man standing. And that is what is true about ruling England at this time.

• 59:03Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. I say, I'd probably go for Harold Godwinson, simply on the basis that England is effectively an elective monarchy during this period, and he appears to have been elected by everyone to be the monarch. So that's how it works. Given a free choice, in 1066, whose army are you joining?

• 59:16Eleanor Janega?

  You know, you know, I'm Harold Hardrada every day. I don't care. I don't care. Hey, if I was there at Stamford Bridge, it wouldn't have gone down like that. Okay?

• 59:25Matt Lewis?

  You'd have held that bridge.

• 59:27Eleanor Janega?

  Yeah, I would have. Yeah.

• 59:28Matt Lewis?

  I think you and me would have been on the same side there. Because, I mean, Harold Hardrada is just too cool not to fight for, isn't he?

• 59:32Eleanor Janega?

  He's too cool, man. Like, that's the thing, is that William too bloodthirsty, Harold Godwinson too much of a, just, you know, a noble boy, you know, like, he's too rich for, for my blood. I like Harold Hardrada. That's where I'm signing up.

• 59:46Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. And I guess to end on, how important is 1066? Can we overstate the importance of it to English history?

• 59:52Eleanor Janega?

  No.

• 59:53Matt Lewis?

  European history?

• 59:54Eleanor Janega?

  No, you can't. You can't. There is a clear before and after in terms of culture, in terms of building practice. As we were saying, in terms of where England looks to, when it is trading, when it is in dealings with other nobles. This is effectively the severing of England away from this kind of North Sea way of looking at things. And it's a total realignment. And it's the reason that English sounds the way that it does now. It's the reason why we talk like this and not some form of Scandinavian.

• 1:00:25Matt Lewis?

  Yeah. I think it's almost impossible to overstate. And, you know, historians can be fond of talking about decisive moments in history, turning points in history. And this feels like that, that is one of those that does deserve that title, because it's the end of an entire political culture in Anglo-Saxon England. It's wiped away and replaced with a French system operated by a minority in government and in power. And as you say, that, that change of, of the direction in which England looks, it's, it's like a statue moving its head, isn't it? England has looked that way for hundreds of years by this point. And all of a sudden, it goes from looking east to looking south

• 1:01:06Matt Lewis?

  and becomes entangled in all of that, instead of that. And that is a huge change.

• 1:01:12Eleanor Janega?

  It's a really, really big deal. And it's going to have consequences for everyone. Even the lowliest shepherd in the field is going to be raising sheep whose fleece is going to be sold at champagne fairs instead of in Norway. And that is a change.

• 1:01:27Matt Lewis?

  So probably not a hot take, but 1066 matters. Thank you for joining us today on Gone Medieval. From History Hit, Eleanor and I will be back again next week. But if that's just not good enough, then why not become a subscriber to History Hit? As a subscriber, you can enjoy unlimited access to award-winning, original TV documentaries, including mine and Eleanor's recent series, The Rise of the Plantagenets, plus ad-free podcasts by signing up at historyhit.com/subscribe. You can follow Gone Medieval on Spotify, where you can leave us comments and suggestions, or wherever else you get your podcasts from. And tell all of your friends and family that you've gone medieval. Until next time.