Week 8 Essay

          This week in history I learned about the conquests of England. These were wars that countries who wanted to take over England and England defending itself fought. Particularly, I will talk about the Battle of Hastings, what started it, and who won.

          Before the Battle of Hastings, King Edward was king of England at the time, but he died without a clear heir. Therefore, three different men thought that they were supposed to be the next king of England. This includes William: duke of Normandy, Harald: king of Norway, and Harold Godwinson: Earl of Wessex.

          However, Harold of Wessex came to England and became king after being elected by the people. This caused a major issue with the other competitors for the crown of Edward, and William immediately started raising an army.

          At the same time, Harald of Norway and his soldiers started to invade England from the North. Harold of Wessex took his Saxon army and defeated Harald and Norway. This battle is called the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and after this battle, the Viking’s raids began to come to a stop, which marked the end of the Viking era.

          Only three days after this battle, William of Normandy and his army appeared on the Southern beaches of England. Harold, tired and weak from his previous, long, bloody battle, traveled across England to meet William. Despite his late appearance, Harold and his army ended up on the top of a hill.

          This was also a very long battle, and at one point, Harold forced William and his army to retreat for a time. It was not long; however, until William and his forces were back up and fighting. Harold eventually thought that William was dead, so he took his army and began to leave the battle scene.

          William was not dead though, and he told his archers to shoot upwards, above the hill so that the arrows would come down upon the leaving army. This worked, and most of the Saxon army was killed, including King Harold himself. We believe, from ancient tapestries and other historical facts, that Harold was shot in the eye by an arrow, which is how he was killed. This left the rest of the army either dead, dying, or fleeing the battlefield for their lives.

          William had won the battle and conquered the Saxons. This is how William got his name, William the Conqueror. He and his Norman army marched to London and conquered it shortly afterwards. Finally, William was crowned King of England on Christmas day 1066. William’s victory signified the beginning of the Norman conquest of England.

          This was a very interesting week of learning about history. I think it is so fascinating to learn about different ways the people attacked others in war. For example, how William had his army shoot arrows above the hill to kill the people on the hill. Of course, I do not believe that war is ever okay, but learning different strategies could be useful in my life eventually.