The Battle of Hastings, 14 October 1066

The two armies met at Senlac Hill (near modern Hastings) on 14 October 1066. William commanded an army of roughly 7,000-8,000 men: a combination of Norman knights (cavalry), archers, and infantry. Harold had a similar number, but his army was dominated by the shield wall — the traditional English defensive formation in which huscarls (professional warriors) and fyrd (militia levies) locked shields in a line, forming an almost impenetrable defensive barrier.

For most of the day, the shield wall held. Norman cavalry charges broke against it repeatedly. Norman archers struggled to find angles to shoot over it. At one point, a section of the Norman line broke and fled — and crucially, some English troops broke out of the shield wall to pursue them. This was possibly fatal. Whether the Norman retreat was genuine panic or a deliberate feigned retreat designed to draw English troops out of formation is debated by historians, but the result was that the shield wall was compromised. Norman cavalry turned and cut down the pursuing English.

As the afternoon wore on, the English position weakened. Towards dusk, Harold was killed. The Bayeux Tapestry famously shows a figure hit by an arrow near the eye — though whether this depicts Harold's death or a wounded soldier nearby has been debated for centuries. The English position collapsed. The Normans had won. The date was 14 October 1066.