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00:05It was the hand of God that decided the outcome of battles, the fate of nations, and the life
00:13or death of kings. Everyone knew that. It was winter, the season of frost and death,
00:23and a king lay dying. His name was Edward the Confessor. He was dying childless, and it was far
00:31from obvious who would succeed him. Because there was no heir, there were many who thought they should
00:37be the next king, including some foreign princes, like Duke William of Normandy. But among those
00:45gathered round the bed of the dying Saxon king was the next most powerful man in England, Harold
00:51Godwinson, and he thought the crown would look well on his head. He was hoping for some sign
00:57that King Edward felt the same way.
01:02And then Edward stretched out his hand and touched Harold. But was he giving him a blessing
01:08or a curse? Was this the hand of God, making Harold king? Nobody knew for sure, but Harold
01:15Harold had no qualms. Harold seized the crown. The question now was for how long would he
01:21keep it?
01:24And then, in the April sky, the hand of God showed itself as a comet, the hairy star, and everyone
01:32knew this was no blessing, but an evil omen. The year was 1066.
02:23Historians like a quiet life, and usually they get it. For the most part, history moves
02:28at a glacial pace, working its changes subtly. And in Britain, especially, we like to think
02:35there's something about our history, like our climate and our landscape, that's naturally
02:39moderate, not much given to earthquakes and revolutions.
02:45But there are times and places when history, British history, comes at you with a rush, violent,
02:52decisive, bloody, a truckload of trouble, knocking you down, wiping out everything that gives
02:58you your bearings in the world, law, custom, loyalty, and language. And this is one of those
03:06places.
03:10I know it doesn't look like the site of a national trauma, does it? Especially these days, when
03:15it looks more suitable for a county fair than a mass slaughter. But this is the battlefield
03:21of Hastings. And here, one kind of England was annihilated, and another kind of England
03:27was set up in its place.
03:36Some historians will tell you that for most of the people of England, Hastings didn't matter
03:41that much. That 1066 was mostly a matter of replacing Saxon lords with Norman knights.
03:48The peasants still ploughed their fields, paid taxes to the king, prayed to avoid poverty and
03:54pestilence, and watched the seasons roll round.
04:00But the everyday can rub shoulders with the genuinely catastrophic. Yes, the grass grew green
04:07here again. But now there were bones beneath the buttercups, and an entire governing class of the
04:13English had been dispossessed. Their men, land, and animals taken from them, and given as spoils
04:20to the victorious foreigners.
04:24You could survive and still be English, but now you belong to an inferior race, the conquered.
04:31You lived in England, but it was no longer your country.
04:47Anglo-Saxon England was no stranger to invasions.
04:51Viking raids have been part of life for a century, but since the days of Alfred the Great,
04:56it was a country stable enough to be able to soak them up.
04:59The longboats came and went, but still the king's law ran the shires.
05:04His churches and abbeys were built more beautifully than ever, and a town that would one day be called
05:09London was beginning to grow and prosper on the banks of the Thames.
05:16And then one invasion succeeded, where the others had failed, and there was a Viking on the throne.
05:23His name was Canute, the man we remember for trying to hold back the tides.
05:27And while he turned Anglo-Saxon England into part of his vast maritime empire, he went out of his way
05:34to change nothing.
05:35He even chose as his closest advisor one of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon nobles, Godwin, Earl of Wessex.
05:44A scheming, ruthless man, Godwin became virtual co-ruler with Canute over what was still recognisably Anglo-Saxon England.
05:55But with Canute's death in 1035, began a chain of events that would culminate in the one invasion
06:02that Anglo-Saxon England would be unable to swallow.
06:06And what a saga it was.
06:10It started with a bloody and unsparing fight for Canute's throne amongst the surviving elite.
06:17Treachery, murder and mutilation were par for the course.
06:24The last man standing with any kind of claim to the throne was a descendant of Alfred the Great,
06:31a prince of the Saxon royal house.
06:33He was called Edward and would become forever known as the Confessor.
06:38He was crowned on Easter Day 1043.
06:43But he inherited more than just the crown.
06:46He also got Earl Godwin, in no mood to lose power just because there was a new king.
06:52But unlike Canute, Edward had good reason to hate the right-hand man forced on him,
06:58for Godwin had arranged his older brother's murder.
07:04But there was nothing he could do about his blood-stained rival.
07:08Not yet, anyway.
07:10King Edward knew that Godwin held the keys to the kingdom.
07:13And when Godwin offered Edward his daughter in marriage, what could he do but take her?
07:23Godwin was not Edward's only problem.
07:25He'd also got to learn how to govern a country he knew little about.
07:29For he'd grown up in exile, in a very different world, across the English Channel, in Normandy.
07:43We tend to think of Edward the Confessor as the quintessential Anglo-Saxon king.
07:48In fact, he was almost as Norman as William the Conqueror.
07:52After all, his mother, Emma, was a Norman.
07:55And he'd lived here in Normandy for 30 years, ever since she'd brought him as a child refugee
08:01from the wars between the Saxons and the Danes.
08:04But Normandy was not just an asylum for Edward.
08:08It was the place which formed him politically and culturally.
08:13His mother tongue was Norman French.
08:15And his virtual godfathers were the formidable dukes of Normandy.
08:22The Normans were descendants of Viking raiders,
08:25but had long since traded in their longboats for powerful warhorses.
08:29And the Duchy of Normandy was in no sense just a piece of France.
08:35Though the dukes did formal homage to the kings of France,
08:38in every other way, they were fiercely independent,
08:41possessed of castles, patrons of churches.
08:51These warlords were constantly in the saddle, imposing their will on vassals,
08:57fighting off revolts and forging shaky coalitions.
09:00But the Duchy was also humming with energetic piety.
09:04In the 11th century, handsome stone monasteries and churches with Romanesque arches
09:09began to appear, and the first grandiose stone castles,
09:14as tough as the Norman lords who had built them, became part of the landscape.
09:25So until the throne of England tempted him back across the Channel at the age of 36,
09:31this was Edward's home.
09:33And while he was here, a child was growing up who would change the course of British history.
09:41It was on the site of this castle at Falaise in 1027
09:45that William, known to all his contemporaries, although not in front of his face,
09:49as William the Bastard, was born.
09:52He was indeed the illegitimate son of Duke Robert of Normandy
09:55and the daughter of a tanner called Erleve.
09:58And in the cutthroat world of feudal Normandy,
10:02it was important that he learn, and learn quickly, how to survive.
10:06He was only a child when his father died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
10:11leaving William just eight years old as his heir,
10:14a lamb thrown to the wolves.
10:22Certainly, Edward would have known the young William.
10:25There are even suggestions that he was one of the hand-picked companions
10:29entrusted by William's father, Duke Robert,
10:32with keeping an eye on the vulnerable young boy.
10:36So Edward would have seen how William survived the traumas of his childhood,
10:41narrowly escaping assassination attempts,
10:44how William was forced, aged just ten,
10:46to witness the brutal murder of his beloved steward
10:49in his bedchamber before his very eyes.
10:53And Edward must have marvelled at the way the stripling boy
10:57grew into a steely and ruthless young man,
11:00eventually triumphing in battle over a formidable league of rebel nobles.
11:10While William was securing absolute power in Normandy,
11:14Edward was by now in the middle of a nervous rain,
11:17continually having to look over his shoulder at his biggest threat,
11:21Earl Godwin.
11:22But in 1051, Edward seized his chance to rid himself of his rival.
11:29Edward had brought over Norman allies,
11:32established them in castles,
11:34made one Archbishop of Canterbury.
11:37Feeling his moment had now come,
11:39he confronted Godwin with the crime of his brother's murder
11:42and threw him out of the country.
11:45But Edward's bid to rid himself of his sworn enemy
11:48failed miserably.
11:50In exile, the Earl of Wessex was just as dangerous as at home
11:54and sailed back with a fleet to humiliate the king.
12:01Out went Edward's Norman cronies,
12:04back came the Godwins,
12:06stronger than ever.
12:11And Edward was now little more than a puppet king.
12:16He turned to the religious life,
12:18spending days in meditation and prayer,
12:21becoming at last the confessor,
12:23devoting himself to the foundation of his Benedictine abbey
12:27upstream of London, his Westminster.
12:32Impotence, though, has its uses.
12:34Godwin clearly had ambitions for the future.
12:38He'd foisted his daughter Edith on Edward
12:40to get a young Godwin as the next King of England.
12:44But Edward had his own ideas.
12:47Yes, he'd married Edith,
12:48but he would never sleep with her.
12:50His revenge would be her childlessness.
12:58Now Edward had an even more mischievous thought.
13:01All right, if Godwin wants an heir to the throne of England so badly,
13:06I'll give him one.
13:07But one more to my liking.
13:09And it's at this point,
13:10so Norman chronicles claimed,
13:12that Edward apparently promised the succession
13:15to the Duke of Normandy,
13:16William the Bastard.
13:20Of course, nobody knew anything about this in England,
13:24least of all Godwin,
13:25who in 1053 died suddenly of a stroke
13:28while at dinner with the king.
13:30But there were plenty of other Godwins
13:32ready to step into the godfather's place.
13:35His sons now took over where he had left off,
13:39controlling England virtually unchallenged.
13:42And presiding over the family empire
13:44was the eldest son, Harold.
13:49Harold Godwinson seemed to have everything.
13:52Land, power, riches, charisma,
13:55an aristocratic wife
13:56and a supporting troop of loyal and clever brothers.
14:00He even managed to make himself patron of churches
14:03like this one at Bosham in Sussex.
14:06And though he didn't dare to make too brazen a move,
14:09any dispassionate observer arriving in England
14:12in the early 1060s
14:13would have had to conclude
14:15that once Edward was gone,
14:16the throne was Harold's for the taking.
14:19And then, all at once,
14:21an ill wind blew away this fair-weather vision.
14:31It all started with a voyage
14:33that no-one can fully explain,
14:35even to this day.
14:37In 1064, Harold and a group of men
14:39set sail across the Channel for Normandy.
14:42Maybe it was to rescue his younger brother, Wolfstan,
14:46who had been taken hostage by William.
14:48But for the Norman chroniclers,
14:50the journey could only have had one purpose.
14:53Harold was confirming Edward's offer of the crown.
15:00Why would Harold do something
15:02so against his own best interests?
15:06Perhaps that's why it makes up
15:08the first bit of the story,
15:09of the most grandiose piece of Norman propaganda,
15:13the 70-metre-long Bayer Tapestry.
15:18The tapestry was commissioned
15:19by William's half-brother,
15:21Bishop Odo of Bayer,
15:22a few years after the conquest.
15:24But it may well have been made
15:26by English women embroiderers in Canterbury,
15:29who were generally regarded
15:30as the most skilled stitchers in Europe.
15:33Who else would have made such a glamorous hero?
15:46Something seems to have gone wrong in the Channel,
15:49perhaps a storm.
15:51Landing in the territory of Guy of Pontier,
15:53they were arrested and handed over
15:55to Guy's liege lord, William of Normandy.
16:02The embroiderers make it dramatically clear
16:06that Harold and his men
16:07now find themselves in an alien world.
16:10The Saxons are mustachioed at this stage in the story,
16:13rather fine-looking,
16:14with a certain air about them,
16:16despite their predicament.
16:19The Normans, by contrast,
16:21shave the backs of their heads.
16:23They are the scary half-skinheads
16:25of the early feudal world.
16:30Realising that his lucky number has come up,
16:33William can afford to be all charm
16:36and generosity to his prisoner,
16:38cleverly bringing him into his military entourage.
16:44William took Harold on campaign with him in Brittany,
16:47where Harold returns the favour
16:49by rescuing two of William's soldiers
16:51from the quicksands of Mont-Saint-Michel.
16:55One on his left arm,
16:57one on his back.
17:04But William's hospitality is steel-tipped.
17:08He makes Harold one of his knights,
17:10a solemn, ceremonious business,
17:12but one that involved a two-way obligation.
17:16William, now his liege lord,
17:19would be obliged to protect Harold,
17:21his new knight.
17:22But Harold would have had to make his own promises,
17:25and there seems no doubt
17:26that he did swear some sort of oath to the duke.
17:31To the medieval mind,
17:32there was nothing more serious than an oath.
17:35And the tapestry maker makes it clear
17:38that this was a religious act
17:39by having a witness point to the word sacramentum.
17:44Harold's oath was indeed a kind of sacrament,
17:47since it went right to the heart of the matter,
17:49what would happen to England after Edward died.
17:55Now, the English said
17:56that Harold agreed to be William's man only in Normandy,
18:00and that this had no bearing on the English succession.
18:05The Norman chroniclers, though,
18:07said Harold had sworn to help William
18:09take the throne of England.
18:14The oath became even more binding
18:16when, in a cheap theatrical trick,
18:19the cloth was whipped from the table
18:21over which Harold had sworn.
18:23Underneath was revealed a reliquary
18:26containing the bones of a saint.
18:36Well, how much trouble was he in now?
18:40Had Harold promised something he couldn't deliver?
18:42Would he made no promises at all about the English crown?
18:46Norman chroniclers like to imagine
18:48the returning Harold haunted by guilt,
18:50saying one thing and doing another.
19:00But in England, at any rate,
19:01there were no signs of a queasy conscience at all.
19:05In fact, to get his hands on the crown,
19:08Harold now did something inconceivable for a Godwin,
19:11something which one day would have disastrous consequences.
19:15He sold his own brother, Tostig, down the river.
19:25Tostig was the Earl of Northumbria.
19:27He was also the family hothead
19:29that had managed to provoke a northern rebellion against him.
19:33He'd been fleecing abbeys and monasteries,
19:35creating his own private army,
19:37and generally acting like a greedy, tyrannical brat.
19:42Inevitably, the local nobles rose against him,
19:45declared him outlaw,
19:46and put in their own man to be the new Earl.
19:51Harold was sent by King Edward to sort out the mess,
19:54and was immediately faced with two tough choices.
19:58He could back his younger brother, Tostig, against the rebels,
20:01but that might create a civil war.
20:04Or he could forget all about blood ties
20:07and support Tostig's enemies.
20:09In return, they might just feel grateful enough
20:12to offer him their crucial support
20:14when the time came for him to make his bid for the English throne.
20:20In the end, Harold put ambition before brotherly love.
20:25He threw out Tostig and replaced him with the Earl Morkar.
20:29Harold had broken Godwin clan's solidarity
20:32and turned his own brother into a mortal enemy.
20:39It was this merciless war of brothers,
20:41which in the end cost Harold his throne and his life.
20:45More than anything else,
20:47it was the cause of the death of Anglo-Saxon England.
20:54The winter of 1065 was marked by tremendous gales,
20:59which destroyed churches and uprooted great trees.
21:04As King Edward the Confessor lay on his deathbed,
21:07he was visited by a strange and terrible dream,
21:10which he insisted on relating to all those who had gathered around him.
21:17Two monks came to my deathbed
21:19and told me that because of the sins of its people,
21:22God had given England to evil spirits.
21:26I said to them,
21:27Will God not have mercy?
21:28And they replied,
21:30Not until a growing tree,
21:32cleft in two by a lightning storm,
21:34should come together of its own accord
21:36and grow green again.
21:38Only then will there be pardon.
21:52But no-one paid much attention to the ravings of an old man.
21:56What was much more important
21:57was that Edward had touched Harold's hand.
22:06Maddeningly, the king had fallen short
22:08of actually declaring him his heir,
22:10but it was enough of a sign for Harold
22:13and for the northern earls who supported him.
22:17On January 6th, 1066,
22:20Westminster saw the funeral of one king in the morning
22:23and the coronation of another in the afternoon.
22:28There are two Harold's depicted in the Bayer tapestry,
22:32but which was the real one?
22:34The confident king who now issued coins
22:36bearing the optimistic slogan Pax,
22:39the Latin for peace,
22:41or the guilty, twisted usurper,
22:43stricken by omens,
22:45haunted by a vision of ships?
22:52The phantom fleet,
22:53which the embroiderer set in the border of the tapestry,
22:56suggests Harold could all too well imagine the reaction
22:59across the channel to his coronation.
23:05A Norman historian has William hearing the news
23:08while out hunting.
23:11When the duke heard the news,
23:12he became as a man outraged.
23:15Oft he tied his mantle,
23:17oft he untied it again
23:18and spoke to no man.
23:20Neither dared any man speak to him.
23:30For ten years,
23:32William had confidently let it be known throughout Europe
23:35that he'd soon add England to his territories.
23:38He was now in a lethally dangerous position
23:41of looking ridiculous.
23:44He consulted with his feudal magnates
23:46in a series of assemblies
23:47and by no means all of them
23:49were particularly thrilled
23:51with the idea of an invasion of England.
23:53The risks seemed a lot more daunting
23:56than the enticement of new lands and wealth.
24:00So the duke went to strategy number two,
24:04turning the matter into an international crusade.
24:08Couldn't the pope see that his cause was just,
24:11that Harold was an infamous oath-breaker,
24:13a despoiler of churches?
24:15William, on the other hand,
24:17was a builder of abbeys,
24:18a protector of bishops against bullying barons.
24:21It was completely absurd
24:23and it worked like a dream.
24:25The pope was won over,
24:27gave William his papal blessing
24:28and invested him with his ring and his banner.
24:37It was now much more than a dynastic feud.
24:42William used the consecration of his wife's abbey
24:44here at La Trinité and Caen
24:46to proclaim a crusade against the infidel Harold.
24:52And the barons who'd fought shy of risking their necks
24:55on the duke's personal vendetta
24:57now flocked to join the legions of the blessed.
25:05The Bayer tapestry show's work immediately got underway
25:09to build an awe-inspiring expeditionary force.
25:12Rows of Normandy trees went down to the axe
25:15to emerge as 400 dragon-headed ships.
25:24Loaded onto the ships were coats of mail,
25:26bows, arrows, spears,
25:29and the most indispensable item of all,
25:31vast casks of wine.
25:34And packed so tightly into the boats
25:36that they supported each other
25:37were perhaps 6,000 horses,
25:40three for each night.
25:52Across the channel,
25:54Harold responded by proving that he too
25:57was a phenomenal military organiser.
26:00As the crack troops of his army,
26:02Harold could call on the elite
26:03of perhaps 3,000 house cars,
26:06professional soldiers trained to handle
26:09a two-handed axe
26:10that if swung right,
26:11could slice right through a horse
26:14and its rider at one blow.
26:16The core of the army was provided
26:18by the 5,000 thanes,
26:20or noblemen of England.
26:22And in addition,
26:23there were the 13,000 part-time soldiers
26:26known as the feared
26:27and mobilised by their lords,
26:29obliged to give the king
26:30two-month service each year.
26:35With amazing speed,
26:37this army was stationed along the south coast.
26:41By August 10th,
26:43William had his army in place
26:45along the Normandy coast.
26:47Two great fighting forces
26:49bent on each other's annihilation,
26:51faced each other
26:52across a little strip of water
26:54to determine the destiny of England.
27:01And there they sat,
27:03William waiting for a southerly wind
27:06that never came
27:06and Harold waiting for William
27:09who never came.
27:15This waiting was particularly serious for Harold.
27:19By the first week of September,
27:20he kept the feared in battle position
27:22for at least two weeks longer
27:24than their two-month obligation.
27:30What's more,
27:32it was now harvest time.
27:33So, with who-knows-what misgivings
27:36and uneasiness,
27:37on September 8th,
27:39Harold demobilised the feared
27:40and sent the soldiers home.
27:46He was right to feel uneasy.
27:49Just 11 days later,
27:51Harold had a very nasty shock.
27:54His younger brother was back.
27:57Tostig,
27:58together with the Norwegian king,
27:59Harold Hardrada,
28:01had landed in Northumbria
28:02with as many as 12,000 men.
28:05Tostig had spent his time in exile
28:07looking for allies
28:09to pursue his vendetta against Harold.
28:11And it was a real coup for him
28:13that he'd finally enlisted the support
28:15of the awesome king of Norway.
28:18Hardrada was quite simply
28:19the most feared warrior of the age.
28:22Built like a Norwegian cliff face,
28:25he had a reputation for superhuman strength
28:28and elaborately creative cruelty.
28:32Hardrada also had a flimsy claim
28:34to the English throne
28:35that went back to Canute.
28:37And he wasn't one to flinch
28:39at a military challenge
28:40that could win him the disputed crown.
28:47Harold Hardrada sailed southwest from Norway
28:51on August 12th.
28:52En route to England,
28:54he stopped here
28:55in the Viking earldom of the Orkneys
28:57to pick up yet more men
28:58and yet more ships
28:59to add to his already formidable fleet.
29:03Expectations must have been high.
29:05The Norsemen could almost smell triumph
29:08in the summer winds.
29:10There would have been feasting
29:12and singing
29:13and the reading of poems,
29:14some of them doubtless,
29:16written by Hardrada himself.
29:17And it may be here
29:19that Tostig joined the Viking fleet.
29:22If he did,
29:23and if he looked out at the water
29:25and saw the 300 ships,
29:27his little heart must have skipped a beat
29:29to think of the catastrophe
29:31awaiting his brother.
29:33Together, Tostig and Hardrada
29:35would be unstoppable,
29:37invincible,
29:38or would they?
29:47Having landed on the Northumbrian coast,
29:50the Viking army headed for York,
29:53where it fought off the northern earls
29:54to take control of the city.
29:58Complacent with victory,
29:59Hardrada and Tostig
30:01travelled with just one-third of their army,
30:03eight miles east of York
30:05to Stamford Bridge,
30:06where they'd arranged
30:07to collect 500 hostages.
30:12But what they saw
30:14on the banks of the River Derwent
30:15was not a forlorn group of hostages,
30:18but a massive army,
30:20their weapons glittering like sheets of ice,
30:23as the Viking bard put it.
30:25Tostig knew it meant trouble.
30:28It was his big brother.
30:31Getting his army in position
30:33to surprise the Norsemen
30:34was an epic feat by any standards.
30:37Harold had travelled from London,
30:39picking up his army on the way,
30:41covering 187 miles in four days.
30:4537 to 45 miles a day.
30:48Imagine then thousands of men
30:50going as fast as their horses,
30:52or in many cases as fast as their legs,
30:55could carry them.
30:56Up the Great North Road
30:57to Peterborough,
30:58Lincoln,
30:59Tadcaster,
31:00the ultimate high-impact hike
31:02with the heaviest backpacks imaginable.
31:06And at the end of it,
31:07Harold fought one of the bloodiest battles
31:10in English history.
31:35It was the English who broke the Viking line,
31:38and the remaining Norse warriors
31:40cowered around their chiefs.
31:42We must imagine the Great Hardrada
31:44swinging his axe beneath the land waster flag
31:47before finally sinking down
31:50with an arrow in the throat.
31:52Tostig picking up the raven flag
31:55and in his turn being cut down.
32:06The carnage was so complete
32:09that it took just 24 of the 300 ships
32:13that had sailed to England
32:14to return the pitiful remnant of the Norse army
32:17back to Norway.
32:23In a final act of respect,
32:25Harold found his dead brother
32:27and took what was left of him
32:29to be buried at York Minster.
32:35But he had no time to grieve or exult
32:38over the death of Tostig.
32:40For the day after the Battle of Stamford Bridge,
32:43the Norman fleet at last felt the wind change direction.
32:51So with great haste,
32:53the Duke went to sea
32:54with his fleet sailing swiftly
32:56to the coast of England.
33:07Their first sight of land
33:09would have been the great cliffs at Beachy Head,
33:11and they landed in the nearby
33:13sheltering harbours of Pevensey.
33:16An old Roman fort guarded the beach.
33:19Within its now empty shell,
33:21William's men erected a prefabricated timber castle
33:24that would later be rebuilt in stone,
33:27as if declaring that they
33:29were now the heirs to the Romans.
33:35Expeditions for food and forage
33:37from the base camp took the usual form,
33:39burning everything that couldn't be seized,
33:42striking terror into the hearts of the locals.
33:49One of the most unforgettable details
33:51in the entire Bayer tapestry
33:53is this seemingly incidental detail
33:57of a mother and child turned refugee
33:59fleeing from their burning house,
34:02maybe even Hastings,
34:05resigned to their fate,
34:06not looking back.
34:08This is the first of the images
34:10that were echoed through European art,
34:13through Rubens, Goya,
34:15and Picasso's Guernica,
34:16of the victims of war,
34:18of civilians,
34:19of innocence.
34:23But William soon discovered
34:25there was no easy route
34:26to get from Pevensey to London.
34:29The country behind the town
34:30was waterlogged,
34:31crossed by little river valleys
34:33that fed into the sea.
34:34But there was one
34:35old Anglo-Saxon trail
34:38that could take him
34:39to the Roman road
34:40going north through Kent,
34:41and it was for mastery
34:43of this ancient,
34:44muddy,
34:45rutted track
34:46that the most gruelling battle
34:47in early British history
34:49would be fought.
34:52Having beaten back
34:53the threat of the Vikings
34:55and his own brother,
34:56it must have seemed
34:57inconceivable to Harold
34:59that he was going to have to do it
35:00all over again
35:01within a week or two.
35:03It would not be easy.
35:05Who could he call on
35:06the bruised and battered
35:08remains of his army?
35:09It would be a long shot.
35:11But after Stamford Bridge,
35:13perhaps Harold felt
35:14that he could actually trust
35:16his gambler's luck.
35:17Besides,
35:19William's public name-calling,
35:21Harold the Perjured,
35:22Harold the Oathbreaker,
35:23Harold the Perfidious,
35:24that made it personal now,
35:26a mortal duel.
35:28So let the hand of God
35:30decide who was
35:31the Righteous Party,
35:32who would prevail.
35:39Harold left London
35:41at full speed.
35:42He gathered what he could
35:44of a new army
35:44by an old grey apple tree,
35:47an ancient blasted tree
35:49that stood on a hill
35:50at the crossing of the tracks
35:52leading out of Hastings.
35:53There Harold planted his banner,
35:56the Dragon of Wessex.
35:58The Normans called this place
36:00Sarlac,
36:01which means
36:02Lake of Blood.
36:14Imagine yourself then
36:16on the morning
36:17of Saturday,
36:18the 14th of October,
36:191066.
36:21You're a Saxon warrior,
36:23a housecar,
36:24as it happens,
36:25and you've survived
36:25Stamford Bridge.
36:27You know your position here
36:29couldn't be better.
36:31You stand on the brow of the hill
36:33and look down
36:34hundreds of yards away
36:35at the opposition.
36:36All you have to do
36:38is to prevent the Normans
36:39from breaking through
36:40to the London road.
36:42They have the horses,
36:44but then they have to
36:45ride them uphill.
36:47You look along the hillside
36:49and you see a densely packed
36:50crowd of Englishmen.
36:52At the front
36:52are the housecarls,
36:54a wall of solid shields,
36:56and with them
36:56the axemen.
36:57But behind them
36:58are the part-timers,
37:00the fighting farmers,
37:01who must have time
37:02to find their courage.
37:06Down at the foot of the hill
37:08you can hear
37:09the whinnying
37:09of Norman horses
37:12and what sounds
37:14like the chanting
37:15of psalms.
37:19You're a Norman foot soldier
37:20and you hope
37:21to God the gentlemen
37:22on horses
37:23know what they're doing.
37:25All around you
37:25you can hear
37:26the scraping of metal,
37:27the sharpening of blades,
37:29the mounting of horses.
37:31You look up
37:32up to the brow of the hill
37:33and you see
37:33a thin glittering line
37:35of men
37:35and you cross yourself
37:37and you finger the rings
37:38on your coat of mail,
37:40your hauberk,
37:40and wonder
37:41just how solid they are.
37:42You wonder
37:43what use they're going
37:44to be against an axe.
37:46You've never seen axes
37:47in battle before.
37:49But then you catch sight
37:50of the papal banner
37:51and take heart.
37:53Surely God
37:54is on your side.
37:59The real beginning
38:01must be imagined
38:02as the cavalry
38:02raced up the hill
38:03one by one
38:04getting into range,
38:06hearing the rhythmic chant
38:07of ut, ut, out, out
38:10from the Saxons
38:11and then hurling their javelins
38:13at the front line.
38:17Then came
38:18the slow advance
38:19of the archers
38:20unloosing their first arrows
38:21under a hail
38:22of enemy spears.
38:29And finally
38:30the foot soldiers
38:31breaking into a run
38:33behind them.
38:38And then there was
38:39just the murderous
38:40smashing and crashing
38:42of horses,
38:42the slicing
38:43and thrusting
38:44of weapons,
38:45screams,
38:46cries of the wounded
38:47and dying.
38:54If the axe man
38:55stood firm
38:56against the oncoming horse,
38:57he'd still only get
38:58one good swing.
38:59If he missed,
39:00he was left open
39:01to the slash
39:02of the sword
39:03from the rider
39:04above.
39:12It was the initial
39:14success of the English
39:15that also threatened
39:16their downfall.
39:17On the left flank
39:18of William's army,
39:19horses stumbled
39:20and retreated.
39:21The right flank
39:22of Harold's army,
39:23many of them
39:24inexperienced fieldsmen,
39:25decided to chase
39:27them down the hill.
39:29But Harold,
39:30always conservative
39:31and his tactics
39:32refused to allow
39:33others to follow.
39:34So at this point,
39:35he seems to have
39:36lost momentary control
39:37of his own troops
39:38who couldn't resist
39:39following the horsemen,
39:41elated by the thought
39:42that the Duke of Normandy
39:43was lost.
39:45But William threw
39:47back his helmet
39:47to prove he was
39:48very much alive.
39:50He rallied the ranks
39:52of the Norman centre
39:53round the rear
39:53of the pursuing Saxons
39:55and set about
39:56slicing them to pieces.
40:05The battle wasn't
40:06over yet.
40:07It was going to take
40:08at least six hours
40:09to decide.
40:15The Bayer tapestry
40:16is shockingly explicit
40:18in exposing the extent
40:19of the carnage,
40:20the mutilation.
40:26But it was the English army
40:28that was eventually
40:29and very, very slowly
40:31ground down.
40:32William began
40:33exploiting weak points,
40:35settling into an alternating rhythm
40:37of archers and cavalry.
40:39The arrows now shot
40:41high into the air
40:42and fell
40:43not onto the front line,
40:44but the heads
40:45of the unprotected men
40:47behind them.
40:51How did Harold
40:52himself die?
40:54Lately,
40:55there's been an attempt
40:56to read the death scene
40:57in the tapestry
40:58as though he was the figure
40:59cut down by the horseman.
41:02Not the warrior
41:03pulling the arrow
41:04out of his eye,
41:05the story you and I
41:06grew up with.
41:07But it seems to me
41:08perfectly clear
41:09that the words
41:10Harold Rex
41:11occur directly
41:12and significantly
41:14above the arrow-struck figure.
41:19Then, certainly,
41:20the knights
41:21would have been on him,
41:22cutting him down,
41:23leaving him
41:25disembowelled.
41:27The thanes bravely
41:29mounted a last stand,
41:30defending the body
41:31of their king,
41:32but for many
41:33it was now
41:34a lost cause.
41:35It was time
41:36to save one's neck
41:37to get out of the way.
41:42There are such
41:43sad stories
41:44of what follows
41:44and perhaps
41:45some of them
41:46are true.
41:46one of them
41:47has Harold's lover,
41:49Edith Swanneck,
41:50walking through
41:51the heaps
41:51of gory corpses
41:52to identify
41:53the dead king
41:54by marks
41:55on his body
41:56known only
41:58to her.
42:00What we do know
42:02is that around
42:03half the nobility
42:04of England
42:04perished
42:05on that battlefield.
42:27William had sworn
42:29that should God
42:29give him the victory,
42:31he would build
42:31a great abbey
42:32of thanksgiving
42:33to the exact spot
42:35where Harold
42:35had planted
42:36his flag.
42:37And here it is,
42:38a statement,
42:39if ever there was one,
42:41of pious jubilation.
42:45But William
42:46had to make sure
42:47he'd won
42:48not just a single battle,
42:49but the war
42:50for England.
42:51This was done
42:52in the time-honoured way,
42:54cutting a swathe
42:54of fire,
42:55rape and plunder
42:56through the countryside
42:58of south-east England.
42:59one by one,
43:01the Anglo-Saxon
43:02cities folded.
43:05William was crowned
43:07at Westminster
43:07on Christmas Day
43:091066.
43:11But the event
43:12was more like a shambles
43:13than a triumph.
43:16At the shout
43:17of acclamation,
43:19the Norman soldiers
43:20stationed outside
43:21thought a riot
43:21had started,
43:22to which their response
43:23was to burn down
43:25every house in sight.
43:27As fighting broke out,
43:29many of those
43:30inside the abbey
43:31smelling smoke
43:32rushed outside.
43:34And the ceremony
43:36was completed
43:36in a half-empty interior,
43:39with William,
43:40for the first time
43:41in his life,
43:42seen to be shaking
43:43like a leaf.
43:48When he emerged
43:49from the smoke
43:50and chaos
43:51of the coronation,
43:52just what kind
43:53of king
43:53did the surviving
43:54remnant
43:55of the old
43:55governing class
43:56imagine they had.
43:58Did they fondly suppose
44:00he was going to be
44:00another Canute,
44:01who now that he'd
44:02won his realm
44:03would disband his army
44:04and send them home?
44:06If they did,
44:07they were in
44:08for a very nasty shock,
44:10because even if William
44:11had wanted to do this,
44:13it was quite impossible.
44:15His whole campaign
44:16had been based
44:17on the promise
44:18of the lure of land,
44:20the pledge
44:21to hand over
44:22Saxon land
44:23on a golden plate
44:24of conquest.
44:27So there was never
44:28the remotest chance
44:30that William was going
44:30to be another Canute
44:31and assimilate himself
44:33into the world
44:34of Anglo-Saxon England.
44:35His conquest
44:36turned the country
44:38around,
44:39England's orientation
44:40now was south,
44:41away from Scandinavia
44:43and towards
44:44continental Europe.
44:50The part of the country
44:51offering most resistance
44:53was the north of England,
44:54which still retained
44:55strong Viking sympathies.
44:57Just three years
44:58into William's reign,
44:59York opened its gates
45:00to King Swain of Denmark,
45:02hailing him
45:03as the liberator
45:04from the new
45:05King of England.
45:10William's response
45:11was to mount
45:12a campaign of oppression
45:13in the north
45:14that was not just punitive
45:16but an exercise
45:17in mass murder.
45:19Thousands upon thousands
45:20of men and boys
45:21gruesomely butchered,
45:22their bodies left to rot
45:24and fester
45:25in the highways.
45:31Every town
45:32and village
45:33burnt without pity,
45:34fields and livestock
45:35destroyed so completely
45:37that any survivors
45:38were doomed to die
45:39in a great famine.
45:44Hard on the heels
45:46of massacre
45:46and starvation
45:47came plague.
45:50And all across England,
45:53William built
45:53at least 90 castles
45:55dominating areas
45:56of potential revolt,
45:58engines of terror
45:59that helped William
46:00control over
46:01two million Saxons
46:02with just 25,000 Normans.
46:16Most of the voices
46:18that have come down
46:19to us describing
46:20the events
46:20after 1066
46:22are written
46:23from the victor's
46:24perspective,
46:25unapologetic
46:26and crowing,
46:28sketching the starkest
46:29possible contrasts
46:30between the Machiavellian
46:32perjurer Harold
46:33and the noble
46:34betrayed William.
46:36But among this rather
46:37nauseating chorus
46:38of congratulation,
46:39there is at least
46:40one that dares
46:41break rank,
46:42that in fact
46:43sees the conquest
46:44as it surely was,
46:46a brutal,
46:47ruthless
46:47and completely successful
46:49act of aggression
46:50and cruelty.
46:53The voice
46:54is all the more
46:54credible
46:55because it belongs
46:56to someone
46:56who by rights
46:57should have found
46:58nothing to fault
46:59in the Norman conquest.
47:00the monk
47:01the monk
47:02Auderic Vitalis
47:03whose family
47:04came over
47:04with William
47:05and belonged
47:05therefore
47:06to the conquering
47:07class.
47:08In the early
47:0912th century
47:10he began to pen
47:11his account
47:12of the conquest
47:12and its aftermath
47:14and a complete
47:15contrast of the others
47:16Auderic never
47:17minces his words
47:18about what he
47:19thought of
47:20as a colonisation.
47:23Foreigners
47:23grew wealthy
47:24with the spoils
47:25of England
47:25while her own
47:26sons were either
47:27shamefully slain
47:28or driven as
47:30exiles to wander
47:31hopelessly through
47:32foreign kingdoms.
47:36His account
47:37conveys the
47:38traumatic magnitude
47:39of what happened
47:40in England
47:40in the years
47:41following 1066.
47:44Pre-conquest
47:45England
47:45was an old
47:46country
47:46as Auderic
47:47describes it.
47:48Afterwards
47:49it was a completely
47:50new one.
47:52Of course
47:53not everything
47:53changed
47:54and to look
47:55at a list
47:55of governing
47:56institutions
47:57you might suppose
47:58that nothing
47:59had changed
48:00that one class
48:01of governors
48:01had kicked out
48:02another class
48:03of governors.
48:04Big deal.
48:05But I rather think
48:07it was a big deal.
48:09Imagine the
48:10county gentry
48:10of England
48:11priests,
48:12squires,
48:13judges
48:14all wiped out
48:15overnight
48:16half of them
48:17dead
48:18the rest
48:19humiliated
48:20broken
48:20replaced by
48:22an alien class.
48:24They speak
48:25differently
48:25they look
48:26different
48:27they take
48:27what they want
48:28when they want
48:29and then rubber
48:30stamp the decision
48:31in your
48:32courts
48:35They also
48:36build differently
48:38Ely Cathedral
48:39is one of those
48:40places where
48:41the intimate
48:42scale of
48:43Saxon churches
48:44was replaced
48:45by a statement
48:46of massive
48:47triumphalism
48:48These columns
48:50speak of
48:50authority
48:51and raw power
48:53they command
48:53obedience
48:54and reverence
48:55they are
48:56in the most
48:57literal sense
48:58awesome
49:09It was the
49:10difference
49:11between the
49:11immense
49:12Romanesque
49:13bulk of the
49:13great Norman
49:14cathedrals
49:14and the small
49:15spaces of the
49:17Saxon chapel
49:19There was
49:20another telling
49:21difference
49:21between the
49:22old and the
49:22new rulers
49:23of England
49:23Anglo-Saxons
49:25didn't use
49:25surnames
49:26They were
49:27Cedric
49:27or Edgar
49:28of somewhere
49:29or other
49:29but the
49:30Normans
49:30incorporated
49:31places
49:32into their
49:32own names
49:33like an
49:34act of
49:34possession
49:35They were
49:36Roger
49:36of the
49:37beautiful
49:37hill
49:38Roger
49:38Beaumont
49:39because the
49:40place was
49:40theirs
49:41and they
49:42owned it
49:42lock,
49:43stock and
49:43barrel
49:44In fact
49:45preserving
49:46the estate
49:46intact
49:47was what
49:47the Norman
49:48nobility
49:48was all
49:49about
49:49It was
49:50they who
49:50introduced
49:51the practice
49:51of passing
49:52on whole
49:53estates
49:53intact
49:54to one
49:54heir
49:55to the
49:55eldest son
49:58The
49:59unsentimental
50:00decisive way
50:01with things
50:02was the
50:02Norman way
50:03giving a
50:04hard-nosed
50:04edge
50:05to the
50:05fuzzy
50:06tangles
50:06of
50:07contracts
50:07and customs
50:08that had
50:09been used
50:09by the
50:10Anglo-Saxons
50:12And it was
50:13in this
50:13spirit
50:14that William
50:15in 1085
50:16held court
50:17in Gloucester
50:18and launched
50:19arguably
50:19the most
50:20extraordinary
50:21campaign
50:21of his
50:22entire reign
50:23a campaign
50:24for information
50:25We tend
50:27to think
50:27of William
50:28as more
50:28or less
50:28permanently
50:29in the saddle
50:30He grew up
50:31in a world
50:31after all
50:32where authority
50:33was usually
50:34delivered
50:34on the
50:35blade
50:35of a sword
50:36So it's
50:37all the more
50:37impressive
50:38that he seems
50:38to have
50:39understood
50:40instinctively
50:41that information
50:42could also
50:43be power
50:43William the
50:44Conqueror
50:45was the
50:45first database
50:46king
50:50His immediate
50:51need was
50:51to raise
50:52a tax
50:52but the
50:53compilation
50:54of the
50:54Doomsday Book
50:55was more
50:55than just
50:56a glorified
50:56audit
50:57It was
50:58complete
50:58infantry
50:59of everything
51:00in the
51:00kingdom
51:00shire
51:01by shire
51:04pig
51:04by pig
51:05Who had
51:06owned what
51:07before the
51:07coming of the
51:08Normans
51:08and who
51:09owned what
51:09now
51:10How much
51:11it had been
51:11worth then
51:12and how much
51:13now
51:17The king
51:18sent his men
51:18all over
51:19England
51:19into every
51:20shire
51:20and had
51:21them find
51:21out how
51:22many hundred
51:23hides there
51:23were in
51:24each shire
51:25what land
51:26and cattle
51:27the king
51:27himself
51:27had in
51:28the county
51:28So very
51:30narrowly
51:30did he have
51:31it investigated
51:32There was
51:32no single
51:33hide
51:33nor shame
51:34to relate
51:35it
51:35but it
51:35seemed
51:36no shame
51:36to him
51:37Was there
51:37one ox
51:38or one
51:39cow
51:40left out
51:41and not
51:41put down
51:42in record
51:43While some
51:44of the
51:44information
51:45was taken
51:46verbally
51:46by William
51:47Scribes
51:48some
51:48must have
51:49owed its
51:50existence
51:50to Saxon
51:51records
51:51In fact
51:52the most
51:52extraordinary
51:53paradox
51:54about the
51:54Doomsday Book
51:55is that
51:56what we
51:56think of
51:56as a
51:57monument
51:57to the
51:57power
51:58and strength
51:58of the
51:59Normans
51:59owed itself
52:00to the
52:01advanced
52:01machinery
52:02of government
52:03left in
52:03place
52:04by the
52:04old
52:04Anglo-Saxon
52:05monarchy
52:06And it
52:07was thanks
52:07to this
52:08that the
52:08data was
52:09collected
52:09at such
52:10lightning
52:10speed
52:11Less
52:12than
52:12six
52:13months
52:16The results
52:17were presented
52:17to William
52:18here at
52:19Old
52:19Sarah
52:19An ancient
52:20Iron Age
52:21fort
52:21inside which
52:22he'd built
52:23a spectacular
52:24royal palace
52:25When he took
52:26hold of the
52:27Doomsday Book
52:27it was as though
52:28William had been
52:29handed the keys
52:30to the kingdom
52:31all over again
52:32as if he'd
52:33reconquered England
52:34but this time
52:34statistically
52:35because its
52:37information
52:37was more
52:38impregnable
52:39than any
52:40castle
52:40It was called
52:41the Doomsday Book
52:42after all
52:43because it was said
52:44that its decisions
52:45were as final
52:46as the last
52:47judgment
52:50The church
52:52itself
52:52holds
52:53Wenlock
52:53There are
52:54twenty
52:54hides
52:55four of
52:56which
52:56are exempt
52:56from tax
52:57under
52:57King
52:57Canute
52:58There are
52:59fifteen
52:59slaves
53:00Two
53:01mills
53:01serve
53:02the monks
53:02plus
53:02one
53:03fishery
53:03enough
53:04woodland
53:05to fatten
53:05three hundred
53:06pigs
53:07and two
53:07hedged
53:08enclosures
53:09Value
53:10now
53:10twelve
53:11pounds
53:13Two ceremonies
53:15took place
53:15on Lammas Day
53:171087
53:18at Old Serum
53:19First
53:20every noble
53:21in England
53:22gathered here
53:22to take an oath
53:23of loyalty
53:24to the king
53:24but then
53:26came the handing
53:27over of the book
53:28the ultimate weapon
53:29to keep them in line
53:31Now nobody
53:32could hold back
53:33anything
53:34and it was this book
53:35the Doomsday Book
53:37that made the gathering
53:38at Old Serum
53:39unique
53:39in the history
53:40of feudal monarchy
53:42in Europe
53:42for the book
53:44ultimately
53:45was England
53:48For centuries
53:50after
53:50this was the secret
53:51of English government
53:53a partnership
53:53between
53:54the power
53:55of the landed classes
53:56and the authority
53:57of the state
53:58between the guardians
53:59of the green acres
54:01and the keepers
54:02of the knowledge
54:03in the right hand corner
54:04the gentry
54:05in the left hand corner
54:06the civil service
54:07and in between them
54:09the eternal umpire
54:10the king
54:13but the umpire
54:14was finally feeling
54:16the strain of it all
54:17not surprising
54:18when age 60
54:19William still couldn't resist
54:21playing the warlord
54:22in 1087
54:24he subdued
54:25a border dispute
54:26in France
54:26by what of course
54:27totally destroying
54:29the town of Mount
54:30but perhaps
54:31this last devastation
54:33was one too many
54:34for a flaming timber
54:36from one of the houses
54:37burned by William's soldiers
54:39fell right in front
54:40of the king
54:41William's horse
54:42suddenly bucked
54:43throwing the now
54:44overweight king
54:45violently against
54:47his saddle
54:47his gut
54:48taking the force
54:50of the blow
54:50mortally wounded
54:52William was taken
54:54to a priory
54:55at Rouen
54:59at the very end
55:01Audric Vitalis
55:02puts into
55:03William's mouth
55:04an extraordinary
55:05deathbed confession
55:06so penitential
55:08so utterly
55:09out of character
55:10that it seems
55:11on the face of it
55:12completely incredible
55:13but whether
55:15William actually
55:15spoke those words
55:17or not
55:17they clearly
55:18reflected
55:18what some
55:19perhaps many people
55:21felt
55:21about William
55:22the conqueror
55:23that when all
55:24the battles
55:25were won
55:25when the laws
55:26had all been
55:27laid down
55:28he was
55:28what he had
55:29always been
55:30a brutal
55:31adventurer
55:32and the conquest
55:33of England
55:34not a righteous
55:35crusade
55:35but just
55:37a grand throw
55:38of history's dice
55:41I appoint no one
55:42my heir to the
55:43crown of England
55:44for I did not
55:45attain that high
55:45honour by hereditary
55:47right
55:47but wrestled it
55:48from the perjured
55:49King Harold
55:50in a desperate
55:51battle with much
55:52effusion of human
55:53blood
55:54I have persecuted
55:55its native
55:56inhabitants beyond
55:57all reason
55:58whether gentle
55:59or simple
55:59I cruelly
56:00oppress them
56:01many I unjustly
56:02disinherited
56:04innumerable
56:04multitudes
56:05especially in the
56:06county of York
56:07perished through me
56:08by famine
56:09or the sword
56:10having therefore
56:11made my way
56:12to the throne
56:12of that kingdom
56:13by so many crimes
56:15I dare not
56:16leave it to anyone
56:17but God
56:17alone
56:18lest after my death
56:20worse should
56:21happen by my means
56:24once he had gone
56:25in the early hours
56:26of the morning
56:27of the 9th of
56:28September
56:281087
56:29a shocking scene
56:31took place
56:32his closest followers
56:34now paid their
56:35last respects to
56:36William
56:36by all deserting
56:38him
56:38racing off to the
56:40four corners of the
56:40kingdom
56:41to secure
56:42their land
56:43and property
56:43leaving the corpse
56:45to be looted
56:46by the servants
56:47naked
56:48bloated
56:50and beginning
56:51to putrefy
56:52on the monastery
56:53floor
56:55so the man
56:57who'd spent his life
56:58taking whatever
56:59he could
57:00by whatever means
57:01possible
57:01was finally robbed
57:03of everything
57:04even his dignity
57:05perhaps the hand
57:07of God
57:07had decided
57:08that this
57:09was a fitting end
57:17as for his old
57:19antagonist
57:19Harold
57:20he certainly
57:21didn't stay buried
57:22on the shore
57:22facing the channel
57:23as some Norman
57:25historians suggested
57:26rumors had it
57:27that he had escaped
57:29and was living
57:29as a hermit
57:30but another story
57:32is much more likely
57:33to be the truth
57:34that once it was safe
57:36the female survivors
57:37of the family
57:38took Harold's remains
57:39and had them interred
57:41here at Waltham Abbey
57:42according to William
57:44and the Pope
57:45Harold was supposed
57:46to have been
57:47a despoiler
57:48of the church
57:49deserving of destruction
57:50but the monks
57:52at Waltham
57:52didn't seem to agree
57:53for they secretly
57:55buried him
57:56and prayed
57:57for his soul
57:59somewhere then
58:00beneath the columns
58:01and arches
58:02of this Romanesque church
58:04is the last
58:05Anglo-Saxon king
58:07literally
58:08part of the foundations
58:10of Norman England
58:27the Romanesque church
58:27and the Romanesque church
58:29schedule
58:30will find
58:30the German
58:30are truly
58:30required to endure
58:31the Portuguese
58:31and the French
58:31and the German
58:31are truly