Battle of Hastings

Authors Avatar

On October 14th, 1066 William won the Battle of Hastings. He defeated Harold Godwinson and became William 1st of England. Why did William win? Well there are quite a few reasons why William won and these include good leadership, good preparation not forgetting luck. In this essay will explain how William won and tell you what things helped William win the battle the most.

In January 1066, Edward the Confessor died leaving no heir for the throne so the Witan were in search for a new king. There were three main contenders who stood a chance in earning the throne: Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada and William Duke of Normandy. Harold was crowned king in January 1066 but both Harald Hardrada and William strongly believed they had the right to the throne so they both invaded. Harald managed to get there first and invade at the north but Harold Godwinson’s army defeated them and then William landed at the south so Harold Godwinson had to march down to the south and fight the great Battle of Hastings.

Join now!

Harold gathered his army of 8,000 but only 1/10 of them were professional HouseCarls most of the 8,000 were made of Fyrd (part time soldiers that weren’t as disciplined as the HouseCarls) and the rest were the Fyrd Militia(not at all experienced and didn’t have proper weapons or armour) and prepared for the Norman invasion at the South of England but as the Normans didn’t arrive and his men were getting hungry he had to send his men home but then Harald Hardrada had invaded northern England so Harold had to go and fight them and just after that William ...

This is a preview of the whole essay