Harold decided to march north to fight Hadrada. Meanwhile the seas had calmed down and William and his army had crossed the channel and arrived on the beach near Hastings.
Harold had just beaten Hadrada when he got some bad news: William had invaded in the south. So Harold’s army had to march all the way down to fight him. They arrived at night and camped for the night.
Harold was at a disadvantage because he had a tired army and although they were battle hardened they had been marching all the way back non-stop.
Harold was determined to make up for his disadvantage. So he positioned him self on top of Senlac Hill. This was no ordinary hill. It was surrounded by marsh, which meant William could only attack one side, meaning that Harold could place his whole army on one side of the hill.
He organised his army so that they formed a hole-less shield wall that not even the Normans could break down. William decided to use his archers then foot soldiers then cavalry. This of course should have been an advantage from the start as Harold only had foot soldiers.
The arrows from his archers either flew over the wall and landed harmlessly behind the men, or got stuck in the shields. He then sent up his foot soldiers that did no better. Then finally his cavalry ran up the hill, but the horses could not run fast enough up the hill to even knock the men over.
William’s men thought William was dead and were about to retreat, when William did the most dangerous and brave thing you could do in the middle of the battle. He took of his helmet to show his men that he was still alive.
As William tried again and again to penetrate the wall more and more of his men were killed. As the cavalry retreated the Saxons chased them and were killed at the bottom. William decided to pretend to retreat and Harold’s men chased after them and were killed at the bottom.
William tried this trick again and killed many more of Harold’s men. Finally he ordered his archers to fire over the shield wall. By chance one hit Harold very near the eye fatally. It didn’t kill him instantly but he would only have lasted a few minutes. The cavalry broke down the rest of the shield wall and hacked Harold to death.
Had it not been for William’s good leadership and intelligence then Harold could have won the battle. I think the deciding factor, though, was the fact that Harold’s men did not have the discipline to stay put, but chased William’s army down the hill and put themselves in a position where they could be, and were, killed. There was also a lot of luck involved and William got more than his quota. For example, had William arrived on the beach in august as he planned then he would have been slaughtered. It was only the weather that stopped him.
Another reason was that William's army was better from the start as it contained cavalry, archers and foot soldiers as opposed to Harold's army, which had only foot soldiers (and was also tired from the previous battle).
