Harald Hardraada’s Claim to the throne of England was:
In 1016 the Viking King Canute became King of England, Denmark and Norway. He ruled until 1035. King Canute was succeeded by Hardicanute who ruled England until 1042.King Hardicanute had no heir and promised the English throne to King Magnus of Norway. The Saxon, Edward the Confessor, seized the English throne in 1042.King Magnus of Norway was too old to battle Edward the Confessor for the English throne .Magnus's son and heir was Hardraada. Hardraada’s family was very powerful and he believed he should be king through his great family connections.
William of Normandy’s Claim to the throne of England was:
William justified his claim through his blood relationship with Edward the Confessors they were distant cousins. William also claimed that Edward the Confessor had made him as his successor. William claimed Harold Godwinson had sworn a sacred oath of his right to the throne. When Harold broke the oath William received religious backing from Rome to start a Holy Crusade against Harold.
I think that Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy had the stronger cases to be king because they had connections with Edward the confessor and both claimed that Edward had said they should be his successor. Now with three contenders that could all be king the only way to resolve it would be war!
In the spring of 1066, Harold Godwinson was in his third month as the Anglo-Saxon King of England. He expected William of Normandy to attack so he placed his troops along the south coast waiting for an invasion. However the wind was blowing in the wrong direction for William to invade, so after months of waiting Harold sent his men home. Meanwhile Harald Hardraada and Harold’s brother Tostig invaded the north east coast from Norway with a vicious Viking army. A message was quickly sent to Harold – who then quickly re-gathered a small fraction of his army and also recruited amateurs such as farmers. Whilst Hardraada was terrorising the north east coast Harold and his army rapidly marched up to Stamford Bridge in an incredible four days.
The battle of Stamford Bridge itself was a very bloody one with eventually Harold Godwinson prevailing. Hardraada’s army arrived first and placed themselves on one side of the bridge with a big Viking swinging an axe to kill anyone that dared pass. Slowly Harolds men were killed but the reason Harold won in the end was all down to good tactics. Harold knew that he would have to kill the Viking on the bridge but how? Very cleverly he sent a man in a barrel down the river with a hole in the top. Once the barrel was directly underneath the man with the axe the man inside rammed a sword up through his legs and right up into his body. Without hesitation Harold’s army ran over the bridge and attacked. In the end Hardraada was killed with an arrow to his throat. Hardraada’s army had come with 350 ships and only left with 24...
I think Harold was weaker after the battle of Stamford Bridge because he had lost a lot of men and the ones that survived were exhausted if not injured. Also very irresponsibly in celebration of victory he allowed his men to get drunk which in due course led to his defeat at the battle of Hastings.
William in the meantime had been preparing for the forthcoming battle and had been gathering a huge army and lots of weapons and horses. William tried everything he could think of to raise the spirits of his men, as a last and desperate attempt to lift morale he had the body of the patron Saint of St. Valery exhumed. He then paraded it in front of his men and had them implore the Saint for a favourable change in wind. His men were now ready for battle and focused on winning against Harold Godwinson. William’s army used bows and arrows, horses and brave men on foot that carried swords, spears and shields. With all this as an advantage- William suddenly had a stroke of good luck just four days after the battle of Stamford Bridge the wind changed direction and William invaded the unprotected South coast of England. This gave William a huge advantage as Harolds men were still in Stamford Bridge and most were in fact drunk. This was one of the main contributing factors on why William won the battle.
After receiving the message that William had invaded the south coast Harold tried to re-gather his men but his best soldiers were still drunk and he told them to follow him down to Hastings when they were sober. As an incentive Harold had promised if he won he would give each of his men some gold. Harold and his army of 7000 exhausted men were first to arrive in Hastings. Harold placed his men at the top of the hill. This in theory was a great advantage as William’s men and horses would find it harder to run uphill.
Harold’s weapons were Fryd-Part time soldiers with large two handed axes. If they missed with it with their first attempt they would be in trouble as they realistically only had one chance to kill as then they would be stabbed by the opposition because they didn't have chance to take another swipe because it was so heavy. Moreover, Harold's force was inferior to the Norman's army. William had 4000 knights but Harold did not have any. While William's army was small in comparison to Harold's total force, probably no more than 12,000 men in total, he had many more archers than the English, and perhaps most importantly, the archers were formed in units. The English archers were not in units, they were deployed at random.
Once Williams’s army arrived in Hastings at the bottom of the hill the battle was due to begin. Both Harold and William were both apprehensive but at the same time ready for a long fought battle. The first attack came from Williams’s army which took Harold’s army by total surprise The Anglo-Saxons were over the moon so when the Normans started to walk away Harold's men ran down Senlac Hill and started chasing them away. Cleverly William and his men turned around and started to kill. A huge proportion of the Anglo-Saxons were killed at the very premature stages of the battle.
Harold had made a huge mistake so he tried to retreat his men but every time he did that, the Normans struck back and the Norman knights were having a terrible effect on Harold’s army's morale. Unlike Harold, William had cleverly assessed his opponent’s tactics and Harold’s tactics were the same as in previous battles so William had a huge advantage against Harold. At this stage William’s army was tearing Harolds apart. Harold’s exhausted army couldn’t simply fight back strongly enough.
Eventually Harold died when he was shot with an arrow that pierced his eye which ; then knocked off his horse and his body was well and truly hacked to pieces. He was also allegedly disembowelled. Once the Anglo-Saxon king had died; his remaining men immediately began to run in fear of their lives.
In my opinion the main reason William won the battle was that his men were better prepared and had arguably the better weapons. Also Harold’s men were still exhausted from the Battle of Stamford Bridge and the trek of marching from Stamford Bridge to Hastings. Finally after the battle many people had criticised Harold for not taking onboard the feedback from previous battles but regardless of that William had still had great tactics and was blessed with a bit of good luck.
In the end William of Normandy was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066; although he still had many ongoing problems such as rebellions which would challenge his position as king of England.
