Why did William the Conqueror win the battle of Hastings
Why did William the Conqueror win the battle of Hastings?
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14th October 1066 - between Harold Godwinson of England and William of Normandy. The conflict started because when King Edward died, he left no heir to inherit the crown, which left three men claiming to be the next King of England. These three contenders to the throne were Harold Godwinson who was the only Englishman and related to the old king by marriage, Harald Hadrada and William the Conqueror who was the only contender that was related to King Edward by blood.
The first argument as to why William won the Battle of Hastings is that he had the best army. The Normans had 7500 men, all fully trained compared to the 4500 voluntary village workers and only 500 professionally trained soldiers that made up Harold Godwinson’s English army. William had many archers and slingshots, the Normans were also equipped with auxiliaries - blacksmiths, carpenters, medics and cooks – as well as a few mercenaries, who were professional soldiers that fought for whoever paid them the most amount of money.
William’s men also had better armour and weapons, for example there is some evidence that archers used crossbows in addition to bows and arrows, were also used along with spears and swords, round shields and kite shaped shields. This meant that the Normans were more protected from the English, than the English were from them as well as having weapons that could do more damage. Another benefit that William had as one of his skills was that he was a very good commander of his troops and organised his men very well.
An additional point is that the battle began much sooner than Harold Godwinson and his army had expected, which meant that his troops were not properly ready. Less than a week before the Battle of Hastings, Harold Godwinson and the English were fighting in the north at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where he lost some of his best fighters to the Norwegians and their leader
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14th October 1066 - between Harold Godwinson of England and William of Normandy. The conflict started because when King Edward died, he left no heir to inherit the crown, which left three men claiming to be the next King of England. These three contenders to the throne were Harold Godwinson who was the only Englishman and related to the old king by marriage, Harald Hadrada and William the Conqueror who was the only contender that was related to King Edward by blood.
The first argument as to why William won the Battle of Hastings is that he had the best army. The Normans had 7500 men, all fully trained compared to the 4500 voluntary village workers and only 500 professionally trained soldiers that made up Harold Godwinson’s English army. William had many archers and slingshots, the Normans were also equipped with auxiliaries - blacksmiths, carpenters, medics and cooks – as well as a few mercenaries, who were professional soldiers that fought for whoever paid them the most amount of money.
William’s men also had better armour and weapons, for example there is some evidence that archers used crossbows in addition to bows and arrows, were also used along with spears and swords, round shields and kite shaped shields. This meant that the Normans were more protected from the English, than the English were from them as well as having weapons that could do more damage. Another benefit that William had as one of his skills was that he was a very good commander of his troops and organised his men very well.
An additional point is that the battle began much sooner than Harold Godwinson and his army had expected, which meant that his troops were not properly ready. Less than a week before the Battle of Hastings, Harold Godwinson and the English were fighting in the north at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where he lost some of his best fighters to the Norwegians and their leader