11 Facts About The Battle Of Hastings Some History Buffs Don't Even Know

According to several sources, William of Normandy's court entertainer was Taillefer. Not much is known about Taillefer, but he did accompany William to England in 1066, reportedly running onto the battlefield while singing the Chanson de Roland.

Twelfth-century chronicler Wace, in his Roman de Rou, described how "Taillefer, who was an excellent singer, rode on a swift horse before the duke singing..."

Taillefer struck first at Hastings, running toward the English and striking down one or more Anglo-Saxon warriors, and then, in the words of historian E.A. Freeman, "himself fell beneath the blows of their comrades."

In some tellings of the events of October 14, 1066, both the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons stopped midday to eat a meal.

It's nearly impossible to substantiate this; it may have just been a lull in the fighting. Realistically, taking a break on a battlefield wasn't an option - or a good idea. 

In the longer term, food preferences may have actually been influenced by the results of the battle. Evidence suggests pork became more popular agricullturally and on plates. On the whole, however, "eating habits and cooking methods remained unchanged to a large extent."

According to the Bayeux Tapestry, King Harold finally fell after being shot in the eye with an arrow. This became the traditional narrative of medieval chroniclers, too. There's no way to authenticate this, however, and some historians doubt that's what actually happened.

The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, or "Song of the Battle of Hastings," says multiple men went after Harold:

The first, cleaving his breast through the shield with his point, drenched the earth with a gushing torrent of blood; the second smote off his head below the protection of the helmet and the third pierced the inwards of his belly with his lance; the fourth hewed off his thigh and bore away the severed limb: the ground held the body thus destroyed. 

Regardless, Harold was dead and, again from the Carmen: 

The mother of Harold, in the toils of overwhelming grief, sent even to the duke himself, asking with entreaties that he would restore her, unhappy woman, a widow and bereft of three sons, the bones of one in place of the three.

Harold's mother didn't just lose her king and son; two of her other children, Gyrth and Leofwine, also perished. William refused her request, however, commanding "the body to be buried in the earth on the high summit of a cliff."

The Bayeux Tapestry that tells the story of William's conquest of England has a papal banner on it, demonstrating that William had Pope Alexander II on his side. The papacy supported William largely because of Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1052, Stigand took the position from the papal appointee, Robert of Jumieges, with the help of King Edward the Confessor's counselor, Godwin. Stigand had not been elected or appointed by the papacy and failed to appear in Rome to answer an appeal made by his predecessor. Stigand also refused to give up his bishopric at Winchester.

Stigand was excommunicated by five successive popes, including Alexander II. William and his brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, knew the papacy was eager to remove Stigand from the archbishopric and offered their services to take on what was essentially a holy war.

Another aspect of papal support involved King Harold himself. As indicated by the Bayeux Tapestry and described in other sources, Harold had sworn on holy relics that William of Normandy would be king of England after the demise of Edward the Confessor. Harold took the throne as his own, which made him an oath-breaker and a usurper. 

Historians have largely agreed that feigned retreats helped the Normans win at Hastings, drawing heavily on sources like William of Poitiers' Gesta Guillelmi Ducis Normannorum et Regis Anglorum:

The Normans and their allies, observing that they could not overcome an enemy which was so numerous and so solidly drawn up, without severe losses, retreated, simulating flight as a trick... among the barbarians there was great joy... some thousands of them... threw themselves in pursuit of those whom they believed to be in flight.

Other accounts provide comparable information, although they've increasingly come under scrutiny. Some scholars note that because William of Poitiers was writing with a heavy Norman bias, he may have finessed the fact that William's forces were, in fact, retreating out of fear.

On the other hand, Normans fighting in Italy and France during the mid-11th century also used feigned retreats, potentially attesting to well-known status. Fighters like Walter Giffard, present at the Battle of Arques in 1054 and at Hastings in 1066, could have been familiar with it. Training men and horses to conduct such activities was both costly and took a lot of time, however, further creating doubt as to what happened at Hastings. 

William of Normandy's victory at Hastings was decisive in that he eliminated the reigning monarch, but it was months until he was in a position to be crowned king. After Hastings, William marched through to London, reportedly destroying local resistance efforts along the way.

Dover submitted to William on October 21, while Canterbury accepted their new king on October 29. As William extended control over Sussex and Kent, London remained an important location for him to control. Residents of the symbolic and strategic city, according to the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio, had taken it upon themselves to elect their own ruler - Edgar the Aetheling.

Edgar was the great-grandson of King Aethelred and represented the last of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. He was never crowned and, like the other Anglo-Saxon nobility and church leaders, submitted to William in December. Only then was the Duke of Normandy crowned at Westminster.