Why England’s Shield Wall Wasn’t Enough

14 October 1066. On a hill in Sussex, an English shield wall has held since nine in the morning. By nightfall, King Harold is dead and the Normans have won. So how do you lose a battle when your wall has held for hours? We follow the whole year: a king who dies without a clear heir, three men who want the crown, a Norwegian invasion in the north, a race south, and a long day of arrows, cavalry, feigned retreats and a death nobody can quite explain. Along the way we separate what the sources say from what was added later, including the famous arrow in the eye. Chapters 0:00 The shield wall that would not break 0:39 A king dies without an heir 2:00 Waiting on the south coast 3:01 Invasion from the north 4:03 William crosses the Channel 4:57 The march south 5:43 14 October: the battle begins 8:09 Feigned flight and a thinning wall 9:24 The death of Harold 10:41 So how did England lose? Wulf, Godric, Brother Odo and Hugh are fictional characters. The events, numbers and quotes come from the sources below. Where the sources disagree, the film says so. Sources Wikipedia, "Battle of Hastings" (revision 1380225409) English Heritage: The Norman invasion (Pevensey Castle); What happened at the Battle of Hastings Historic England: Battle of Hastings 1066, registered battlefield Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... "Darkling" · "Teller of the Tales" · "Thatched Villagers" · "Crusade" · "Minstrel Guild" · "Heroic Age" #history #1066 #battleofhastings