in our last video you would have seen what happened at the battles fulford and stamford bridge but as i'm sure that you are aware in 1066 there was a far more famous battle the battle of hastings in this video i'd like to look briefly at what happened in that battle first of all a quick recap of where we've got to in the story of 1066. edward the confessor has died harold godwinson has taken the throne and the battles of fulford and stamford bridge have just happened and harold godmonson and his anglo-saxon third are in york victorious having defeated the vikings and harold hardrada meanwhile in normandy william and his norman soldiers are preparing to invade angry that harold goblinson has taken the throne that william claims is his own and here is william standing with his troops in normandy now william is waiting on the coast of normandy for a long time because the wind and the weather was blowing in the wrong direction but on the 28th of september of 1066 william and his norman troops jump into their ships the wind has changed direction and they set sail for england they land at a place called pevensie and at pevensey they build a bailey castle to defend their troops those troops numbered nearly 7 000 in total with many horses and their chevalier their knights ready to fight with their newfound technology of stirrups chainmail and they also had arches with them immediately as soon as they land in pevensey they immediately start raiding the local area some people think this was to anger harold some people think this was just so that they had enough food and enough supplies either way they go out raiding in the area so the normans in the south of england are raiding understandably harold goblinson and his third are angry when they hear this a few days later and despite the fact there is little technology at this time the news travels to york very fast that the normans have arrived goblinson and the third realize they have no choice if they want to save the throne and save england but to run south to fight william and the norman army and after four or five days harold arrives in london and it's in london that he hears different advice initially he's told that he should wait out and gather the third properly understandably his men are exhausted from having marched very fast down from york many of his top generals and his top men have been lost at the battles of fulford and the battles of stamford bridge but harold is angry harold decides that he is not going to wait in london he is going to march straight to hastings and face william the conqueror as he will become known and harold also gathers an army of about 7 000 soldiers all on foot none on horseback and on the 14th of october they meet at this hill now that building wouldn't have been there in october of 1066 but this is just outside of hastings and harold and his third gather on the top of cenlak hill because they're the first people to arrive and they immediately formed themselves into a shield wall 12 men deep lined up with their shields ready to face the norman onslaught the normans themselves gather at the bottom of the hill they have archers and they have men on horseback and initially those horses try and break the shield wall and they fail the anglo-saxon shield wall was strong and held tight and the normans in waves of cavalry run at that shield wall trying to break it apart to break the anglo-saxon army up and they initially fail at some point in the afternoon a rumor goes round that william has lost his life this was untrue though and william very famously according to the chronicles of the time rode to near the front takes his helmet off reveals himself to the troops and says i am not dead i am the king we need to fight on but at this moment and this is the decisive moment in the battle the anglo-saxon troops who were at the top of the hill believed that they have won they don't know that william at this point is still alive they believe they have beaten the normans they have destroyed them in terms of their tiredness they've beaten their king and the anglo-saxons now break their shield wall and william at this point leads what is known as a false retreat so if william leads his troops away from the anglo-saxons wanting them to believe that they have beaten their shield ball they do a false retreat and the anglo-saxons as you can see here do break their shield ball but the normans very quickly and very cleverly turn their horses round and run at the anglo-saxons and this is the moment the battle is won because the anglo-saxons have just broke their defense and their strength the normans run at the anglo-saxons with their horses that they can move at great fierceness and at great speed and move in amongst those troops the shield ball is broken the third is now in pieces and this now reaches the most important point in the battle according to the by a tapestry and our norman archer shoots an arrow and shoots that volley of arrows over into the anglo-saxon third and harold godmonson receives an arrow in the eye we don't know whether that's true and actually different sources say different things what we do know is that harold godwin is killed and in harold godwinson being killed the leader of the anglo-saxons is now dead and the anglo-saxons disperse and flee the normans victorious with their horses run through and slaughter more of the anglo-saxon soldiers as some try to escape the normans have now won the battle of hate and it's at this moment that william really truly earns his nickname as william the conqueror he's conquered the army of the anglo-saxons and he's now going to take england for himself and william and the normans travel to london and on christmas day at westminster abbey which wouldn't have looked like this in 1066. william is coronated as the king of england he is truly william the conqueror the normans have invaded and are now ready to start their rule of england