Battle of Hastings

Harald “Land Waster” Hardradi

by Kenneth Cline

For many history buffs, the date 1066 conjures up an image of Norman knights breaking through the shield wall of the ax-wielding Anglo-Saxons at Senlac Hill. Read more

Battle of Hastings

The Battle at Northallerton: Knights on Foot?

by Terry Gore

“To be a knight was to be potentially a Lord or Lordling … and a fate worse than death, was to set one’s hand to the plow.” Read more

Battle of Hastings

Medieval Knights: Arms and Armor at Northallerton

by Terry Gore

Numerous pictorial representations show us the arms and armor of the 12th-century Anglo-Norman knight, the most famous being the Bayeux Tapestry. Read more

Battle of Hastings

Battling Bishops of Christendom

By William J. McPeak

Bishops in battle? It’s not as unlikely as it sounds. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Norman Duke William, soon to be dubbed William the Conqueror, held his heavy cavalry in check until the most advantageous moment to charge the right flank of King Harold’s Saxons. Read more

Battle of Hastings

King Harold and the Battle of Hastings

by Frederick Grant

On December 25, 1065, King Edward the Confessor presided over a spectacular Christmas banquet at his palace on Thorney Island in the Thames River, just two miles upstream from London. Read more

Battle of Hastings

Rollo the Viking, First Ruler of Normandy

by Michael Haskew

Roving bands of Viking seafarers raided extensively in Western Europe from the Eighth to the 11th centuries, looting and sacking settlements and population centers including London, Paris, and Hamburg. Read more