In September 1066, Norway’s King Harald Hardrada beats the English forces at Fulford and takes York, escalating his claim to the English throne. While Hardrada rested after the fight and waited the captive collecting, Harold Godwinson, King of England, was marching north, raising his army as he went. On the lowlands east of York, the epic struggle of an age was about to begin.
It’s January of 1066. After the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson ascends to the crown. Godwinson had the backing of the Witan and English nobility, but his abrupt coronation drew the attention of two other strong contenders eager to battle for the English throne. They both had solid reasons to invade England and confront the new monarch. Godwinson believed that leaving the south unguarded was the riskier and more hazardous alternative, particularly after hearing that William was assembling a fleet of ships along the French coastline. Godwinson began assembling an army from southern shires in anticipation of the Norman invasion. However, spring and summer came and went with no sign of Norman ships. Harold Godwinson could not hold out. With supplies, cash running low, and harvest coming, he disbanded his men and returned to London.
A week later, another invasion reached England’s shores. On September 18th, Norway’s King Harald Sigurdsson arrived in Yorkshire with a 10,000-man army to chop his way to the English crown. Tostig Godwinson, Harold Godwinson’s exiled brother and former Earl of Northumbria, backed him up. Harold Godwinson reassembled housecarls – well-armed and trained professional warriors of Danish origin who had served the English ruler since King Canute’s reign and were the powerful backbone of Anglosaxon forces. He left London for the north, knowing he had no time to spend. To join his army, he collected the fyrd troops from the shires they passed.
It is nice to know Harold Godwinson was England’s best option at the time. He had spent many years as an earl fighting the troublesome Welsh, and the unexpected Norse invasion was a wonderful opportunity to use this expertise. The precise number of Godwinson’s warriors in the fight is unknown; however, estimates vary from 7,000 to 15,000 men. However, eager youthful earls of Mercia and Northumbria determined to battle the Norsemen before the King arrived. Hardrada conquered York and established up camp at Stamford Bridge, waiting for hostages and supplies to arrive from the vicinity. The English force was rushing north on the ancient Roman highways, covering almost 180 miles in 4 days.
On September 24, they arrived at Tadcaster, near York, where Godwinson demanded a pause for his tired men. Upon hearing scout reports that Hardrada’s soldiers were camped east of York, he gathered his men and left Tadcaster early the next morning, aiming to catch them by surprise. Aboard that hot September 25th, 1066, several Norsemen abandoned their armor on the ships stationed on the river Ouse near Riccall. Their army was dispersed: some guarded the west bank of the Derwent, while the majority camped on the east. Militias armed with rifles were sent to defend the Due to the looming Norman invasion, Hardrada thought Harold Godwinson would not leave the south of England. The following several hours proved him horribly incorrect. Then he saw the first Anglosaxon troops going immediately to the bridge, their weapons sparkling in the dust. That the English could build a standing army and transport it hundreds of miles in a couple of days surely amazed him. Unprepared for the sudden confrontation, the Norsemen did not wait for slaughter.
Awaiting the English invasion, the Norse forces on the east bank constructed a battle line, frantically prepared for the oncoming attack. However, according to Anglo-Saxon accounts, a lone Viking axe man stood in the way of the whole army’s march across the bridge. He killed 40 Englishmen with his long Dane axe. He was ultimately vanquished when an English soldier snuck beneath the bridge and stabbed the Viking in the crotch, allowing Godwinson’s army to pass.
This might be a fable, but it paints a picture of how tough and skillful Hardrada’s men were. Now that the bridge was accessible, English forces surged across to resist the Vikings. The Norsemen built a shield wall to fend off the English attack. Hours of brutal hand-to-hand battle ensued. Both sides lost fine soldiers in this violent battle, and neither side won. Despite their larger numbers and armor, English housecarls had trouble cracking Hardrada’s lines due to the fatigue of Gondwinson’s army’s recent march.
The Vikings, on the other side, could only lament leaving their armor behind, a severe disadvantage that their tremendous talents, training, and experience could not overcome. When Hardrada, urging his soldiers on and slaying opponents, received an arrow in the neck, the odds turned in their favor. The English pushed back the Vikings, adding to the already enormous death toll. Tostig Godwinson died soon after the Norse King. The warriors left to protect the ships, headed by Hardrada’s future son-in-law Eystein Orri, charged the remaining English forces, halting Godwinson’s triumph.
In spite of their quick action, the rescue force’s onslaught, known as “Orri’s Storm”, was too late to save the conflict. The Anglosaxons quickly annihilated the Vikings. The victorious English pursued the remaining Norse warriors to their ships, where Harold Godwinson granted Hardrada’s youngest son Olaf a free passage home on condition that the Norsemen never invaded England again. Both teams suffered many losses. The loss of troops on the Viking side was significantly greater than the Anglo-Saxon side as their army was nearly wiped o