King Harold’s 200-mile march to the Battle of Hastings was a ‘fable’, historian says | EUROtoday

King Harold’s legendary 200-mile march throughout England to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 is a “myth” that possible by no means occurred, in line with analysis revealed Saturday.

In arguably probably the most well-known battle in English historical past, the Anglo-Saxon chief was defeated by William the Conqueror, who grew to become the primary Franco-Norman king of England, at Hastings on October 14, 1066.

In the weeks earlier than the battle, Harold had defeated the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada and his Viking forces on the Battle of Stamford Bridge earlier than racing south to confront the Norman invaders.

The decisive conflict, which marked the beginning of the Norman conquest of England, is depicted within the Bayeux Tapestry, set to be delivered to London from France this yr.

Read extraFast information on the Bayeux Tapestry

Ahead of the tapestry’s exhibition, beginning in September 2026, new analysis from the University of East Anglia (UEA) revealed that the story of Harold’s famed march to the combat was a “misunderstanding”.

The account of the march, as taught in British lecture rooms and museums, rests on what a British historian argues is a misinterpretation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a written report of medieval English historical past.

The Chronicle recounts that Harold’s ships “came home”. For not less than 150 years, historians understood that to imply the king dismissed his fleet in September 1066.

That formed the narrative that Harold and his troops had been compelled to march greater than 200 miles (320 kilometres) from Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire within the northeast to Hastings on the south coast to keep off the Norman invasion.

But Tom Licence, a professor of medieval historical past and literature at UEA, discovered the ships returned to their house base in London and remained operational, which means that they had been possible utilized by Harold throughout his journey and to defend in opposition to the invasion.

“I checked the evidence for him having sent the fleet home and found that it was just a misunderstanding. I went looking in the sources for evidence of a forced march and found there wasn’t any,” mentioned Licence, who will current the findings on the University of Oxford on Tuesday.

According to Licence, the story of Harold and his males traversing the huge distance in 10 days is “implausible”.

The historian additionally pointed to different early accounts which describe Harold sending a whole lot of ships to Hastings after William’s touchdown, suggesting he nonetheless had a fleet at his disposal.

“Harold’s campaign was not a desperate dash across England, it was a sophisticated land-sea operation. The idea of a heroic march is a Victorian invention that has shaped our understanding, or misunderstanding, of 1066 for far too long.”

The 68-metre-long Bayeux Tapestry, on mortgage from France, will probably be on show on the British Museum for 10 months.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)