Conquest

‘I don’t think the Earl of Wessex wants to be king. He would prefer you to name Edgar the Atheling. Harold would pledge himself as his Regent until he gained his majority.’

The King’s tone darkened once again. ‘Edgar is a boy. Hardrada sits in Norway, William in Normandy. If Edgar becomes king, both will invade — and possibly the Dane, Estrithson. If Harold defeats them by force of arms he will be persuaded by popular acclaim to supplant Edgar, and the boy will be lost. If Hardrada wins, we will become Scandinavian again, something that would put me in Purgatory for time immemorial. If William wins, we will have the outcome I prefer, but many thousands will have died in achieving it. So, the answer is clear: nominate William, force Harold and the earls to accept it, and pray for the future.’

The King nodded to Torfida before summoning his servants. She curtsied back and watched him shuffle out of the Chapter House.

As he left, she turned to Harold. ‘My Lord Godwinson, your cause is lost. The King will not be swayed.’

Later that day, when Harold joined Edith and Torfida at Ludgate Hill, he expressed his bitter disappointment that William remained the King’s nominated successor.

‘Well, that’s an end to it. I’ll tell the King that I am returning to Glastonbury to be with my men. He won’t like it, but he will have little choice in the matter. We will join Hereward at Glastonbury. There is much to be done.

‘Edith, you should not stay in London. Close the house, pack anything of value and bring your household with you. We may be gone for some time.’

Two days later, the Earl of Wessex, with a large contingent behind him, was heading west. When they arrived in Glastonbury, the burgh and the surrounding countryside resembled an armed camp. Hereward and Earl Gyrth had almost a thousand men in readiness, new weapons were being forged, armour was being made, supply carts were being loaded and the oxen to pull them were grazing in the fields nearby.

Harold called an assembly of his thegns in the Great Hall of Glastonbury. He proclaimed an end to their hope of the King accepting Edgar the Atheling as his successor, or of him revoking his nomination of the Duke of Normandy as the next king. Everyone, to a man, said that they would reject William as successor and accepted Harold’s view that unless William brought an army of unheralded size and materiel, it was unlikely that he could secure the throne by force of arms.

The Earl of Wessex was an imposing figure as he stood before the assembled throng of warriors. He was candid about the personal dilemma he would face upon the King’s death, but asked them to believe that he was not engaged in a devious plot to claim the throne for himself. However, he was firm in saying that circumstances were conspiring to put England in great danger,

‘Whatever perils come our way, I will face them. With you at my side, you noble men of England, we will repel any invader, whether he is Scandinavian or Norman — and even if both hordes fall upon us at once!’

A huge roar rose into the roof of the hall, a cry that turned to a thunderous echo as the warriors thumped their shields with their battle-axes and swords.

Later that day, Hereward offered Harold his assessment of the qualities of England’s fighting men. The general level of discipline and fighting skills, both among the levies of the Fyrd and among the housecarls, was on a par with any he had seen, including Byzantines, Saracens and even Scandinavians and Normans. However, there was one area where the Saxon housecarl was beyond comparison. Their close-quarters, highly coordinated battle techniques, especially their shield wall, were without equal. Hereward’s only area of concern was the cavalry. The Saxons were adept horsemen, but they eschewed the use of horses in major set-piece battles. On the other hand, Normandy’s cavalry with its heavy destriers was the Norman equivalent of the Saxon shield wall: it was their greatest asset.

Hereward put it very plainly for Harold. ‘If it comes to a major battle against the Normans, it will be the Saxon shield wall against the Norman destrier.’

Harold thought about Hereward’s report for a while. ‘What of their bowmen? They have both longbow and crossbow.’

‘It is an added advantage for them, and one that we need to combat. While I was in the service of the Duke, I saw some of the finest bowmen in Europe; they could be dangerous for us.’

During the searingly hot summer of 1065 Harold drove his housecarls hard. The messages coming from London told of a King who was becoming more and more irascible and who suffered from frequent ‘maladies’, where he would temporarily lose consciousness. His speech had become slurred and his balance unsure.

Despite the tension created by the unfolding of great events, time passed slowly.

Harold completed the summer of training with his men, but in early September had to stand down the greater part of his army so that they could return to their homes to gather the harvest.