The Conquest - Why Did William Win?

History: KS3, topic 1.13.10

The Differences Between the Sides

The Anglo-Saxons and Normans set up their armies very differently.

William of Normandy used cavalry well in battle.
Lots of the Norman Knights rode on horseback. They had lots of armour. They could not break down the shield wall of the English, but once the English chased the Norman foot soldiers, the Knights could ride around attacking lots of English soldiers in a row.
This made leaving the shield wall even more dangerous.
Horses also struggle to ride uphill, making keeping the high ground even more important.

Both Harold II and William of Normandy had foot soldiers.
A key moment in the battle was when the English soldiers (fyrds) chased the Normans down the hill as they retreated.
This meant that the English troops lost the high ground.
The Norman foot soldiers were better trained than the English and they had better weapons (lots of English soldiers just fought with knives from their houses).
So it seems that the English soldiers were ill-disciplined, badly-equipped and worse-trained. This made breaking rank and chasing the Normans even sillier.

The English shield wall was a good defence against the strengths of the Norman attack - horseback knights and archers.
The best English troops were called 'housecarls'. These were professionally trained soldiers who often used axes to attack their opponents.

Some historians argue that William won because he was a better leader.
It is hard to know whether Harold's men were less well-trained was because they were raised from local earls (instead of a central royal army), or because Harold was a bad leader & tactician.
Losing the high ground and chasing the Norman soldiers down the hill contributed to Harold's defeat. However, this may not have happened because Harold was a bad leader. His troops were tired and fighting Harald and William one after the other was outside Harold's control.
William's strategy seemed good and his combination of knights and archers worked well.