THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE - PART FIVE
THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE – PART FOUR
On 18th or 19th September 1066 came the news that Harald Hardrada had landed and was somewhere in the north. King Harold Godwinson was probably in London by now, and he presumably thought that the Northumbrian earls alone could not deal with the situation, or he may not have trusted them entirely, as while his brother Tostig had been driven out in 1065 he would still have had some supporters there. Harold decided that only he could restore the situation and on 20th or 21st September he began to move north with his own housecarls and such of the militia that was available. That must have been a problem, since he had only just stood them down; only those with no land to be planted or any family responsibilities could join him. As he moved further north he could collect more men, but many of the Mercian militia had been killed or put to flight at Fulford, so it is difficult to see how he could have amassed the claimed English army of 10,000 foot soldiers, almost certainly an exaggeration, although the suggested 2,000 mounted men seems more realistic, as they would mainly have been housecarls or the regular troops of the king’s bodyguard.
The English army arrived at Tadcaster on the evening of 24 September, a distance of 180 miles from London. Even if they left at first light on 20th an average of 36 miles a day is possible for foot soldiers, but given the state of the roads and the probable need to forage on the way it seems unlikely that many men on foot came all the way from London. It is more likely that only men on horseback would have made the whole trip, and that the bulk of the infantry were collected from northern Mercia and the remnants of those who had fought at Fulford, which latter included Edwin and Morcar. The sources for what happened next, chiefly the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon and the Norse saga of the wonderfully named Snorri Sturluson, writing a century after the event, all give very broad brush accounts of what happened next. For much of the detail, therefore, we are driven to rely on Colonel Alfred Burne’s theory of inherent military probability, which says that if you do not know what happened but you do know the terrain, the tactics, the rough numbers and have some understanding of the personalities involved, you must put yourself in the position of the commander and decide what you would do. A cop-out though this may seem it has proven to be remarkably accurate when later evidence (archaeological or documentary) has supported the findings deduced from using it.
We know that after the submission of York Harald Hardrada took most of his army back to his ships at Riccall, where most of their stores and rations still were. Sometime late on the 24th or early on 25th September he went with Tostig and around 5,000 of his men to Stamford Bridge, fifteen miles away. There they were to wait for the arrival of the agreed hostages, to be held to ensure Northumbrian support in the subjugation of the rest of England. The rest of the Norwegian army was left at Riccall under the command of Eystein Orre who was betrothed to Harald’s daughter. Many of the men at Stamford Bridge had left their mail armour behind on the ships, taking only sword, shield and helmet with them. The Northumbrians had been defeated, there was no prospect of fighting, and they relaxed on the west (York) side of the River Derwent. King Harold of England knew exactly where they were: he had scouts out in front of his advance and he could rely on local knowledge. The Norwegians, not expecting an attack had not posted sentries and the arrival of an English army arrayed for battle was a complete – and unwelcome – surprise. We can probably discount the story of King Harold riding out in front of his army to ask the Norwegians what their king wanted, and on being told ‘England’ replied that he would give him ‘seven feet of English soil, for he is taller than most men’.
What seems to have happened is that the Norwegians troops tried to make a stand on the west bank but on being attacked by the English, probably the mounted element turning their flank, they withdrew across a bridge, which may have been a Roman bridge or a wooden footbridge of which no trace remains. The sources say that a Viking with an axe held the bridge against the English to allow his comrades to form a battle line on the east side of the river. If true this would indicate that it was a narrow footbridge, for the standard Roman bridge was constructed to allow two chariots to pass, and was thus around fifteen feet wide. It is said that the lone Viking was eventually dispatched by an English soldier floating under the bridge in a barrel and stabbing upwards through the planks of the bridge with his spear. This is unlikely, but in any event he was killed, possibly by an arrow or a thrown spear and the English could cross, which inevitably took some time.
The Norwegian army formed a shield wall roughly where the housing estate Battle Flats is now, and a horseman, or possibly several, were at some stage sent to Riccall to order up reinforcements. Harald’s men at Stamford Bridge were outnumbered and mostly un-armoured, whereas King Harold’s men, despite having marched fifteen miles from Tadcaster that morning, were fully armed and accoutred and ready for battle. The fighting was furious but when Harald Hardrada was killed, possibly by an arrow in the throat, and according to the sagas during a berserk charge at the English line, the result of the battle was not in doubt. Tostig attempted to rally but he too was killed, and although reinforcements of several thousand Norwegians under Eystein Orre did arrive in the late afternoon, they were exhausted having marched the fifteen miles from Riccall in full kit and were easily dealt with. The slaughter was enormous, possibly two or three thousand killed and many wounded. The sources tell us that of the 300 ships that made up the combined fleet of Harald and Tostig, only twenty-four were needed to take the beaten survivors away. The English burned the remaining ships, but spared Hardrada’s son and allowed him to take his father’s body back to Norway.
The most famous warrior in all Europe had been defeated and killed. Stamford Bridge cemented Harold Godwinson’s reputation as a great war leader and it eliminated for ever the Norwegian threat to the English throne. It was a great victory, but it was to be the tipping point for the most traumatic event in English history, for on 1 or 2 October King Harold, still at York, learned that William of Normandy had landed on the south coast of England with a large army.
TO BE CONTINUEED