THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE - PART THREE
THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE – PART THREE
While preparations for the invasion of England were under way it was impossible to hide such a mammoth undertaking. Not only were there English spies and sympathisers in Europe but fishermen could not help spotting the movement of newly-built ships assembling in the channel ports. King Harold was well aware of what was afoot but was under pressure from his estranged brother, Tostig Godwinson. Tostig was aged forty in 1066. He had been created Earl of Northumbria by King Edward in 1055 but became increasingly unpopular there. The men of the north were largely of Danish stock and disliked the idea of a ‘southerner’ ruling over them – previous earls had been local men. Increased taxation and harsh measures to stifle dissent, including ordering the assassination of protesters promised safe conduct, led to a revolt in October 1065 when men commanded by the northern earls, brothers Edwin and Morcar, assaulted York killing a number of Tostig’s officials and driving him out. They then marched south to present their grievances to King Edward. Edward sent Harold to negotiate and he convinced Edward that the rebels’ terms should be accepted, for if not then the alternative was civil war. Harold believed strongly in the unity of England, at least as long as he could influence whoever ruled it, even if that meant sacrificing his own brother. Tostig was therefore stripped of his earldom and exiled, whereupon he took himself off to Flanders to the court of his brother-in-law, Baldwin, Count of Flanders.
Smarting at his treatment by his brother Harold, (King Harold by January 1066), Tostig landed on the Isle of Wight in May with soldiers and ships provided by Baldwin. He began to raid along the English coast until driven north by Harold and his housecarls and eventually defeated by Edwin and Morcar, when his Flemish troops deserted him and he fled to Scotland. At some stage Tostig crossed over to Norway and offered his support to Harald Hardrada in the latter’s claim to the throne of England. Hardrada, fifty years old in 1066, and with a reputation as a great warrior, had been driven out of Norway in 1030 when he took service under Yaroslav ‘the wise’ Grand Prince of the Rus, in what is now Russia, who badly needed military leaders. He was soon a captain equivalent and took part in numerous campaigns as Yaroslav sought to expand his principality. In 1034 Harald moved to Constantinople where he joined the Varangian Guard, Norse mercenaries who were the household troops of the Byzantine emperor. Harold’s reputation had preceded him and he soon became commander of the Guard, seeing much action and amassing great wealth. By 1046 Harald was ready to attempt to regain his throne. He had the support of the Varangians and sufficient gold to attract mercenary troops and in 1045 he was once again king of Norway. Tostig’s blandishments initially fell on stony ground, for Harald’s military efforts were then directed against Denmark in an attempt to begin the recreation of Cnut’s Scandinavian empire, but when it became increasingly apparent that these were achieving little, he agreed to invade England, assured by Tostig that the northerners would support him.
From March Harald Hardrada began to muster a fleet at Solund in Southern Norway and by early September he had 300 ships, on which he embarked his army. Accounts of actual numbers are notoriously unreliable, but allowing 250 of the ships as troop carriers, with the remainer carrying servants, horses and stores, the army could have amounted to around 5,000 men. The fleet set sail first for Norwegian-owned Orkney and Shetland, where more troops were embarked, and then picked up another 2,000 or so from King Malcolm of Scotland, before meeting up with Tostig and his twelve ships and a few hundred men, for it was Tostig’s contacts and local knowledge that was wanted, rather than what few troops he could afford. The combined fleets now raided along the Yorkshire coast but if they were to take the north as a start to Harald’s conquering all England they would have to capture York, the capital city of the north, and so they entered the estuary of the River Humber at Grimsby, sailing up to Faxfleet and into the River Ouse. The Ouse was navigable as far as Riccall, nine miles south of York, where between the 16th and 19th September the ships were tied up and the soldiers disembarked. On 20 September Harald Hardrada began to march north towards York, via the Roman road which is now the A19 Selby road.
The northern earls, Morcar and his older brother Edwin, were well aware of where Hardrada’s army was and what their objective was, and they began to muster troops in York, some coming from as far away as Chester, 125 miles along bad or non-existent roads. Once assembled the English army marched south to confront the Norwegians, and took up position along the Germany Beck, a tributary of the River Ouse. Anglo-Saxon tactics required the shield wall to be anchored on both flanks, so the English line had their right flank on the River Ouse and its left on a marsh at Heslington, a frontage of around 3,000 yards, to be covered by around 4,500 of the Northumbrian and Mercian militia, which would give a very thin line of two ranks deep. The Germany Beck was deeper and broader than it is now, but not a major obstacle for infantry on either side. In hindsight, Morcar and Edwin might have been better to retire behind the walls of York and wait out a siege until an English army sent by King Harold Godwinson arrived to their rescue, but both Morcar and Edwin were young – in their early twenties – and eager to prove themselves as warriors. They were no match for the highly experienced Harald Hardrada, and their troops would stand little chance against the Norwegian warriors who had seen much action, some in the Varangian Guard and others in Viking raids. Morcar and his Northumbrians were on the left of the English line, while Edwin and the Mercian men were on the right.
Once Harald Hardrada saw the English position – and his approach march was on slightly higher ground than the Germany Beck – sometime in the early afternoon of 20 September, he deployed into line, with Tostig and his men, mostly Flemish mercenaries, on the right and the Norwegians on the left. Had Edwin and Morcar stood in the shield wall on defence they might, perhaps, have achieved at least a draw despite the very thin line, but the sight of Tostig so enraged Morcar’s men that they left the line and charged. Tostig had been hated as Earl of Northumbria, they had driven him out once: they would drive him out again.
Initially Morcar’s charge was successful, pushing Tostig’s men back, but now Harald Hardrada launched his Norwegians at the English right, where Edwin’s men were quickly overwhelmed and retreated headlong trying to get back to York. Many drowned trying to get across the Ouse and Harald could now swing his men round to his right and pinned Morcar’s men, now disorganised from fighting the Flemish, against the Heslington Marshes. Morcar thus had Harald to his right, west, the marshes to his back and Tostig to his front. Outnumbered and outfought the Northumbrian’s had no chance and the battle soon turned into a slaughter, with many of the English surrounded and butchered. Both Edwin and Morcar managed to escape with a few of their personal troops, but on 24 September York surrendered and arrangements were made for hostages and a payment of gold to be assembled at Stamford Bridge, eight miles north east of York on the River Derwent. Harald then took his army back to his ships at Riccall.
Meanwhile in the south King Harold was well aware that William of Normandy had assembled an invasion fleet, and he had called out the Wessex militia and also that of Kent, commanded by his brother Leofwine, and that of East Anglia commanded by his other brother Gyrth, to defend the English coast. Although William of Normandy was ready to sail by 12 August, the weather in the Channel is notoriously tricky. Storms and the lack of a prevailing wind confined the fleet to harbour for the whole of August and into September. On 12 September William ordered the fleet to move up to Valery-sur-Somme. They were caught at sea by yet another storm and while some ships were lost most made harbour safely. It was now very late in the year to attempt a Channel crossing, the English militias had been called out to oppose Tostig’s raids earlier in the summer, and there was now little time for the completion of the harvest and the planting of winter crops. Harold had little choice but to stand them down and let them disperse to their homes, while at the same time he moved the English fleet, which had been standing by in south coast ports, to London. It was, of course, a gamble, but it was not unreasonable to assume that any intended invasion would wait until the following year.
TO BE CONTINUED