Key Stage 3 History: 3: The Battle of Hastings

The 3rd blog in our Key Stage 3 History series focuses on the Battle of Hastings.

The Battle of Hastings

OOOOwwww! I can barely move I’m in so much pain. I’ve got a sword cut in my arm and more bruises than I can count. I’m so tired I can barely think. But you didn’t come here to listen to me moan, did you? Sorry, I’ll try to keep my wits about me….

Well, I was right. Again. It was a disaster. William is so cunning! You have to hand it to the man – his battle strategy was original. And the Norman army was ferocious. We really thought that we had the upper hand in Harold’s army. Even though we’d marched all that way, and already fought Harald Hardrada, we thought William had been a fool. He’d put his troops at the bottom of a hill. So when we arrived, we lined ourselves up at the top of the hill. Everyone knows it’s easier to attack downhill than uphill, right? So we were really confident. Oh, how foolish we were.

It all looked good at first. William’s horsemen couldn’t get up the hill to us and we held off the attacks by his footmen really easily. So easily that some of the Norman army turned and ran away! You should have heard the jeers from us! We were yelling insults about those cowards running from us…

Then it turned out they were only running because they were scared that William was dead. As soon as they realised he was fine and dandy, they turned to fight us again. That’s when I got trampled down by a horse and got a sword through my arm. I watched the rest of the battle from the top of the hill

Anyway, William was so cunning. He decided to trick us. He made his army pretend to run away and the stupid fools in Harold’s army fell for it. Don’t ask me why when he’d already retreated once, but they fell for it. But here comes the worst bit. They did it twice. And both times the silly fools on Harold’s side ran after the Normans jeering, only to be cut down when they turned.

It was annihilation. There’s a rumour that Harold was killed by an arrow in his eye. I bet that rumour stands the test of time. But no one I’ve spoken to saw it happen so he could have been killed any way for all we really know.

Penny Brooks

Tutor

Follow the link to find out more about our Key Stage 3 History course.

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