Norman Conquest

Welcome to the Ancients of Recent Podcast. In this episode, we will be continuing our story of the Norman Conquests and the events that lead up to 1066, that most pivotal of turning points in all of English history episodes. The Ancients of Recent Podcast are out every Friday and are brought to you by World of Whiskey, the premier place for whiskey cask investment. Now let's dive into our story. Let's visit our characters in the early 1850s.

Ten 66 is still some way away. We're at a point whereby William is starting to emerge as a powerful figure in France, but he's not all triumphant. He's not completely in control of Normandy, but things seem to be going pretty well for William. 1052 seems to be a very good year indeed. You see, he's just seen off a major threat posed to him by Jeffrey Martel, a man with the very ominous name Martel, meaning hammer. So you can kind of get the idea of what kind of people the Martels were.

Jeffrey was the count of Anjou and he had busied himself expanding his territory in the previous years. The expansion of Anjou was a major threat to Normandy, so William LED a campaign against Jeffrey, and after some initial success, William was able to drive Jeffrey back, and it looked like William had neutralized the threat. But things seem to turn around very suddenly because Jeffrey acquired a new and powerful ally, King Henry, King of France. You see, Jeffrey and Henry, they had a mutual problem and that was the growing power of Normandy and it's Duke William. William at this point was no longer a teenager, but he was an independent and increasingly powerful political figure who now had a reputation as a fearsome warrior and also had a strategically significant marriage with the rival power of Flanders.

But worst of all, from the perspective of King Henry, is that William was now recognized as the heir to the English throne. If William, already a significant military and political leader, if he could claim the crown of England, then he would be able to summon vast resources of wealth, horses, manpower from one of Europe's richest kingdoms. And William, of course, as the Duke of Normandy, already has a toehold in the north of France.

And Normandy that also is able to control the resources of England, would be a dagger aimed directly at the heart of Henry and the Kingdom of France. So King Henry decides it's time to bring Duke William to heel. He sponsors a rebellion in Normandy led by the Count of Arc William Tallow, who is the uncle of William the Conqueror. But Duke William doesn't rest on his laurels. He swings into action. He immediately laid siege to the Count of Arc's castle and forces him to surrender. In 1053, Henry and Geoffrey Martel March into Normandy. Now they're not hoping to confront William in battle. That was very rare.

People didn't go out and try and have set battles like you see in the movies or in Game of Thrones, where people get into these massive milaise and start stabbing each other. That didn't happen a lot. That was incredibly rare. What usually happened was that the damage would be inflicted on the civilian population. The invading army would burn villages, steal cattle, rape women, carry off everything it possibly could, slay a few peasants in the hope of causing anarchy and terror, and maybe even causing the rebellion.

If you're able to inflict enough horror on the civilian population, maybe they'll start asking why you're their Lord anyway. So Henry and Jeffrey seek to lay waste in Normandy. Everything they can't eat or burn, they steal and destroy. William didn't want to confront the army of Henry and Jeffrey. Henry and Jeffrey's armies were bigger, better equipped than what could be summoned by a small Kingdom like Normandy. So what William did is he instead shadowed the army of Henry and Jeffrey.

And by shadowing it, he forced it to stay compact instead of being able to spread out over a large area of Normandy to ravage the countryside, which in the days before sophisticated modern logistics, they didn't have supply depots and a logistical core. They didn't have any of that. The armies had to live off the land. But because Williams army is staying quite close to the army of Geoffrey and Henry, it has to stay compact.

It can't get the food that it needs because if it spreads out it can then be attacked and destroyed. However, Henry fails to notice that he's being shadowed by the army of Duke William and at a town called Mortimer, whilst the French army is dispersed over a wide area, the Norman army attacks and inflicts A brutal defeat on the invading French. The King of France is forced to withdraw. He makes peace with William and in return for the release of prisoners, William extracts a promise from Henry that Henry will no longer interfere in the domestic affairs of Normandy and that Henry will leave the meddlesome Geoffrey Martel to be dealt with personally by William.

William is able to use his victory to further solidify his control both in secular and religious affairs. In Normandy. He expels bishops he feels are untrustworthy, and he takes the lands of rebellious nobles and he distributes them out amongst his loyal supporters. With Henry now out of the picture, William turns his focus to dealing with Geoffrey. William marches his army into a territory called Maine, which is on the border between Normandy and Anjou, and William constructs a fortress and dares Jeffrey to attack it. Jeffrey tries to lay seeds.

He tries to force the Normans out, but he's not successful. But just as it seems that William is able to turn the thumbscrews on Jeffrey, back comes Henry into the picture. You see, Henry is furious that this upstart young man who's nothing more than a Duke would dare to humiliate him in battle. He needs to restore faith. He's the king of France. So Henry goes back on his promise and invades Normandy yet again. In August 1057, the combined forces of Geoffrey Martel and King Henry of France March into Normandy. They follow a similar tactic, burning, ravaging, destroying everything they possibly can, laying waste to as much of the Norman countryside as they can get their hands on. But William catches up with them at the mouth of the river dive. Henry and Jeffrey have forded the river and their army is in the process of crossing.

But at a place called Varvile, just as the tide was rising, it forced the army to divide into William, seeing his opportunity, falls on Jeffrey and Henry's rearguard and massacres it. And all that Jeffrey, Martel and Henry, King of France can do is watch helplessly from the other Bank of the river as their troops are slaughtered. Victory is yet again in the hands of William. But meanwhile in England, events have taken a turn. Edward the Confessor has just made a shock discovery. He's just discovered that he has a long lost nephew and this looks set to completely upturn the succession to the English throne.

There was much joy in England at the return of Earl Godwin. This joy, however, was not shared by one man, Edward the Confessor, King of England. He must have fumed at the return of his arch nemesis to all of his estates and wealth and power. Godwine further solidified his position as he purged the Church of Edward supporters. For Edward this was a time of misery, even vassalage. An anointed king, chosen by God to rule over the people of England, who could hardly command appointments to his own chamber pot. Edward was at his lowest ebb.

One can only imagine how he felt every time he saw the face of Earl Godwin, the man he had sought to destroy. A man who now prostrated himself before Edward, professing loyalty or with a smirk across his face. But then maybe Edward really was chosen by God because the best turn of events that could possibly have come for him quite possibly answering Edward's prayers. Edwards was at Winchester celebrating Easter, as was Godwine. But as they sat down to dinner on Easter Monday, Godwine suddenly collapsed.

Godwin lingered on for a few days, slipping between this world and the next. How Edward must have wished he could have put the pillow over Godwin's face and delivered him into the hands of the devil himself. To finally get his revenge on the man who blinded and murdered his brother, who had manipulated him, isolated him, outmanoeuvred him at every opportunity. And on the 15th of April, Godwin died. Reports of Godwin's death are conflicting, with some suggesting it was a stroke, but other reports saying that he choked only seconds after saying to Edward. May God not permit me to swallow if I have done anything to endanger Alfred or hurt you.

Alfred, of course, being Edward's brother that Godwin killed. Apparently, if that story is too believed, after uttering those words, Godwin choked to death. Now, Edward didn't necessarily gain politically from the demise of his nemesis Godwin. He wasn't restored to any greater power. None of his former Norman supporters and advisers were able to come back from exile. And the reason for this is that Godwin had a son, and that son was called Harold. Harold was 30 years old in 1053, and Harold was a bit of a chip off the old block, bit of a carbon copy. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, and so Harold was able to secure the place of the Godwin family. But there was however, a subtle shift in power. Before taking his new role, Harold had to surrender his command as the Earl of East Anglia, and his position was taken by Elfgar.

Now we know little about Elfgar other than that he was a rival of Harold, and with the return of the God Wines, it does seem that Elfgar had lost out in some way. Though Edward was no stronger, and though the God Wines were still in a position of strength, they were certainly weakened swine. The unfortunately named son of Godwin had died before Godwin, and now Godwin himself has passed away, so even with Harold taking the reins, the Godwins have gone from having three earldoms down to 1.

So Harold isn't able to exert influence and control in the same commanding way that his father could. He needed to win the approval of other Earls, and they weren't always automatic supporters of his. As Edward grew old, with no sign of his successor, the question of who would be the next king of England was becoming increasingly pressing. Edward had previously named William as his successor, but many English people weren't happy to have a foreign king, and that had led to the return of the God wines and that treaty being effectively sidestepped, although no one thought it'd be a good idea to inform William of the decision. But then a new revelation.

Edward had a nephew, Edward's father, and I'm going to have to acknowledge that. It's going to get a little bit tricky here. It's going to get a little bit convoluted, so bear with me. Edward's father was Ethel Red the Unready, and Ethel Red had originally been succeeded by Edmund, but Edmund had not been able to prevent the onslaught of the Viking king Canute, and so Edmund died in 1016. Canute had become king, but Edmund had sons.

Canute had originally wanted to simply kill them. I mean, the guys a Viking. But he thought that maybe as the new king who's just imposed himself on a new country, bumping off a pair of high profile kids isn't going to be the best look. So Canute spirits the children off over to Sweden with the hope that the king of Sweden can, wink, wink, organize a certain tragic incident to befall the boys. But the king of Sweden was an unusual Viking. He wasn't on board with killing children. So instead he sends the children on to Hungary, where they are raised and protected.

One of those boys would become Edward. Edward the Exile. And in 1054, it was decided to locate Edward the Exile, bring him back to England and make him the new successor. Why would Harold support this new candidate? Well, let's think about it. Edward the Exile seemed to tick all the boxes. He would both be of royal descent and thus be considered legitimate. But also he would be quite like Edward the Confessor. He would lack his own English power base and thus he would be reliant on Harold and the English Earls for support, making him easy to manipulate.

Much more preferable than having a warrior king with a proven track record of military victories and a power base in a foreign country, such as a certain William, Duke of Normandy. So the representatives of the English crown set sail to continental Europe and they're going to make their way to Hungary to find Edward the Exile. But they don't make it to Hungary. They make it only as far as Cologne in the Holy Roman Empire, and for reasons that we will never know, Edward the Exile either doesn't decide to or isn't capable of making his way to England to press his claim to the throne. In 1055, Siward, the Earl of Northumbria, dies. Now Siward had a very important job. All Earls of Northumbria have a very important job. Because Northumbria is in a very delicate strategic position, it borders Scotland and so the first and principal job of any Earl of Northumbria is to keep the Scots out of the north of England.

Scotland at this time was quite an aggressive power, repeatedly invading England, always trying to salami slice a little bit more of English territory off and add to the ever expanding Scottish realm. Sighwood is succeeded by Tostic. Tostic is the second son of Earl Godwine, the brother of Harold. Now Edward cannot have been particularly happy about that decision. More Oldham's in the hands of the God wines. And there's another person who was also quite annoyed by this, and that is Elfgar, the Earl of East Anglia. Now there are conflicting stories as to what happened, but Elfgar seems to have had some sort of falling out with the God Wines because it's at this time in 1055 that Elfgar flees East Anglia and makes his way to Ireland. While he's in Ireland he raises an army and sails to Wales where he saw an alliance with the King of Wales, Griffith AP Llewellyn, and in 1055 the two armies invade England and sack the city of Hereford.

When the English army approaches, Elfgar and Griffith retreat. Negotiations begin, and Elfgar agrees to stop his invasion in return for being restored to his position of power. Fighting with the Welsh continues on and off sporadically over the next year, before eventually ending in negotiations in 1056. Harold seems to have considered himself secure in his position of power, secure enough to make a little trip to the continent.

We don't know exactly why, but we do know he was present in Flanders, and there seems to be some suggestions that he may have gone to the continent in hope of encouraging Edward the Exile to take up the English throne. Because all of a sudden, in 1057, who should turn up in England? It's Edward the Exile. Good stuff, problem solved. The succession is sealed. Finally we have a successor to the Confessor and then Ed with the exile. He drops dead.

Why that happens? Was it natural causes or was it otherwise? We will never know. There's further shake up at the top of English politics as several Earls die and the godwines manoeuvre themselves to take over those Earl doms, further tightening their control on power. Now Elfgar seems to have boiled over with rage and there must have been some other falling out because in 1058 he flees or is exiled from England yet again and soon Elfgar returns with the help of the King of Wales.

It's time for round two, but this time the outcome is somewhat more decisive. By this point in the early 1060s, England is effectively A1 party, God, wine, state, and this rebellion works out less well for Elfgar, who is killed in 1062. With their last English adversary defeated, Harold decides to settle the score with Grufford at Llewellyn. He invades Wales. Gruffyth escapes an attempt to capture him, but Harold and Tostig lay waste to the land and Gruffyth is killed by his own men. Harold then appoints a new King of Wales to be his vassal. In the early 1060's the records get a bit patchy again. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles say that Edward the Confessor is enjoying his old age, but I think there's a very strong sense.

That it might not be so much enjoying as he is stewing in his own bitterness and resentment as a defeated and powerless man, a prisoner with a crown. But then Harold turns up somewhere completely unexpected. The next we see of Harold in historical records, he's in, of all places, Normandy. Harold and Williams seem to in some ways be parallel figures. As Harold is sealing his position of power in England, William is marching from strength to strength in Normandy. And things were about to get much better for William. William's 2 great rivals, his two great adversaries, King Henry of France and Geoffrey of Bonjour in 1060, mere months apart, both of them die.

The new King of France is Philip, who's 8 years old and obviously too young to run the country. So region council is appointed and the head of that region council is Baldwin of Flanders, who just happens to be William's father-in-law, Jeffrey Martel. He has no children and with no clear successor or Jew, descends into civil war that rages for years. The threat to Normandy passes at this moment. Harold turns up in Normandy sometime around the summer of 1064.

It seems that Harold has ended up in Normandy as a result of a storm in the Channel and has landed at a place called Ponthier, where he's taken prisoner. As soon as word got to William, he ordered Harold to be released and brought to the Norman capital of Rouen. Harold stayed in Normandy for some time, and while there he even fought side by side with William in Brittany. At some point it seems that Harold swore an oath of allegiance to William to support his claim to the English throne.

Why did he do this? Well, the sources differ. Norman sources say that Harold had sailed on purpose to Normandy on the orders of Edward in order to assure William of Harold's support for William's claim to the English throne. But English sources say that Harold had ended up there by accident as a result of the storm, and he'd been forced to take on over the loyalty to William. Other sources state that Harold had indeed set out for Normandy, but not to swear an oath of allegiance, but rather to arrange for the release of hostages taken by William.

It seems that at some point during the crisis of 105152, when the Godwins had been expelled from England and were at their lowest ebbs, that William had taken two of the Godwins family members as hostages. Wolfnoff 1 of Harold's younger brothers and Hakon, a son of Harold's older brother. Swine. Which version is true we will never know. All we do know is that by 1064, Edward was not in any position to be giving Harold any orders. 1064 was the absolute and utter height of Harold's political power, so I think it's kind of unlikely that Harold would be travelling to Normandy on Edward's behalf. Whatever the truth is, Harold was back in England by the summer of 1065, just in time for him to have to deal with a major crisis that came about as a result of Tostig making a bit of a mess of his job as the Earl of Northumbria. The north of England at that time was very, very culturally different from the South.

The North had been very heavily colonized over the previous 150 or so years by the Vikings, and the most noticeable difference was in the language. So different was the English spoken in the North of England from the English spoken in the South that they were basically completely unintelligible, and as such the kings of England tended to rule the North with a light touch. Not a huge amount of taxation, not a huge amount of roads. They tried to get away with what they could without stirring A hornet's nest.

But in 1055, Tostick had been appointed Earl of Northumbria and he wanted to shake things up. He wanted to reform the North and bring it into line with the systems of government that were practiced in the South, that allowed the God wise to exert so much control. He wanted to get rid of the problem of banditry. It was incredibly dangerous to travel by Rd. for anyone who didn't want to have their throat cut. He wanted to also improve the finances of the state.

So he started raising taxes, which of course caused tremendous outrage in the lightly taxed N. But all of this was going to be necessary if he was going to be able to do his job to ward off Scottish invasion. Scotland had invaded England three times already in the 11th century, only as recent as 1040 when the Scottish army had laid siege to Durham. But even though these administrative changes what you'd think would be good for helping Tostig, it actually alienated so many people that in the event of Scottish raids, Tostig wasn't able to raise local levees to fight the Scots off, and so he had to rely on Danish mercenaries called housecarls.

In 1065, the people of Northumbria rose in rebellion against Tostic, hoping to replace him with a man called Mokar, the younger brother of Edwin, the Earl of Mercia. The shires of Lincoln, Nottingham and Derby joined the rebellion, as did the Welsh. This all of a sudden seemed to be a worst case scenario for the Godwin's. All of their enemies were joining together in one single united front, determined to push them out.

Harold, freshly arrived back from Normandy, races up north to negotiate with the rebels. The rebels demand Tostig's removal. Harold brings this demand back to the King, and at this point, a breakdown in relationship between Tostic and Harold seems to have taken place, with Tostic outraged that he could be the sacrificial lamb, that he could lose his prestigious position, and that he wasn't being back in the way that he felt he deserved.

He even accused Harold of being the person who is causing the rebellion in the 1st place. Harold denied the accusations, but a rift between the two brothers had now formed. The rebels continued to March S burning, looting and raping as they went. Negotiations seemed to reach a dead end and King Edward instructed the raising of a Royal Army, but none was forthcoming. At this point Edward had no royal authority at all.

Backed into a corner, Harold and the king accepted the rebel demands. Recognised Morcha as the new Earl of Northumbria undid all of Tostig's reforms and Tostig was removed from his position. Tostig, outraged by this betrayal, crossed the Channel into exile. King Edward had watched powerlessly. He had been unable to influence the course of events yet again. I had been forced once more to capitulate. Edward, a bitter and defeated old man, grew sick.

The end seemed to be near, and on the 5th of January, Ebb, the Confessor, surrounded by but a few loved ones, passed away. Now we reach crisis point. For years there has been a desperate attempt to settle the succession to the English throne. Edward had produced no successors himself. Edward the exile had died. William still legally speaking, was the claimant and he believed he still was in line for the throne and the God Wines were determined to prevent this from happening.

They would lose everything if William became the new king. How would this crisis of succession be resolved? Before we dive back into the story of Harold and William and the road to 1066, just a quick word from our sponsor, World of Whiskey. Some things only get better with age, and a fine single malt is one of them. That's why Whiskey Cask Investment has such serious allure. With World of Whiskey, you can own a share of Scotland's most iconic export.

You'll get full certification of ownership, delivery orders and access to rare expressions few ever get to taste. And in the UK, there's no capital gains tax when you sell. Now. This is not financial advice. Investment carries risks and you must be over 18. Remember to drink responsibly and invest responsibly. And a fantastic place to start is World of Whiskey. Visit theirwebsite@worldofwhiskey.co.uk. Edward the Confessor dies on the 5th of January 1066.

On the 6th of January 1066, Harold is crowned king. How was it that Harold ended up being the new claimant? His claim seemed to be pretty weak. He wasn't directly related to Edward by blood, but his claim rested on the support of the other Earls. He have the machinery of the state behind him, and he also, or so you're supposed to believe, had the support of Edward himself. So the story goes like this, that in his dying few days, Edward had chosen Harold to be his successor. The only problem is that the only source we really have for this is Harold himself.

Harold, obviously the most powerful man in the country, with the backing of his powerful family and also his allies. The other Earls claims that Edward had supported him and it doesn't really seem that anyone was in a position or anyone had any particular desire either to oppose this. At this time, coronations were a ceremony that would take place well after the ascension to the throne of a new king. Edward the Confessor was crowned nearly a year after he became king. But within 24 hours, Harold is declared king. The crown is put on his head, the whole ceremony is held. But there's always a suggestion that because Harold's actual claim to legitimacy, regardless of how popular he may have been with the other Earls, was so weak that the coronation took place very quickly in order to make sure that it was a fait accompli.

It's already done. He's already the king. Nothing to talk about. There's no need for any crisis of succession because the succession is sorted. It's Harold. Thank you. Let's move on. In Normandy, William was hunting when a messenger came to inform him not just of the death of Edward, but the sudden coronation of Harold. The news must have rocked him. William was outraged by Harold, who had broken his oath, and William immediately sent messages to England urging Harold to honour William's rightful claim to the throne. William gathered together his closest advisers and the nobility of Normandy to plead his case to them for their support.

But to William's frustration, many of them seem to suggest that an invasion of England would be too risky, maybe even doomed. England had the natural barrier of the Channel. England also had a much larger population, and so Harold would be able to call on many more troops and ships than small Normandy could possibly muster. It seemed that all the cards were in Harold's hands. Many of the Norman Lords also objected to the idea of fighting in a foreign expedition. They were responsible with protecting Normandy, not with making William the king of England. But William won them over, and Normandy began to prepare for war.

William ordered a vast fleet large enough to carry the invasion force across the treacherous waters of the English Channel. William begged, borrowed and built ships at a frantic pace. His men scoured the forest of Normandy for trees that could provide suitable timber. With Normandy a hive of activity, news quickly crossed the Channel. Harold had spies in Normandy, but it would have been almost impossible to hide such a vast scale of military preparation. And by Easter 1066, rumours of war and invasion abound. As word of war grew louder, a strange object appeared in the sky.

There seemed to be a sign. During the last weeks of April, Haley's Comet lit up the night sky with blazing colours. What could this possibly mean? What did people make of this? Was it a sign? Was it an omen? Or was it a warning? An old king had died and a usurper oath breaker had taken his crown. Was God showing his displeasure? As soon as the comet disappeared, the worst fears of Harold seemed to be confirmed. Word reached Harold that the South of England was being attacked by a fleet. But this fleet was not that of Williams. This fleet was being led by Tostig. Tostig was back and bent on revenge. Tostig and his troops landed on the Isle of Wight. They seemed to sack the island before carrying along the South Coast, raiding as they went.

Before reaching the port of Sandwich. Harold set out to confront Tostig and hearing that Harold was coming Tostig made a break for it. Sailing N Continuing raiding along the North East coast of England, Tostig sailed on to Scotland and then sought refuge with King Malcolm. This allowed Harold to turn his attention to meeting the threat of William. He set about assembling a large army, but fearing that William would raid the coast, he decided to spread his troops along the South Coast to guard and keep watch for the coming of the Norman fleet. By mid June, the Normans were completing their preparation for the invasion of England.

They were gathering together food, wine and fitting their ships properly to allow them to transport large amounts of cavalry. But how large was this fleet? Norman sources at the time state that it was as many as 1000 ships, but accounts do differ. William had also gathered a large army not just from Normandy, but from across all France and Europe. Norman sources state that Williams army was improbably massive by the sounds of the time 5060 thousand, some accounts saying it was as large as 150,000. No medieval army ever reached that kind of size. Williams army was probably somewhere between 5 and 7000 men.

His fleet had assembled by the 1st of August, but bad weather delayed the crossing. The waiting must have been agonizing for William. If we assume that his army is only, let's say 7000 men, Feeding such an army would be a gigantic logistical task for a medieval state. Only 7000 men would require 30,000 gallons of fresh water and 14 tons of grain per day, and that's not including the horses. The horses would also require between 4 and 5000 tons of straw.

To feed such a large number of men and horses would have been a logistical nightmare and not to mention the sanitation issues. The soldiers and horses would have been producing thousands of tons of manure and thousands of gallons of urine every day. So you've got this huge number of people all in one place. You've got to feed all of them, and they're producing metric tons of sewage. And this is long before modern sanitation. The challenge of just feeding these people is going to be hard enough, but also you have a huge risk of disease, of outbreaks of things like cholera and dysentery, which would have been very common and more often what destroyed armies. More people died in wars from disease than they did from fighting.

So for William, time is of the essence. It is crucial that he gets his troops in those ships over to England as quickly as possible, or fear watching his army disintegrate and his crown slipped from his hands. But the logistical nightmare was also huge for Harold as well, because Harold actually had an even bigger army. The two armies waited and waited, and waited. On the 8th of September, Harold blinked. The provisions for his troops had run out, and the vast majority of these soldiers are peasant levies.

They need to get home to bring the harvest in. And so Harold sends much of his army home. His fleet sails back to London and Harold with it. Harold had managed to keep his army together all summer, and he must have hoped that the coming of winter and the bad weather in the Channel would deprive William of his window of opportunity to launch his invasion. But as soon as Harold reached London, he was greeted with terrible news and army had landed.

But again, it was not William, it was Tostic. Tostic was back once more, and this time Tostic had company. Viking company. Harold Sigurdsson's reputation for brutality preceded him after a 15 year mercenary career in exile, where he had served both as a Virengian guard for the Byzantine Emperor and also as a hired cutthroat for the King of Kievan Ruse. In 1046, Sigurdsson became King of Norway and he proceeded to rule his Kingdom with an iron fist. So brutal was his reign that future generations would give him a nickname Hardrada, or Harold. Hard Ruler Tostig had not taken his banishment well. After fleeing to Flanders and then launching his raids along the South Coast of England, he'd made his way to Scotland and it was whilst in Scotland that Tostig came up with the idea of approaching the King of Norway and encouraging him to invade England.

Tostig travelled to Norway to meet Hadrada. At first, Hadrada doesn't seem to have been particularly interested, but Tostig seems to have turned on the charm and also promised Hadrada that he would be welcomed by many people in the north who would see him as a Viking Liberator. Hardrada was won over by this. Never one to miss up an opportunity and a bit of killing, Harold Hardrada ordered a large fleet to be assembled and set sail towards the end of August. Hardrada sailed first to the Shetland and Orpley Islands, which were then part of Norway, down the coast of Scotland, and then he met with Tostic at the River Tyne in the North East of England.

Hadrada continued to raid down the North East of England, eventually landing 10 miles South of the City of York. The former Viking capital, Harold Godwinson was taken completely by surprise. This could not have been worse news. His focus was entirely on William, and just at the very moment when Harold Hadrada landed was also the moment when, after long months of waiting for the coming of William, Harold Godwinson had decided to disperse his army. Harold Godwinson sent out messages in every direction to recall the troops.

Drawing together whatever forces he could, he set off on a lightning March N to meet Harold Hadrada. Hadrada met an English army raised by the Earls of the North at the Battle of Fulford and on the 20th September Hadrada routed the English troops and took the City of York. But that very same day Harold Godwinson arrived at Tadcaster, just 7 miles away. The sudden arrival of Harold Godwinson took Tostic and Hadrada by surprise.

Harold Godwinson had discovered that Hadrada and Tostic had withdrawn from the City of York back to the safety of the Viking fleet moored at Rickal. Finding York empty, Harold Godwinson marched straight through the city to confront the Viking army at a crossing of the River Derwent called Stamford Bridge. The English army had marched 200 miles in just a week, a lightning pace by the standards of the 11th century. The English army took the Vikings by surprise, slaughtering the Norwegians, killing both Tostic and Hardrada.

The English pursued the Vikings all the way back to the ships, hacking the Vikings to pieces, showing no mercy. Harold found the body of his brother Tostic amongst the carnage, returned it to York and gave it a proper burial. Whatever Tostic was, he was a God. Wine. Harold Godwinson was triumphant yet again. The year 1066 was working out well for him. He had taken the throne he had seen off Tostic, he had crushed a Viking invasion, and he'd outlasted William the Duke of Normandy, whose opportunity for conquest had surely passed him by.

But just when Harold thought the storm had passed, over the seas and through the mists of the South Coast of England appeared a sight that must have sent chills through the spine of every Englishman. Norman Sales William was coming. Thank you for listening to this episode of Ancient to Recent. Episodes of Ancient to Recent are our every Friday, you can listen on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And episodes of Ancient Recent are brought to you by our friends over at worldofwhiskey.co.uk, the premier place for whiskey cask investment.