How would history change if King Harold Godwinson had won the Battle of Hastings?
Harold Godwinson would have became a legendary historical figure, the King who defeated Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge and William the failed conqueror at Hastings, in a matter of weeks.
The thing is, people generally boil the Battle of Hastings down to the Normans steamrolling the Anglo-Saxons, few people understand how close the battle really was, Harold Godwinson and his indomitable Housecarls were by all accounts winning the battle, and fairly decisively.
The core of the Anglo-Saxon army at Hastings was formed of arguably the finest heavy infantry of the age, 3,000 elite English Housecarls.
> ‘Anglo-Saxon Housecarls are the forgotten warriors of medieval history. The glorious last stand of the English Housecarls at the Battle of Hastings lasted 9 hours, while much of the Fyrd fled or were cut down by mounted Norman Knights in the open, the Housecarls maintained their fabled discipline and held their shield wall on that hill, these elite warriors fought together long after their king had fallen, surrounded by Normans, they refused to break.’ — Henrey Bradley's Did the Anglo-Saxons have knights? [
www.quora.com/Did-the-Anglo-Saxons-have-knights/answer/Henrey-Bradley-1 ]
The Norman heavy cavalry was indeed ahead of its time, early mounted Knights that would go on to dominate the medieval battlefields of Europe in the following centuries.
What the Normans faced as Hastings was a disciplined veteran force of professional soldiers, household retinues of career soldiers, equipped with heavy mail armour the equal of the Norman Knights and deadly two-handed Dane axes, that were used to brutal effect. The Norman assaults were thrown back multiple times, the Housecarls were rooted to the ground, undaunted and unbreakable.
So, what if the Anglo-Saxons had won, what if the less disciplined but more numerous Fyrd had never broken ranks and charged the Normans.
Now, this is where the really interesting history comes into play, because the Norman conquest was followed by many grand building projects across Britain and wealthier regions of Europe.
Case in point being the grand Lincoln Cathedral, the construction of which began in 1072, just six years after the battle of Hastings.
The subsequent prosperous period of English history is mistakenly ascribed to the Normans, however, I would argue that this is not the case, had Harold won the battle and cemented his control of England, the Anglo-Saxons would have enjoyed equal prosperity, and so would the Welsh, Scottish and Irish.
Why on earth is that, you ask? Because of a little known freak period of warming that just so happened to occur in the following two centuries.
The Medieval Warm period.
This important warm period resulted in increased agricultural output across much of Europe, notably in the regions on the north Atlantic coast.
Now, contrary to popular belief, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England was actually incredibly well organised and already one of the wealthiest Kingdoms in all of Europe. The Anglo-Saxons minted more coins than almost every other country in Europe with the exception of the Byzantine Empire. The often forgotten prosperity of the Anglo-Saxons was fuelled by booming trade, productive agriculture and mining of the abundant resources across England.
Frustratingly, there is a stubborn myth that the island of Britain and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, in particular, was some backwater shit hole of no worth, regardless of all evidence pointing to the opposite. Gold, Iron, Tin, Copper and much more was shipped from the shores of Anglo-Saxon England to the mainland of Europe, in huge quantities.
The prosperous Anglo-Saxon Kingdom was littered by fortified towns known as Burhs and cities, built to repel the many Viking invasions.
The society of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom was divided into an incredibly efficient cohesive state, based around Oaths, Honour and Laws;
Tithings: A group of ten families, who were responsible for maintaining law and order in their community.
Hundreds: A group of ten Tithings, which elected a local Constable to represent the ten Tithings.
Shires, what today we call - Counties (Think Pembrokeshire or Lincolnshire, etc): formed of a collection of Hundreds, the head of the shire was the Shire-reeve, aka a Sheriff. (again, think the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire)
Each Shire had its own law courts and was under the control of an Earl, the system worked so well it was more or less preserved by the Normans.
The glorious Sutton Hoo helmet. Imagine facing...
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