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Documentary, 1066 A Year to Conquer England S01E03
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00:00Late afternoon, Wednesday the 27th of September, the year is 1066, and a vast
00:13Norman battle force is bent on the destruction of Anglo-Saxon England.
00:24But 1066 is about far more than just the Battle of Hastings.
00:30This is the story of three kings, three battles, and three invasions, of 12 months that transformed Britain.
00:43As well as Harold of England, and Duke William of Normandy.
00:48Do you recognise me?
00:50There was also a Viking, King Harold Hardrada, all facing off in a series of bloodbaths.
01:00That brought an end to the long terror of the Vikings.
01:06Before finally, the epic Battle of Hastings itself.
01:10What 1066 led to is stamped on our landscape.
01:20The Normans forged a new Britain, with language, laws, and customs we still live with today.
01:27But just how the Normans seized such power is much less clear.
01:36Now I'm travelling Europe in search of answers.
01:45Experiment with weapons and tactics.
01:48I mean, that is completely terrifying.
01:50You could chop someone in half.
01:51And discovering revelations hidden within a unique document, written just months after those great battles.
01:59What it essentially says is that William sent in a dedicated death squirt.
02:03To reveal a bitter tale of family betrayals.
02:09My brother is a lying dog.
02:12And tragic twists of fate.
02:14Soon we will be filling England's graveyard.
02:17Which would change the shape of Britain.
02:20March to battle.
02:21Europe and Europe forever.
02:26Shall we do battle?
02:31This is the real story of 1066.
02:34Early morning.
02:57And Harold of England is in York, 200 miles north of London.
03:01Just three days have passed since the Anglo-Saxon king fought for his kingdom and his life.
03:14The battle for York at Stamford Bridge was a watershed in British history.
03:22Harold had killed his rival brother, the exiled Earl Tostig, ending a bitter family feud.
03:31And the Viking, King Harold Hardrada, had died a warrior's death in his bid for immortal glory.
03:41The English victory marked the beginning of the end of the great Viking age of conquest.
03:47Harold has destroyed two of his great foes in a single battle.
03:58But he has no idea that 300 miles away, William and 700 Norman ships are now bearing down on England's southern shores.
04:09After months of planning and preparation, William was finally making his bid for the English crown.
04:17He believed it was his right, he believed that God was on his side, and he was certain that it was just a matter of time before Anglo-Saxon King Harold was toppled from his throne, dead or alive.
04:29William by 1066 is at the height of his power, he's getting on 40 years old, he's been very successful in defending and expanding his duchy of Normandy, and now he has his eyes set on the prize that he was promised 15 years earlier, the throne of England.
04:48William has been trapped in port for two long months.
05:06Now finally at sea, it seems his troubles are far from over.
05:12Where are they?
05:17William's ship is adrift, alone in the channel.
05:23William sent a man up the mast to try and spot the rest of the fleet, but it was nowhere to be seen.
05:29Trying to appear unconcerned, he sat down and ate a hearty breakfast accompanied by spiced wine, but he must have been feeling sick inside.
05:36He'd spent most of 1066 and vast amounts of money gathering this invasion fleet, and now, it seemed to have just disappeared.
05:49Having faced delays and vicious storms, William had taken a massive risk, sailing into changeable autumn winds and bad visibility.
06:06But as his fleet appeared in the distance, he knew that at last, the great invasion was on.
06:18I said, yeah.
06:23With King Harold in the north, and his navy stood down, William sails on unopposed.
06:30Already, he's closer to London than the English king himself, without a single arrow being fired.
06:47I've invited two historians to get inside the heads of our remaining rival warriors.
06:54I've been wronged before God, and now I will have my vengeance.
06:58Harold of England.
07:03And William of Normandy.
07:07They'll explore the thinking behind their battle plans.
07:11Then I'm going to send in my fleets into the channel to block you in case you try and get back to Normandy.
07:18As the two warlords gear up for the final battle.
07:21So here I come, crossing the channel, heading for Pevensey in Sussex.
07:29And what adds to my sense of achievement is that Pevensey is in the earldom of Wessex, which is your heartland.
07:36So that is a delicious seasoning for my revenge.
07:40I feel excited, and now I can see with my own eyes what my spies have been telling me.
07:45That the south coast is indeed undefended.
07:48And what that means is that I can land and build a base unopposed.
07:54Things could hardly be going better for me.
07:58Well, I was waiting on the Isle of Wight for you to attack for weeks, and you did nothing.
08:04So I assumed you'd given up, at least for now.
08:07No.
08:08And also, summer is over.
08:10We all know it's incredibly difficult to cross the channel in the autumn.
08:14So I reasonably assumed you would wait until the spring before you tried anything else.
08:18You underestimated me.
08:19OK, well, things haven't panned out as I expected either.
08:22I am up in the north.
08:25I've been fighting off the Vikings and Tostig.
08:29All I want to do is get to London and get some rest.
08:329am.
08:56By the grace of God, I have taken hold of my kingdom.
09:00England is in my hands.
09:02This was a classic moment of William the politician, where you take something that
09:07could be a terrible omen, you know, he falls head first, the failure of his mission,
09:11and instead it's turned into a sign of God's total support for his rule, his success, his kingdom.
09:25William began to dig in here at Peventy and quickly captured the neighbouring town of Hastings.
09:32William was thinking of the nation.
09:33Over the course of the next 24 hours,
09:37an estimated 14 000 men 3 000 horses and tons of supplies came ashore
09:44to establish a powerful base which would eventually become this norman castle
09:53conquest couldn't have been easier
09:58where were the english soldiers to fight them off where were the tough anglo-saxon warriors to drive
10:04them back into the sea where was king harold to repel duke william they were all hundreds of miles away
10:16harold doesn't even know that william has left france let alone landed
10:23but william also has to make guesses because he doesn't know the fate of harold hardrada
10:29and his great viking army
10:34so what i do know is that you have headed north to confront hardrada and you have taken your
10:39army with you but who has won the great battle that i have to assume has been fought and most saliently
10:46from my point of view who am i going to be facing in battle is it going to be harold of norway
10:52no one knows exactly when the terrible news of william's arrival reached harold 300 miles away to the
11:10north but we can work out what might have happened bad news travels fast we know that messengers were
11:20able to ride around the clock constantly using fresh horses now horse can gallop up to 30 miles an hour
11:27for short periods so by constantly using fresh horses it's possible that the word could have traveled
11:33from pevensey down here to york in as little as a day the news must have been a body blow to harold
11:42he'd just fought one great battle to secure his kingdom and now he realized that he faced another
11:48possibly even bloodier fight
11:58six days after william's landing and a still battle weary harold rides south for london
12:04with william securing his base and taking land the english king is in deep trouble
12:17all his life harold had been in the right place at the right time born into the most powerful family
12:24in england he'd been at the previous king's deathbed he'd managed to win the support of the ruling nobles
12:35and he'd move fast to defeat his brother and the great viking invasion
12:43but now harold was still more than 200 miles away from mounting a defense of his kingdom
12:49and after york his own force was badly depleted
12:57harold would have to do as best he could without many of his best men as he marched south to london
13:02he ordered that a new army be raised he was determined to repeat his success at stamford bridge
13:08to repel the invader and secure his crown
13:11the obvious thing to do is to keep going south and to take you on in battle but that's not my only
13:19option because i can sit and wait it out in london your provisions are going to run out winter is on
13:26its way it's only a matter of time before your supplies give up well by now i have heard about your
13:33victory at stanford bridge and i think it's reasonable to assume that you have heard about my landing
13:39i want to goad you into attacking me while you are still exhausted and so to that end i am literally
13:47branding my authority on the countryside of sussex i am sending my troops out to put villages to the torch
13:58to kill the locals and i'm doing that because i am banking on the fact that that will infuriate
14:05you and thinking that i'm going to be honest here makes me smile
14:24what do we do now fight in our country destroying our lands and our people we have no choice
14:31when harold returns to london there's a big debate about whether they should go immediately and
14:36confront the normans or wait until the army has been properly assembled his brother and his mother
14:42are both keen to wait and pause but harold is incredibly impatient you might be the king but
14:48i am your mother this isn't around me this is about england look let me go and fight william you stay
14:56here never but if you fight you may die i'll do my duty listen to me if we fight william without you
15:03you can raise reinforcements to back us up and if we fail you can defeat william while he's weak
15:08okay with clear eyes i can see that girth's plan is sensible he comes in and fights you first then i
15:21come in with a second wave and finish you off but in the heat of the moment i'm not going to listen to
15:27plans like that and that's exactly what i want to happen my tactics are working by ravaging your
15:32heartlands i've goaded you and i'm luring you into battle with the result that you are behaving
15:37intemperately you can't see straight for your anger look it's my job to defend my kingdom
15:47just three days later harold leads his army south from london towards hastings and william
15:58look i am going to come down there and i am going to defeat you i'm going to keep marching
16:03south with my men to hastings then i'm going to send in my fleets into the channel to block you
16:09in case you try and get back to normandy but my primary game plan is to do what works so well for
16:16me at stanford bridge which is to get to you fast and take you by surprise well that may be your plan
16:22but you are forgetting one thing i'm sending my cavalry out on reconnaissance they're tracking your every
16:28move you think you're going to take me by surprise you've got another thing coming
16:35as harold march south he was joined by fresh troops along the way but he was also met by an envoy sent
16:41by william in an effort to persuade him to back down
16:54well my lord would like to remind you that he is the rightful king of england both king edward and
17:03yourself promised it to him you know how i feel about that the duke has a solution to put his case
17:10against you before judgment by the law of the english or of the normans as you prefer edward on his
17:17deathbed named me his successor if they decree by right that you ought to possess this kingdom let
17:22you possess it in peace fine then let the duke take his army back to normandy but if they agree it
17:29should be surrendered to the duke william you must abandon it i will not be judged for my kingdom
17:36my lord if you reject this the duke does not consider it right that either his men
17:42or yours should fall in battle for they have no guilt in your dispute so what then the duke offers
17:50to fight you head to head in single combat to prove the kingdom should be his rather than yours by right
17:59then he takes me for a fool may god this day judge the right between me and the william we march
18:09today march to battle
18:39on the night of friday the 13th of october the two sides camped around eight miles apart
18:52apparently william feared a night attack so he made his men stand two through the night ready for battle
18:58a chronicler tells us that while the normans spent the night in prayer the english partied and drank
19:09the night in prayer the night of friday the night of friday i suspect this is norman propaganda
19:15some of those englishmen would have fought at stanford bridge and have marched down south with harold
19:21the others are there defending their own lands defending their kingdom
19:26i doubt they were drunkenly carousing because nobody really wants to fight with a hangover
19:30harold harold must face one more day of battle he knows that victory would make him untouchable a great
19:41warrior king to rival any who has gone before defeat would mean the fall of anglo-saxon england
19:51and almost certain death william meanwhile is rested and prepared
20:11victory would make him one of europe's richest
20:14and most powerful leaders transformed before god from a duke into a king
20:27both know that the future of england is about to be written in blood
20:44and
20:52may this day
20:55the most sacred powers invested in me by our father
20:59lead us to victory over wickedness
21:02and bring everlasting peace to this land
21:14i've been dreaming of this for months
21:20i've been wronged before god
21:22and now i will have my vengeance today is my day god wills it
21:29not if i can help it i am already marching south towards you and my soldiers are on their metal
21:37we can meet you anywhere and i am planning on being ready at the first chance to attack
21:43well don't think that i'm sitting around praying all morning i've got no intention of letting you come
21:50and attack me down in hastings so i will be marching northwards along the road that leads from hastings
21:56to london to london and my plan is to stop you marching any further south into my territory
22:10william's army emerging from a forest on a distant hill
22:25william can finally ready himself for battle
22:39william can finally ready himself for battle
22:42william william can finally reach out to the first place
22:44but his mail coat is back to front
22:57there have been a series of very unfortunate mishaps for william
23:01he loses his fleet halfway across the channel he stumbles as soon as he sets foot on english soil
23:12and he puts his mail coat on the wrong way around now this would have terrified any normal man
23:20but william just laughs it off as far as he's concerned he has every right to the english throne
23:27he has every right to the right to the right to the right to the right to the right to the right
23:32brave men of britney brave men of burgundy christians won it all
23:39today we fight under god's banner victory will be ours once more
23:50meanwhile harold sees the norman army in the distance
23:57what harold did next is detailed in a unique document that takes us to the very heart of events
24:04that autumn day nearly 1 000 years ago
24:13hidden in the national library in brussels is an ancient book containing an epic poem
24:20the carmen or song of the battle of hastings is our earliest surviving account of 1066
24:28it gives us a blow-by-blow description of this pivotal moment in history
24:33this is the battle of hastings laid bare from the first move to the last death
24:40it tells us a little about the way harold deployed his forces um so you have a line here that says
24:51there was a hill nearby that they seized and it was told the english english english ut mosses as was there
24:57won't uh dense art in pro gradientes so they advance to occupy the hill in their famous dense formation the shield wall
25:07so harold is telling us begins the battle by seizing the high ground
25:11and one of the most seismic moments in british history has become the stuff of tourism
25:25this is the town of battle eight miles from hastings
25:35and it stands right next to the historic site itself
25:38on the early morning of the 14th of october 1066 the english and the normans faced each other on this
25:47battlefield the anglo-saxon chronicle said that the battle took place near the hoary apple tree
26:00okay so we are well halfway third of the way up this big gentle but quite long slope is this no man's
26:07land now effectively at the beginning of the battle i suppose we are so what you have to imagine
26:11that's about behind me forget about all the ruined buildings you can see behind me that's the later abbey
26:16right at the top of the slope beyond what you can see of the ruined buildings is where harold has
26:20placed his standards i'm feeling pretty good about where we are we've got the better position we're in
26:27a good tight formation all we need to do is hold this position for the rest of the day
26:32behind you the bottom of the valley is where you're going to find duke williams army and they're at an
26:39immediate disadvantage because we imagine that the bottom of the valley is rather marshy very damp
26:45they're going to come through that damp land and then start climbing the hill to take harold's position
26:49it's true that we absolutely do have the worst position we're going to have to take the battle to
26:55you we're going to have to go uphill and that's always a challenging thing to do yeah knackering and
26:59quite intimidating that's the english army up there and they're not going to be moved easily
27:03that's the english army up there shouting at you shouting oops oops oops you've got the norman army
27:09apparently singing the song of roland as they approach the sound of trumpets at the start of
27:13the battle you've got the noise the fanfare the adrenaline and the fear as the norman advance
27:19comes onto the saxon we do have certain advantages we for instance have three lines of battle here in the
27:27front we have our archers and then behind them we have a line of infantry and then behind them our
27:35strike force our cavalry and looking around i can see that you have absolutely no cavalry on the field
27:42at all and that leads me to conclude that you are going to be fighting in the old-fashioned plodding
27:48english way that you always do and that makes me feel good about our prospects before the sun sets
27:56you will have honor fame and riches do not fear we will not be slaughtered
28:05or captured and mocked by our enemy now is the time to dare
28:10and then to rejoice in a triumph that will echo down the centuries with our names and our deeds
28:24the stage was set for a day that would shape the future of britain and europe
28:32the unfolding dramas of 1066 ever since the death of the old childless king edward the confessor
28:40had come to this two great armies and a field
28:509 a.m battle begins
28:57my first order is to my archers
29:00volley after volley is aimed up the hill at the english line
29:14a rain of arrows was a terrifying sight
29:16that's just gone clean through it shows how much power there is in that bow there's a lot of
29:36velocity it was only really the rich who had all that mail and all that helmet so there's a lot of
29:40vulnerable people on that battlefield and if you're vulnerable that's going to happen to you and the
29:45advantage of this is you don't have to be up close and personal you can actually be what 100 meters
29:50almost 200 meters away from someone and still do them great damage if you're selecting an individual
29:54then you're probably 20 50 meters away if you're raining it down then you can be 200 meters back so yeah
30:00it's one thing worrying about the threat on the ground the guys coming but you've also got an aerial
30:04threat exactly
30:16but my archers are just the first wave they're a kind of softener
30:19next up the hill i send my infantry and they too are a fearsome proposition armed as they are
30:25with daggers with axes and with swords
30:45the great thing is that our shield wall means that you can't actually do any major damage so we grab
30:53hold of everything we can lay our hands on spears sticks rocks and we hurl them at your incoming
30:59infantry okay but you are yet to face my most lethal weapon of all something that you english wielding your
31:08axes rooted to the spot as you are will find a truly terrifying novelty my cavalry
31:23the normans and the english do warfare in quite different ways and the main difference is that
31:30the normans have cavalry whereas the english because they've been fighting the vikings for a century or
31:36so do things in a more scandinavian way they ride to battle but then they dismount and fight on foot
31:42so the norman elite does have this advantage
31:50but it wasn't a done deal for the norman cavalry
31:56facing them was a wall of linked shields
32:00this was a sturdy defense perfected against the vikings
32:04and it was said to be virtually impenetrable
32:15so with the help of some local sixth formers from battle i'm going to put it to the test
32:21now the idea behind a shield wall is that individually we are weak together we are
32:27you've got it there you go interlocking wall of shields right all right guys i'm coming right
32:34in the middle here like king harold here we go brace yourselves one two three go
32:42okay hold them hold them hold them guys
32:47okay so now we are in the formation that the anglo-saxons are in and as you can see it does
32:53give you great strength you're all working together you can get your body weight and you can withstand
32:56anything coming at you it feels impenetrable especially when the normans have had to attack
33:01all the way up the hill as well they've been knackered oh my god the english were so tightly packed
33:06together that there was hardly any room for the slain men to fall to the ground here we go push them
33:12back one two three go
33:15william's invasion force used to the european style of agile fighting on horseback had never
33:28encountered a solid old-fashioned english shield wall before
33:37so all i need to do is to hold fast behind the shield wall let you do all of the running
33:45you're advancing again and again uphill now i know that if i can hold this until nightfall i've
33:52probably got a pretty good chance of winning the battle you'll be exhausted then i can call for
33:59reinforcements from across england okay so the battle has been going on now for a couple of hours and i
34:04will confess i am starting to feel just a little bit worried i am painfully aware that i have to break
34:10your shield wall and force victory by nightfall and so it is that i send in wave after wave of attack
34:16my archers my infantry my cavalry in a desperate attempt to defeat you
34:29noon and the battle is locked in stalemate after three hours of repeated attacks william is failing to
34:38break through
34:43then without warning an entire flank of william's army turns and runs away from the english line
34:53this unexpected turn of events has long been the subject of debate just what was going on
35:01could william's well-trained soldiers really have simply turned and fled
35:08the ancient sources disagree some say that william's men were fleeing defeated by the english shield wall
35:18but the very earliest account of the battle contains a revelation
35:23the carmen talks about this episode um and it says
35:27and as if beat a cunningly simulated flight so in other words it's a ruse it's a feigned retreat
35:42yes of course it's a tactical move we normans do it all the time it is a tried and tested maneuver because
35:48you see the thing is if you can convince an enemy that they have victory within their grasp then you
35:54can persuade them to leave the security of their shield wall and your men certainly
35:59have been suckered look at that my trap is working beautifully
36:05smelling victory the english charge in pursuit
36:12meanwhile in the norman camp a terrible rumor begins to spread
36:17that william himself is dead now in medieval battles the death of a commander usually meant
36:25the end certain defeat william's line began to waver but william was not dead he removed his helmet
36:32showing his face to his men look at me
36:37you recognize me
36:42i'm alive
36:49i've seen a lot of fighting and i know that at moments like this you have to show your face
36:54and rally your men and it works they turn round and hack the pursuing english to death again and again
37:03they attack the shield wall and twice we try the fainted retreat and twice your men come pouring down
37:13the hill now i sense a real shift in the fortunes of battle here and an opportunity because your
37:21previously solid shield wall is now perforated with gaping holes
37:35harold's impregnable defense has splintered
37:41the norman retreats have opened up the battle into fluid and brutal close-up fighting
37:51okay we are rapidly losing our advantage and being forced to fight on open ground
37:59we're going to have to step up and fight hard hand to hand face to face everything seems to have
38:06turned around in a matter of minutes i was completely in control of the situation and now i'm not
38:21on the ground
38:26now william's cavalry has the freedom to wreak terror
38:33while on the ground vicious weapons are inflicting terrible carnage on both sides
38:40it's basically a dagger stabbing weapon of course a dagger stabbing weapon is is repeated
38:45again and again and again come in nice and close choose your target
38:50oh i just went through like a knife through butter
38:55god there was no effort there at all was it no what's next i think we're going with the classic
38:59the norman sword okay here we go
39:01i mean that is completely terrifying you could chop someone in half you you don't need words when
39:12you see that unprotected flesh and that's what it's going to do it's terrifying and that's not the
39:18most devastating weapon in the arse here we go the axe dain axe battle axe
39:33that's a terrifying weapon it's thuggery isn't it i mean it's just brutality it's very worse
39:48early afternoon battle has now been raging for a grueling five hours
40:00conscripts mercenaries and nobles on both sides fall
40:08including the very highest of harold's anglo-saxon royal family
40:27harold's brother girth was cut down the carmen says it was by william himself
40:32harold's great ally and advisor girth the brother who stood by his side since before his coronation
40:45right through the battles of stamford bridge and now hastings
40:51is dead
41:02the afternoon wears on
41:14and william's cavalry continues to charge
41:22but his archers are also still at work
41:26the very soldiers who began the battle
41:29are about to end it bringing england to its knees
41:45herald has been king of england since the 6th of january
42:01he's fought off a fearsome viking invasion
42:04and he's given his all to defend his kingdom
42:14now after just 281 days
42:20england is once more without a king
42:23the death of king harold in 1066 is one of the most famous moments in all of british history
42:40it lies at the heart of our nation's story and is immortalized in the bio tapestry
42:51but there's more to this great legend than it seems
42:54the chronicles aren't very clear about exactly how harold died
43:04it's a good 35 years after the conquest when we're told then that harold was pierced by a lethal arrow
43:11and then it's another 30 years when we get a bit more detail so william of malmesbury in his chronicle
43:16tells us that it was a sagite violato caribro it was an arrow which pierced his brain
43:24and then 10 years after that another historian finally tells us that in fact harold was killed
43:30by an arrow in his eye and so it's taken a good 60 years for this apparently vital
43:37piece of information about harold's death to finally be stated outright
43:41our very earliest source the carmen written just months after the battle of hastings tells a very
43:52different story another revelation that doesn't even involve an arrow at all
44:02instead it describes a much much nastier death for harold
44:07what it essentially says is that william sent in a dedicated death squad deliberately to take harold
44:16out now it's unclear from the latin whether william is personally part of that death squad but it does
44:23describe in detail the way harold is supposed to have died we are told that in the first place he is
44:28pierced in the chest secondly his head is sliced from his shoulders
44:37thirdly he's disemboweled and fourthly and finally it says abscidit coxam portus
44:48his thigh is removed and almost certainly that is a euphemism for his genitals being cut off
44:56now this even by medieval standards is shockingly brutal behavior to inflict on an anointed king
45:07so 950 years on our popular image of the death of harold could be wrong
45:15instead of a single arrow a death squad sent to assassinate and then mutilate the english king
45:37we'll never be absolutely certain now harold died but we can be fairly sure that his death marked a
45:41turning point
45:44with harold's death the english army collapsed an ordered defense had become a bloodbath
45:51and then a rout
45:58the english tried to flee but the normans hacked them down
46:02the norman
46:05victorious
46:15Amid the carnage of a spent battle, William sets up camp.
46:36He has meat cooked for him and eats amongst the dead and the dying.
46:45There are several stories about what happened to Harold's courts.
46:53One is that it was picked out on the battlefield by his mistress, Edith Swanwick.
46:58She was able to tell it apart because of certain marks known only to herself.
47:03Another is that Harold's mother, Gither, offered Duke William the body's weight in gold for its return.
47:11But William refused.
47:15Some sources say that Harold was buried close to the battlefield itself on a clifftop looking out to sea.
47:22We also have later records from Waltham Abbey which claim that that is where he was buried,
47:26the monastery which he had built and endowed and enriched.
47:31And that's possible but dubious, partly because the last thing the Normans would have wanted
47:35would be to create the focal point for a cult of Harold.
47:38But it wasn't just Harold that died on this battlefield.
47:46The elite of England was annihilated.
47:49The Battle of Hastings marked the death of Anglo-Saxon England.
47:53Throughout the course of 1066, three great warlords had fought for the prized crown of England.
48:07Harold Godwinson, the Viking Harold Hardrada, and William.
48:14Now, only the Norman Duke is left alive.
48:22Victory is at last his.
48:25But still, he is not yet a king.
48:28News of William's victory reaches Westminster in hours.
48:45The surviving English nobles must decide.
48:48To submit to the Normans, or fight on.
48:53What do we do now?
48:56Well, we have a ready-made king.
49:00But you can't expect Edgar to defeat William in battle.
49:03But he's the heir.
49:04We must put right before might.
49:07But you'd be throwing him to the wolves.
49:08What choice do we have?
49:12Drink this, sir.
49:15Just ten months earlier, Harold had sidelined the teenage prince,
49:20Edward the Confessor's closest blood relative.
49:23Ever since, Edgar the Athling had lived at court,
49:30untroubled and uninvolved in the dangerous politics surrounding him.
49:35Now, Edgar is the last desperate hope.
49:41The remaining Anglo-Saxon nobles elect him to be their new king.
49:45Meanwhile, William waits in Hastings, expecting to be offered the crown.
49:54But two weeks pass, and still no word comes from London.
50:02In our war room, only one historian is still standing.
50:11Clearly, then, I'm left with very little choice but to force them to submit to me.
50:16I'm going to have to do what I do best.
50:20So I take my army, and I head east towards Dover.
50:25I attack it, and then I move on Canterbury.
50:29Both of them quickly, and I must say sensibly, submit.
50:33Then it's on westwards towards London.
50:36At Southwark, the Londoners refuse to allow me across the Thames.
50:41They block my access.
50:42It's frustrating, and it's pointless,
50:44because they have no prospect now of holding me off in the long run.
50:49I continue westwards until I reach a bridging point at Wallingford.
50:54Once I'm over the Thames, I head back east towards London.
50:59William and his army marched on.
51:08The nobles supporting Edgar quickly realised that any resistance was impossible.
51:20The end came here in Berkhamstead.
51:24A market town in Hertfordshire, 25 miles to the northwest of London.
51:29William marched his army along this road.
51:35Nowadays, it's Berkhamstead High Street,
51:37but back then it was the Roman road leading directly to the heart of London.
51:42William was getting closer and closer.
51:44It seemed like nothing could stop him now.
51:53William set up camp on this spot.
51:55And it was here, in early December,
52:00that the English leaders finally rode out from London
52:03to submit to him.
52:07Mind the delegation that came here to Berkhamstead,
52:10there were senior clergy, nobles,
52:12even Edgar the Etheling,
52:14whose brief hopes of being king
52:16were now snuffed out.
52:18These surrendering Englishmen meekly requested of the conqueror.
52:24Would he be their new king?
52:29William rode unopposed into London
52:32and began to fully enforce Norman rule on England.
52:36Christmas Day, 1066.
53:00The illegitimate Duke William is anointed King William I.
53:13William the Conqueror.
53:16When the assembled crowd of English and Normans
53:26were asked whether it was their will that William be king,
53:29they cheered so loudly
53:31that the Norman guards positioned outside the abbey
53:34panicked and thought it was a riot.
53:36So they set fire to the surrounding houses.
53:39William's coronation is hurriedly concluded.
53:52But just as with all the mishaps that have beset him
53:55on his journey to the English throne,
53:59William remains triumphant.
54:04William sat alone on his newly acquired throne
54:07as Westminster burned around him.
54:11It was a fitting start to the bloody rule of the Normans.
54:21William's coronation was far from the end
54:24of his fight for control of England.
54:27There would be years of bloody rebellion,
54:30insurrection and instability,
54:33especially in the Wild North.
54:37William built a secure operations base,
54:43the Tower of London.
54:47He ruthlessly destroyed any opposition,
54:51killing tens of thousands of ordinary people
54:53and laying waste to huge swathes of the country.
55:01The chronicler, Alderic Vitalis,
55:03wrote that William was guilty of wholesale massacre
55:06and barbarous homicide.
55:09Eventually, he'd replace any English nobleman left alive
55:13after the Battle of Hastings with his own Norman barons,
55:17taking the wealth and the land and giving it to his supporters.
55:20This was a Norman takeover.
55:23It was the biggest transfer in land ownership in English history.
55:28The old ruling class of England,
55:31the aristocracy, is swept clean away.
55:33So you have 10,000 Englishmen replaced
55:36by 10,000 continental newcomers
55:38who speak a different language
55:40and who have very different ideas in their head
55:43about the way society should be.
55:45The Norman invasion changes everything.
55:48Of course, there's a new ruling dynasty,
55:50but there are more obvious signs of change,
55:54notably the architecture of the Normans.
55:57Suddenly, we have these vast cathedrals and castles
56:00dominating the landscape.
56:02The language changes, the traditions, the laws.
56:05It's a sea change in England.
56:08And they bring ideas of how you treat human beings.
56:13They bring chivalry.
56:15They abolish slavery.
56:18In every respect,
56:20England is massively transformed by the Norman conquest.
56:24You know, forget about the English Civil War,
56:26forget about the Reformation.
56:27This is the single greatest change
56:29that England and the English ever experienced.
56:32And it wasn't only England that was transformed.
56:421066 saw the demise of the Anglo-Saxons.
56:49But also the end of the great Viking Age of Conquest.
56:53From now on, England looked not north and east
57:00to Denmark and Scandinavia,
57:02but south to France and Rome.
57:08Europe had shifted on its axis.
57:14It had taken almost exactly one year
57:17for William to plan and execute his invasion of England.
57:20It would take him many more years
57:30to subdue the English people.
57:37Eventually, he would return to Normandy
57:39to fight over his borders at home.
57:43But England was now firmly Norman,
57:47moving into a new future.
57:48William ended up spending most of his reign back in Normandy.
58:00And it was there, eventually, in 1087, that he died.
58:03A fat and bloated shadow his former warrior self.
58:07It was the end of one of the most dramatic reigns
58:10in British history.
58:11A reign that saw seismic changes to this country.
58:14The results of which, like William's great tower,
58:19we're still living with to this day.
58:20The world's great, obviously.
58:22And the last one, he took us close to the ground,
58:23a number of people who were alive.
58:27He's just a junior and a half.
58:29But not the first person alive.
58:30But the first person alive,
58:31the third person alive.
58:32The pilots of the season.
58:34The world's great power.
58:35And the third person alive.
58:37All of theGrace will be to be a secret.
58:38And the third person alive.
58:39And the third person alive.
58:41And the third person alive.
58:43The third person alive.
58:44You know what?
58:45The third person's life.
58:46The third person alive.
58:47The third person alive.
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