In 1066 the most famous Battle in British history took place on this field.
940 years later to the day, in the largest medieval battle re-enactment ever, that battle
is recreated.
On the 14th October 1066, King Harold of England marched his troops to this field in Sussex
to defend his crown against the invading force of Duke William of Normandy.
Today over 3,000 re-enactors come from around the world to recreate the battle.
You've got people from Russia, from Ukraine, from Italy, from France, England of course,
Germany, Austria, there's Americans, Australians, and it’s all over the world.
In total we have been driving for 27 hours to get here.
8 and a half hours on a plane and hour and a half drive.
We have came from Spain and got to take part in this great event, we are very proud to
do it.
One group have even recreated Harold's 350 mile long march to Battle.
We've walked from York, it takes just over three weeks.
We're ready to take on anybody. Over 22,000 people flock to see the re-enactment. The
last time there were this many people here, was during the Battle of Hastings itself.
This is brilliant! Yeah! Us Normans, we're the best!
It is absolutely fantastic. There's something like 100 Norman Cavalry storming up, there's
going to be something like 3000 blokes bashing the hell out of them, and I've seen some chainmail,
and I have got to get it. I'm going to get a helmet, chainmail and a sword! I'm going
to raid the bank account and be in there!
Normans we love ya! You Saxons are going to die!
This will be the largest Medieval re-enactment ever on British soil. Following every twist
and turn of the battle.
Much of what is known about the Battle of Hastings comes from just one tapestry now
in Bayeux. Transforming that record into a physical reality on such a vast scale has
been a labour of love for everyone involved.
It's just the whole excitement of just building it, recreating it and learning it. It's creating
something from nothing based upon a few sketches, a few words in a book here and there and what
you see around you coming up this weekend is just a result of that. And it's the same
passion that everyone here has.
The re-enactors didn't just come to fight the battle, many of them eat sleep and live
just as the soldiers and their followers would have done nearly a millennium before. Whole
families get involved. You tend to start off because you have an interest in the period,
you stay because of the friends that you make, people that you see. Quite a few of us have
got second generations and third generations of families who come.
Great pride is taken in their equipment. Everything has to be accurate within a sixteen year period,
from 1050 to 1066, and historical accuracy is thoroughly policed.
Let me just see under your shoes please. Thank you.
I have been practicing and training and buying equipment and making equipment for four years
for today. I freely admit that this is my midlife crisis I am here today.
Such dedication helps bring medieval history to life in a way that no tapestry or book
ever could.
Right from the beginning it had all these people in the right dress, cooking things
over open fires, and all these fantastic weapons. The kids are able to just pick them all up
and charge about with them for what I could tell.
Actually seeing people in the flesh, dressed in the right stuff, walking around, talking
about their chainmail. Brilliant. Brilliant.
You can answer your own questions, by seeing it for yourself.
To understand what happens during the battle and its re-enactment, understanding the geography
of the site is critical.
The Battle of Hastings has got to be looked at on two levels. Down here and up there.
940 years ago, Harold had arrived first; he took the high ground, where the ruins of the
Abbey are today. Here his best defensive stratagem could be used to maximum advantage. The shield
wall.
The shield wall is trying your best to interlock the shields so spears can't get through. And
literally you'll be there stabbing your opponent in the face, in the eyes, the side of the
next, that's all you could get to. Bloody fun.
As the Normans took up position at the bottom of the hill, English elite troops called Housecarls
taunted them with their huge axes which could kill a man or a horse with one blow.
It's a shock weapon more than anything else. You're chopping people in half, you’ll do
as much damage as possible in the shortest possible time.
The Normans may have been at a disadvantage at the bottom of the hill, but they matched
the English in numbers. Originally each side had around 7,000 men, in all 7 times the number
on the field today. And at his disposal, William had an impressive range of tactics.
He's got the mobility of cavalry, he's got the solid attacking power of the infantry,
and he's got the fire power, the missile potential of his archers. And he managed to use those
in a very clever and coordinated way.
William began the assault. Rather than sending in his heavy infantries straight away, William decided
to thin out the English ranks using his archers. The great thing about the archers is they
were able to stand about 120 to even 200 yards away from the battle zone. And still able
to maim, kill and take out vast chunks of the army. It would have been the first time
that these people had ever seen anything like that.
The arrows rained down on the English, with their shield wall intact and some of their
shields raised above their heads, the English troops survived relatively unscathed.
If William was going to shift the English off the ridge, there was no choice but to
send in the heavily armed infantry.
Fighting at the shield wall was ferocious.
The hand to hand combat at the shield wall is almost beyond our comprehension, to imagine
dirty great big two handed axes swinging through the air from the Saxon side, and slicing heads
and limbs off of men and horses. Screams and shouts, the ground, this slope, would have been slippery
with blood. That was what the Norman infantry had to steel themselves and cavalry to do,
to advance time and time again up against that hill.
For the re-enactors safety is crucial, there is extensive training beforehand to make sure
everyone knows how to fight, but even so this is not a sport for the fainthearted.
Safety is paramount. We don't want anyone going off in an ambulance. In the training
yesterday we had one cut needing stitches, couple that didn't need stitches and one badly
broken finger, that was just in the assessment. On the battlefield, people are going to get
hurt, we know that.
When Harold's warriors refused to budge, William was forced to send in his most powerful weapon,
his cavalry. Many of the 95 horses used today are actually polo ponies, they are used to
fast manoeuvres and long sticks. It means they can charge the line at full speed.
The first thing you hear, then see the horses and then you can feel the horses, the ground
starts to shake and you see them running towards you and they have got steam coming out of
their nostrils and then you're pumped.
But for William, his shock troops were no match for the English shield wall and its
axe wielding warriors.
They stood at the top of the hill with all their shields interlocked with their big axes
swinging around, and those nags came up the hill and they were stunned. Add insult to
injury for the poor old Normans, the Saxons didn't know any better than to smash the horses
with their axes, which was against the rules of war as far as the Normans and French were
concerned because you have got to imagine those horses are very expensive, in modern
terms you're talking like as if they were driving up that hill in Ferraris, and the
English had arrived at the battle in little Fiestas had got out and started scraping their
keys down the side.
The fighting went on all day, as evening fell, William tried one last tactic. He ordered
his men to approach the English line then pretend to retreat, to lure the English out
from the shield wall so he could surround them and cut them down.
The Saxon shield wall which had proved absolutely implacable and unbreakable throughout the
day broke itself. And William was able to send his fast galloping cavalry around the
flanks of these pursuing Saxons. Slaughtering them to a man. In went the Infantry, in went
the cavalry and once those men who had stood all day in that shield wall heard the sound
of horses behind them or around them, they knew the battle was over.
With the shield wall broken the English army lost its vital cohesion. To make matters worse,
just at this critical point a Norman arrow hit King Harold in the eye.
When Harold was wounded, Anglo Saxon military honour was such that you could not leave the
battlefield if your lord was injured or dead. So when Harold was killed the creed of England
stayed here and died. More than anything that really was why it was such a sweeping victory.
The victorious Normans went on to have a huge impact on the English state, culture and language.
Years of preparation went into creating this spectacular event, as interesting and exciting
for the crowd as it was for the re-enactors.