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The Battle of Hastings

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The Battle of Hastings is probably the best-known and perhaps the most significant battle in English history.

Its effects were deeply felt at the time, causing a lasting shift in cultural identity and national pride.

Jim Bradbury here explores the full military background to the battle and investigates both the sources for our knowledge of what actually happened in 1066 and the role that the battle plays in national myth.The Battle of Hastings starts by looking at the Normans - who they were, where they came from - and the career of William before 1066.

Next, Jim Bradbury turns to the Saxons in England, and to Harold Godwineson, successor to Edward the Confessor, and his attempts to create unity in the divided kingdom.

This provides the background to an examination of the military development of the two sides up to 1066, detailing differences in tactics, arms and armour.

The core of the book is a move-by-move reconstruction of the battle, including the advance planning, the site, the composition of the two armies and the use of archers, feigned flights and the death of Harold.

In looking at the consequences of the battle, Jim Bradbury deals with the conquest of England and the on going resistance to the Normans.

The effects of the conquest are also seen in the building of castles and developments in feudalism, and in links with Normandy which revealed themselves particularly in church appointments.This is the first time a military historian has attempted to make accessible to the general reader all that is known about the Battle of Hastings and to present as deatiled a reconstruction as is possible.

Furthermore, the author places the battle in the military context of eleventh-century Europe, painting a vivid picture of the soldiery, weapons and horses as they struggled for victory.

This is a book that anyone interested in England's most famous battle will find indispensable.

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Product Details
The History Press Ltd
0750937947 / 9780750937948
Paperback / softback
942.021
20/05/2010
United Kingdom
English
viii, 216 p., [32] p. of plates : ill., maps
20 cm
general Learn More
Reprint. Originally published: 1998.