Hello, and thank you for joining me for this Oak Academy history lesson.

My name is Mrs. Knox, and today I'll be guiding you through all of the resources and materials that you need to be successful in this lesson.

So let's get started now.

Our lesson today is part of a unit of work on the Norman Conquest.

In today's lesson, we'll be studying that famous and important battle, the Battle of Hastings.

And by the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe what happened during the Battle of Hastings and how historians can use the Bayeux Tapestry.

Now, in our lesson today, we'll come across some key words, so let's have a look at those now.

The first word that we'll use in today's lesson is the word fyrd, which was a group of local, untrained soldiers called up to fight in Anglo-Saxon England.

We'll also use the word shield wall, which was the defensive line of shields used by the Anglo-Saxon army.

We'll also use the word infantry.

Infantry refers to foot soldiers.

And finally, we'll use the word cavalry, which refers to soldiers on horseback.

Our lesson today will be in two sections, so we'll start now on section one, which will give you a narrative of the Battle of Hastings.

Let's begin by looking at this excerpt from the Bayeux Tapestry.

We'll have an opportunity later in today's lesson to look in more detail at other excerpts of the Bayeux Tapestry and to think about the context of its creation.

You may already know that the Bayeux Tapestry is a very important source for studying the impact of the Norman Conquest.

You can see on the screen just now an extract from the tapestry, which shows William of Normand's army making pretty serious preparations for an invasion and a potential conquest of England.

You may remember that William was absolutely furious that Harold Godwinson had moved quickly after Edward the Confessor's death and stolen the crown and throne of England for himself.

William of Normandy argued that in the previous year, Harold had promised to support William in his own claim to the English throne.

And if that were true, you can imagine why William felt so shocked and angry that Harold had moved against him and claimed the crown for himself.

But William was not the sort of man to allow the grass to grow under his feet and wait to see what happened next.

We've already seen that he managed to get the support of the Pope.

He also had prepared a large army and had a large naval force ready to set sail from Normandy to England across the English channel to fight Harold Godwinson in battle.

In the extract in front of us, we can see some of the arms and the armour, which William's army would've loaded into the ships in order to go to fight Harold, for example, on the right hand side of the excerpt, you can see two men pulling a waggon laden with arms and loads of arrows, which are being dragged down to the sea to be loaded onto the ships.

A little further back, we can see groups of men carrying what looks like armour, which they might be wearing later in the course of battle, along with using other weapons which they're holding in their hands.

So the Bayeux Tapestry is really useful to historians in one sense because it shows the kind of clothing and the kind of armour that people at the time in the 11th century might have gone into battle wearing and holding.

Harold Godwinson had expected an invasion, but he was already distracted by a second invasion of England, which had come from the north.

And this second invasion, which Harold hadn't necessarily been expecting had arrived first, it was launched by the Norwegian, King Harald Hardrada.

Harold therefore had to march his entire army to the north of England, and he had to engage in a battle to defeat Hadrada's army.

Harold's army, unlike the Normans, relied on two major groups.

The first were the housecarls.

Those were the highly trained elite infantry soldiers, which made up Harold's personal bodyguard.

The rest was the fyrd.

The fyrd was made up of agricultural labourers, people who tended to be out working in the fields, who were called up in times of crisis to defend their king and to defend England.

Harold used this army to defeat Hadrada's invasion in the north, but it came at a cost.

When William landed in the South, Harold was about 300 miles away, and his forces were badly depleted.

Many of his best soldiers, the housecarls, had been killed in the north of England.

And so when Harold turned to come back down to the South Coast, he was already at a disadvantage.

Unlike William's army, which was well rested and had travelled on a naval voyage over the sea, Harold's army was exhausted.

They'd marched 250 miles in less than two weeks, and many of his best soldiers had already been killed in battle.

He was reliant, therefore, upon the untrained and the ill-disciplined fyrd.

Okay, it is time to have a check now of your understanding so far.

I'd like you to answer this question.

Why was Harold Godwinson at a disadvantage before the Battle of Hastings? Was it because A, he had little experience of government or warfare? B, his army was tired from the march and many of his best infantry had been killed, or C, he did not speak the same language as his soldiers, which made communication difficult.

Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

That's right, you should have said the correct answer was B.

He was at a disadvantage because his army was tired from the march and many of his best infantry had been killed.

However, the scene was now set for the Battle of Hastings.

Harold Godwinson arrived at the site of the battle first, and he established his forces in a highly advantageous, defensive position on the top of a hill, which was known as Senlac Hill.

Harold Godwinson had a great method for the defence of his soldiers.

The front of his army would form what was known as a shield wall.

One soldier stood next to the other and they interlocked their shields, forming a defensive structure, which was almost impregnable.

It meant that the Normans couldn't get through it.

The Normans were already at something of a disadvantage, strategically speaking, because they had to amass soldiers at the bottom of the hill.

From that location, English arrows could rain down upon them and it would be even more difficult to break through the English shield wall.

You can see in this excerpt from the Bayeux Tapestry that there are many Norman knights on horseback.

Remember, these soldiers are known as cavalry.

The Normans made extensive use of cavalry in battles in the 11th century, but the Anglo-Saxons did not, and this put the Normans at a particular advantage.

As you can also see though in this extract, the cavalry initially found it very difficult to break through the shield wall.

Yes, they could fire arrows at it.

Yes, they could charge their horses at it, but without being able to break through, they weren't able to inflict casualties on the English and they weren't able to win the battle.

So the battle dragged on for several hours, and it's not entirely clear what happened next, but some accounts have it that William was thought to have died.

Now, when the Norman soldiers believed that William of Normandy had been killed, they turned and they ran.

This caused the Anglo-Saxons to get a little bit too confident and to think that they'd won the day.

And so some of them, such as the ill-disciplined members of the fyrd started to chase the fleeing Normans back down the hill.

This broke the Anglo-Saxon shield wall, and because loads of the soldiers were running down the hill, the defensive structure was no longer in place.

Now some sources tell us that at this point, William got onto his horse and lifted his helmet to show his soldiers that he was still alive.

This moment is depicted in this section of the Bayeux Tapestry, and is on the screen now.

William is lifting his helmet, he's pointing at his face, and we can almost imagine him crying to his soldiers, "I'm still alive, keep fighting!" When they see this, the Norman soldiers rally, they get more confident again, they turn back around and then they lead a charge back up the hill.

And this time, the Anglo-Saxon shield wall is no longer in place.

Many of the English soldiers have run down the hill in a frenzy, thinking they've won the day, and so the superior Norman cavalry is able to break through the shield wall and cut the English soldiers to pieces.

But that's only one story.

Another story has it that William engineered the retreat himself, that it wasn't a rumour that he'd been killed.

In fact, he decided to pretend to run away, hoping that it would draw those Anglo-Saxon soldiers off the hill and hoping that it would break the shield wall.

Whatever happened, we certainly know what the outcome of the battle was.

William's soldiers were able to get past the shield wall and many of England's best soldiers were killed.

That included not only Harold Godwinson's brothers, Gyrth and Leofwine, but also Harold Godwinson himself, the one-time king of England.

Can you see a person being killed in this image? Who do you think it could be? Pause the video and look carefully.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have spotted that above the man with an arrow in his eye, as well as the man who's being moan down by a cavalry knight with his sword are the words Harold Rex.

This means Harold King, and indicates where Harold Godwinson appears in the tapestry.

Indeed, this section of the Bayeux Tapestry is thought to depict the death of King Harold Godwinson.

However, two men are shown being killed, one trying to pull this arrow out of his eye, but the other lying on the ground, who seems to be having his legs chopped off at the knees.

We don't know which man Harold Godwinson for certain, historians have speculated that the man who is lying down is wearing armour, which looks very similar to depictions of Harold from earlier in the battle.

But we can't be absolutely sure which of these men, if either of them, shows the king.

You may have heard the very famous story that Harold was killed by an arrow shot to the eye, which proved to be a fatal injury, as you might imagine, but historians won't ever be able to confirm this with a hundred percent certainty.

It's time now for another check of your understanding.

Why did the Anglo-Saxon shield wall allegedly collapse? Was it because A, the shields were too heavy for the soldiers to hold? B, the Norman Cavalry destroyed it, or C, some of the fyrd chase the Normans down the hill? Press pause and then press play for the answer.

You should have said that the reason for the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon shield wall was that some of the fyrd chased the Normans down the hill.

Historians do know for certain that Harold Godwinson died and with his victory secured, William of Normandy was able to march his soldiers on London, take over the city, and have himself crowned in Westminster Abbey, the burial police of Edward the Confessor.

William of Normandy had become William the Conqueror.

He had conquered England, all because of the decisive outcome of the Battle of Hastings.

Here's another true or false question now.

Harold Godwinson the Battle of Hastings.

Is that true or false? Press pause and then press play for the answer.

That's right, you should have said the answer to that question is false.

I'd like you now to write an explanation about why the answer is false.

So press pause now and then press play to see what you could have written.

Your explanation could have said, William of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings and Harold was killed during the battle.

Finally, in this section, I'd like you to complete this task.

You need to place the following events in chronological order in the timeline.

The first one has been done for you.

Press pause to complete your timeline and then press play to see the correct answers.

Welcome back.

Your timeline should look like this.

Firstly, William's army landed in England.

Then, Godwinson's army formed a shield wall.

Next, William's army attacked a shield wall.

Then, William ordered a feigned retreat, and finally, Godwinson was killed.

Well done if you correctly placed all of the events in the right order.

Okay, we're ready now for the second section of our lesson today.

This section will focus on historians and the Bayeux Tapestry.

As we've already seen a couple of times today, the Bayeux Tapestry is an incredibly important source for our study of Norman England.

And thinking back to our inquiry question, if we want to understand what impact the Norman Conquest had, then we can use the Bayeux Tapestry to help us to build an account.

Historians haven't always used the Bayeux tapestry in the same way, so we're going to look at a couple of sections from the tapestry and think about what we might be able to learn from them.

Of course, constructing an account of the Battle of Hastings is a very difficult thing to do.

Just imagine the confusion, the noise, and the chaos and the death involved in any mediaeval battle, particularly one with such high stakes.

It gives you some idea of how difficult it must be to really straighten out exactly what happened.

For these reasons, the Bayeux Tapestry is an invaluable source for understanding what happened on the day and what led to William's victory.

But that doesn't mean that historians can straightforwardly accept everything that the tapestry shows us.

There are many things which need to be considered when working with the tapestry to understand what happened during the battle.

It's also worth saying that the tapestry depicts events from 1065, as well as the Battle of Hastings.

So many issues around the claims to the throne can also be found in the tapestry.

So what sort of questions do you think historians would've asked about this section of the tapestry? Pause the video now and have a think.

Well, they might have asked about the kinds of armour that people wore in battle, or they might have asked about the kind of weapons that people used, even how things were transported if they were particularly heavy.

You can see from this one short extract, the range of questions which historians are able to ask about sources such as the Bayeux Tapestry.

Let's pause now and just have a quick check again of your understanding.

What does the Bayeux Tapestry depict? Is it A, the events of 1065-66, including the Battle of Hastings, B, William's consolidation of power after the Battle of Hastings, or C, London citizens' reaction to news of the Battle of Hastings? Press pause and then press play to hear the answer.

That's right.

You should have said the correct answer is A.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events of 1065-66, including the Battle of Hastings.

When they're considering the Bayeux Tapestry, historians also need to think carefully about the context of its production.

We know or can say with at least some certainty that the tapestry was commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother, Odo of Bayeux.

Odo was a bishop, but also a fearsome warrior.

And Odo had this peace commissioned partly to strengthen William's claim to the throne and partly to promote his own role in the conquest.

So there are many occasions where Odo seems to be playing a very central role in the events of 1066.

Historians might have to stop and think, was Odo really that important or has Odo asked that he is made to seem that important because he's the one who commissioned the source.

That's one way in which historians can read or look at a source carefully to unpick the meaning within it.

It's also worth saying that the tapestry was probably produced in England, probably somewhere in the vicinity of Canterbury in Kent, in the South East, and probably around the year 1069.

This means that there are certain quirks to the tapestry which don't appear in any of the other sources.

For example, look at this excerpt.

We can see Harold sitting on his throne and we can see that Harold is described here as king, rex, in Latin.

No Norman source ever refers to Harold as king or rex.

They might call him count or perhaps duke, but they never refer to him as king.

That's because the later Norman sources essentially pretend that Harold never was the legitimate king.

They say that he was an usurper who had stolen the throne from the rightful heir, William of Normandy, and so they don't give him that title.

It's very interesting, therefore, that the Bayeux Tapestry does.

Perhaps it tells us something about the attitudes of the people who embroidered it.

Perhaps they believe that he had been the rightful king and they refer to him in that way.

Or perhaps it tells us about Odo's attitude, perhaps more broadly, the Norman attitude in the year 1069.

At that point, perhaps the Normans hadn't quite decided to write Harold's kingship outta history in the way that they did later.

Perhaps in 1069, the Normans did call Harold, king, even though they didn't think he had the best claim to the throne.

So the Bayeux Tapestry gives us a different perspective on some of these questions, which we can't get from other sources.

Historians can use the tapestry to work out how Norman attitudes changed, but also to think about the context in which it was produced.

Let's look at another example now.

You might remember this section from earlier in the lesson.

It shows the death of Harold Godwinson during the Battle of Hastings.

As we said earlier, however, it's impossible to tell which of the men is supposed to represent Harold.

Is it the man on the left with the arrow in his eye, or is it the man lying on the right, being hacked to pieces with the sword? Historians will never know with absolute certainty which of these men represents Harold, if either of them, or indeed if they're both meant to represent Harold at different points in the battle.

Nevertheless, this section is really interesting because it is the only contemporary source that provides us with a detailed description, or in this case, a depiction of the way in which Harold met his end.

However, we can't ever say that this is exactly how it happened, and we can't corroborate this with another source.

Nevertheless, it perhaps gives us an insight into how some people, Odo, perhaps, who commissioned the tapestry, wanted Harold's death to be portrayed.

Without the Bayeux Tapestry, we've never have had this insight into the Battle of Hastings.

Alright, it is time for another check of your understanding again.

True or false, the Bayeux Tapestry is a useful source for historians studying the Battle of Hastings.

Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

That's right, you should have said the correct answer is true.

I'd like to pause the video again now and write an explanation about why the answer to the question is true.

For your explanation, you could have written that although the tapestry does not provide an entirely accurate account of the battle, it does contain detailed descriptions of the armour and the weapons used at the time.

Historians can get round some of the questions about reliability by looking to other sources from the time to try to corroborate what they've seen in the Bayeux Tapestry.

This section is a really good example of that.

It depicts the deaths of Harold's brothers, Gyrth and Leofwine, who were both important Anglo-Saxon nobleman in their own right.

The deaths of these brothers were also described in some of the other written sources, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which dates to the time.

So by using different sources together, historians can build up a more accurate picture of what happened in 1066 and how the Battle of Hastings unfolded.

In this way, although historians can learn a lot from the Bayeux Tapestry on its own, they don't necessarily always study it in isolation.

They look at it alongside other sources to build up a fuller picture of the past.

Here's another check of your understanding.

How can historians corroborate the events depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry? A, they could look at other contemporary sources.

B, they can trust that the events took place as depicted, or C, they could look it up in a school textbook.

Press pause and then press play for the correct answer.

You should have said, the correct answer is A, historians can look at other contemporary sources.

Finally, here's another check of your understanding now.

The Bayeux Tapestry provides a comprehensive account of the Battle of Hastings.

Press pause and then press play when you're ready to hear the answer.

The correct answer is false.

Press pause and write an explanation about why the answer is false.

You could have said that the Bayeux Tapestry is just one source used by historians to build up a fuller picture of the Battle of Hastings.

It's now time to put everything you've learned in this section into practise.

Firstly, I'd like you to explain why each of the following is something that historians need to consider when using the Bayeux Tapestry to study the Battle of Hastings.

Firstly, it was commissioned by Odo of Bayeux.

Secondly, it was crafted by people near Canterbury in England.

And finally, some sections do not appear in other sources.

Press pause, and when you're ready to hear what you could have written, press play.

For the first point, you could have said that it was commissioned by Odo of Bayeux, which means that Odo's role in the events of 1066 may be overstated.

Also, it was crafted by people near Canterbury in England, which means that some of its sections may be sympathetic to Harold Godwinson's claim.

And finally, some sections do not appear in other sources, which means they are difficult to corroborate.

Finally, today I'd like you to answer this question.

Explain in two or three sentences how historians have attempted to overcome some of the difficulties with using the Bayeux Tapestry.

Press pause, and then when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

You could have said that historians have attempted to overcome some of the difficulties when using the Bayeux Tapestry by corroborating sections of the tapestry with other sources.

For example, the deaths of Harold Godwinson's brothers are also described in the Gesta Guillelmi and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, suggesting that this event did likely happen during the Battle of Hastings as the tapestry depicts.

We've now reached the end of our lesson today, so it's time for a quick summary.

The Battle of Hastings was fought between the armies of Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy in 1066.

Harold's force mainly consisted of fyrd, whilst William had a mix of infantry, cavalry, and archers.

William was victorious and Harold was killed during the battle.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts events from 1065-66, including the Battle of Hastings, and Godwinson's death.

Historians have been able to corroborate many details from the tapestry with information provided in other sources, such as the Gesta Guillelmi and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

However, they must be mindful of the sources provenance.

Many thanks for your hard work in our lesson together today.

I hope that you feel confident that you've understood the material, and I hope that you'll join me for a future Oak Academy history lesson.