All language subtitles for 1066.A.Year.to.Conquer.England.Series.1.1of3.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup

Late afternoon.

Saturday, the 14th of October.

The year is 1066.

And this is the Battle of Hastings.

But 1066 was about far more than
just one battle.

This is the story of three kings,
three battles and three invasions.

Of 12 months that
transformed Britain.

As well as Harold of England...

..and Duke William of Normandy...

Do you recognise me?

..there was also a Viking,
King Harald Hardrada,

all facing off in a series of
bloodbaths...

..that brought an end to
the long terror of the Vikings.

Before, finally,
the epic Battle of Hastings itself.

In a few bloody hours, the
Anglo-Saxon world was swept aside.

It was the greatest rupture
in British history.

What it led to is stamped
on our landscape.

The Normans forged a new Britain

with language, laws and customs
we still live with today.

But just how a tiny region of France

seized such power
is much less clear.

Now I'm going to travel Europe
in search of answers...

Come on!

..experiment with weapons
and tactics...

That is terrifying.

..and discover revelations hidden
within a unique document

written just months after
those great battles...

The Carmen tells us that Harald died
in a very different way.

..to reveal a bitter tale of
family betrayals...

My brother is a lying dog.

..and tragic twists of fate...

Soon we will be filling England's
graveyards.

..which would change
the shape of Britain...

March to battle. ..and Europe...

..forever.

Shall we do battle?

MEN CHEER

This is the real story of 1066.

'They say that becoming king
is a gift from God.'

How is he? He's not going to last.

How long? Not long now.

'But sometimes, it's about being in
the right place at the right time.

'Edward the Confessor is
King of England.

EDWARD MUTTERS

'But his long reign
is coming to an end.'

Close your eyes.

Rest.

We can never be absolutely sure what
happened as Edward lay dying,

but we do know that it led to war

and made 1066 the most famous date
in British history.

To go back to 11th-century England
is to enter a very different world

which lived by different rules.

It's a long time ago -

you have to go back 500 years to the
Tudors and then another 500 years

before them. And the problem is,
we don't know very much about it.

Take the battlefield of Hastings.

Today, there aren't many clues here
that tell us how things went

on that bloody day. And the sources
we do have are fragmentary,

ancient texts which are often
conflicting,

semi-fictional poems and sagas.

There are huge gaps
in our knowledge.

This was a world still emerging
from the Dark Ages,

where reality mingled
with epic tales...

..myths and legends...

to create stories we have been

telling ourselves for almost
1,000 years.

I want to try and get to the heart
of what actually happened

in that extraordinary year,

a year that began with King Edward
on his deathbed.

EDWARD MUTTERS

'The problem is that the old king
is childless.

'England has no successor.'

It's just a fever. God is with you.

'Across Europe, three powerful
warlords are watching...

'..and waiting.'

Come on, bloody well mean it!

'200 miles south of London,

'a 38-year-old illegitimate duke
rules with an iron fist.'

It's not that hard!

'William of Normandy has fought

'his way to the top
since the age of seven.'

At least he can do it.

'He expects to be the next
King of England.

'Because he claims that Edward
himself has promised him the crown.

'Nearly 1,000 miles north.

'The Viking Harald III
is King of Norway.'

You really should know better.
I mean, where's your gratitude?

I keep you and your parents safe
and you see fit

to ignore your responsibilities.

You need to pay your count.

You simply leave me no choice.

'He'll be known in time as Hardrada,
the hard ruler.'

Not that I don't enjoy hearing you
squeal like a wretched hog,

but that's enough.

Now, crawl home and tell
your neighbours

what happens when you
don't pay your dues.

Out of my sight.

'Hardrada is a Viking warrior,
of the old school.'

That's that sorted.

'The Vikings ruled England
just 30 years ago.'

He did squeal, didn't he?

'Perhaps their time will
come again.'

You've been a strong king.

You defended the kingdom...

..under the eyes of God Almighty.

'Harold Godwinson
is the third contender.

'He's the King's brother-in-law...'

Amen.

'..and the power behind
Edward's throne.'

You created God's kingdom
here on earth.

And I will look after it for you.

I owe it to you as my king.

And as my friend.

England is in safe hands.

'Three warriors...

'..all lusting for Edward's crown...

'..and the English throne.'

I've asked three historians to step
into the world of 1066

and enter the minds of our
three competing warlords.

This is lies, lies, lies.

All you ever speak are lies.

They'll explore the thinking behind
their battle plans.

And that's the moment
for my secret weapon.

And this is a glorious bloodbath.

William of Normandy...

..Harold Godwinson...

..and Harold Hardrada.

I'm here in Norway and the Vikings

take a pretty keen interest
in England.

And by a keen interest, I mean,
in the ninth century, the Danes,

another group of Vikings,
had conquered and colonised England,

splitting it effectively in two.

Between 1016 and 1042 the whole of
England was under Viking rule,

so when I looked from
Norway at England

I just see part of
a Scandinavian empire,

a place just waiting to be
reconquered.

The land I rule, Normandy, is indeed
small compared with England

and with Norway. But...

I'm at the head of
a terrifying war machine

and I'm a man of
indomitable ambition.

HE SCREAMS

And I know that beyond this
tantalisingly narrow strip of water

England is waiting, promising me
land, plunder, and perhaps,

above all, the chance to become
an anointed king.

I'm really not worried
about foreign invasion.

After all, we are an island,
not easy to get into.

Really, Norway, you have not been
a threat for 50 years.

Normandy, you're tiny and you're so
busy fighting amongst yourselves

and fighting with the rest of France

that you're not a threat to me
at all. I am sitting pretty.

In 1066,
England was a glittering jewel.

It was prosperous, it was wealthy,

it had the most sophisticated
financial system in Europe.

It was remarkably well organised,
very centralised.

The King sat right in the middle
of it all.

Taxes flowed in to
the Royal Treasury,

making the monarch the richest man
in the kingdom.

King Edward spent years using his

vast wealth to build
a new royal base

right on the River Thames.

Upstream, to the west of London.

Nowadays, Westminster is the cradle
of British power and Parliament.

But 950 years ago it was
a very different scene.

Back then it was just a scrap of

English countryside
a mile upriver

from the bustling City of London,

home to nothing more than
a small monastery.

Until, that is,

King Edward the Confessor decided
to build a palace there

and commission a mighty church.

A great symbol of his power,
piety and wealth,

Westminster Abbey.

This was a massive labour of
religious devotion.

And by 1066,
his work was almost complete.

But Edward wouldn't live
to see it finished.

Instead, the abbey would become
his burial place.

Edward's tomb still stands
at its heart.

The previous kings of Anglo-Saxon
England, going back to the time

when they're Kings of Wessex,
their capital was Winchester,

but Edward is creating a new seat
of royal power at Westminster.

We are told because it is a pretty
spot, he liked the monks there,

but also because it's conveniently
close to London,

and London is taking
over as a commercial centre,

so there's good political
and economic reasons

for wanting to create
that new seat of power.

Edward the Confessor was not
in the mould of the traditional

warrior king
of the medieval period.

He was much more devout and pious

and was, of course,
later made a saint.

The story goes that Edward's extreme
piety led him to live

a life of marital chastity.

Whether or not that's true,

Edward's childlessness did leave
England with a dangerous problem.

'Three days pass.

'And unexpectedly,
the old king suddenly rallies.'

So this is the only surviving copy
of the Vita Edwardi Regis,

the life of King Edward,

and it gives us this incredible
description of his deathbed,

when Edward hadn't spoken for days,
and then he regained consciousness

and he described
the people gathered around his bed,

this dream he had had, in which
two monks had appeared to him

and given him a prophecy.

And he says then
that he's been told...

SHE SPEAKS LATIN

..within a year and a day
after your death,

God has delivered all his kingdom

into the hands of the enemy.

And devils shall come through all
this land with fire and scorn...

..and the havoc of war.

'A day later,

'King Edward is at last at peace.'

PRIEST SPEAKS LATIN

Amen.

Edward's premonition of disaster was
about to become all too true.

His death was like a starting gun,

triggering the race to seize
the English throne.

'Harold's rivals are at
a disadvantage,

'hundreds of miles away
across the sea.

'While Harold is on the spot.

'And timing is on his side.

'The leading nobles of England have
been in London since Christmas.

'And with no clear heir, it's they
who must choose the next king.'

I came to celebrate
the birth of our saviour.

And now I lament
the death of a king.

A very sad day for England.

A very sad day for us all.

'The Council of Nobles includes one
of Harold's brothers, Gyrth,

'Earl of East Anglia.'

He was a good man. A decent king.
A great king.

But his illness left him weak
and reliant on his true friends.

I think you will find that everybody
here was a true friend to him.

When kings die...

..there is danger in the land.

So we must act quickly and crown
a new king.

Harold was well placed
and had support.

There was just one problem.

Harold still faced a significant
obstacle to becoming king.

Even though he was the most powerful
man in the land,

even though he was the king's
brother-in-law,

he had no direct blood link
with the Crown.

And Edward had left one
blood relative.

Just 14 years old, Edgar the
Atheling was Edward's great-nephew.

Of course, there is the boy.

But he's a boy.

A boy with royal blood.

These times are dangerous.

We don't need a boy.

We need a man. Someone who knows how
to rule, someone who has ruled.

From 1056, Harold has been king
in all but name.

He is Edward's right-hand man, he is
ambitious, he is a proven soldier -

he's the perfect man to become king.

His father Godwin had successfully
built up a great dynasty and also

amassed an enormous fortune of land
and of lordship.

You might think of Godwin
as being the godfather

of Edward the Confessor's regime

and the organisation that he
built up as being a Mafia.

It was very hard to govern England

without that, and so Harold had
become the natural choice.

I do have to acknowledge a lot of it
is down to my father.

Everything I ever learnt about
power and politics

I learned from him.

When he died, King Edward rewarded

me and my brothers
with vast areas of land,

so I got the great prize of Wessex.

My younger brother Gyrth,
he got East Anglia,

another brother got Kent,

another brother, Tostig,

got that great northern earldom
of Northumbria.

So you can see we have pretty much
got the whole country sewn up.

Harold was certainly
the consummate politician.

He knew he had to clinch the deal
and get the King's Council

to make him king. So just a few
minutes after Edward's death,

Harold pulled an ace
from his sleeve.

An astonishing report
of what he claimed

had just happened
in Edward's bedchamber.

In these times of loss
and uncertainty,

a great burden falls upon us all.

I fear the future for us all.

There is nothing to fear
if we have a strong king.

You shouldn't be afraid, my friend.

Edward, in his wisdom,
had planned for this day,

and I know there are those
who are saying that in the end

he was not of sound mind,
but I was there.

He knew what he was saying.

What did he say?

He told me, to my face, that it is
an onerous and grave undertaking...

..to be king.

And I have given my word, friends.

Now, there is much work to be done.

Right, I don't think so.

You really expect me to believe
that Edward made you king?

This is an absolutely shameless
power grab.

It doesn't matter to me if
I convince you,

I only need to convince
the earls of England.

I'm sorry, but you're just in
the wrong place at the wrong time.

But this is the oldest story
in the book.

The deathbed bequest,
how convenient!

Well, neither of you were there,
I was, so I know what happened.

The disputed moment is depicted
in the Bayeux Tapestry,

a 70 metre long work of embroidery
that was sewn in England

a decade after 1066.

It's a vivid cartoon strip

depicting the key events
of that momentous year.

Edward, on his deathbed,
touches Harold's hand,

perhaps naming him as his successor.

Then, after Edward has died,

English nobles hand Harold the crown
and point back towards Edward.

Do these images suggest that Edward
did indeed choose Harold

to succeed him?

We'll never know.

Either way, truth or lie,

the story was one which
the nobles on the King's Council

were happy to go along with.
They knew that they needed a strong,

powerful warrior king,
and Harold was the best candidate.

So, on the 6th of January, 1066,

England buried one king in
the morning and crowned another

in the afternoon.

'Harold is anointed king.

'Just feet away from Edward's
freshly buried body.'

This gets worse and worse!

This is shocking behaviour!

The holy convention is that a king
is only crowned months after

he has been elected,
but Edward is still basically warm!

All the nobles are gathered
in Westminster,

they've been there since Christmas
waiting for the king to die.

What am I going to do, send them all
home and then get them back

in a few months so they can see me
getting crowned?

No, the sensible thing is for me
to be crowned right here, right now.

Harold had beaten his rivals and won
the great prize of the English crown

but his glory would be short-lived.

As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle put it,

"Earl Harold was consecrated king,

"but he met with little quiet
as long as he ruled the realm."

'Across the sea, Harold's rivals

'haven't yet heard news
of Edward's death,

'let alone reports of the English
earl's rapid rise to the throne.

'William is 200 miles away across
the Channel in Rouen,

'the largest city in Normandy.

'The Viking Harold Hardrada
is even further away,

'in the uplands of Norway.'

Let the flames cure our wayward
peasants of their disloyalty.

'But Harold knows that their state

'of ignorance will very soon
come to an end.

'Just seven days into 1066

'and Harold wakes
for the first time as king.'

Firstly, it would have made him

three times richer,
this is wonderful.

He is suddenly
a multi-multibillionaire.

But he would have hoped
that the process of being crowned

would have made him special.

He had a great devotion to God

and it must have made
a difference to him

to be recognised by God
as a different kind of man,

because a king is a different
kind of man from an earl.

A king has a connection with God
that an earl does not.

Does it feel good?

Not bad.

No, there is much to do.

We have enemies everywhere.
Here and abroad.

Keep your friends close
and your enemies fearful.

Brussels.

In the 11th century,

this was home to little more than a
small religious shrine in Flanders.

Today, Brussels houses a secret...

..preserved for nearly 1,000 years.

Hidden in the bowels of
the Belgian National Library

is an extraordinarily
precious manuscript.

A fragile book containing
an epic poem,

surviving only in this unique copy.

For decades, historians thought
these words were written generations

after the Norman conquest.

But now it is widely accepted
that this

is our very earliest account
of 1066,

written just months after
the Battle of Hastings.

It's packed with vivid details
that challenge much

of what we thought we knew.

This document is the
Carmen de Hastingae Proelio,

the song or poem of
the Battle of Hastings.

And it does have some
very vivid descriptions

and it talks about Harold, and it
paints him in very black terms.

There's a line here that begins...

HE READS LATIN

"Meanwhile, that emboldened
inheritor of the blackest deceit."

He is described at one point
as a "fatuous rex", a stupid king.

Elsewhere in the manuscript,
Harold is described

as "sceleratus," wicked.

This is what this manuscript
is about,

it's not trying to give us
an impartial history.

The author tells us
in his prologue

that he is writing
to praise William.

So it's incredibly partisan.

Partisan it might be,

but the Carmen gives us
valuable clues

as to what Harold's rivals
would think of him

as soon as they found out
that he'd seized the crown.

And in early January, 1066,
news was travelling fast.

So how long did it take for the news
to reach William in Rouen?

There are basically two routes
it might have travelled by.

One is down the Thames by boat,

around the coast of Kent through the
Straits of Dover and down that way.

The other is by horseback from
London to the south coast and then

on a longship straight across
the Channel.

By horseback it took about a day
and a half to go from London

to the south coast,
then with a following wind,

a day to get across the Channel
and a bit longer to get up the river

here to Rouen, so William could have

heard the news in as little
as three days.

My lord.

William.

I bring news from England.

Good King Edward has died.

May his soul rest in peace.

The English have crowned a new king.

Harold Godwinson.

How? Edward decreed it
on his deathbed.

Why? It makes no sense.

When was he crowned?
On the very same day

Edward was buried,
and in the same place.

Godwinson!

William wasn't a man
to take things lying down.

Within the pages of the Carmen,

William is described
in marked contrast

to the fatuous, wicked Harold.

The Carmen describes William
as the hero at every point.

So here, for example,
there's a line that says...

HE READS LATIN

"He was full of virtue,
a bold knight."

You'd expect that from the Carmen
because it's written for

William's court, possibly even
for William's own ears.

What's interesting, though, is,

whichever source you look at
for this period,

whether it's French or Norman
or even English,

William is described
in similar terms.

In terms of his ability as
a general, he is a bold knight,

he is a fearless warrior,

he is a great conqueror.

William was utterly ruthless,
the most feared warrior in Europe.

He had been chiselled into this
fearsome character

from his very early years.

He was also intensely pious
and very frugal in his habits,

but above all else,
he was utterly unforgiving.

Never let it be forgotten that
I am ultimately of Viking stock.

I am the great-great-great-grandson

of a Viking warlord
who 150 years ago

settled in Normandy
and made it his own.

And over the succeeding 150 years,

he and his successors carved out
what has become

the most militarily potent duchy
in the whole of France.

We are Normans,
a name that ultimately derives

from our origin, Northmen.

Listen, you can call yourself what
you like, but you've changed.

You've come down here,
you settled down,

you built yourself
some nice castles,

you're even practising Christianity.

I mean, I'm really sorry
to say this,

but you've basically gone French.

Yes. I am proud to be Christian.

Et oui. I speak French.

But in my appetite for war...

I will conquer!

..I'm true to my ancestors.

I'm still pretty Viking.

William's childhood had been
deeply traumatic.

He had been born here in 1028,

at the castle that towers over
the small town of Falaise.

William's pedigree
wasn't entirely aristocratic.

Sure enough, his father was Robert,
Duke of Normandy, but his mother was

the daughter of a tanner,
a beautiful young woman

called Herleva with whom Robert
had a brief affair.

So William was a bastard.

William's father had died
when he was just seven.

Normandy had become a war zone,

as competing factions
fought for power.

William had to grow up fast.

On one occasion,
his steward had his throat slit

as he slept in the bed next to him.

Another time, William had to escape
from assassination

by galloping cross-country
on horseback.

William himself said
in his older years,

"I was schooled in warfare
since I was a child."

A brutal childhood
had shaped William,

turning him into a duke who ruled
through terror.

Trust and loyalty.

That's all.

Not too much to ask, eh?

Next time,
perhaps your charming wife

and sweet children will join us.

In 1051, when William
was in his early 20s,

the people of the town of Alencon

rebelled against him,
beat on animal skins -

a cheap joke about him being
the illegitimate son

of a tanner's daughter.

William didn't find it funny.

He stormed the town and seized
32 of the men

and had their hands
and feet cut off.

William was a man you definitely
didn't want to cross.

And Harold Godwinson
had done just that.

What's more, William commanded the
most feared soldiers in Europe...

..the Norman knights.

Their use of cavalry put them
at the very cutting edge

of medieval warfare.

Horses can be terrifying.

So I want you to get a feel of what
that might be like.

So, we've got our five horsemen
there and I'm going to get them

to come screaming up at you.
Stay still...

..let the horses make a choice,

and get an idea of what it might
have been like

to face a horse
at a full-out charge.

You all right?

Perfect. Thanks very much.
Think of England.

OK, when you're ready, guys.

Canter. March.

Five enormous horses coming
straight towards me.

And the noise, their breathing,
that's what really gets you.

I can feel the ground shaking.

They going to leave a gap?

Right, I could have touched those
on both sides as they went past.

That was pretty terrifying.

That's just the horses themselves.

Just being that close to the beasts
moving, that speed was terrifying,

but if the men on top had had their
weapons and been trying to kill me,

that would have been...

unimaginable.

For the English, this was something
completely new.

What is it with the Normans
and cavalry?

I mean, why did they get it,

have horses and were such fantastic
cavalrymen,

where other people weren't?

I think it comes down to the fact
that they're in Europe,

and so you get the influences from
the East and it comes across.

The Spanish horses are all sort of
bred along,

whereas the Saxons, on their little
island, have their native breeds,

so this is a new type of horse
on the battlefield.

So, although the Saxons rode horses
around and used them for farm work

and stuff, they weren't
as high-quality?

No, exactly. The native breeds you
sort of see today

are very similar to the ones they
would have had - short, stout,

mile after mile at this lovely amble
and they can get from A to B,

but this is a very different type
of horse altogether.

Do you reckon you can show me
how to do it?

I'll give it a go, absolutely.

If you get up on the horse...
OK. ..get yourself ready,

and then we'll show you
the various ways

of being able to use
the lance at speed.

Their chief weapon was
a sharpened spear,

the forerunner of
the medieval lance.

So, pick it up. Heft it somewhere
in the middle, get a feel for it.

And then bring the point down
towards me.

Now you've got an overhand grip.

If you wanted to attack,
you'd extend the arm a bit,

and you're using the stirrup
and the back of the saddle

to use the whole energy of that
horse to drive it forward.

The other option is to swap your
knuckles over so your knuckles

are underneath, and now you'll find
that you can come up

and you can stab on the off side,
the nearside, stabbing down,

certainly if people are now trying
to grab you from the saddle.

Come on, let's go. Come on.

Oh!

William knew he had a war machine
to take on any king,

if he needed to.

THEY PRAY

But in the 11th century,

there was more to power than having
an iron heart and a strong army.

All three warlords needed
political connections.

And very often these came through
choosing the right wife.

Amen. Amen.

Oh, yeah, I really do adore my wife,
Matilda.

She is tough and I trust her
absolutely.

But I have to admit that she also
has political appeals.

I need all the friends I can get

and the father of Matilda is
the Duke of Flanders.

Flanders is key strategically.

It is rich.

And Matilda is gorgeous.

So, essentially,
what is not to like?

Well, I'm not actually married in
the eyes of the church like you are,

but I have been with Edith
for 20 years.

We're married in
the Danish tradition,

which means that the Church doesn't
actually bless it and recognise it,

but the majority of England do
recognise it. It's very common.

Here's the news -
I've got two wives.

I found the first in Russia.

She's called Elisiv.

Very influential,
very powerful Russian family.

My second wife is from home
here in Norway.

She's called Tora.

She's from a very influential
Norwegian family.

Now, both of these women bring me
wealth, they bring me power,

they bring me influence.

Oh, I think that my wife
brings more to the table

than either of yours put together.

Russia, Norway - what kind of
significance do they have

down here in the cockpit of power?

Look at Flanders -

controlling the narrowest point
across the Channel.

So, Flanders, Matilda, both of them
are absolutely key to my plans.

By 1066, William was 38 years old.

He was in peak form.

He'd been Duke of Normandy
for 30 years.

Now his duchy was strong
and powerful,

his enemies and rivals defeated.

Now, he was looking for new lands
to conquer.

Above all, he wanted England.

'William responds to news of
Harold's coronation immediately.

'His envoy reaches London
within days.'

I bring a message from my lord,
the Duke of Normandy.

Oh.

How is my dear friend?

He is ill at ease.

My lord wishes you to know
his displeasure at recent events.

You must understand the unforeseen
position my lord finds himself in.

William says you are a usurper.

That he is the legitimate heir
to Edward's throne.

He demands that you yield
the kingdom to him.

What?

And be his servant?

My lord reminds you
that you swore an oath to him

and that he has a God-given right
to the throne.

My lord, Edward, God rest his soul,
gave me his dying wish.

Get out of my sight.

Bastard.

Big mistake. William now made
a momentous decision.

If Harold wasn't going to relinquish
the throne,

William was going to go to war.

He was going to raise an army,

invade England
and take the crown by force.

This wasn't just something
that William thought he could do,

it was something he thought
he had the right to do.

Because William claimed that he'd
been promised the throne of England

not just once, but twice.

First by King Edward back in 1051,

and secondly by Harold himself
just two years earlier in 1064.

When the Vikings had ruled England
30 years earlier, Edward,

then an Anglo-Saxon prince,
had fled to Normandy,

where he'd lived for 20 years.

In 1051, as King, he'd considered
William to be his successor.

Much later,
Harold had also been to Normandy,

making the same pledge to William.

Or at least,
that's what William claimed.

The Norman Chronicles tell us that

in 1051 Edward did indeed promise
the throne to William.

Now in contrast, the English
chronicles, unsurprisingly,

don't say anything about this.

But there is one interesting account
about something that happened

in 1051, because we're told
in one version

of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
that in this year...

SHE READS OLD ENGLISH

"Then, immediately,
Earl William came from across

"the sea with a great troop
of Frenchmen

"and the King received him and
as many of his men as pleased him.

"And then he let him go again."

So, we're told that there was
a meeting between them,

but we're not told any details.

But it is, of course,
a reasonable enough assumption

that Edward must have received him
for a reason,

must have given him something.

You can take my word for it,

15 years ago Edward promised
me the throne.

He was 46 years old.

He had no heir.
I was the obvious choice.

And a promise is a promise.

You have got to be kidding me.

This is the 11th century.

15 years, that's practically
a lifetime.

If he did promise it to you,
which I very much doubt,

do you really think that a promise
made all that time ago still stands?

You're forgetting that you came
to Normandy and you swore to support

my claim to the throne of England
on the relics of saints.

You swore it. And now you are going
back on your oath which you swore

in the face of God.
Oh, utter rubbish.

I promised you nothing.

Harold had made an enemy
of one of Europe's

most feared military leaders.

Amen.

An enemy already planning
Harold's destruction.

But of course,
William wasn't the only warlord

hungry for the crown of England.

Norway.

An ancient Viking heartland.

The kingdom of Harold Hardrada.

MEN SHOUT

News of Edward's death and Harold's
coronation would have travelled

on ships like this.

In the 11th century there were
well-established trade routes,

and one of them led up to
Scandinavia.

It would have taken about a day for
a ship to go down the Thames

and reach the open sea
of the English Channel here.

Then perhaps four or five days up
the east coast of Britain

to the Viking-held islands
in Orkney and Shetland.

Across to Norway,
two days with a following wind,

and a day in land to where we know
Harold Hardrada was

in the uplands of Norway,
round about here.

So we can assume that that news
reached Harold on something like

the 20th of January, perhaps ten
days after it reached Duke William.

We don't know how Harold
took that news,

but we do know that the ageing
warrior was now well aware

who he'd have to fight
if he was going to restore

Viking control over England -
he'd have to fight Harold.

'Hardrada's royal camp
high in the Norwegian uplands.

'After years fighting overseas,
Hardrada has to keep order at home

'before he can turn to thoughts
of invasion.'

Einar...

..you of the flailing sword
will drive me from this country

unless I can first persuade you...

..to kiss my thin-lipped axe.

Come on. Come on.

Kissy, kissy, kissy.

Hardrada had spent his youth
fighting his way around the world,

a sword for hire in wars
in Sicily, Russia,

Constantinople and the Holy Land.

He loved killing.

In fact, he wrote a poem about it.

He wrote...

I kill without compunction...

..and remember all my killings.

Treason must be scotched by
fair means or foul

before it overwhelms me.

Hardrada writes poetry even on
the battlefield.

He knows that this is a way of
creating his own mythology,

of recording his great victories
and triumphs for future generations.

And like all good Vikings,
Hardrada knows that the most

important thing a man can leave
behind after

he's died is his reputation.

Oak trees grow from acorns.

I have caused the death of 13
of my enemies.

Like Duke William, we're told by
the sources that Hardrada

was greedy for power
and possessions.

But there was something much deeper
going on in his Viking soul.

He'd failed to conquer Denmark,
and like an ageing boxer,

his time as a powerful,
virile warrior was

running out and he knew it.

Unlike William, for Hardrada
a conquest of England

wasn't just about power,
wealth and prestige,

it was about creating an immortal
Viking legend,

one that would live on forever.

I am 50 years old and by
11th-century standards

that's kicking on a bit,

so I've probably got one big
conquest left in me.

And I think England is going to be
that conquest.

Now, don't forget, historically,
from a Viking point of view,

England's just as much ours
as it is the Anglo-Saxons'.

Invading England is just what
Vikings do, it's in our DNA.

And I tell you this, if we invade,
we'll head straight for the North.

We'll come to a town like York,
full of people with Viking ancestry,

and we'll get a hero's welcome.

'Harold's days of peace
are numbered.

'William is beginning to build
an invasion force.

'While Hardrada dreams of a great,
immortal victory.

'But Harald also faces
a third enemy,

'someone much closer to home.

'As well as Gyrth,
Harald has another brother

'who's not quite so loyal.

'The Earl of Northumbria,
recently exiled from England.

'His name is Tostig.

'Just three weeks into Harold's
reign and family betrayal

'lands on the shores of Normandy.'

My brother, he's a lying dog.

You've come all this way to tell me
what I already know?

He betrayed me too, and I'm family.

I've come here to bring him down.

And why should I trust you?

You share his blood.

I can't help that.
But I can help you.

He's stolen my lands,
he's stolen your crown.

Together, we can destroy him.

Tostig landing in Normandy
was a stunning act of treason.

Here was an English earl
plotting with a Norman duke

to destroy his own brother.

It's only reported in one chronicle,
but if it's true,

it shows just how poisonous
relations had become between Tostig

and his brother Harold.

It also shows just how fragile power
could be in the 11th century.

Tostig is a fascinating character.

He was supposedly more handsome than
Harold and braver than Harold

and he's become Earl of Northumbria.

But Tostig's rule in Northumbria
was chaotic.

He overtaxed the land,
he oppressed the nobles...

In fact, it's thought that he had
three of the nobles of Northumbria

assassinated, and it became too much
for them and they rebelled

and they marched south.

Six months earlier,

Tostig had forced Harold to make
an unenviable decision.

Harold has two choices.

If he supports his brother,
there is going to be a civil war.

Now, the English have learnt, if
there's one thing the 11th century

has taught them,
it is if they fight each other,

then the Vikings are going to invade
and conquer them all.

So there is a stand-off
and Harold, I think,

makes the wise choice that he has
to, you know, sacrifice his brother,

his brother has to go into exile.

Tostig now hated his brother with
every fibre of his being.

He wanted his land back
and he wanted revenge.

Tostig's thirst for vengeance
was so strong

that he didn't stop at William.

He wanted to gain the support of
another great warlord.

According to the Norse sagas,
after his trip to Normandy,

Harold's rebellious brother Tostig
sailed 1,000 miles north to Norway

to petition the Norwegian King.

So, the black sheep
has come to Norway.

How can you be of any use to me?

Most of the nobles in England
hate my brother.

They support me...

and they will support you.

They could make you king.

Do I look like a fool?

There was never born in Scandinavia
a warrior to compare with you.

But England is yours
for the taking.

Invade now and your name
will live forever.

In battle storm we seek no lee.

With skulking head
and bending knee...

..I will out and carve
my name in legend.

'Hardrada and Tostig agreed
to work together

'to assemble an invasion force

'and attack Harold's England
in late summer, from the north.

'Meanwhile, 1,000 miles
to the south,

'William's own preparations
are already well underway.'

By summer we'll be ready.

If it is God's will,
then his will will be done.

'Right now, Harald knows nothing
of either plot

'being hatched from
opposite ends of his kingdom.'

Patience is half of happiness.
King Edward used to say that.

Wise words.

The other half is a sharpened sword.

Harold wasn't stupid.

He was a canny warlord and he knew

all too well the rules of
11th-century realpolitik.

Now, just six weeks after
his coronation,

the new king must have known
an attempt would be made to kill him

and rip the crown from
his bloody head.

The question was, when would that
attack come, and from where?

Next time,
family betrayal turns to war

as Tostig attacks England's
southern shores.

While William raises a vast force
of men and ships.

And Harald fights a marauding
Viking army for his life...

..and his crown.