All language subtitles for 1066.A.Year.to.Conquer.England.Series.1.2of3.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup

April 1066,

12 weeks since Harold Godwinson
was crowned King of England.

Now, there's much work to be done.

Already, two powerful warlords

are plotting to rip the crown
from his head.

Godwinson!

William of Normandy...

..and a Viking,
King Harald Hardrada...

I will carve my name in legend.

..are both planning to launch
vast invasion fleets...

Come on, men!

..to wage war.

1066 is about so much more
than just the Battle of Hastings.

That year, England would endure
three invasions

and three terrible battles.

Three mighty warlords battle
for supremacy on English soil,

and by the end of the year,

only one of them
would still be alive.

What 1066 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 travelling Europe
in search of answers...

These are human bone,
almost certainly.

..experimenting with tactics
and weapons...

Hands by your side for a second.

..and discovering revelations
hidden within a unique document

written just months
after those great battles...

This, even by medieval standards,
is shockingly brutal behaviour.

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

He'll stab you in the back.

..and tragic twists of fate...

We take no notice
of omens and doubters.

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

March to battle.

..and Europe...

..forever.

Shall we do battle?
CHEERING

This is the real story of 1066.

Easter, 1066.

Harold Godwinson rides south
from Northumbria.

Not long now for a decent meal
and some sleep.

As a new king, he must secure
his power right across England.

Harold had grabbed the throne

as soon as
King Edward the Confessor died...

HE PRAYS IN LATIN

..sidelining Edgar,
Edward's great-nephew,

and convincing
the Anglo-Saxon nobles

to elect him instead.

Now, with his loyal brother Gyrth,

Harold has been visiting
the often rebellious Northern Earls.

Well, I think that went well.

At least you got a wife
out of it. Mm.

Do you like her?

I do, but that's not the point.
HE CHUCKLES

The crucial problem
facing Harold in 1066,

was to try to create unity

in the Midlands and the North,

and his way of doing this was
to abandon the wife of 20 years,

Edith Swanneck,
and to marry, instead,

the sister of
the Earls of Northumbria and Mercia,

who's also called Edith.

So, two Ediths? Mm.

Be interesting when they meet. Mm.
HE CHUCKLES

All seemed well in Harold's England,

but the reality was that
the new king was beset by problems,

both at home and abroad.

To the south,
William, Duke of Normandy,

and to the north, the Viking,
King Harald Hardrada,

are both plotting to destroy
Anglo-Saxon England.

Let our enemies gouge out the eyes
of their own brothers.

Then, God willing,

they will be too blind to see
when I take what is mine.

That's the one thing
you can trust about an Englishman -

he'll stab you in the back.

Well, we're going
to stab them in the front.

William was one of the most powerful
and impressive men

in Western Europe at this time,

and he genuinely believed that,
15 years previously,

he had been promised
the throne of England

by England's king,

and he was not going to let anything
get in the way of that claim.

But 1,000 miles to the north,
William has a powerful rival.

HE GRUNTS
Come on!

You useless veslingr!

Even an old man like me
could do better than that.

Come on!

Hardrada is the ultimate Viking.

A despotic warrior who's
battle-hardened from years of war.

Come on!

Hardrada is still ambitious.

Like all Vikings,
he still craves glory

and plunder and fame.

Kiss my thin-lipped axe!

Harold faces danger from overseas,
but also at home,

in the shape of a younger brother
called Tostig.

Tostig had been stripped
of the earldom of Northumbria,

when powerful nobles
rebelled against his tyranny.

To avoid a civil war,
he'd been sent into exile.

Thirsty for revenge,

he had betrayed his brother
by seeking to support William.

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

Together, we can destroy him.

And bitter hatred
had also taken him north

to pledge allegiance to the Vikings.

England is yours for the taking.

Invade now and your name
will live forever.

But Tostig is too angry
to wait for his new allies.

He decides to go it alone.

Two weeks later,
and England is under attack.

Come on, men!

Let's show that filthy bastard!

60 warships are closing in
on the Isle of Wight.

In a vicious act of family betrayal,

Tostig brings war
to his own brother's kingdom.

Soon, we will have landfall.

I've invited three historians

to get inside the heads
of our competing warlords.

This is lies, lies, lies!
All you ever speak are lies.

They'll explore the thinking
behind their battle plans.

We're going to continue down
the coast to the mouth of the Humber

and we're going to attack York.

Harold Godwinson...

..William of Normandy...

..and Harald Hardrada...

..now ask,
"Just what was Tostig up to?"

I can't say that I'm particularly
surprised that he's upset.

He wants his land
and his power back.

But I am surprised
by the way he's going about it.

He is crossing the Channel
from Flanders with 60 ships

and heading for the Isle of Wight.

What does he hope to achieve?

I am as bewildered as you.

It was only a few weeks ago

that Tostig pledged me his support,
so what is he up to?

Is he expecting me
to cross over and join him?

Because if so,
he is making a serious mistake.

I am not going to be ready to launch
my own invasion for months yet.

Well, don't forget that Tostig
has already offered me the chance

to become King of England,
by proposing

a joint invasion from the north
late in the summer.

I've no idea what he's up to.

Maybe his lust for revenge
against you, Harold,

has finally tipped him over the edge

because he's acting
like he's gone totally insane.

Landing unopposed, Tostig ran riot
on the Isle of Wight.

He attacked people, burnt buildings,
and stole food and weapons.

A direct assault
on his brother Harold's authority.

He had to be stopped.

Back in the 11th century,
it would have taken about two days

for news of Tostig's invasion
of the Isle of Wight

to reach Harold in London.

He immediately set off
for the south coast,

and he gathered together what the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes as,

"The largest concentration
of land and naval forces

"ever assembled
by a king of England."

England had a particularly
impressive and sophisticated way

of raising an army at this point.

On the one hand,
there are the personal bodyguard

of the king himself and of all
his main nobles - the housecarls.

These were professional soldiers,
effectively.

In addition to that,
the structure of English governance,

through counties
or shires and hundreds,

enables a king to raise men
from the countryside -

the fyrd, as it's known -

and they will fight
for their locality.

Hearing that his brother was
on his way with overwhelming force,

Tostig fled...

..sailing up the east coast
of England.

He attempted to take land
in the north,

but there he faced his old enemies,

now Harold's newly nurtured allies,
the Northern Earls.

SHOUTING

Tostig's army is outnumbered
and is beaten back...

..but Tostig escapes.

With just 12 remaining ships,

he makes it to the safe haven
of Scotland...

..a convenient northern base
to link up with Harald Hardrada

and the Vikings.

King Harold had been tested for
the first time in his short reign.

He'd managed to repel the first
invasion of England in 1066.

But he must have known
that wouldn't be the only challenge

to his authority that year.

Tostig might have fled,
but Harold knew that,

across the Channel in Normandy,
William's plans were advancing fast.

You have travelled far and wide,
I trust.

Yes, I have left no path untrodden.

There is enthusiasm,
my lord, a fervour...

..even a passion
for your great enterprise.

I sense a "but". Yes.

A small number of nobles
are...a little reticent.

Don't they know what rewards await
them on the other side of the sea?

That's the problem.

They fear the sea
will swallow up their men,

their horses, their boats,
and they will be left with nothing.

It is God who marshals the sea.

With his blessing,
we will fly across the ditch

and put right a wicked wrong.

I have no doubt.

William's headquarters were at Caen.

Now one of Normandy's
largest cities,

in the 11th century
this was a small town,

which William fortified
into a power base.

From his castle,

he set about winning
political support for his invasion.

People would have been
very unsure about the idea

of simply going in
and conquering another country

and killing an anointed king.

The king, of course, Harold,
has been anointed with holy oil.

He is God's chosen representative
of his people,

and therefore
the act of killing him

unsettles people across Europe.

William quickly realised
that he'd need to appeal

to an even higher power
to back him up.

It was time to recruit God.

THEY PRAY IN LATIN

William and his wife Matilda
were devout Christians.

They built two great abbeys
in a grand display of their piety.

William turned to
Pope Alexander II for help.

He sent envoys all the way to Rome
to put his case for the invasion.

Amen.

For William to gain the support of
the Pope was very important to him

in terms of the legitimacy
of his claim,

that he could say that
God upheld his claim over England

and that those who opposed him
were the sinners.

THEY PRAY IN LATIN

The basis of William's case
for invasion

was that Harold was a usurper.

First of all, William said
that Edward the Confessor

had promised him the throne
15 years before,

and Harold had stolen it.

But William had a further ace
up his sleeve.

He said that Harold HIMSELF
had promised him the throne

just two years before.

The story of what happened is told
in our most famous record of 1066...

..the Bayeux Tapestry.

Harold sails across the Channel.

Storms blow him onto French soil,
where he's arrested.

William secures Harold's release
and brings him to Normandy...

..and there, in the key scene,

Harold makes an oath
over holy relics,

promising to support William's claim
to the English throne.

What the Bayeux Tapestry
doesn't explain

is why Harold was at sea
in the first place.

Another unique document
offers a clue.

Hidden in the national library
in Brussels

is an ancient book
containing an epic poem.

The Carmen, or Song,
Of The Battle Of Hastings,

is now regarded as our earliest
surviving account of 1066.

It's packed with details

that challenge much
of what we thought we knew.

The Carmen has
an interesting piece of information

about Harold's trip to Normandy.

There's the line where it says...

HE READS IN LATIN

"William was granted
a ring and a sword."

Now, the ring and the sword
were two of the items

with which you were invested
when you were made a king.

So, this is sort of
strongly suggesting

that Harold was sent
bearing these tokens,

promising William the kingship.

But another ancient writer
suggests that William

may not have been
totally honest himself.

He says that Harold was
in Normandy deliberately,

and he was there
to try and secure the release

of two of his family members,

whom Duke William had been
holding hostage for 15 years.

I wanted to free my brother
and my nephew,

who, I might add,
you had been holding

against their will for years.

Right, we agreed that
I would free your nephew immediately

and that I would free your brother
once I become king.

And there was
one solitary condition... Oh!

..and that was that
you had to give me your backing

as Edward's successor.
Well, there you... That was all.

There you go. You've admitted it.

I wanted to get back safely
to England with my brother,

with my nephew,
so I had to agree to your demands.

But you are admitting
that you swore an oath,

you're admitting
that you swore it on relics,

and that being so, you will agree
that I am within my God-given right

to cross over to England
and to take what is mine.

I think that ANYONE would agree.

William's envoy set out
these arguments to Pope Alexander.

Would he back him in his campaign
against the usurper Harold?

Pope Alexander agreed.
He accepted all William's arguments.

He even went so far
as to issue William

with a papal banner that his men
could carry before them into battle.

It gave William's invasion
the status, almost, of a crusade.

Amen.

God will keep you safe.
He'll need to.

But I believe he will.

ALL CHEER

William was building up his already
mighty military force for invasion.

And now he had God on his side,

all of which was bad news
for King Harold

and for Anglo-Saxon England.

1,000 miles from Normandy,

Harald Hardrada is in communication
with Tostig in Scotland

and preparing his own invasion
from the north.

Are you ready, Asger? Aye, my lord.

Is your axe finely honed?
'Tis, my lord.

Shall we do battle?
CHEERING

Like Duke William, Harald Hardrada
was hungry for more conquests,

and as a Viking, he believed he had
a God-given right to invade England.

It's what the Vikings
had been doing for centuries.

But Hardrada also new that
this was his last throw of the dice.

This was his last chance
to conquer more territory

or cement his own legend.

So, when Harold's
vengeful brother Tostig

encouraged Hardrada
to invade England,

Hardrada leapt at the chance.

Now, I'm assembling my troops
here on the isles

just off the west coast.

Both of you, I think, know that
Vikings know their way around ships.

Well, I've got 500 of them
and 30,000 men,

all of them
battle-hardened warriors,

so this is going to be an invasion
to make the whole of England quake.

The core of Harald Hardrada's army
is made up of his housecarls.

These are his household retinue.

They're professional soldiers,
experienced killers,

battle-hardened
from 16 years of war.

But there's also
another type of warrior,

and that's the berserkers.

These were warriors who were liable
to slip into fits of psychotic rage.

They were impervious to pain.
They had no fear of death.

And I think there could be
little more frightening in a battle

than fighting somebody
who just keeps coming at you,

even when your spear
is in his belly.

I kill without compunction...

..and remember all my killings.

I have caused the death
of 13 of my enemies.

Hardrada was also a poet.

He was a skald, in Viking terms.
He created poetry.

He wanted his name to live forever,

so he did the deeds
and then wrote about them.

I found myself creeping
from forest to forest...

..with little honour.

Who knows?

I may become renowned
far and wide...in the end.

Hardrada believed that victory would
ensure his immortal Viking legacy.

He makes provision for Norway to be
ruled by his son in his absence,

which may suggest that
he doesn't expect to come back,

that he expects
to be ruling England.

With the grace of Saint Olaf
shining down on me...

..I will end my days
King of Norway...

..and King of England.

Thousands of miles apart,

two great forces were preparing
to invade England.

Their target was King Harold,
but there was, in fact,

another possible rival
for the throne,

the natural successor
of the Anglo-Saxon royal dynasty,

a boy whose claim was better
than any of them.

The boy's identity is revealed
in a document from the 1050s.

This is an extraordinary page
from an extraordinary manuscript -

the Liber Vitae, the Book Of Life.

But one particular group of entries
is extremely interesting

cos here, we've got, "Edward rex" -
King Edward -

and, "Edgar clito" -
Edgar Aetheling.

And Aetheling means prince
or throne-worthy individual -

someone who is being groomed
for the succession.

King Edward the Confessor
might have been childless,

but in Edgar
he had a blood relative -

a direct descendant
of Alfred the Great.

But when Edward had died,

Harold hadn't found it hard
to sideline the young prince

in his own bid for the throne.

The problem with Edgar Aetheling
was that he was very young.

He was a teenager at most

and he doesn't seem to have made
any impression on people.

He seems to have hung around
at court doing nothing.

So, throughout 1066, as William and
Hardrada prepared their invasions,

Edgar remained in the background,
watching events unfold.

But by the end of that year,

Edgar would have one more chance
to become king.

Summer.

Harold is now based
on the Isle of Wight,

from where he marshals
the defence of his kingdom.

He's still unaware
of the Viking threat,

or of his brother Tostig's
alliance with Hardrada.

Harold's sole aim is to counter
the expected Norman invasion

from the south.

It's just a matter of time,
that's all.

You heard what they say
about him in Normandy. What?

He burst into tears because some
people called him a common tanner.

He then chopped off
their hands and feet.

HE CHUCKLES

Well, can you blame him?

100 miles to the south,

William is massing
a formidable force of ships,

horses and men at Dives

on the coast of Normandy, near Caen.

Is this it? Everything? Yes.
Ships, horses, men - everything.

Normandy has done you proud.

I suppose it's the beginnings
of an invasion force.

We have an army here that would
have made Charlemagne proud.

Not yet.

But we trust in God.

The exact number of ships that
William had with him here at Dives

has long been the source of debate
amongst historians.

But there is a document from the
time that does give us a few clues.

This is a list of naval obligations
for his nobles,

and it says that 14 of his barons,
plus his wife Matilda,

all contributed 777 ships.

And it says that the total number
of ships with William

was more than 1,000.

By the 4th of August, 1066,

William's vast invasion fleet
was ready to set sail.

But William had a problem.
In order for him and his fleet

to get safely to the other side
of the Channel,

conditions had to be just right,

and the wind kept blowing
from the wrong direction.

So, he waited.

Days passed and
the conditions didn't improve.

William and his army were stuck here
on the wrong side of the Channel.

William is forced to wait.

Every day, he must feed his troops
while they kill nothing but time.

It's been estimated that
William gathered an invasion force

of up to 14,000 men.

That's a lot of mouths to feed.

This was the quantity of bread that
the Normans were eating in 1066.

How many people would eat that?
Not one person? No.

That's the quantity of bread
for five people a day,

compared to this quantity
of bread today.

At the Normans' time,

there was 70% of the alimentation
based on the bread.

70% of their daily intake
is bread? Yeah.

So, imagine how much bread
you'd need for an army of,

you know, around 14,000 people.
Yeah, yeah.

Wagons of flour.

Now, it's been estimated,
if you assume that William had

a force of around 14,000 people
here in Dives,

that would have required
14 tonnes of flour

brought to feed that army every day,

to make 6,000 of these guys
every single day.

That is a huge effort.

Two weeks pass
and still the wind blows.

As well as continuing
to feed his troops,

William must also look after
thousands of Norman horses.

His crack cavalry was essential
to William's plans,

but with it came
an inevitable problem.

With up to 3,000 horses,
that's a lot of manure.

One estimate has it
that William's cavalry produced

around 2,500 tonnes of excrement
while they were in Dives.

You add that
to all the human waste -

perhaps 450 tonnes -
and you get 3,000 tonnes of poo.

That's a lot.

Bonjour, Sebastien. Hello.

How are you doing?
Not too bad. And you?

That is a big pile of manure.
Exactly.

It's fumier in French. Fumier.
How many horses made this?

Two. Two horses? Two horses, yeah.
How long? One week.

Wow. So, imagine what
3,000 horses would produce.

A very big pile.
THEY LAUGH

All that manure spelt danger.

It could spread diseases
like dysentery,

which would put paid
to William's dreams of conquest.

So, William's men had to load up

all that human
and animal waste into carts,

to transport it miles away
from camp, to a safe distance.

That's around
5,000 cartloads of waste

taken out into the countryside.

Yet another two weeks pass.

Summer will soon turn into autumn...

..and William's great plans are
teetering on the edge of collapse.

William was very unlucky.

These kind of hostile conditions

are very unusual in the summer
in the Channel.

We've mocked up a weather chart

showing the kind of conditions that
he faced through the summer of 1066.

Here's a big area of low pressure,

and the wind goes round it
in an anticlockwise fashion.

That means northerly gales
banging in here,

keeping the fleet locked in
at Dives-sur-Mer.

Now, I've sailed
on the Channel a lot,

and you cannot put to sea
in these kind of conditions,

particularly with
the more primitive ships and rig

that they had in the 11th century.

As summer began to turn into autumn,

time was slipping through
William's fingers,

and he must have been getting
completely desperate.

Three warriors, the most
powerful warlords in Europe,

can rule kingdoms...

..but not the weather.

Across the Channel in England,
King Harold waited and waited,

but no invasion came.

The English king must have
been tempted to hope

that his kingdom was secure.

There was no sign of William

and Hardrada hadn't showed
his hand yet, either.

But all that was about to change.

The Vikings are on the move.

The same northerly winds
that keep William trapped in Dives

carry Hardrada towards England,

where he's planning to attack,
with Tostig poised

waiting in his Scottish base.

Soon, we will be filling
England's graveyards

and feeding the crows
on the rotting corpses of her men.

ALL CHEER

Now, the northerly winds
are blowing

me and my Viking warriors
across the North Sea.

Now, this is a distance
of about 300 miles,

and with a north-east wind
at my back,

it should take
two or three days to cross.

So, we stop first at Shetland
to take provisions,

and again at Orkney.

And then I continue down
the east coast of Scotland

towards England.

A week later,

Hardrada joins with Tostig
and his men in Northumbria.

The deposed earl is back,
and so are the Vikings.

Meanwhile, Harold is still
on the Isle of Wight,

oblivious to the immediate danger.

He continues to look
only towards Normandy.

What's the bastard playing at?

Can't wait here forever.

It's now September,

and Harold knows he will soon
have to release his army.

As summer turned to autumn,
King Harold had a big problem.

The two months of service
that his levies had to provide

had come to an end, the English army
was running out of food,

and there was the added pressure
that the men were needed at home

to help gather in the harvest.

Harold's hand was being forced.

He could only hope
that the end of summer

also meant an end to any threat
of an attack from William.

So, on the 8th of September, 1066,
Harold sent his men home

and ordered his fleet
to return to London.

What choice have I got? I can't keep
the army at arms indefinitely.

And anyway, autumn is coming
and I'm pretty sure

you're not going to risk
crossing the Channel

with an invasion force in September.
Actually,

I have no intention of standing
down,

because I learn that you
have stood down your army,

and what that means is that
the south of England

now stands undefended.

Look, I've no idea what's going on
down here in the south,

and, frankly,
I don't really care, either,

because my plan, up in the north,
is going like clockwork.

We're going to continue
down the coast

to the mouth of the Humber.

We're going to sail up
the River Ouse

and we're going to attack York.

York - the ancient
Viking capital of England.

For Hardrada, his first target,

and a base from which
he could conquer the entire country.

Hardrada and Tostig
are poised to take control.

First, the North,
then a march to London

and the prize of Harold's throne.

Three days later, the terrible news

that a Viking fleet has landed
reaches Harold.

What do we do now? Fight.

He's in our country destroying
our lands and our people.

We have no choice.

How incredibly galling for Harold

to discover that, the minute
he's dispersed his great army,

his brother and Hardrada
have invaded.

He's got to put it all back together
again - really quickly.

This is a body blow.

It has come completely
out of the blue.

The only thing I can do
is get my army back together

and head north fast to take you on.

And I have got to gamble that you

are not going to cross
the Channel in autumn.

Then you really do not know me,

because I remain
as determined as ever

to cross the Channel,
reach the south

and strike hard
at your now undefended vitals.

After six weeks of waiting,
William had had enough.

He decided to defy the winds
and set sail.

It would prove to be
a rash decision.

After months of careful planning,
William has to gamble.

He knows that time is running out...

..and so he takes his entire force
from safe harbour into a stormy sea.

It was a disaster.
William lost ships and men.

And instead of crossing the Channel,

he was forced to take refuge
140 miles to the east,

at St Valery in France.

I'm going to admit,
things could be better.

In fact, they are verging
on the desperate.

I have lost ships and I've lost a
large quantity of men in the storm.

On the plus side, I am, of course,
now that much closer to England.

But contrary winds continue to blow

and I am still on the wrong side
of the Channel.

It's very frustrating.

Storm-battered, William's dream
of the English throne

is becoming a nightmare.

Meanwhile,
Harold musters a new army,

but he, too, is on the back foot.

He's a long way south of York

and any chance of meeting
the Viking threat.

Right now, it's the dark horses -
Hardrada and Tostig -

who have a fresh and powerful army
ready to strike.

Facing them, only a regional force
led by the Northern Earls.

Somehow, they must take on
the full might of the Vikings

and their arch enemy, Tostig.

SHOUTING

The two forces met at Fulford,

just two miles
from the gates of York.

Chas Jones has been excavating
the battle site for over 20 years.

Standing here in 1066,
what would we have seen?

Well, we are standing
on a landscape

that the people who were there
would have recognised.

Here, we've got the English

standing on this side of the ditch.

Over there, we've got the Vikings -

round about 6,000 of them
ready to do battle.

What they've got to do is

they've got to get across
this water-filled ditch.

The tide is in,
which is keeping them apart.

They're standing there
shouting at each other,

waiting for the tide to drop, so
they can actually engage in battle.

SHOUTING

The English are lined up here
between the river on the one side

and this swampy higher ground
on the other side.

This blocks the way to York.

Now, this doesn't really bother me,
because I've got a plan.

I've divided my forces in two.

We've got some Vikings here
together with Tostig's men.

They're facing the English.

But I am here with my best troops,

hidden away out of sight,
round a bend in the river.

So, when the tide goes out,

it's going to drain
this ditch of water,

and my front line is going
to advance towards the English.

Now, all the English actually need
to do is hold their lines.

SHOUTING

Astonishingly,
they get drawn into the fight,

and that's the moment
for my secret weapon.

So, I advance with my best troops,
along the bend in the river...

..and I attack the English
from the rear, trapping them...

..and this is a glorious bloodbath.

So, Chas, you have dug
this battlefield, haven't you?

What have you found?
We've found some amazing stuff.

These are bits of bone
which we found at the layer

that we can date
to the 11th century,

so from the time of the battle.

It's very unusual to find just
random bits of bone in the soil

cos people are normally buried.

You do find the odd animal bone,

but these are human bone,
almost certainly.

These are probably rib bones. Wow.

So, you could be holding,
in your hands,

the remains of someone who was
killed in the battle here in 1066?

It's very probable.

Hardrada and Tostig were victorious.

The old Viking capital of York
surrendered to them.

The great prize of England
was within their grasp.

WILLIAM PRAYS IN LATIN

Meanwhile, William is still trapped.

With Harold marching north,

he knows that
southern England lies open,

but the wind still blows,

as the Vikings
take control in the north.

When William is stuck at St Valery
by the contrary winds,

the Carmen comes into its own
as a source

because not only is it
really closely contemporary,

it is also local.

It's written by someone
living in this part of the world,

so it is very well-informed,

and it tells us
that William was in despair.

It talks about him looking
at the weathercock of the church,

waiting to see the way
the wind is going to blow,

and being reduced to tears.

The line that leaps out is...

HE READS IN LATIN

"The tears streaming down
William's cheeks."

It says...
HE READS IN LATIN

"You were in despair."

If ever I have offended you
as your servant...

..give me a sign.

It's just for you, in your name...

..yet you send me torment.

A medieval English writer
adds to the story.

William of Malmesbury tells us that

this was a moment when
everything hung in the balance,

and that all of William's army
began to doubt

that God was in favour
of their enterprise.

And we're told that they began
to mutter amongst themselves.

He says here...
SHE READS IN LATIN

"He is crazy, that man, who wants
to subjugate a foreign land.

"God is against us
because he withholds the wind."

William orders
the relics of Saint Valery

to be paraded through the town

in a bid to inspire
his wavering men...

..and, in a desperate plea to God,
to change the weather.

But the northerly wind still blows.

Five days since
the Vikings took York.

Hardrada and Tostig agree
to exchange prisoners

with the vanquished English
seven miles east of the city...

..at Stamford Bridge.

They're expecting
a small group of unarmed men...

..but they're in for a shock.

Where are they from?

HE SIGHS
It's my brother.

We don't know exactly when Harold
left London to head to York.

We do think he was in the York area
on the 24th of September.

Question is - how long it would
have taken to cover that 200 miles.

Now, horses can travel
25 miles a day, perhaps more,

so it's possible
that he made this journey

in around about seven or eight days.

One thing we know for sure is that
Harold and his men went fast,

and that gave them
their greatest weapon - surprise.

London? Already?

Who else could it be?
Get them ready! Get them up!

SHOUTING
Move!

Not expecting Harold
to travel north so quickly,

the Viking army
is unprepared for battle.

The King of England.
What a puny little man.

THEY CHUCKLE

He's a big man. Yeah, but he's old.

So, we are approaching the Vikings,

but the River Derwent
stands in our way.

And there is
this small wooden bridge,

which we can use to cross over.
Yeah, but we're not stupid.

We know the bridge
is small and narrow.

It's a real bottleneck, which is why

I've sent one of
my best men to defend it,

and he is not going
to let anyone pass.

Legend has it
that the lone Norwegian

heroically stood his ground
on the bridge,

stopping the entire English army
from crossing,

batting away spears and arrows.

But then, some cunning English
soldiers got in a half barrel,

drifted down under the bridge

and killed the Norwegian with
a spear thrust up between the legs.

OK, my man on the bridge
might be dead, but, crucially,

he held up the English forces
for long enough

that Tostig and I could arrange
our troops into this shield wall.

This is an extremely strong
defensive formation

and it's going to repel
any English attacks.

SHOUTING

Andy Deane is an expert
on medieval warfare.

So, when those two armies met
on this field in 1066,

how did they fight?

Well, you've got the two armies
closing the front lines,

and it would be obvious
who the warriors are.

The ones that stand out
are the ones in the armour.

And if we look down here,

you've got a plethora
of different pieces of kit -

the helmet, the armours, the swords,
the shields, the axes.

And the way that it came together,
famously, of course,

would probably be shield to shield.

Yeah, I have got to admit,
this is tough.

My army are trying
repeatedly to attack,

but, frustratingly, they can't
get through the shield wall.

It holds firm.

SHOUTING

But the Vikings had
an Achilles heel.

Many had come to Stamford Bridge
without a key piece of kit...

Do you want to try it on?
Yes, please. Righty-ho.

..their chainmail.

Mail shirts, famously,
are really, really good protection.

Roman auxiliaries are using it
sort of throughout the antiquity,

and it's always been great.

Oh! You're in.
I feel like the Tin Man.

Once you put the helmet on and
the mail coif that goes round you,

the shield and the various
other bits of equipment,

then you become fairly impervious
to most types of attack.

If I was to take a sword to you now,

and these swords are
reasonably sharp...

Put your hands by your side
for a second.

But if I was to basically draw this
across you without the mail on...

..I mean, that would have
opened you up to the bone.

The mortal effect would
probably be the cleaving in,

where we might be able to do...
Go on. Give me a whack.

Give me a whack. Well,
I don't want to break your ribs.

I'll give you a pat.
OK, yeah. All right?

So, the pat would be like that.
Oh! Now, what that "oh" has done

has given you a moment
where you've gone backwards.

And now I've already followed up

and brought the sword
underneath your chin,

through your throat,
into your brain and walked off.

OK. And then I'd have a shield,
as well.

You can use it, obviously,
for protecting, but,

of course, the moment
you raise your arm,

you would naturally...come up.

So, now I can grab it,
bring it down,

thrusting this into your groin
at the same time,

come over and thrust.
I get the message!

And blood and horror everywhere.

There are no rules.

I will bite you, I will kick you,
I will do anything to stay alive.

You just keep going.

Amid the chaos of swords and axes,
Harold also has archers.

BODY THUDS

Hardrada's bid to take
Harold's crown is over.

Tostig fights on
at the head of the Viking force...

..but the English now have
the upper hand.

King Harold had won
an astounding victory.

It's said that he killed
his rebellious brother himself,

cutting off Tostig's head.

But the bloodshed was so severe
that, writing 50 years later,

the historian Orderic Vitalis

said that a great mountain
of dead men's bones

still lay here on the battlefield.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge
was a disaster for the Vikings.

There were so few Viking survivors

that only 24 of a fleet of 300 ships
were needed to take them home.

This massive defeat

marked the beginning of the end
for the Vikings.

From now on,
their power would dwindle.

Harold remained King of England.

He'd killed a troublesome brother

and rid himself of one of
his great rivals for the throne,

but another still remained,

over 300 miles away
in northern France.

Two days after the Viking defeat...

At last. At last!

..and after more than
seven weeks of waiting...

Thank you, Father.

..the winds finally change.

The Norman camp explodes with joy.

It's one of the best bits
in the Carmen

that talks about the knights
rushing to get their arms

and the sailors rushing to the masts

and hoisting the sails
and grabbing their oars,

because they've been waiting
for weeks and months

in the cold and the rain,
and now, all of a sudden,

it's D-Day, game on,
they're going to sail.

No more waiting.

That afternoon, at high tide,
William sails.

700 ships and 14,000 men.

With Harold far away,

the Norman fleet heads for
England's undefended southern coast.

One medieval French chronicler
tells us that

on the proud William's ship
there was a figurehead -

a wooden carving of a boy
holding a copper bow and arrow.

That was now aimed at England.

With God and luck on his side,

William would expect to land
on the English shore

the following morning.

The third attempt
to conquer England in 1066

was about to begin.

Next time...
SHOUTING

..two great armies
face one another...

..and fight in a single day...

..for the heart and soul of England.

HE SCREAMS