Weymouth New England Genealogy

The Battle of Hastings: At Hastings, the two sides were fairly evenly matched, with estimates of numbers varying from 3,000 to 7,000. The Normans were fresh, however, and their armoured knights on horsebacl and archsers proved decisive. According to Ordericus Vitalis, the Norman monk-historian, the battle as fought "with greatest fury" from nine in the morning until the evening. The English walls of sheidls, axes and spears stood firm under onslaught from arrows and horsemen. At one point William, unhorsed, was feared dead, but he took off his helmet, shouting, 'See, I am here, I am still living and by God's help shall yet have the victory.' When English troops broke ranks to pursue Normans feigning flight, they were swiftly cut to pieces. By dusk, Harold was dead, along with his brothers Leofwin and Girth, and the hilltop was strewn with bodies. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle comments philosophically '... the Frenchmen had posession of the place with carnage, all as God granted them for the people's sins'.

William I had won a huge gamble, and England was his prize. His followers scooped the rewards, taking over lands from defeated and disposessed English nobles. William prescribed a government on England that in some ways went further than anything to be found in Normandy. The common people were still able to invoke customary laws, but in great matters such as landholding, taxation and military organization, the Normans imposed their own system.