VI. the Second. 1066. BOOK warriors into such an arrangement, that one of his Harold wings reached to the river, and the other was flanked by a ditch and marsh full of water. The banner of the king and the flower of his warriors were on the river. His line at the ditch was weak, and tempted the attack of the earls, the brothersin-law of Harold. They drove the enemy from their position. It was then that Hardrada rushed into the battle, and, with his compact troops, pierced through and divided the pursuing English. Some were driven to the river; some to the marsh and ditch. The slaughter was so great, that the Norwegians traversed the marsh on the bodies of the fallen. 62 The Saxon account confirms the Icelandic: it claims the first advantage for the English, and acknowledges that in the disastrous close, more were pushed into the waters than were slain by the sword. 63 The earls were besieged in York. “ HAROLD, watching anxiously the motions of the duke of Normandy, had stationed his troops on his southern coasts. The success of Haralld Hardrada compelled him to abandon this position of defence, and to march with his army into the North. To repel the king of Norway immediately was essential to his safety; and with this purpose he proceeded towards him so rapidly, as to reach York four days after the defeat of the earls. HARDRADA had been as much reinforced by the friends of Tostig 6, and by those adventurers who 62 Snorre, 155. Orkneyinga Saga, p. 95. The Northerns give the command of the Saxons to Walthiof and Morcar. Walthiof is not mentioned by the English chroniclers in Harold's reign; but in William's reign he occurs with the Northumbrians, as in Hoveden, p. 455. 63 Hoveden, 448. Flor. 429, 65 Snorre, 156. 64 Malmsb. 94. XV. Harold always join the flag of victory, as the time would C H A P. permit; but the sudden presence of the king of England was an incident which he did not anticipate. He had committed his ships to the care of his son, Olaf, with a part of his forces, and had marched with the rest towards the city, to settle the government of the province. The day was beautiful and mild. The sun shone with those pleasing beams which exhilarate the spirits, and give new charms to irradiated nature. But, alas! the drama of ambition was acting in the country, and its melancholy catastrophe was about to scatter round the dismal spectacle of death. Man was hastening to deform the smiling scene with all the massacres of a ferocious battle. On a sudden, the king of Norway saw an army marching towards him. He enquired of Tostig who they were. Tostig stated his hope that they were a supply of his friends; but he knew enough of his brother's activity also to add, that they might be the English forces. The advancing troops were soon discerned to be hostile; and Tostig, wishing a more elaborate preparation, advised a retreat to the ships, that the strength of Norway might join the battle in its most concentrated vigour. The king of Norway was hero enough not to decline an offered combat ; but he sent three swift couriers to command the immediate presence of his other warriors. He drew out his men in a long but not dense line; and, bending back the wings, he formed them into a circle every where of the same depth, with shield touching shield. In the centre the royal banner was planted, not unaptly surnamed the Ravager of the Earth. The peculiar mode in the Second. 1066. VI. the Second. 1066. Haralld BOOK which the cavalry attacked, was the cause of this Harold arrangement. Their custom was to charge promiscuously in an impetuous mass, to fly off, and to return in the same or at some other point. Hardrada was as yet weak in cavalry. It was now but the 25th September, and he had not had time to mount many of his troops. The king of England, on the contrary, came forth with the strength of the island, and of course a large part of his army must have been horse. To secure himself against this superiority, was the first care of the Norwegian. THE first line were ordered to fix their lances obliquely in the ground, with the points inclining towards the enemy, that the cavalry might impale themselves when they charged. The second line held also their spears ready to plunge into the breasts of the horses when near. The archers were joined with the array of Haralld and Tostig, to contribute their efforts to the success of the day. 66 HARDRADA rode round his circle to inspect its order. His horse stumbling, he was thrown to the ground; but he sprang up, and wisely exclaimed, that it was an omen of good. Harold, who observed the incident, thought otherwise. He enquired who that Norwegian was, clothed in a blue tunic, and with a splendid helmet, who had fallen. He was answered, the king of Norway. "He is a large and majestic person," replied Harold, "but his fortune will be disastrous." 67 An offer was sent to Tostig, before the battle joined, to give him Northumbria, and other honours, if he would withdraw from the impending 66 Snorre, 159. 67 Ibid. 160. XV. Harold the Second, conflict. Tostig remarked, that such a proposition CHA P. in the preceding winter would have saved many lives: "But," added he, "if I should accept these terms, what is to be the compensation of the king, my ally ?" "Seven feet of ground, or, as he is a very tall man, perhaps a little more," was the answer. This intimation closed the negotiation, for Tostig was faithful to his friend. 68 THE Norwegians, not having expected a battle on that day, are said to have been without their coats of mail. The king of Norway sung some stanzas on the circumstance, and awaited the attack. His orders were implicitly obeyed. The charges of the English cavalry were received on the implanted points; and while the Norwegians kept their circle unbroken, they repulsed every attack. Weary of their unprevailing efforts, the English began to relax in some confusion, and their adversaries were tempted to pursue. It was then that the fortune of Norway first drooped. The English returned to the charge. The Norwegians were out of their defensive arrangement, and felt the destructive fury of the English weapons. Hardrada encouraged his men by the most heroic exertions; but he could not bind victory to his standard. A fatal dart pierced his throat; and his fall gave the first triumph to his kingly competitor. 69 TOSTIG assumed the command, and the battle still raged. Harold again offered life and peace to his brother, and the Norwegians, but the enraged Tostig was deaf to reconciliation. Victory or death 69 Snore, 160. 69 Ibid. 163. See Haralld's character in Snorre, 174. He was fifty years of age when he died. Ib. 175. 1066. BOOK was his decision; and the arrival of the division from the ships, under the command of Eysteinn Orri, gave new hopes to his fury. VI. Harold the Second. 1066. THESE fresh troops were completely armed. Their attack was so vehement, that the fortune of the day was nearly changed; but they were exhausted by the speed with which they had hurried to the place of conflict. Their exertions relaxed as their strength ebbed; and after a desperate struggle, Tostig and the flower of Norway pe rished. 70 Harold, who had shewn himself the ardent warrior through all the combat, permitted Olave, the son of the unfortunate Hardrada, and Paul, the earl of the Orkneys", to retire from the island with their surviving friends and a few ships, 72 Olave went to the Orkneys, and in the following spring to Norway, where he reigned jointly with his brother Magnus. 73 Two of Harold's competitors had now fallen; and if an interval had elapsed before the assault of 70 Snorre, 165. Huntingdon says, there never was a severer battle, p. 368. He, Malmsbury, and others, state, that at one period of the conflict, a Norwegian defended the bridge against the English army, and killed with his battle-axe forty soldiers before he was destroyed. Ord. Vit. mentions, that a great heap of bones in his time marked on the spot the dreadful slaughter of the day, 500. 71 Hoveden, 448. Ingulf, 69. On Paul's descent and family, see the Orkneyinga Saga, p. 91–93. 72 Ingulf, Hoveden, and others, say with 20. The MS. Chron. Tib. B. 4. has 24. This mentions Olaf's departure thus: "Se Kỳng tha gear gnýthe Olape thær Nonna cýnzer suna heope bpe' than eople of Opcan eze Jeallon than theon tha rcypu to lafe pæpon hi foɲon tha upp to upan Kýninge J гpopon athas th hi æppe poldon fруth J feondƑcype into thisan lande haldan re cyng hi let ham faɲan mid 24 scỳpum. Thar tpa folc zefeoht pæɲon gefremmede binnan fif nihtan." 73 Orkneyinga Saga, 95. Snorre, 171-176. |