{"id":5467,"date":"2025-09-21T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=5467"},"modified":"2025-09-21T22:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:00:04","slug":"battle-of-fulford-september-20th-1066","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/battle-of-fulford-september-20th-1066\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of Fulford September 20th 1066"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Sketch from a photo of a Saxon Shield Wall of the type that might have been used at the Battle of Fulford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1066 England’s destiny was at stake, would the new King, Harold Godwinson, maintain the rule of an English King over England?\u00a0 Or would William of Normandy impose an alien French dynasty?\u00a0 But there was a third possible future Harold Hardrada of Norway re-establishing King Cnut’s Scandinavian control of England?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fighting began, on September 20th, after the Norwegian King, accompanied by Harold Godwinson’s own brother, Tostig Godwinson, sailed up the Humber with 300 ships, disembarked and matched towards York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the Army of the North, led by the Earls of Mercia and Northumbria, left York to confront the invaders. They marched the mile and a half to Fulford, which is on the banks of the Ouse.\u00a0 They, apparently, did not know that on the 18th of September, King Harold of England had left London with the Army of the South to take on Hardrada. If the Earls had waited, the combined English Army had a good chance of destroying the Norwegian threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Norwegians and Tostig had, perhaps 7,500 troops, and the English Earls Edwin and Morcar who were brothers had an ‘immense’ army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Norwegians were lined up at Fulford, with their left flank protected by the Ouse, their front protected by a ditch and having the benefit of the higher ground.\u00a0 The English drove the Norwegians back but Hardrada responded by pushing forward his left flank where he had his best warriors and enfolded the English who eventually broke.\u00a0 As the English retreated, they suffered terrible casualties, so many that the Norwegians could walk dry-shod over the marshy ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Google Satelite view of the Battle of Fulford battle field. The stream\/ditch the Viking lined up behind can be seen running East West just to the South of the road above the label Fulford Village Hall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The jubilant Norwegians arranged the surrender of York without sacking it. It probably escaped because Tostig had come to England to reclaim the Earldom of Northumbria. It would be a bad start to slaughter the citizens of his capital city! Possibly they also wanted to get back to protect their boats. They matched to Stamford Bridge, to celebrate, rest and recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things looked grim for the continuation of English rule over England,with Hardrada victorious in the North; a defeated Northern Army and the Normans with a huge invasion fleet ready to invade the South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here To read my post on the Battle of Stamford Bridge<\/a> or wait till September 25th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1066 England’s destiny was at stake, would the new King, Harold Godwinson, maintain the rule of an English King over England?\u00a0 Or would William of Normandy impose an alien French dynasty?\u00a0 But there was a third possible future Harold Hardrada of Norway re-establishing King Cnut’s Scandinavian control of England?\u00a0 The fighting began, on September … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Battle of Fulford September 20th 1066”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-almanac-of-the-past"],"yoast_head":"\nBattle of Fulford September 20th 1066 - And Did Those Feet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"the Battle of Fulford on 20th september 1066, saw the defeat of the English army at the hands of Harold Hardarada and Earl Tostig.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/battle-of-fulford-september-20th-1066\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Battle of Fulford September 20th 1066 - 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