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==The course of the Battle of Hastings==
The heavy infantry of the English was famous, and they carried long spears and shields. Harold’s Anglo-Saxons used their traditional battle tactic of a shield-wall. They would stand side-by-side and their interlocking shields would form a solid wall. The shield-wall was very difficult to break down and it was a tactic that had been used very successful by Alfred the Great against the Vikings. The infantry of Harold II set up a shield-wall on a hill and broken ground and they were in a very strong position. This is agreed to have been the right decision. The Normans had to inflict a defeat on the English as they were in enemy territory and had only a limited amount of supplies <ref> Morillo, Stephen. "Hastings: an unusual battle." In Medieval Warfare 1000–1300, (London, Routledge, 2017) pp. 313-321 </ref>. This meant that William the Conqueror’s army was forced to go on the offensive and it was essential that he broke the massed ranks of the heavy infantry of Harold. The Normans knew that if they broke the formation of the Anglo-Saxons that they would be victorious. From the early morning of the 18th of October, William attacked the Anglo-Saxon shield wall. The had numerical superiority in cavalry and the Norman knights were among the finest in Europe. They still failed to break the shield-wall. Then William ordered his archers to unleash volleys of arrows at the enemy’ s line. They were mostly Bretons and acknowledged to be great archers, but they could not break the English lines. Norman and even some Anglo-Saxon sources claim that the decisive moment in the battle was the feigned retreat of the Normans invaders. William ordered his men to retreat and this tempted the Anglo-Saxons to break their defensive formation and go on the offensive <ref>Bachrach, Bernard S. "The feigned retreat at Hastings." Mediaeval Studies 33 (1971): 344-347 </ref>. They left the high ground and the shield-wall was no longer intact. The Normans wheeled round and engaged the onrushing English, who were very exposed. The cavalry of William was able to inflict terrible casualties on the army of Harold II and this was to turn the battle decisively in favor of the Normans<ref> Morillo, p 318</ref>.
== The death of Harold changed the tide of battle?==In many modern accounts, the Battle of Hastings is shown to be a very close affair. This, as we have seen, was true and as long as the Anglo-Saxons shield-wall held they were able to repel the Normans. It is widely reported that the death of Harold changed the tide of battle. Until his death, the battle was headed to a bloody stalemate. The sudden death of the king of England changed the course of the clash and probably altered the course of English and global history. However, while it is known for certain that Harold was killed during the battle his death did not doom the Anglo-Saxons to defeat <ref>Marren, p 119</ref>. In fact, it seems that the last Anglo-Saxon king was killed when the tide of battle had shifted decisively in favor of the invaders from France. The feigned retreat ordered by William had worked brilliantly and his counterattack had effectively won the day for the man who would be known to history as the first Norman king of England. One of the greatest myths about the battle was that Harold’s death doomed the Anglo-Saxons to defeat and to their eventual domination by the Normans.
[[File: Hastings 3.jpg|200px|thumb|left| A 14th-century manuscript drawing of the coronation of Harold Godwinson]]
==How did Harold die at the Battle==
One of the apparently undisputed facts about the battle was that King Harold II was killed after he was struck by an arrow in the eye. This is based on one account and on a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry is a 70-foot-long (200 meters) work of embroidery that depicts the Battle of Hastings. It was created in the 1070s and is one of the most significant accounts for the events of 1066. It does show a man being hit by an arrow to the eye and this is widely believed to have been a visualization of the death of the last Anglo-Saxon king. However, there are different accounts of the death of Harold, but they all agree that he died in battle <ref> Marren, p 118</ref>. In one Norman chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon monarch was slain as he ran away, but this was probably an invention to discredit the memory of a man still revered by many people in England for many decades after 1066. There is another account of Harold’s death, that states he was hit by a number of arrows and as he lay wounded he was hacked to pieces by some foot soldiers. How Harold died on that fateful day in October 1066 will never be fully established. The burial place of the last Anglo-Saxon king has not been identified <ref>Rex, Peter. Harold II: The Doomed Saxon King (Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2005), p 119</ref>.
