Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066

The battle, stage by stage

1. 24 September 1066 (Sunday)

   Harold reaches Tadcaster

   Four days after the Norwegians routed the northern earls Edwin and Morcar at Fulford outside York (20 September), King Harold II arrives at Tadcaster, about ten miles south-west of the city, 'with all his levies', as the C version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts it. He has come up from London at remarkable speed with his housecarls and whatever thegns he could gather on the way. Harald Hardrada of Norway and the exiled earl Tostig, Harold's brother, are back with their fleet at Riccall on the Ouse; York has submitted and promised hostages, to be handed over at Stamford Bridge. They apparently have no idea the English king is near.

2. Morning, 25 September (Monday)

   Through York

   Harold marches through York and on east along the road to the Derwent. The same morning Harald and Tostig go ashore and set off for Stamford Bridge, about 12–16 miles from the ships, to collect the hostages. In Snorri Sturluson's saga, written about 1230, the day is hot and fine, so the men leave their mail shirts behind; about a third of the army stays with the ships under Harald's son Olaf, the Orkney earls Paul and Erlend, and Eystein Orri. The English chroniclers say nothing of this division, but it is generally accepted. The Norwegian route is unknown and drawn schematically.

3. Late morning, 25 September

   Dust on the York road

   The Norwegians are waiting at the crossing when, in the saga, they see a cloud of dust and the glint of weapons on the road from York. Tostig is said to have urged a retreat to the ships; Harald sends riders back to Riccall and chooses to fight. Where everyone stood is uncertain. The medieval bridge was a narrow timber one, probably near the old sandstone ford upstream of the present 1727 bridge, or about 150 yards below it (Victoria County History). The usual reconstruction, followed here, has a Norwegian party on the west (York) bank and the main body across the river. Plummer and, more recently, Michael Blundell (2021) read the Chronicle's 'beyond the bridge' from the Norwegian side and put the main fight on the west bank instead.

4. Around midday

   The bridge

   The English fall on the Norwegians west of the river and cut them down or drive them over the bridge. A note added to the C text in a later hand tells of one Norseman who held the bridge alone until an Englishman got under it and stabbed him up through the planks; William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon (who has him kill more than forty men with an axe) embroider the story. It may preserve a real rearguard action, but it is not contemporary. The delay lets Harald form his men on the rising ground east of the village, traditionally Battle Flats, in a close ring of shields behind the 'Landwaster' banner.

5. Early afternoon

   'Seven feet of English ground'

   The English cross and deploy facing the Norwegian line. In Snorri's famous scene, twenty English horsemen ride up and offer Tostig a third of the kingdom; asked what Harald would get, the leader replies 'seven feet of English ground, or as much more as he is taller than other men'. The rider turns out to be Harold himself. The exchange is saga literature, written more than 160 years later. Snorri also has English cavalry circling and charging the ring, which most historians doubt: the English normally rode to battle and fought on foot. No source gives reliable numbers. Modern guesses put the Norwegians on the field at perhaps 5,000–6,000 and Harold's army at a similar size or larger.

6. Afternoon

   Harald falls

   The fight is long and hard. The English chronicles say only that Harald and Tostig were killed with a great part of their army. In the saga, the Norwegian ring loosens when the English seem to give way, and Harald rushes ahead of his line, fighting two-handed, until an arrow hits him in the throat. Tostig takes up the banner and refuses Harold's renewed offer of quarter. The Norwegians are without mail, and some accounts say this is what cost them the battle; that too comes from the saga's telling.

7. Late afternoon

   'Orri's storm' — Tostig killed

   Eystein Orri arrives from Riccall with men in full mail, worn out from running about 15 miles in the heat. Their charge, 'Orri's storm' in the saga, nearly turns the battle, but some of them collapse from exhaustion, and Orri, Tostig and most of the Norwegian leaders are killed. Orri's relief and its route come only from Snorri, though the English sources agree that the fighting went on until evening. The line of approach is drawn schematically.

8. Evening, 25 September, and after

   Twenty-four ships

   The survivors are pursued to the ships. Harold gives quarter to Harald's son Olaf, Earl Paul of Orkney and the Norwegian bishop, takes hostages and oaths, and lets them sail home: in 24 ships, says the D Chronicle (John of Worcester says 20), out of a fleet of about 300. English losses are unknown. Orderic Vitalis, writing about sixty years later, says travellers could still see a great heap of bones on the field. Three days after the battle, on 28 September, William of Normandy lands at Pevensey. Harold marches south again and is killed at Hastings on 14 October.