William the Conqueror: 1061 to 1066

The slope is gentlest on the west; possibly cavalry can charge effectively there. You position your infantry and marksmen before the rest of the English army, and, when they are committed to the attack, you direct your knights to assault the English right wing. Slowly the English give way, and even though your knights take fearful casualties they manage to roll up Harold's right flank, pressing it into the center. But while this has gone forward, the English center and left destroyed your infantry and pursued them back across the marshy ground and up the slopes of Telham hill. Only pockets of English remain on the field; there is no sign of Harold or his brother Gyrth, although the body of Leofwin (the youngest Godwinson) is discovered amdist the dead of the English right wing. It appears that Harold and Gyrth have escaped to fight another day, along with the main part of the English army.

You retire back on Hastings to recoup and reorganize your seriously thrashed army: your losses have been heavy, at least one-quarter of your men are dead, missing or wounded too badly to fight any more. In a few days, it becomes obvious that the English army has recovered completely, being reinforced by late arrivals to the muster. Harold has brought his much larger army down near Hastings and dug in across the road leading out of the peninsula: you are cut off from the interior and cannot forage any more unless you can break out. But this seems impossible, given the great disparity in the size of your army compared with the king's. Your men's morale is low; the English morale is high, and Harold's reputation as a victorious commander is untarnished by the drawn battle on Senlac hill.

Time is playing into his hands. Time from the first has been your enemy, and now it defeats you: winter is coming. Your camp is hungry. Provisions from Normandy are harder to bring over: Harold has his fleet patrolling the Channel, and you are losing the rest of your shipping in the uneven sea battles. Cutting out now will spare you any greater embarrassment later. Back in Normandy, nobody calls you "the Conqueror" anymore.

Contemplate the heavenly city, you will have nothing more....