“Anyway, who’s to say the English even know of the interdict?” commented Robert. “We received news only a few weeks ago and few ships will have been able to sail against the wind to England in that time. I’m more interested in how many of the English huscarles and thegns were killed or wounded at Fulford Gate and Stamford Bridge, and how many march against us. One thing is for certain, it’s been a difficult few weeks for Harold and the English.”
“How did the duke get Pope Alexander’s Blessing for the expedition?” queried Alan.
“Politics!” replied Hugh. “The pope is Italian. We Normans are very influential in Italy and Sicily these days. There are a lot of us down there- and no Englishmen! Alexander received the duke’s embassy and didn’t even bother to send for the English to hear their side of the argument. William claimed Harold is an adulterer and forsworn. If that’s the worst he could come up with then Harold must have led a fairly blameless life!
“What Bishop Lanfranc offered the pope was a chance to bring the English church to heel. It’s been quite independent, even having the scriptures translated into English and Mass spoken in the local language- which most churchmen find offensive. The churchmen of Normandy and France claim the English church is full of corruption, with offices bought and sold or given as bribes- the crime of simony. Considering the situation of Odo, the Duke William’s half-brother and now Bishop of Bayeux, the pope must have found it hard to control his mirth on hearing that argument! Odo was appointed as bishop when he was still a child, has no learning and no knowledge of the scriptures. How many bishops put on armour and ride into battle as part of their religious duties? Several of the Norman bishops do!
“What tipped the balance was that Lanfranc offered that Duke William promised to hold England as the pope’s vassal, expanding the power of the Holy See. I’m sure that’s one promise that will be quietly forgotten! Still, it means that the duke has received a papal ring, the flag of St Peter and a written edict blessing him as king of England- and promising excommunication to all who oppose him. These are quite considerable weapons in the duke’s armoury!”
Nothing happened for several days, to the frustration of the Norman army. Then an English monk rode out of the trees and was taken to William’s camp. A few hours later scouts rode in and word passed around the camp that a large English army had been seen amongst the trees of the Andreswald some ten miles to the north. Matters appeared finally to be moving to some sort of a conclusion. The English monk, accompanied by a French monk and with several knights as an escort, rode out early the following day- Friday 13th October.
Although without formal instructions and little to go on other than gossip, the Normans spent the day in camp in final preparations for battle, many attending the several large outdoor Masses that were being celebrated, hoping to increase their chances of Redemption if matters went against them in the coming battle.
That night Alan sat with Robert and Hugh near a camp-fire. “There’s plenty of firewood, and the horses can crop the grass. It’s a pity that we don't have much to eat- we can’t eat grass! Thanks for providing the hare, Hugh,” commented Robert, as he carefully broke a small stale loaf of bread into three and handed a piece to Alan and to Hugh.
Hugh used his knife to turn the carcass of a small hare that was roasting on the fire. “There’s going to be barely a mouthful of meat each, and the damn thing cost me a denier! Praise be to God that one way or the other something will happen soon, otherwise next week we'll have to start eating the horses! Turning an expensive destrier into stew is not a good use of resources!”
“What do you think is going to happen?” asked Alan.
Hugh shrugged. “If Harold has moved south we have to go to meet him. The land nearby here isn’t suitable for the sort of battle we Normans prefer- we need space to manoeuvre. Hopefully we’ll find a suitable battlefield somewhere, although from what I hear the land is thick woods most of the way to London. In the end we’ll fight where we must- and we must fight soon! If Harold is clever he’ll simply sit between wherever we are and London and refuse battle. We're getting weaker, while his army will be getting stronger. Still, that’s for the nobles to resolve- we just carry our lance wherever we're told!”
The following morning there was a waning moon in the sky as dawn broke and instructions were given that the army would march at sunrise, which that day was at seven in the morning. Other than the nobles, the army marched dressed for battle in full armour and with lances held aloft.
From Hastings to Caldbec Hill was a distance of seven miles along a winding and rutted track. William’s army stretched for three miles along the track, with the Normans at the rear. Hugh de Berniers’s squadron was located about four-fifths of the way along the column. Their view ahead was obscured by Telham Hill and the dust raised by thousands of feet. The column suddenly halted and word flashed back that the English army was on the next hill, Caldbec Hill- just 800 yards from the Norman vanguard. The Norman army was deploying for battle.
The time was a little after eight in the morning.
The Norman forces inched forward, first to the top of Telham Hill, where Alan could make out something of the next major rise in the ground, in front of which the Norman army appeared to be deploying. However, the dust and the intervening small rise of Starr’s Green made it difficult to make out details. When they eventually reached the rise of Starr’s Green the battlefield was suddenly revealed and the reason for the slow deployment became obvious.
“Sweet Jesus!” muttered Hugh de Berniers “I’ve never seen such a battlefield. There’ll be many dead before the end of this day! This isn’t a battlefield, it’s a killing field!”
The terrain was shaped like the letter ‘T’ with the top formed by a nearly level hill on which the English were deployed in a shield-wall. The hill was perhaps 800 yards wide with both flanks protected by steep ground falling away from the ends of the line, and also with a thick forest on the west flank. The English had formed a shield-wall below the brow of the hill just above the ground that had been cultivated. They were there in their thousands. There were perhaps 800 or 1,000 men in the shield-wall, but with the ranks eight or ten deep behind them there were probably 8,000 armed men in all, slightly more than William’s army.
The leg of the ‘T’ was a low ridge along which the road ran towards the position occupied by the English. What had caused Hugh de Berniers’s comment, and the delay in deployment, was the fact that the ridge on which the road was located acted as a water-shed. Streams ran south-west and north-east away from the road and parallel to the hill occupied by the English. The low-lying land at the foot of the hill was soft and marshy, particularly to the west, with the streams only some 150 to 200 paces from the English line.
Usually an army would deploy from column to line at least 500 paces from the enemy. Had William done so, the bulk of his army would then have to cross the marshes as they assaulted the hill. Instead he had taken the risk of passing beyond the streams and then had the Bretons deploy to the left and the French and Flemish deploy to the right, with the Normans occupying the higher ground in the centre of the Norman line. This was done little more than 150 paces from the English line.