POLITICAL HISTORY 



to find that another force of cavalry had ridden round them and cut 

 them off/ 



Still the defenders of the ridge stood firm around their standard and 

 repelled the attacking knights ; and still the remainder of the shield- 

 wall — contracted, but not entirely broken up — received and checked the 

 shafts of the bowmen, till as the dusk drew on there seemed a chance 

 that Harold might, under cover of darkness, withdraw and raise another 

 army. At last the Duke ordered his men to shoot up into the air so 

 that their arrows should fall like rain upon the foe. The effect was 

 terrible ; forced to expose either their bodies or their heads to the shafts, 

 scores of English fell, and, worst disaster of all, Harold himself dropped 

 to the ground in agony with an arrow piercing his eye.^ 



The Normans were not slow to profit by the disorder, and dashed 

 in to render their victory complete. The English standard fell, and 

 four knights cut their way to where the wounded Harold lay, and slew 

 him. One knight added the indignity of striking off the dead king's 

 leg, but William, angered at the unworthy deed, dismissed him from his 

 army. Still the gallant band fought till all were either dead or disabled. 

 The local levies fled in the gathering darkness, pursued by the victors, 

 and the battlefield, and all England, remained in William's hands."" 



Next morning search was made for Harold's body, but so mutilated 

 was it and so thick lay the dead in that spot that none could recognize 

 it till the fallen hero's mistress, Edith Swanneshals, came, who knew it 

 by certain marks unknown to others. Sternly refusing all offers of ran- 

 som, the Conqueror ordered the body to be buried on the sea shore 

 under a pile of stones * ; but afterwards — probably when the kingdom 

 was assured to him and he could afford to be lenient — he relented and 

 allowed it to be taken to the Minster of Holy Cross at Waltham, which 

 Harold had founded.^ 



Of the partition of Sussex between the Conqueror's relations and 

 other gallant followers, enough has already been said.* Nor does any 

 other event of his reign call for mention here. When, however, 

 William Rufus succeeded to the throne, to the exclusion of his elder 

 brother Robert, Pevensey once more appears in history. Odo of 

 Bayeux, Robert's principal supporter, escaped from Tunbridge Castle 

 when Rufus besieged and took it, and fled to Pevensey, where his 

 brother Count Robert of Mortain had erected a castle. The strong Roman 

 walls, forming an outer defence to the palisaded Norman mound, defied 

 all attacks, and it was not till food ran short and all hope of relief had 



» Round, op. cit. 380-2. 2 Freeman, op. cit. 497-8. 



3 Ibid. 499-502. Several writers relate that the Norman cavalry met with a reverse during the 

 pursuit, being driven down a steep ravine ; but this seems to be only a misplaced version of the fosse 

 disaster earlier in the day, especially as Count Eustace again appears as urging William to flee (ibid. 

 502-3. Round, op. cit. 378). A little bibliography of the long controversy on the battle was given 

 by Mr. Round as an appendix to his paper on 'The Battle of Hastings' in Suss. Arch. Coll. xlii. 63. 

 Since then have appeared his paper on 'Anglo-Norman Warfare' in The Commune of London (pp. 40- 

 52), and Mr. F. Baring's note on 'The Battlefield of Hastings' in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1905) xx. 65-70. 



4 Freeman, op. cit. 512-4. ^ ibid. 518. 

 " See Introduction to Domesday, pp. 377-80 



I 489 62 



