1066 - The year of battles - S P Grey's article in the Yorkshire Evening Press, Saturday 20th September 2008

The year of 1066 is the most famous in English history. It is the one date every school child knows.

Asked to explain what happened then, most people would describe the image of King Harold with an arrow in his eye as William the Conqueror defeated him at the Battle of Hastings. But Hastings was only one of three battles in that fateful four weeks in the autumn of 1066 that changed English history. The first of these – on September 20, 1066 – was the Battle of York.

Picture the scene. Two armies stand facing one another on marshland beside the River Ouse in Fulford, one-and-a-half miles from the centre of York. On the side furthest from the city are the Vikings under the leadership of Harald Hardrada (‘Harald the Ruthless’), King of the Norwegian Vikings. On the other, the army of the two Anglo-Saxon brothers Morcar and Edwin, the Earls of  and Mercia, two of the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that made up England. Edwin and Morcar were rivals to Harold Godwin, the newly crowned King of England, and his estranged brother, Tostig.

Harald Hardrada (note the different spelling of Harald to the famous English king, Harold), was indeed a ruthless man. In the familiar Viking tradition, he delighted in war, raiding his enemies, looting, and dragging their women in chains back to his longships. He had no real claim to the English throne but saw his opportunity for plunder and possible conquest while Harold was distracted by the approach of William’s army in the south. Joining forces with Tostig, who was bitter that his brother Harold had not supported him when he was replaced by Morcar as the Earl of  in 1065, their 300 ships sailed up the Ouse towards York, the capital of the kingdom of Northumberland and Viking heartland for the past 200 years. They moored their ships at Riccall and marched towards the city.

But Morcar and Edwin had not been idle. While Harald Hardrada had lengthened his journey to York by amusing himself in sacking Scarborough, the two earls had gathered a considerable army to defend the city. Deciding not to wait for Harold, whom they did not trust (his brother Tostig had, after all, joined forces with the Vikings), they marched out of York to meet the Viking army at Fulford.

The battle began late morning on a damp grey day.

Morcar and Edwin’s shield wall approached the Viking army, step by careful step over the boggy marsh land. Morcar faced Tostig on the Viking right whilst Edwin faced Harald Hardrada on the left, a stone’s throw from the River Ouse.

Tostig was immediately pressed back as Morcar advanced, but after an hour’s ferocious fighting, Harald Hardrada overcame Edwin and attacked Morcar’s forces on his flank. Caught between Harald Hardrada on one side and Tostig on the other, the brave English were finally overwhelmed. Some fled towards York, but many were trapped between the Vikings and the River Ouse, where many died from drowning. The English were utterly defeated, though Morcar somehow survived to fight again (and lose again) at the Battle of Hastings.

Immediately after the battle, York surrendered. After a few days of feasting, the Viking army withdrew to Stamford Bridge to await hostages from York. A day later they were taken by surprise by King Harold, who had hastened north, and were utterly defeated. Both Harald Hardrada and Tostig died in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the second great battle of that year.

Harold’s own celebrations in York were cut short when he received news of William’s landing on the southern coast, and his weary army raced south to be defeated at the Battle of Hastings.

The rest, as they say, is history. The Normans, themselves descendants of Vikings, conquered England, despite continued but ultimately futile resistance from the inhabitants of York.

Though the Vikings briefly took York again in 1069, much to the short-lived joy of the locals who opened the gates for them, that was the last great Viking invasion of England and marks the end of the Viking age.