The Battle of Hastings!

Our topic 'Kings and Knights' has been great fun; it culminated with our reenactment of The Battle of Hastings on Thursday! We have been learning about Edward the Confessor and last week we found out about what happened when he died without an heir. Learning about the Battle of Stamford Bridge was interesting and ended with Harold having to march his army back down 187 miles in a hurry, when he heard that William was attacking from the south.

On Thursday, we picked up the story with Harold's Saxon army arriving in Hastings exhausted from battle and two long marches, carrying all of their kit and weapons. They were clever and took the high ground and built a shield wall to protect themselves.

William's Norman army arrived and kept charging up the hill towards the shield wall for six hours. For six hours it looked like the Saxons were going to win.

At one point, a Norman soldier announced that William had died (he was wrong!). What did William shout to rally his troops?

But soon, a few foolish Saxon soldiers made a fatal decision. (What did we decide 'fatal' meant?) When the Normans were retreating from one of their unsuccessful charges, a few soldiers decided to chase them. This meant there was a gap in the shield wall and the Normans took their chance! They turned around and charged back. Their cavalry (what did this mean?) and archers were better trained than the Saxons and soon destroyed the Saxon army.

Finally, one of the archers took aim at Harold and (if we believe the Bayeux Tapestry) he was shot in the eye!

William was eventually crowned King!

After our reenactment of the battle, we used toy knights, which were kindly brought in by Finn, to act out the battle again.

Once the events of the battle were firmly set in our minds, we worked in our house teams to write a timeline of the battle.

We identified three main reasons for William's Normans winning the Battle of Hastings. What were the three reasons?

Watch this fantastic animation of the Bayeux Tapestry. It tells the story of the Battle of Hastings, using the Bayeux Tapestry. But remember, the tapestry is not really animated! It is a tapestry/ weaving- like the Lady of Shalott made in her tower!

Source: YouTube, Potion Pictures