Battle of Hastings Journal (Jenny)

October 12th,1066
I’m writing this from October 12th, 1066. Right now, the Saxon army and I are on the long march to Hastings. So that I do not stand out, I am using the name Oswald Smith, and I am a blacksmith. William and his men have invaded, and they are killing the countrymen and their livestock. This makes the need to for us to get to Hastings in good time even stronger. All the men in the Saxon army are exhausted; they just got back from the battle at Stamford Bridge. As we walk, Harold keeps ordering us to keep it up. We are all tired and hungry. We had very little sleep because of the rate Harold demands us to travel at. We are low on men, because we lost many in the previous battle. Harold seems to be sure we can win this battle though, and because of that, all the men believe it.

October 13th,1066
We are very near to Hastings now. The mood of the soldiers has changed completely. With the battle so close, all of them are anxious and ready. Harold seems as determined as ever, and so are we. We are ready to go into battle tomorrow. We keep marching as the day draws to a close. Harold tells us to stop for the night, but we all knew we wouldn’t get much sleep. For one, Harold won’t let us have many hours of sleep because of the impending battle, and we probably wont be able to get to sleep anyway.

October 14th, 1066
Today was the day. Our army assembled on a field, ready for action. Men were constantly coming and making our army grow, which for us, was a big encouragement. The noise of the whole shield wall banging their shields was breath taking. Harold’s face was unreadable, but everyone could tell he was deep in concentration. The whole army was in formation now; we were ready. We stood there, when we heard a great noise approaching us. We knew it was William. You could hear the pounding of horse hooves and the feet crunching on dead leaves of thousands of men. As William got his men into formation, we could all tell it was going to be a bloody battle. William had out numbered us,and he had an extremely strong cavalry. We weren’t about to back down though.We were all going to fight to the death, if that’s what it took, to take our country. William was ready now. He shouted a command we couldn’t hear, and all of his archers rained on us with arrows. This did little impact though, because of our mighty shield wall. I was at the back, though, because I was just part of the Fyrd, since I was only a peasant. But then it didn’t matter. All that mattered to me there was winning this battle and claiming England. The only weapons the Fyrd and I had were simple, like farmers tools. We had little to no protective clothing, but that was ok since we were at the back. Though we were unprotected and had un-useful weapons, Harold had assured us all that we were just as important to the army as he was. With him here, fighting along with us,it seems to give us encouragement and a sense of knowing we were going to succeed.

The battle carried on for hours. The Normans had discovered a way to break our shield wall by the technique of retreat, and little by little our shield wall was breaking. Though I couldn’t admit it to myself, I knew that we were beginning to lose. I looked around and saw that some of the members of the Fyrd were beginning to have the same thoughts. But then, all of a sudden, William seemed to get a new plan. He stopped the Normans retreating and shouted another order to them. I strained to hear what he was saying, but it was pointless. I watched in shock as William sent his archers back forward. He gave a count, and all the archers raised their arrows to the sky. I watched in horror as one comedown toward Harold, and hit him in the eye. With our leader dead, I found no reason to fight anymore. I ran into the woods behind us, and that was the end of my Hastings adventure.