A Norman Archer

Battle Of Hastings

Journal Of A Norman Archer

10/10/1066

Today we (the Normans), have landed on the beach off the south coast of England (Bayeux tapestry). The Saxons do not know that we are here, but I don’t think they will want to fight us with all our equipment, such as our bows and swords and our horses…  I will have to be getting some sleep now, I have a feeling I will be needing some sleep!

George

11/10/1066

We are burning the houses here on the south coast… I bet you Harold is getting very angry all right (Battle Of Hastings)! We are resting most of the time, mainly because we are waiting for Harold to come and fight us. Because I am resting today, I will have time to explain everything. When we get to the battlefield at Hastings we will be lining up our defenses, with the archers at the front and the men and the horses behind us. The army will be split up into three sections: The Normans are going to be in the middle, the Bretons were on the right and the Europeans will on the left. The archers are going to be put in front of the three groups. Hopefully we win this battle! A bow is made of wood, the body, and the string used to fire the bow is made of hemp, which is a very reliable and strong material. Long bodkins are used for piercing chainmail armor, while short bodkins are used for piercing armor plate. The bows can fire up to an area of 275 feet, which would make great defense. A maker of bows, arrows, and extra equipment for bows, such as arrows, was called an Artillator (Medieval Bow and Arrow).

George

13/10/1066

Harold is really close to Hastings. We marched up a little bit to Hastings and started to get our gear prepared (Battle Of Hastings). We had a big feast last night for our energy we were going to use the next day. We will easily defeat them.

George

14/10/1066: Dawn

We are about to fight the Saxons… the battle plan has been set up as said before, and we look a lot stronger than they do. They don’t have any horses or archers, they only have soldiers and these men I believe are called Housecarls, as they say. We are getting our arrows fired up, so I will have to put the book down. I wonder how the battle will go.

George.

14/10/1066 Noon

I am hiding behind a tree, this will have to be as quick as possible. Our arrows did not affect the Saxons at all. Some of our men are being chased down to a marsh ahead, and they are chasing down our Bretons like a pack of dogs. Axes, sword, bows, all of these weapons were spilling guts and livers out of the Normans and Saxons… its such a bloody mess out here! William, our leader, will have to think of something soon or we might lose the battle! We are both getting weaker, and somebody will have to go down (hopefully not us!)

14/10/1066 Sunset

We are still fighting those Saxons… they are slaughtering us and they still haven’t broken their shield wall!!! It is starting to get hard to write, using my bow again and again. Our horses have gone past the gap where the Saxons started chasing our Bretons, and they have killed a handful of Saxons, but they haven’t made much of a difference. Oh, William has got a magnificent idea! We should fire our arrows into the air and then when they land they will go on top of the Saxons so that we can easily win the battle! We launched them into the air and they started falling. (Bayeux tapestry). The shield wall slowly retreated and the Saxons were running in random directions. Our soldiers ran in and just slaughtered and beat them to death. The arrows either killed or severely injured most of the Saxons, and this is how we won the battle.

George

17/10/1066

We are celebrating with a feast and in about 2 months time William will become King Of England. I am sure he will make Britain a great place… I will now have a good job and plenty of food. I am happy I joined the army! I am slowly turning old, and I think I will no longer be in the army.

George

24/06/1779

I decided to go back to the Battlefield where the Battle Of Hastings was fought… I found this diary of my dear brother, George. It is an old diary and |I will keep this safe for my life. The battle was very brutal, according to George. George passed away 2 years ago, and I will keep this forever.

Oliver