ped to crush the southern invaders. But the
unexpected attack of King Harald Hardrada of Norway upon another part of
England disconcerted the skilful measures which the Saxon had taken
against the menacing armada of Duke William.

Harold's renegade brother, Earl Tostig, had excited the Norse King to
this enterprise, the importance of which has naturally been eclipsed by
the superior interest attached to the victorious expedition of Duke
William, but which was on a scale of grandeur which the Scandinavian
ports had rarely, if ever, before witnessed. Hardrada's fleet consisted
of two hundred warships and three hundred other vessels, and all the
best warriors of Norway were in his host. He sailed first to the
Orkneys, where many of the islanders joined him, and then to Yorkshire.
After a severe conflict near York he completely routed Earls Edwin and
Morcar, the governors of Northumbria. The city of York opened its gates,
and all the country, from the Tyne to the Humber, submitted to him.

The tidings of the defeat of Edwin and Morcar compelled Harold to leave
his position on the southern coast and move instantly against the
Norwegians. By a remarkably rapid march he reached Yorkshire in four
days, and took the Norse King and his confederates by surprise.
Nevertheless, the battle which ensued, and which was fought near
Stamford Bridge, was desperate, and was long doubtful. Unable to break
the ranks of the Norwegian phalanx by force, Harold at length tempted
them to quit their close order by a pretended flight. Then the English
columns burst in among them, and a carnage ensued the extent of which
may be judged of by the exhaustion and inactivity of Norway for a
quarter of a century afterward. King Harald Hardrada and all the flower
of his nobility perished on the 25th of September, 1066, at Stamford
Bridge, a battle which was a Flodden to Norway.

Harold's victory was splendid; but he had bought it dearly by the fall
of many of his best officers and men, and still more dearly by the
opportunity which Duke William had gained of effecting an unopposed
landing on the Sussex coast. The whole of William's shipping had
assembled at the mouth of the Dive, a little river between the Seine and
the Orne, as early as the middle of August. The army which he had
collected amounted to fifty thousand knights and ten thousand soldiers
of inferior degree. Many of the knights were mounted, but many must have
served on foot, as it is hardly