an English king overthrew a foreign host in battle on
English soil.

[Illustration: A Norman ship. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]

[Illustration: Norman soldiers mounted. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]

23. =The Landing of William. 1066.=--Harold had shown what an English
king could do, who fought not for this or that part of the country,
but for all England. It was the lack of this national spirit in
Englishmen which caused his ruin. As Harold was feasting at York in
celebration of his victory, a messenger told him of the landing of the
Norman host at Pevensey. He had saved Eadwine and Morkere from
destruction, but Eadwine and Morkere gave him no help in return. He
had to hurry back to defend Sussex without a single man from the north
or the Midlands, except those whom he collected on his line of march.
The House of Leofric bore no goodwill to the House of Godwine. England
was a kingdom divided against itself.

[Illustration: Group of archers on foot. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]

[Illustration: Men fighting with axes. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)]

24. =The Battle of Senlac. 1066.--=Harold, as soon as he reached the
point of danger, drew up his army on the long hill of Senlac on which
Battle Abbey now stands. On October 14 William marched forth to attack
him. The military equipment of the Normans was better than that of the
English. Where the weapons on either side are unlike, battles are
decided by the momentum--that is to say, by the combined weight and
speed of the weapons employed. The English fought on foot mostly with
two-handed axes; the Normans fought not only on horseback with lances,
but also with infantry, some of them being archers. A horse, the
principal weapon of a horseman, has more momentum than an armed
footman, whilst an arrow can reach the object at which it is aimed
long before a horse. Harold, however, had in his favour the slope of
the hill up which the Normans would have to ride, and he took
advantage of the lie of the ground by posting his men with their
shields before them on the edge of the hill. The position was a strong
one for purposes of defence, but it was not one that made it easy for
Harold to change his arrangements as the fortunes of the day might
need. William, on the other hand, had not only a better armed force,
but a more flexible one. He had to attack, and, versed as he was in
all the operations of war, he could move his men from place to place
and make use of each opportunity