The Norman Conquest
Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066. He was buried the following day, when Harold was crowned king. William sent Lanfranc to Rome to obtain papal backing. He called his magnates to councils, but it was necessary in many cases to use force of personality, together with offers of land to be won in England.
On 24 April, Halley’s Comet blazed for a week in the sky. An omen to many, it appears on the Tapestry near a worried Harold. The estuary of the River Dives became the assembly place for the fleet, said to number 696 vessels, while the troops began to assemble nearby, but the wind blew obstinately from a northerly direction. Harold was guarding family lands in the south, while an English fleet, said to consist of 700 ships, patrolled the Channel.
On 8 September the English army ran out of provisions and the fleet was ordered to London to refit. William took this opportunity to move his ships some 160 miles eastwards along the coast to Saint Valéry-sur-Somme, but several vessels were lost in storms. Meanwhile, Harold had waited. In early September came the threat from Harald Hardrada of Norway. Landing with Tostig in the Humber, he defeated Edwin and Morcar’s army at Gate Fulford outside York on 20 September and demanded hostages. Harold raced north, surprised the Norsemen on 25 September and cut them to pieces at Stamford Bridge. Hardrada and Tostig were killed, but the south lay unprotected.
The chroniclers assert that the wind did not change direction until about 27 September. However, William may have deliberately waited until the English army went north, before embarking. The horses were presumably loaded using ramps, the ships being
brought up at high tide, which was at about 15:20 GMT.