Customer Reviews

Hastings 1066 (Trade Editions)

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Osprey's "Men-at-Arms" series and "Campaign" series have been well known among students and buffs of military history for a long time, for their detail and accuracy. This one covers the opening overt act in the conquest of King Harold's England by Duke William of Normandy in the fall of 1066. It begins with the character and background of the two commanders and describes the geopolitical context, then examines the military machine each had to work with, the Saxon fyrd vs. the Norman cavalry. Then comes the preparations by William for mounting the invasion and by Harold for resisting it -- with time out, unfortunately, to deal with Tostig and Hardrada in York, a second front he really didn't have the forces for. And so we arrive the main event: William's landing at Pevensey and Harold's forced march back south to meet it at Hastings. And even then the final battle was a near thing. If Harold had had the men he had lost at Stamford Bridge, or if the northern counties had been able to supply forces themselves, or even if the Saxons had held firm and not gone whooping downhill after the Bretons, there's every likelihood that we would be speaking a much more Germanic form of English today. The book contains more than ninety drawings and photos, including clothing and weapons, scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry, and battle sites as they appear today. And there maps and notes at the end for the wargamer.