The Enigma of Hastings

Despite its pivotal role in English - and world - history, the Battle of Hastings is known only through the famous Bayeux Tapestry and accounts written long after the event - and all but one of those from the pen of the victorious Normans.The ground where the battle was fought has never yielded a single artifact - not one scrap of metal, not one piece of bone. Through the centuries, the popular version of events has become historic fact: drawn into a trap by William the Conqueror, King Harold is fatally struck in the eye and the Anglo-Saxon army collapses around him. But how could King Harold - a renowned tactician and skillful military leader - have so easily fallen for the Norman trap?In The Enigma of Hastings , historian Edwin Tetlow seeks to address this question by exploring by every possible piece of evidence from the battle - the result is one of the most readable and insightful accounts of this momentous moment ever produced.