Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/437

 kept his forces together, sailed to the Isle of Wight, and for four months remained fully prepared to meet an invasion from Normandy. At last on 8 Sept. he was forced to allow his army to return home, for provisions failed (A.-S. Chron. Abingdon, 1066). He rode to London, bidding his fleet meet him there.

While Harold was in London he heard that Harold Hardrada, king of Norway, had invaded the north and landed near York ; he had sailed with, it is said, half the fighting men of his kingdom, with a fleet of two hundred ships of war (Heimskringla, iv. 35) and other vessels carrying great treasure, probably three hundred ships in all (A.-S. Chron. ; i. 226 says more than five hundred). The invaders had landed in Orkney and anchored in the Tyne, where Harold Hardrada was joined by Tostig with a fleet from Scotland, and by a force under an Irish prince. Thence he sailed southwards, ravaging the coast as he went, and so up the Humber, landing finally at Riccall on the Ouse. The appearance of the fleet in the Tyne is said to have been unexpected ; the king had given his whole attention to the defence of the south, and had left the north to be defended by his brothers-in-law Eadwine and Morkere, the earls of Mercia and Northumberland (Norman Conquest, iii. 336). The earls gathered an army and met the invaders at Gate Fulford, two miles to the south of York, on 20 Sept. ; they were defeated with great slaughter, and York was surrendered (, ii. 180). Harold of Norway received hostages from the northern people, who agreed to march with him to invade the south. It is said that when Harold heard the tidings of the invasion he was suffering from a violent pain in the leg, and was much discouraged by the knowledge that the enemy had a larger force than he could muster. He concealed his sufferings, and prayed earnestly through the whole night for the aid of the holy rood of Waltham. In the night the Confessor is said to have appeared to the abbot of Ramsey, and bade him tell the king that he would be victorious, and on receiving this message Harold was miraculously cured (Vita Haroldi, p. 188 ; Historia Ramesiensis, p. 179;, col. 404). He marched rapidly northward, pressing on by night as well as day, and reached Tadcaster on the 24th, which was probably the day of the surrender of York. There he met his fleet, and the next day, Monday, encountered the invaders at Stamford Bridge. A glorious account of the battle is given in the 'Saga of Harold Hardrada;' unfortunately it is, for the most part, unhistorical. Before the battle the English king, it is said, saw Harold of Norway fall from his horse, and on being told who it was remarked, 'He is a tall man and goodly to look upon, but I think that his luck has left him' (Heimskringla, iv. 43). Before the battle Harold sent to Tostig offering him his old earldom of Northumbriæ, or a third of the kingdom. Tostig asked what he would give to his ally, the king of Norway. 'Seven feet of ground,' was Harold's answer, 'or as much more as he needs, as he is taller than most men' (ib. p. 44). Harold is represented as being on horseback, and though he of course fought on foot, he may have been mounted while ordering his army. On the return of the messengers the Norwegian king said 'That was but a little man, yet he stands well in his stirrups' (ib. p. 45). The English made a sudden attack on a part of the Norwegian host drawn up on the right bank of the Derwent (Norman Conquest, iii. 370), and forced the enemy to retreat across the river on the main body of the host. For a time the bridge was defended by a single Norwegian warrior, so that Harold could not attack the invaders. When this warrior was slain, by a stratagem (A.-S. Chron. ;, p. 762) the king led his men across. The battle lasted throughout the day, and ended in the victory of the English. Harold Hardrada and Tostig were both slain, and with them a great number of their army. The loss on the English side was heavy, and for several years the place of battle was covered with the bones of the slain (, p. 500). Harold received the submission of Olaf, the son of the Norwegian king, and the Orkney jarls, who seem to have remained in charge of the fleet at Riccall. He allowed them to depart.

While Harold was holding a feast at York after his victory, tidings reached him, probably on 1 Oct., that William of Normandy had landed with a great host at Pevensey (, p. 762). William had excited a general feeling in his own favour by dwelling on the sacrilegious scorn with which Harold had treated the relics of the saints at Bayeux. He had proclaimed the English king a usurper and a perjurer, had received recruits from many lands, and had obtained the pope's approval of his enterprise, together with a ring and a consecrated banner. His invasion was to some extent regarded as a kind of crusade ; for, besides Harold's alleged sacrilege, the wrongs of Archbishop Robert and the independent character of the English national church gave him grounds for his appeal to the religious sentiment of western Christendom. On hearing of