Тема реферата: Battle of Hastings, 1066

Реферат на английском языке о битве при Гастингсе (1066 год, Нормандское завоевание Англии)

Forces of opposed sides
Meanwhile William had assembled an invasion fleet of approximately 600 ships and an army of 7,000 men. William had recruited soldiers not only from Normandy but from all of Northern France, the Low Countries and Germany. Many soldiers in his army were second- and third-born sons who had little or no inheritance under the laws of primogeniture. William promised that if they brought their own horse, armour, and weapons to join him, they would be rewarded with lands and titles in the new realm. William also gathered over 2,000 horses, transported across the channel in specially adapted horse transports.

William had gathered his ships at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. His army was ready on 12 August; however, due to unfavourable weather, he arrived in the south of England just days after Harold\'s victory over the Norwegians. The delay turned out to be crucial; had he landed in August as originally planned, Harold would have been waiting with a fresh and numerically superior force. On September 28, 1066, William of Normandy, after being delayed by a storm in the English Channel, asserted his claim to the English crown by military force, landing unopposed at a marshy, tidal inlet at Bulverhythe, between what are now the modern towns of Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea. The Bulverhythe beachhead is within two miles of the Senlac battlefield, is sheltered, and has access to high ground, whilst Pevensey, which had long been held to be the Duke\'s landing place, is marsh-bound - presenting problems for off-loading troops, horses and stores, and remote from the road to London. Legend has it that upon setting foot on the beach, William tripped and fell on his face. Turning potential embarrassment in front of his troops into a face-saving exercise, he rose with his hands full of sand and shouted "I now take hold of the land of England!" This bears suspicious resemblance to the story of Julius Caesar\'s invasion of Britain, and was perhaps employed by William\'s biographer to enhance the similarities between Caesar and William. William assembled a prefabricated wooden castle near Hastings as a base. The choice of landing was a direct provocation to Harold Godwinson, as this area of Sussex was Harold\'s own personal domain. William began immediately to lay waste to the land. It may have prompted Harold to respond immediately and in haste rather than to wait at London long enough to reassemble the full strength of the southern English fyrd. Again, it was an event that favoured William. Had he marched inland, he might have outstretched his supply lines, and possibly have been surrounded by Harold\'s forces.