“Crunch time! May God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost protect us all! Let us place our trust in the Lord!” said Hugh piously.
“Now we earn our half-crown a day!” replied Alan with a nod, crossing himself and bending his head as he made a personal supplication to God for his safety in the coming battle.
“My pay is in arrears! Can I be excused now?” quipped Robert, to ease the tension they were all feeling. The others laughed at the jest and clapped him on the shoulders before standing next to the shoulders of their horses, ready to mount on order. They stood unmounted to avoid unnecessarily tiring their mounts, in what was likely to be a long day for both man and beast.
The Norman archers, mainly bowmen but with a sprinkling of crossbowmen, cautiously approached the English shield-wall and began to fire at close range. Some were over-confident and approached too close. They received a hail of spears, thrown hand-axes and rocks tied to wooden handles, causing some casualties before the Normans bowmen quickly retreated out of range of such thrown missiles, at a distance of 90 to 100 paces.
At close range it was nearly impossible to miss if the archer had a clear target- but few Englishmen were hit by the arrows as the flat trajectory of the shots and the fact that the bowmen were shooting uphill from positions lower than the Englishmen, meant that nearly every arrow fired hit a shield. The crossbowmen proved slightly more effective as some of the bolts were able to penetrate the shields and cause injury to those sheltering behind. The barrage proved to be much shorter in duration than was usual. Each archer carried three sheaves, each of twenty- four arrows; they ran out of missiles after ten to twelve minutes. Their usual method of obtaining reloads was to collect the arrows their enemies had fired in return, but they were denied this by the total lack of return bow- fire.
Behind the archers moved the Norman heavy infantry. Most were wearing chain-mail but a few wore jerkins of boiled leather and padded gambesons. All wore helmets and were armed with sword and spear. The Normans were carrying long kite-shaped shields, those of the infantry somewhat longer than those carried by the cavalry. The Anglo-Saxons carried a mix of similar kite-shields, and also round or even oblong shields- all locked tightly together in the shield-wall.
The Norman infantry plodded up the hill, gasping under the weight of their arms and armour as they struggled firstly across first the low-lying marshy ground, then uphill over the ploughed field and finally up the steep slope as they neared the top of the hill.
On the right flank the French and Fleming infantry were almost having to climb up the hill to the English, so steep was the slope of the land.
At a range of twenty paces the English line suddenly opened and a veritable storm of short-range missiles, javelins, throwing-axes, rocks and a few arrows struck the Normans. This caused them to reel backwards for a moment before regaining their momentum and resume moving forward.
Shield met shield with a clash and the ring of sword on sword could be heard. Spears were thrust on both sides, some finding targets and others not. Here and there the English shield-wall would open and one or two thegns or huscarles carrying massive Danish battle-axes, with a haft five feet long and a razor-sharp blade over twelve inches across, would leap into the open and swing their weapons with both hands. When they hit a shield it was smashed to pieces, and often carried on to cause serious injury to the target. When they hit a man they would cleanly chop off a limb or hack the man in twain. After several blows the axe-men would retreat back behind the shield-wall.
Although with better training and discipline and equal equipment, the infantry of the Normans and their allies were simply unable to force the mass of the English line back or create any gaps that the waiting cavalry could exploit. Chanting, shouts and screams rent the air. In places the men were pressed so close together that the dead could not fall to the ground and the wounded could not withdraw.
“Well, Plan ‘A’ isn't working. I suppose now it's time for Plan ‘B’. Hopefully the duke knows what he's doing,” commented Hugh as they watched from their vantage point. Alan grunted in reply.
William ordered his cavalry forward to support the hard-pressed infantry. The first two ranks of de Mandeville’s cavalry dutifully trotted forward over the difficult ground. The knights spurred their horses up the already blood-stained hill, their speed slowed by the slope, the slipperiness of the surface and the need of the horses to avoid tripping over obstacles such as bodies, rocks and discarded shields. The cavalry also was met by a hail of missiles that brought some men or beasts to the ground. Then the cavalry either threw their lances and wheeled away, stopped and prodded at the English line with their lances- or swept sideways this way and that seeking a gap in the English line. Norman horses were brought down by spears or javelins and the stunned horsemen killed, usually before they could regain their feet. The Normans found that the axe-men could, with a single well-aimed blow, cleave through shield, man and horse together.
Alan, Robert and Hugh de Berniers stood beside their destriers and watched as spectators from a distance of about 250 paces, becoming more and more morose as the battle wore on. A change-over in the Norman cavalry in the centre was about to take place, with the third rank readying to take their turn.
The banners of both Duke William and Count Geoffrey indicated they were engaged in the attack on the English centre, when suddenly the situation changed completely in almost a moment.
The Bretons and the other allies on the left flank suddenly collapsed. Their commander had asked too much for too long. At first the infantry broke and ran, disorganising the horsemen behind them, who soon joined in the general flight. Many of the right, or western, flank of the Englishmen, who had now for several hours suffered continuous assault, were overcome with bloodlust and anger and believed that victory was close. They boiled past the shield-wall and down the hill. Here the stream and marshy ground was only 250 paces away from the English line, and the English fyrdmen and thegns hit the struggling and floundering Breton infantry and horsemen, hacking, cutting and slashing as they killed every Breton they caught.
Alan and the rest of de Mandeville’s men mounted immediately without needing any order.
“Fucking Bretons! I knew we couldn’t rely on them!” swore Robert.
No instructions came. Alan looked to Hugh de Berniers, who in turn was looking frantically to the north for de Mandeville.
Taking the situation into his own hands Alan raised his lance and bellowed what he saw as the obvious order. “Squadron advance left at the canter!” he roared as he spurred Odin forward. His squadron and the two on each side, glad that an order had been given, advanced at first at a trot and then a canter, heading west- parallel to the English shield-wall and on reasonably firm ground. The fifty horsemen rode stirrup to stirrup over a front about 100 yards wide.
At first they encountered stray Englishmen who were only looking towards the Bretons. Then, at a full gallop, they smashed into the unprotected flank of the large disorganised mass of Englishmen who had followed the Bretons down the hill.
Trying to keep a level head in his first major engagement, Alan was nearly unseated when Odin swerved to run down a thegn carrying an axe and who was looking the other way. He then used his lance to quickly spear one after the other three unarmoured fyrdmen, two of whom were spearmen, before his lance shattered in the third and was wrenched from his grasp. Drawing his sword he angled towards the next horseman in line, shouting to the other cavalrymen to form an arrow-head formation and trying to recover control of the charge, which had now progressed about 300 yards in distance to be level with a small hillock behind the Bretons’ starting position.
They had compressed the English on the western flank to the point that continued progress by the cavalry would be foolhardy. The charge had taken the pressure off the Bretons, whose own cavalry now rejoined the fray from the swamp to the south. At the same time Duke William’s half-brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who ostensibly for religious reasons had not so far taken part in the battle, had gathered de Mandeville’s final rank of cavalry who had not followed Alan’s charge, his own bodyguard and whatever other loose horsemen he could find, and had begun to press along the stream to the south closer to the marshy ground than Alan had led his charge.
In the meantime the Norman centre had disengaged and fallen back to its start-line, the left flank of the Normans angled to protect its now vulnerable flank. On the right flank, the Flemish and French commanded by William fitzOsbern, a cousin of the duke, also disengaged and moved back out of missile range of the English line.
Alan’s men returned to their starting position, where they saw Duke William. The duke had removed his helmet and was galloping around proclaiming he was alive. Eustace of Boulogne had seized the papal banner and was carrying it as close to William as he could. Alan gathered that a rumour had arisen that William had been killed, and the duke was in the process of overcoming that rumour. William gathered what cavalry was available on the
