The Battle of Fulford: The forgotten clash before Hastings
The little-known Battle of Fulford broke out near York in 1066. How did the conflict unfold, and what makes it a crucial precursor to the Battle of Hastings?
Image: The arrival of King Harald of Norway and his defeat of the Northumbrians at Fulford, from The Life of King Edward the Confessor by Matthew Paris | Public Domain
The Battle of Hastings is one of the most pivotal events in British history. It saw William the Conqueror defeat Harold Godwinson on the English king’s own soil, leading the victor to take his fallen foe’s throne for himself.
Having hailed from a French duchy, William was instrumental in introducing much French terminology to the English language. This hybrid tongue came to be known as ‘Anglo-Norman’.
No wonder the new Sky HISTORY series Britain’s Lost Battlefields devotes an entire episode to Hastings, which took place on 14th October 1066. However, were it not for a different, far lesser-known conflict earlier that same year, William might never have succeeded in overcoming Harold.
Here at Sky HISTORY, we thought it time to finally give the Battle of Fulford the sustained attention it has long deserved.
Edward the Confessor dies without a clear heir
When English king Edward the Confessor passed away on 5th January 1066, he left a gaping political vacuum. It was far from straightforward who was supposed to inherit the throne, and Edward himself had failed to clearly nominate his own choice of successor.
This fraught situation left multiple potential candidates jockeying for position – including William, who claimed that Edward had promised him the throne. However, the ‘witan’ – a royal council of ‘wise men’ – moved quickly to install Harold Godwinson as king.
Believing that he had been unjustly denied the throne, William became determined to take it by force. To counter this threat, Harold sent troops to the south coast, but eventually disbanded this army after it was left hanging for months. The Normans were nowhere to be seen, so had they called off the invasion?
A new threat emerges up north
It later emerged that Harold had been right to fear the imminent arrival of an invasion force. His only mistake had been to station his troops in the wrong place. The more immediate foreign threat to his throne arrived from Scandinavia in the north, not Normandy across the English Channel.
The king’s brother, Tostig, had recently served as earl of Northumbria, but his unpopularity with locals saw him deposed in 1065. Determined to return to power in England, he struck a deal with Harald Hardrada, the king of Norway.
Tostig persuaded Hardrada that he had his own claim to the English throne and so should mount his own invasion of the country. The Norwegian king subsequently sent a fleet of 300 ships – likely carrying about 10,000 troops between them – across the North Sea.
How the Battle of Fulford unfolded
Hardrada’s fleet arrived in the Humber estuary before travelling up the River Ouse. The Norwegians reportedly disembarked at Riccall, about 10 miles south of York, before marching towards the cathedral city itself. They were interrupted when confronted by two northern earls at the village of Fulford on 20th September 1066.
Edwin was earl of Mercia, while his brother Morcar had replaced Tostig as earl of Northumbria. The two brothers now commanded an army of about 5,000 at Fulford, but the Ouse’s high tide delayed their initial attack on Hardrada’s army.
Though Morcar’s troops did start pushing back the enemy’s right flank, Hardrada purposefully pitted his best men against Edwin’s contingent. As a result, this wing of the Saxon army collapsed, enabling Hardrada to send a force circling Morcar’s preoccupied troops and charging their rear. Morcar was forced to retreat.
How many people died at the Battle of Fulford?
The total toll of casualties at the Battle of Fulford is unclear, but looks likely to have at least numbered in the hundreds. Contemporary accounts of the battle imply that the Saxons lost the most men, though Edwin and Morcar themselves survived.
The ripple effects of the Battle of Fulford
Harold Godwinson was unsurprisingly none too pleased when he learned that the Norwegians had fended off his allies Edwin and Morcar. It meant that Harold would have to zip up north to deal with the northern threat himself.
He did exactly that at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, just five days after the calamity at Fulford. Thousands of the invading troops – along with Hardrada and Tostig themselves – were killed. However, Harold’s own army might have suffered nearly as many casualties.
It all left the king’s military position perilously weak when he took on the Normans at Hastings just weeks later, likely contributing to his defeat.
The Battle of Fulford helped usher in the Norman Conquest. You can learn more about the Norman era by signing up to the Sky HISTORY newsletter.
