After the English 'shieldwall' at Hastings had finally disintegrated into smaller, brutal mini-battles for survival as the Normans gained the hilltop at the end of a gruelling day, and as the elite Anglo-Danish housecarls showed extreme yet doomed and desperate courage by fighting feverishly to the death around dying/dead King Harold atop Senlac ridge against overwhelming swarms of fired-up & vengeful Norman troops, the broken saxon fyrdsmen(ordinary farmer/soldiers) fled for their lives to the north and west of the battle- which now resembled a stirred-up hornet's nest as dusk fell. Some were slain by pursuing Norman cavalry, others fled home, others died of wounds or exhaustion in the dense Andredsweald woods behind.
Yet it was now that the 'victorious' Norman army suffered a small-disaster as their cavalry pursued the fleeing saxon footmen in the near-dark, which has only been thinly-documented by the Normans, maybe understandably- "The Malfosse" as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
About 1/4m to the north-west of the main battle was a deep gully(Oakwood Gill, today). It was a deceptive series of ditches with very steep banks, it's perilous nature almost hidden by brambles and undergrowth from the fast-charging Norman horsemen in low light.
Newly arrived Saxons, maybe fresh reinforcements of housecarls(under a leader? Earls Edwin & Morcar or Waltheof??), too late to influence the battle, took up an orderly defensive shieldwall position on the northern bank of the huge ditches and called to any fleeing fyrdsmen to join them.
They lured the Normans(who did not know the lie of the land, nor see it or their enemy clearly) towards them at speed, and they charged over the edge- somersaulting & tumbling headlong into a pitiful mass of broken human/equine bodies and screaming/dying men. More cavalry followed- unable to see much before them, until it "almost levelled the ravine". Any survivors in the huge mass that didn't break backs/necks or suffocate underneath were quickly despatched by the vengeful saxons.
The Normans finally realised the scale of the disaster and called a halt, then a withdraw order(Eustace of Boulogne) but duke William himself charged up and counter-manded him. Then the Saxons "were dispersed", more likely they fell back into the darkness back to their villages and burhs.
Many of the surviving thegns and housecarls soon after either went to Scotland, Ireland or(mostly) sailed abroad and took up employment as mercenaries in the Byzantium Varangian guard- so many that in the late 11thC it became known as "The English Guard"
Yet it was now that the 'victorious' Norman army suffered a small-disaster as their cavalry pursued the fleeing saxon footmen in the near-dark, which has only been thinly-documented by the Normans, maybe understandably- "The Malfosse" as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry.
About 1/4m to the north-west of the main battle was a deep gully(Oakwood Gill, today). It was a deceptive series of ditches with very steep banks, it's perilous nature almost hidden by brambles and undergrowth from the fast-charging Norman horsemen in low light.
Newly arrived Saxons, maybe fresh reinforcements of housecarls(under a leader? Earls Edwin & Morcar or Waltheof??), too late to influence the battle, took up an orderly defensive shieldwall position on the northern bank of the huge ditches and called to any fleeing fyrdsmen to join them.
They lured the Normans(who did not know the lie of the land, nor see it or their enemy clearly) towards them at speed, and they charged over the edge- somersaulting & tumbling headlong into a pitiful mass of broken human/equine bodies and screaming/dying men. More cavalry followed- unable to see much before them, until it "almost levelled the ravine". Any survivors in the huge mass that didn't break backs/necks or suffocate underneath were quickly despatched by the vengeful saxons.
The Normans finally realised the scale of the disaster and called a halt, then a withdraw order(Eustace of Boulogne) but duke William himself charged up and counter-manded him. Then the Saxons "were dispersed", more likely they fell back into the darkness back to their villages and burhs.
Many of the surviving thegns and housecarls soon after either went to Scotland, Ireland or(mostly) sailed abroad and took up employment as mercenaries in the Byzantium Varangian guard- so many that in the late 11thC it became known as "The English Guard"
