Battle of Fulford
| Battle of Fulford | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Viking Conquest of England | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
| Norwegian Vikings | Anglo-Saxon English | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Harald Hardrada | Morcar of Northumbria and his brother Edwin, Earl of Mercia | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 300 ships, 7,000 men | 3,000 men | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| Unknown, thought of to be very heavy | 1,500 men | ||||||||
On September 20, 1066, King Harald III of Norway and Tostig, his English ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar at the Battle of Fulford. The traitorous Tostig was able to identify the most valuable hostages afterwards, thus ensuring lasting compliance from the defeated English. Tostig was Harold Godwinson's brother who was banished. He gave the Vikings his fleet in return for revenge.
Edwin had brought some soldiers to the east to prepare for an invasion by the Vikings. The battle started with the English spreading their forces out a total of 300 meters at German Beck. Morcar did this because he did not want to be attacked from the rear by the Vikings. On the right flank was the River Ouse, and on the left flank was the Fordland, a swampy area. The disadvantage to the position was that it gave Harald higher ground which was perfect for seeing the battle from a distance. Another disadvantage was that if one flank gave way, the other one would be in trouble. If the Anglo-Saxon army had to retreat, it would not be able to because of the marshlands. They would have to hold off the Vikings as long as possible.
Harald's army approached from three routes to the south. Harald lined his army up to oppose the Anglo-Saxons, but he knew it would take hours for all of his troops to arrive. His least experienced troops were sent to the right, and his best troops on the riverbank.
Background Information
When the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor died a few years later in 1066 with no child, and thus no heir to the throne, it created a power vacuum into which three competing interests laid claim to King of England.
The first was Harald III of Norway who had blood ties to the Anglo-Saxon family. The second was William the Bastard, the Duke of Normandy, because of his blood ties to Aethelred. The third was an Anglo-Saxon by the name of Harold Godwinson who had been elected in the traditional way by the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot of England to be king. The stage was set for a battle between the three. However, the Vikings were the first side to act. They invaded England before the Normans. Their first battle was here, at Fulford, where 300 ships carried not only soldiers, but women and children to settle the lands that were conquered.
English charge
The English struck first, advancing on the Viking army before it could be fully deployed. Morcar's troops pushed Harald's back into the marshlands with their attack, making progress against the weaker section of the Viking line. However, this initial success proved insufficient for victory to the English army, as the Norse brought the force of the better of their troops to bear upon them, still fresh against the weakened Anglo-Saxons.
Harald's countermove
Harald brought more of his troops from the right flank to attack the centre, and sent more men to the river. The men were outnumbered, but they kept pushing and shoving the defenders back. Their efforts worked and the Anglo-Saxons were forced to give ground. Edwin's soldiers who were defending the bank now were cut off from the rest of the army by the marsh, so they headed back to the city to make a final stand. Within another hour, the men on the beck were forced off by the Vikings. Other invading Vikings who were still arriving found a way to get around the thick fighting and opened a third front against the Anglo-Saxons. Outnumbered and outmanuevered, the defenders were forced into defeat. Edwin and Morcar however, did survive the fight.
The remaining men in Fulford surrendered under the promise that the Vikings would not loot their city. The treaty was kept, as the Vikings turned their attention towards York.
Consequences of the loss
The Battle of Fulford did not yield a huge gain or loss to either side, but fits into the important chain of events of the English Autumn of 1066. As a section of the total force of the nation, English losses were not decisive and the Vikings retained a sizeable army, prepared for an attack on York. The Battle of Stamford Bridge ended these designs, with a swift routing for the Vikings, and it is unlikely (though not totally implausible, given the vague data), that the losses at Fulford were a significant contributing factor to this later defeat. Fulford was not to be the battle to end all Scandinavian attempts at English conquest, as Stamford Bridge was. If it had been though, events may have turned out very differently. The Viking invasion would have been defeated and King Harold Godwinson would have been forced into neither the taxing marches nor the battle losses that the defeat at Fulford thrust upon him, altering significantly his army at the Battle of Hastings.
It might have required more than was possible from the outnumbered English army, but if the Battle of Fulford had gone the other way, 1066 could have been a very different year for the Anglo Saxon people of Britain, and the history of England, and the whole United Kingdom could have run another course entirely.
