[135]. Worcester Chronicle, 1066: “He com him togenes at thœre haran apuldran.”
[136]. The statement that Harold further strengthened his position by building a palisade in front of it rests solely on an obscure and probably corrupt passage in the Roman de Rou (lines 7815 et seqq). Apart altogether from the textual difficulty, the assertion of Wace is of no authority in view of the silence both of contemporary writers and of those of the next generation. In regard to none of the many earlier English fights of this century have we any hint that the position of the army was strengthened in this manner; nor in practice would it have been easy for Harold to collect sufficient timber to protect a front of 800 yards on the barren down where he made his stand. The negative evidence of the Bayeux tapestry is of particular importance here; for its designer could represent defences of the kind suggested when he so desired, as in the case of the fight at Dinan.
[137]. Spatz, p. 30, will only allow to William a total force of six to seven thousand men.
[138]. W. P., 133. “Cuncti pedites consistere densius conglobati.” For the arrangement of the English army on the hill see Baring, E. H. R., xx., 65.
[139]. It is probable that the expressions in certain later authorities (e.g. W. M., ii., 302, “pedites omnes cum bipennibus conserta ante se testudine”) from which the formation by the English of a definite shield or wall has been inferred mean no more than this. The “bord weal” of earlier Anglo-Saxon warfare may also be explained as a poetical phrase for a line of troops in close order.
See Round, Feudal England, 360–366.
[140]. This fact, which must condition any account to be given of the battle of Hastings, was first stated by Dr. W. Spatz, “Die Schlacht von Hastings,” section v., “Taktik beider Heere,” p. 34.
[141]. This point is brought out strongly by Oman, History of the Art of War.
[142]. Spatz, p. 29, uses this fact to limit the numbers of the Norman army.
[143]. W. P., 132.