Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings took place on 14th October 1066, when the defending English army, also called the Anglo-Saxon army, led by King Harold, engaged invading Normans on Senlac Hill near Hastings, England. The Normans won decisively and Harold was killed, effectively ending Anglo-Saxon rule of England and establishing the Norman line of monarchs. For the next three centuries, Norman French would be the language of much official correspondence, and English would absorb a substantial amount of its vocabulary.

The battle was fought to assert a Norman claim to the throne. Following the death of Edward the Confessor, William, Duke of Normandy (later William I, also known as William the Conqueror) came to the English throne.

The battle was memorialised in the Bayeux Tapestry.