Battle of Fulford

Mm

... and they fight at the Battle of Fulford.

Um, Fulford is kind of like a, a suburb of York now.

Right.

You know, he obviously needs to make sure everyone's fed and stuff, but it means that he's left himself slightly vulnerable, and the English take advantage of that.

Battle of Fulford Gate, where we, Earl of Northumbria, Morcar, and his elder brother, Edwin, we, Earl of Mercia, attack him and sort of catch him by surprise.

But Harold's able to win there, defeats these English armies, sacks York, heads down to Stamford Bridge to reconnect with the fleet, and again, he spreads his army out quite thinly around the areas, ports, you know, to gather news and see what the next stage is gonna be, only for him to be ambushed by Harold Godwinson, who he'd assumed was probably in the south warding off a Norman invasion.

Yes.

i've got this george foreman grill george forward 3d printer take it to university with you What have you been busy with, Mark?

What have I been up to? I've been at Colours, and we ran a game of chivalry and honour at Colours of the Battle of Fulford Gate, which was great fun.

We had three really good games for that with a really crowded table, and I got to show off these wonderful 3D printed three-man armies I've been making and painting ready for that, so that's been good.

Who's printed your 3D? Remind me where you...

So the most important obvious omission is the fact that in the year 1066, there was not one battle, the Battle of Hastings, the famous one, there were three pitched battles fought in England.

The Battle of Fulford and the Battle of Stamford Bridge were fought in September, so a few weeks before the Battle of Hastings on 14th of October.

And those battles were fought in the north of England, and they are not shown in the tapestry, and that is important.

So King Harald, the English king by now, he goes up to Yorkshire and he fights in one of these battles.

The first battle, the Battle of Fulford, is between the Norwegian king, Hardrada, who is invaded with a fleet and he's also in alliance with King Harald's disaffected brother, Tosti, and they invade and they defeat the Anglo-Saxon defenders.

Harold then turns up with an army and fights Hardrada and Tosti at the famous Battle of Stamford Bridge and wins a victory for the ages.

It's an enormous triumph for Harold.

lives.

The Battle of Fulford Gate ended in a mighty victory for Harold Hardrada and...

Me! Earl Tostig! I'm king in the North! King in the North! Hmm, crayons.

Come on, everyone, join in.

At the same time, he maintained delicate diplomatic relations with Wales, dispatching envoys to Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and securing a temporary peace that allowed him to focus on internal matters.

Modern historians argue that Harold's participation in the Battle of Fulford, though not decisive for the outcome, prepared him for the logistical challenge of coordinating multiple contingents across hostile territory.

Harold's military reputation was further cemented by his swift victory over Hardrada, an action that required a surprise dawn attack on a heavily fortified bridge at Stamford Bridge, compelling an unexpected Norwegian retreat and consolidating northern peace.

Yet while this triumph showcased his prowess as a commander, it also exposed him to political backlash from the Northumbrian nobles who feared renewed Viking raids.

In ten sixty-six, he led a sizable invasion force, around ten thousand men with three hundred longships, to northern England, striking at York before turning south to meet King Edward's forces.

The Battle of Fulford gave him a brief victory against the Northumbrian rebels, but it was on September twenty-five that fate caught up.

The English king's army caught him unprepared at Stamford Bridge, where Harold's seasoned veterans, even his former comrades from Byzantium and Kievan Rus, were defeated and he fell dead in battle.

Historians often view Harold's death as marking the end of the Viking Age, but the reality is subtler.