Why+Harold+Godwinson+lost+the+battle+of+Hastings+=)

Harold Godwinson lost the battle of Hastings for a great number of reasons, however, no-one alive today was there so we don't know exactly why, but we can consider some of the possible causes. The outcome of the battle was clear even before the fighting was over. Although there are a large number sensible reasons, a small minority are completely ridiculous. Here I am going to look into three of the most probable reasons why William the Conqueror came out of the Battle of Hastings victorious.

**Harold was a bad leader**. He was an unsuccessful leader because he didn't rest his troops after the battle with Harold Hardraada, which meant that they were not in peak condition for the battle. Also, his troops were to spread out at Hastings, resulting in their shield wall being easily disrupted by the Normans. Another reason that Harold could be considered to be a bad leader is because he didn't stop in London to gather more troops and supplies. If he had, he might have had a better chance of defeating William the Conqueror. Overall, there is lots of factual evidence to show that Harold Godwinson was not an extremely good battle leader.

**William was a good leader**. The Norman troops were far more under control than the Saxons, meaning that, when an order was given, it was carried out straight away. William the Conqueror had been preparing for Hastings for a long time, compared to Harold who just decided to fight them when he heard that they had landed in Britain, ending in William having the advantage. As well as that, William had a better history of battles, winning more because he was an excellent general. Even though Harold was at the top of the hill, William managed to easily defeat him, confirming the fact that he was a better leader than Harold. Finally, Harold had much less experience in war, so it might have resulted in him having poorer tactics than the very experienced William.

**Harold was unlucky**. Some people, including historians, believe that the largest reason why Harold lost was the fact that he was unlucky. One reason is that there were two armies attacking from different sides of the country, both at the same time and the British army wasn't big enough to split to fight each invading army separately. He was also very unfortunate because when he and his troops were fighting Hardraada, the wind changed direction so that William could cross over to England, meaning that Harold's whole army was at Stamford bridge and there was nothing that he could do to stop William invading England. Also, Harold had virtually no time to prepare for the battle of Hastings, whereas William had weeks for preparations to take place.

There are many other reasons why Harold Godwinson was defeated by William the conqueror however the reasons stated are probably as near as you will find, unless more evidence is found by archaeologists. Even though Harold had the advantage going into the battle, being on the top of the hill, it was soon realised that the Saxons had no chance of beating the more experienced, more controlled Normans.