The Carmen of Hastings Proelio
by Guy Bishop of Amiens 1067appx
The Carmen of Hastings was one of the original documents detailing the battle and landing written shortly after the battle. It provides statements of fact that can only be applied to one place for the Battle of Hastings. It tells us that William was in his camp at the port when a monk appears to negotiate for Harold. William asks the monk “Where is the king” and is told “not far off, you can see his standards” (line 313). This tells anyone who lives in Hastings that Harold must have been on the hill above the port, which means he was at the head of the Crowhurst valley, since the only other site suitable was not visible from the Norman camp (Battle Abbey and Caldbeck), which were at least a mile away from the ridge heading north along the London Road.
The Carmen also tells us the Normans ‘reinstated the fort that was once there’(line 413). It shows detail that confirms the location of the castle by the shore at Wilting and details the negotiations between the Normans and Saxons prior to the Battle of Hastings. This is a new translation by the Latinist Kathleen Tyson throwing new light upon the events of the battle, including confirmation that Harold was hacked to death by four knights before the end of the battle sequence. The original translation was provided by E.van Houtts.
They restored the Hastengaceastra
The hill is described as a steep hill on more than one occasion (lines 380 and 523) with 300 lines of battlefield activity, none of which contradicts any other document. At line 558 the Duke becomes a conqueror and we are told that Harold goes the way of all flesh at this point (line 544), with the battle finishing after dusk, confirming the Chronicle of Battle Abbey story (line 560). Ms Tyson', the translator has copied Eleanor Searle, who describes the burial of the Norman dead as taking place ‘In the bosom of the earth’. The words used are invented and consequently we have used the translation proposed by Google Ai. This translates the text in a way that clearly defines the graves that are to be found on the new battlefield. In order to preserve them we are not making the position public yet, but they can be found in the new book which is published on Amazon. we also deal with the burial and note that the Carmen provides us with detail of what was said by Mallet, who buried the body, together with confirmation that the body of Harold was first taken back to Williams camp and then sent to the property at Hye House to be buried under a pile of stones overlooking the sea and port area. The translation requires rewriting now that the circumstances of the burial is known due to issues with the translation, which have been dealt with in the book 1066 The Battlefield. The ‘mutilated body of the king (Harold) was swiftly retrieved and buried’ meaning it was ‘recovered and dug up’ from the previous site and then buried again. This is clearly something that would not be admitted by the chronicler, but follows what is known about the body, resulting in two different versions of the burial sequences on the same site within one week of each other.
We have now found Harold’s engraved gravestone as a result of re-examining the translation previously done by Eleanor Searle of the Chronicle of Battle Abbey. The wording on the stone says :
‘Hic Rex Harald Quiescis
Here King Harold Rests’
providing confirmation that all the documents examined meet the site requirements with no contraditions found.
The reinstatement of the Carmen as a valid document in the last twenty years, due to understanding that the port and battlefield were in line of site, has effectively removed all the difficulties that had previously existed. Now we have confirmation of Wace’s validity of the Carmen as well, due to the host of issues that are seen to endorse each other. This includes confirmation of the Hastings port as the landing site, next to a large calm bay (line 124) known as the Combe Haven Valley. Domesday states that the surroundings were laid waste 25years later, confirming three different points (line 141, 160 and 178) where the text would otherwise differ. Confirmation of the King talking with the monk in his camp (line 209). The details of twelve thousand Saxons having arrived at the battlefield at that time (line 223) and that King Harold was planning an ambush of William, as detailed in other texts. In line 313 we are told that the king is not far off and you can ‘see his standards’, whilst William is in his camp by the sea. Further details are included in the battle formations including crossbowmen who were used in line 338, which had previously been denied by historians, who wrongly believed there was no evidence for them.