WACE MENTIONS THE MALFOSSE.

A unique and major element to the battlefield was a natural ditch that ran from the bottom to the top of the field, ensuring that those who did not know the land could not escape. It was referred to in Wace, and also Poitiers and the Chronicle of Battle Abbey. It is shown in the Bayeux Tapestry as well, so it is a major feature of the battlefield not found at any other prospective site. The English and Normans had been fighting for some time, this way and that, making a ‘loud braying of horns, the mighty strokes of swords and the shock of the lances.’

The Normans shouted ‘Dex aie’, and the English ‘Ut, ut’. ‘Some wax strong, others weak; the brave exult, but the cowards tremble, as men who are sore dismayed. The Normans press on the assault, and the English defend their post well; they pierce the hauberks, and cleave the shields, receive and return mighty blows…. in various ways the struggle proceeds.’ It states:

‘In the plain was a fosse, which the Norman had now behind them, having passed it in the fight without regarding it. But the English charged and drove the Normans before them, till they made them fall back upon the fosse, overthrowing into it horses and men. Many were seen falling therein, rolling one over the other, with their faces to the earth, and unable to rise. Many of the English also, whom the Normans drew down upon them, died there. At no time during the day’s battle did so many Normans die, as perished in that fosse. So those said who saw the dead.’

Images from the Malfosse in Crowhurst

The text follows the description as witnessed by the detail in the Bayeux Tapestry providing dialogue to the images shown adding to our understanding of what happened at the battle. It then states that the battle ‘lasted from 9’o’clock in the morning, when the combat began, till three o’clock, the battle was up and down, this way and that, and no one knew who would conquer and win the land.’

In Chapter twenty one the text tells us that the incident with the fosse came before 3’o’clock in the afternoon, when the Normans changed their tactics:

When the Normans determined to shoot their arrows upwards into the air, so that hey might fall on their enemies’ heads, and strike their faces… The arrows now flew thicker than rain before the wind; fast sped the shafts that the English call ‘wibetes’ Then it was that an arrow, that had been shot upwards, struck Harold above his right eye, and put it out. In his agaony he drew the arrow and threw it away, breaking it with his hands; and the pain was so great, that he leaned upon his shield.’

Wace therefore tells us when Harold was shot above the eye. It was when they were fighting upon the upper plain. It is clear from examining the battlefield at Crowhurst that the assemby plain extends up the lower slope past the first lower ‘malfosse’, which is hidden on the eastern side of the field exactly as Wace describes. The Normans are described as fleeing the English at this point in the battle and then later turn to attack again appearing to tell the story of the feigned retreat following it. The plain in the text is described as ‘wide’ where the battle was fierce, confirming that the battle had not yet reached the point where the hill rises to turn the dogleg up to the second defence, which has been found in Crowhurst. There then follows a roll call of those who did what to whom of knights known to have attended the battle in Chapter twenty two through to twenty four.

When describing the events of Duke William in Chapter twenty four the Duke attacks the English with 1,000 armed men and ‘closed ranks upon the English’. Loud was the clamour and great the slaughter with the living marching over the heaps of dead. Wace describes the death of Harold. He writes;

‘And now the Normans pressed on so far, that at last they reached the standard’, appearing to confirm the final push up the dogleg had begun because it is here that the gradient kicks in and the field narrows to a quarter of its previous width where the second defence is found. Exit on either side is stopped by the Malfosse on one side and thick forest on the other. This is therefore the description of a killing field and

‘many in truth fell who never rose at all, being crushed under the throng’.

William of Malmesbury : ‘Memorabile quoque vexillum Heraldi, hominis armati imaginem intextum habens ex auro purissimo’…Also memorable is the flag of the Harold, having the image of an armed man woven from the purest gold...Whilst Poitiers confirms: ’vexillum illud... quod erat in hominis pugnantis figura, auro et lapudibus arte sumptuosa contextum’…’that banner... which was in the shape of a fighting man, woven with gold and stones with a sumptuous art’. Providing an absolute identification of the banner in question.

Wace continues the Roman de Rou by stating:

There Harold had remained, defending himself to the utmost; but he was sorely wounded in his eye by the arrow, and suffered grievous pain from the blow. An armed man came in the throng of the battle, and struck him on the ventaille of his helmet, and beat him to the ground; and as he sought to recover himself, a knight beat him down again, stricking him on the thigh, down to the bone. The standard was beaten down, the golden gonfanon taken, and Harold and the best of his friends were slain.