Why Was Harold Godwinson Able to Defeat Harald Hadrada at Stamford Bridge, but Unable to Defeat William at Hastings?

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Harold Godwinson Defeated Harald Hadrada at Stamford Bridge on the 25th of September 1066 because of his ability to lead such a large army of people, about fifteen thousand people fought for Godwinson, an entire six thousand more people than Harald Hadrada had. Godwinson also had better tactics than Hadrada and a wider array peasant warriors. Godwinson’s men where trained in all manners of warfare, some rode on horseback, some were archers, but most of them still were foot soldiers, wielding either swords or javelin-spears. They On the face of things, Hadrada would have would have never won the battle anyway, for Godwinson outnumbered his army almost two to one. Hadrada had a wall of warriors surrounding him, with their shields firmly interlocked, but against horses, this was still not going to be the easy win that they were used to. However, the horses wore no armour to protect themselves, and this left them vulnerable to attack when charging at the wall of shields that they were presented with. Out of the three hundred ships that Hadrada had landed with, the demolition at Stamford Bridge meant that when they finally fled the battle, he only left with 24 of the ships he had started with. A mere three weeks later, even though still not fully recovered from the battle of Stamford Bridge, and five thousand people down, word of an impending Norman attack reached Godwinson, and this left him no choice but to march over two hundred miles to where they were, and not regroup and gather more troops, because William of Normandy was pillaging and harrying the villages with no hesitation in the south. This meant that William was with an immediate advantage, and this is perhaps the first time we see psychological warfare in use for certain. Because William had managed to draw Hadrada into battle, this meant that they had to march a long way in order to reach their destination,

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