WHAT IF... WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR HAD LOST AT HASTINGS?

So much hinged on the battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. Victory for William, duke of Normandy, ushered in the Norman Conquest and huge political, administrative, cultural, religious and social changes. It established a new royal dynasty and aristocracy. It signalled the end of the Viking Age. It restructured both government and church. It saw England bind itself more closely to Europe. It led to the Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday Book, and made 1066 the most famous date in English history.

All of that may never have happened, though, had Harold Godwinson, crowned in January 1066,and . “He would be remembered as one of the greatest of English warrior kings, up there with Æthelstan and Henry V.”