King Harold at Senlac (Re-Named Battle), Near HastingsKing Harold and his Saxon army had made camp seven miles outside Hastings at Senlac. The Anglo-Saxons had no cavalry and few archers but they struck a defensive position at Senlac and formed a tight shield wall with their battle-axes at the ready. Their main weapons were the Danish battle-axe (a two-handed, long-handled battle axe with a heavy chopping head) and a long double-edged sword. The ruins of Battle Abbey at this hour attest the place where Harold's army was posted; and the high altar of the abbey stood on the very spot where Harold's own standard was planted during the fight, and where the carnage was the thickest. Before that time the place was called Senlac. Little of the ancient Abbey now remains; but it is easy to trace in the park and the neighborhood the scenes of the chief incidents in the action; and it is impossible to deny the generalship shown by Harold in stationing his men, especially when we bear in mind that he was deficient in cavalry, the arm in which his adversary's main strength consisted. |