William The Conqueror's Speech Before The Battle of Hastings

 According to the chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, William The Conqueror gave this speech to his men before the battle of Hastings .”Ah! let any one of the English whom our predecessors, both Danes and Norwegians, have defeated in a hundred battles, come forth and show that the race of Rollo ever suffered a defeat from his time until now, and I will submit and retreat. Is it not shameful, then, that a people accustomed to be conquered, a people ignorant of the art of war, a people not even in possession of arrows, should make a show of being arrayed in order of battle against you, most valiant?”

 Did William actually speak these words? It seems unlikely. For one thing, the speech, if true, ran the risk of making the Normans TOO confident, such is the disparaging nature of William’s words about the English. He is almost making it seem that they were not fit to be on the same battlefield as the Normans. His references to the Normans Vikings origins and portraying the earlier Norse armies as being almost invincible would have been careless in the extreme and it seems likely that the men in William's ranks would not have believed his words given they would have been aware of recent event. The English had their fair share of success in the Viking wars in the centuries prior, not least at the Battle of Stamford Bridge just 3 weeks before Hastings where Harold II had defeated Harald Hardrada of Norway. Calling the English ignorant of war and being accustomed to being conquered could surely have been of very little benefit to William. 

Even if William did say and believe these words, he would find in the years to come, despite his triumph at Hastings, that the English would not simply roll over and would, in fact, resist his rule fiercely. And they would, at an incredibly heavy price, earn his respect. In 1087, as he lay dying, William referred to the English as “that fine race.”  He may have held them in contempt before his conquest of England but his attitude towards the natives would certainly change over the course of his reign.