Note 1 — Chapter XI · THE ELECTION OF HAROLD.[1] January 5th–April 16th, 1066.

The authorities for this Chapter and for the whole of this volume may be dealt with in a single summary. For the most part they are the same as those which we have been using all along; but they must now be looked at in a somewhat different way. Hitherto, except in the Chapters specially devoted to Norman affairs, our use of the Norman writers has been for the most part incidental. But, through the whole of the controversies of the year 1066, we must place English and Norman writers in a certain sense on a level. The writers of each nation—I speak of course mainly of contemporary writers—tell the tale from their own national points of view and in the way which is most favourable to their own national heroes. At no time must their statements be more carefully compared with one another, as no full or accurate narrative could be drawn from either side by itself. The English writers maintain a sort of sullen silence on those points on which the Normans are naturally the most full. The Normans, on the other hand, through ignorance, through prejudice, sometimes through direct disregard to truth, grossly misrepresent all English affairs.

At this stage we lose the Biographer of Eadward, who ends his story in a most significant way at Eadward’s death, and who has nothing beyond one or two dark allusions to anything later. On the Norman side we gain one most valuable source of help in the Tapestry of Bayeux, whose origin and importance I shall discuss in a separate note. (See Appendix A.) The Saga of Harold Hardrada in Snorro must also be carefully studied. Wild as it is in many parts, it is our most detailed account, and our only Scandinavian account, of the campaign of Stamfordbridge, and it also shows us the way in which English and Norman affairs were looked on in Northern Europe.

Later writers, down to as late a time as any one pleases, are, at this time, worthy of more than usual attention. Though for the most part of very little value in themselves, they tell us, what it is most important to learn, the way in which different ages looked at the greatest events in English history.