Once regaining the initiative, the Normans continued to alternate between bow and arrow shooting and cavalry assault, dealing a great blow to the passively defensive British army.

One side is in continuous motion and non-stop charging to achieve the goal, and the other side stands on the ground, motionless. Eventually, the English gradually fell apart, and the Normans slashed with swords and arrows. More and more England were cut down, and even more than the number of survivors. Those who had only suffered minor injuries were stuck in place due to the overcrowding of the formation.

At the critical moment of the decisive battle, Harold was shot in the face, he howled in pain, fell backwards, and could not command the troops at all.

Two of Harold's brothers, Earl Giles and Earl Leofwyn, had been killed in battle, and now the leaderless militia had fled the battlefield.

The Norman cavalry launched a fourth assault, and the final charge of the Norman army broke the lines of the left and right flanks of the British army and began to move towards the center of the British army. The British line began to falter, and the shield wall line had been broken through by Norman soldiers in many places. Most of the levies began to break up from the battlefield when they heard the news of the fall of the English king.

The regular army of the British army, having received the news that the king of England was dead, began to slowly retreat from the battlefield. The Normans finally captured the hill and began to pursue the British deserters.

The Normans, who followed in close proximity, occupied the hill and began to pursue the deserters. Harold's personal guards, the Dragon Banner Legion and the Combatant Legion, formed a circle around Harold, who was still warm, stubbornly resisting the Normans who rushed up the hill.

As the Norman knights gathered, one of his guards was cut to the ground, and after the last one was cut down, Harold, who was left unprotected, was killed and mutilated by the Norman soldiers who swarmed him.

The fighting continued into the night, and the English army was almost completely annihilated. In this way, the Battle of Hastings ended in a complete victory for William.

Only a small part of the British army managed to retreat into the forest, and some Norman soldiers pursued the British into the forest, but were ambushed and annihilated in the dark.

The later military scientist Archer Jones summed up William's victory as follows: he succeeded in combining the nature of light infantry and heavy cavalry. He used his archers to attack the British heavy infantry, fearing that the British would charge at him and drive them out of battle. When the British did disrupt the ranks, the results showed the decisive superiority of the heavy cavalry with stirrup stability over the non-platoon infantry, and the wall charge of the Norman knights played a huge role.

Through the clever use of these weapon systems with different abilities, the Norman king won a well-deserved tactical victory. This victory was achieved on the back of his superior organizational skills in command and logistics, shrewd strategy, and support for King Edward's righteousness.

The Battle of Hastings is also a good example of the use of the doctrine of combined operations, a remnant of the Roman Conquest with the Anglo-Saxon shield wall, in which spears were placed in gaps in the shield to effectively defend against cavalry onslaught, while also possessing strong offensive capabilities.

The combined offensive of Norman archers, cavalry and infantry completely deprived the English army of control of the battlefield, and the infantry only had to focus on defense and could not play effective tactics according to orders.

It is true that William's outstanding military prowess and proper military strategy allowed him to successfully respond to the imminent collapse of the army, which ultimately ensured the victory of the Normans. But the unexpected death of British coach Harold should perhaps be seen as a turning point.

After all, the defensive line of the British army was not broken for a long time that day, but the Norman army had a situation where the right flank troops had retreated. The Norman heavy cavalry's frontal charge against the English heavy infantry also had little effect, which also reflected the defensive superiority of the heavy infantry over the heavy cavalry.

In addition, the British infantry under Harold's command kept the line in line for a long time, and basically succeeded in carrying out the pre-war defensive strategy. Had this not happened, even if Willian had won in the end, he would have paid an even heavier price. From this point of view, there was an element of luck in William's victory.

However, Harold's lack of pre-war preparation and wartime scheduling errors also gave William an opportunity. Specifically, there are three main points:

Two previous engagements with the King's army at Oxfordshire and London had resulted in the loss of a large number of cavalry units and elites, which prevented him from gaining an advantage in combat power before the Battle of Hastings.

His misjudgment of the enemy's situation and his hasty and reckless advance increased the operational burden of the army and greatly affected the state of the army.

Lacking adaptability during combat, he was dragged into the combat mode that William was accustomed to.

Of course, we should not place the blame for the defeat solely on Harold. Fundamentally, the defeat at the Battle of Hastings was doomed before 1044. The lack of competent rulers at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, and the growing power of the local aristocracy and frequent civil wars severely weakened the kingdom. As a result, the original conscription system and local defense system were completely ineffective.

There were also the shortcomings of the English army system. Their old system was clearly sufficient to deal with the more militarily inferior Welsh and Scottish people, but they tended to lose more than they won when their opponents became more powerful Danes and Normans. During the wars with the Vikings, the English also made some innovations. For example, borrowing from the experience of the European continent against the Vikings, building fortresses, forming a navy, and introducing the new weapon of the Viking battle axe, etc. But this does not hide the fact that England has long lagged behind the European continent in military development.

Thus, the Battle of Hastings ostensibly reflected William's strategic and tactical victory, but the deeper reason was the complete victory of the professional army over the conscripted militia!

William rested for a night in the land he had just occupied, and then began his Norman conquest, first sending a detachment to occupy the port of Dover in Kent, thus securing his sea lines of communication, after all, a small fishing port in Hastings was not enough, and subsequent supplies and reinforcements needed to be transferred from the port of Dover, which was in good condition.

The main body of his army took a break at Hastings while awaiting the lord of England to come and show his obedience.

Three days later, when he realized that no one would come to show his obedience, he began to hurry up and march to London.

At this time, the Earl of Vises, who was besieging London, Earl Will. Godwin and his son Swain. Godwinson, Tostig. The army led by Godwinson and his sons was less than 5,000 men, most of them were militiamen who had been improvised from the territory, and the elite number was not large, and they could only expect the victory of Harold's army in the face of the threat of the northern princes and William, who landed in England in the south......