This stratagem is said to have been the cause of Harold's
death; for it was an arrow falling from on high and piercing him
through the right eye that killed him or so grievously wounded him
that he was left for dead, to be finally killed by Eustace of Boulogne
and three other knights.
With Harold down there can have been little hope of victory left to
his men, and indeed before night William had planted the Pope's banner
where Harold's had floated and held the battlefield. There he supped
among the dead, and having spent Sunday, October 15th, in burying the
fallen, he set out not for London, but for Dover, for his simple and
precise plan was to secure all the entries into England from the
continent before securing the capital. When he had done this he
marched up into England by the Watling Street, burned Southwark,
crossed the Thames at Wallingford, received there the submission of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and at Berkhampstead the submission of
London and the offer of the Crown which he received at Westminster at
Mass upon Christmas Day; twelve days less than a year after Harold
had been crowned in the same place.
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