Duke William of Normandy, according to the 12th-century chronicler Orderic Vitalis, sailed with 900. In 54BC, the Britons avoided pitched battle and instead fought a guerrilla war. Although making gains and local allies, every Roman soldier was back in Gaul the following year. In 1066, however, King Harold Godwinson resolved to face William’s army in open battle. Yet, as Heinrich Heine wrote in his 1851 poem Schlachtfeld bei Hastings (Battlefield at Hastings):Fate willed the Duke of NormandyThe fatal day should gain,And on the field at Hastings…

Source: The Times October 14, 2016 23:03 UTC