4th+Period+-+Harold

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__ Introduction:   __
== We are the East Anglians, and we blame King Harold Godwinson for the fall of the English world. We blame King Harold because he was the one who exiled his brother Tostig, he didn’t have control over his people at the battle at Hastings. He was also the one who was being cautious about going to war against Duke William and his Norman soldiers. He wasn’t prepared to fight, so he is to blame. ==

__ Why King Harold is to Blame: __
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 A.    It all started with him putting his brother Tostig in exile
===  a)    This was a mistake on Harold’s part because he knew that his brother would be mad that he wasn’t an earl anymore, so Harold basically knew that he would be going to war against his own brother  ===

 b)    With Harold doing this, he lost some of his people, which he needed for the later battle at Hastings
=== c) Harold knew that he was fighting his brother, Tostig, but then suddenly he decided that he didn't want battle against him or kill him to win the battle ===

B. **Harold wasn’t prepared for war against the Duke and his Norman soldiers**
===  a)    This goes with the next point, Harold and his people/fighters weren’t prepared at all. They weren’t expecting the Normans to come so soon, so they were off doing other things. It was a good thing for Harold that he still has people left over to fight with him.      ===

 c)    King Harold probably should have done something about his injury in his leg so he could be at full strength in an important battle
==C. ** Harold thought wrong about when the Normans were coming; he and his people were celebrating the death of Tostig, and they weren’t expecting the Normans to come so soon ** == ===  a)    Harold’s people were off celebrating the death of Harold’s brother instead of getting prepared for an important fight. Even if they thought that Duke William and his Norman soldiers were coming later, they still should have been preparing for it.  ===

 D.    It was a mistake for Harold to make the oath knowing that it would take his country to war against Duke William
===  a)    Even though Harold knew it was the right thing to do to get out of the Norman land, he didn’t have to make the oath. He could have not made it, and gone to war for that cause, but his choice was to make the oath, then go to war, and then have William take over what was his land.  === ===<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">   b)    Another bad thing was that he swore on bones, so he knew that it would be awful for him to break that oath, because he was Christian and because that was not his way of doing things  ===

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">E. **Harold didn’t have a good war strategy at the battle of Hastings**
===<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">  a)    He probably thought it would be their best way of having a chance to win, but it turned out he was wrong. The Normans outsmarted them by charging at them while firing arrows at King Harold and his people; if some people tried to block the charging horsemen coming at them, they would most likely get hit by an arrow flying through the air. If some people had the shields toward the sky, themselves and the whole entire shield wall would probably get trampled on/over.  === ==<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">F. **Harold didn’t have control over his people during the battle at Hastings; people were running out from the shield wall, which led to them being killed, which led to the Normans having a lot more fighters than King Harold and his people**  == ===<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">   a)    Not only were some people running out to get killed, some people also couldn’t withstand the blow that was charging at them, which caused even more people to either die or to flee the area. === ==<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">G. **Harold’s people thought that Harold was being too cautious about going to war; almost like he didn’t want to, or he knew that they were going to be outnumbered by the Normans** == ===<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">  a)    King Harold seemed to be a cautious person, or the type that kept his thoughts to himself. So it didn’t surprise me that he was going to be cautious about going to war. He probably knew that he wasn’t prepared.  === ===<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">   b)    What Harold probably didn’t know was that he was going to be extremely outnumbered. From the help of his spy, he knew a little bit about the numbers of Normans coming, but he didn’t know enough. ===

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==<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif">King Harold Godwinson is to blame because he was the one that put his brother Tostig in exile. That lead to him and his people not being prepared for war against the Normans .==