The Battle of Hastings

Much of the King's army was composed of locally raised char forces known as the Frith. He expected to be supported by local char forces raised from southern England when he moved south. Effectively, he's fighting a war on two fronts. So he therefore left two of the Earls, Edwin and Morkar, in the north to show leadership there,. The battle lasted for six hours - that's a long time by medieval standards. In the end what won it was the Norman soldier's guile. They kept feigning flights, which led eventually the English into breaking their shield wall.