Overview
- Historian Tom Licence of the University of East Anglia re-read the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and argues the phrase that the fleet "came home" meant a return to London rather than disbandment.
- He says Harold used ships to move forces, paused in London to rest men, and tried a land-sea plan at Hastings with a fleet that arrived too late to affect the battle.
- Several contemporary Latin accounts that mention English fleets now fit this timeline, while the sources do not clearly describe a 200-mile forced march.
- Scholars respond as interested but cautious, with Cambridge’s Rory Naismith calling a larger naval role plausible and others noting Harold likely moved troops by both land and sea.
- Licence presents the work at an Oxford conference on March 24 and in a forthcoming biography, a shift that could influence how 1066 is taught and how the Bayeux Tapestry’s famous scenes are interpreted later this year in London.