Battle at Stanfordbridge
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Ingram/Giles translation) records under 1066 that Harald, King of Norway, and Earl Tosty had gone from their ships beyond York to a place the translation renders as "Stanfordbridge", that Harold, king of the English, came upon them unawares beyond the bridge, and that after long and very severe fighting Harald the Fair-hair'd, King of Norway, and Earl Tosty were slain with a multitude of people.
What this does and does not establish
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a monastic chronicle, used here through a 19th-century English translation (this e-text gives J. Ingram's translation, with excerpts of J. A. Giles's translation collated in by its preparer; the Old English was not checked); this records what this translation of the Chronicle says, not independent confirmation. The translator's note 91 (added as context) says that the 'Normans' here are not merely the Norwegians but the Danes and other adventurers from the north, joined with forces of France and Flanders, so the passage's ethnic terms are the translator's rendering. Two passages from J. A. Giles's translation, collated into this e-text in double parentheses under the same year, give parallel accounts of the battle; one of them has 'Northmen' where this passage has 'Normans'.
- Quoted from a published English translation, not from the original-language text.
- Region
- Europe
- Theme
- Politics and institutions
- Kind of record
- Placed in a year. A source places this in one year. It is listed under that year; no day precision is invented.
How it is dated
- Date reference
- A.D. 1066.
- How we use it
- Placed in the year under which the Chronicle enters it. For events near the turn of the year this may differ from the modern calendar year, and some annals in the Chronicle are known to be dislocated.
The date reference is this project’s reading of the source’s date. It may give an era name, a reign or a calendar in a normalised form rather than in the source’s own words; the dating notes say what the source prints.
Dating notes from the research record
The year is the heading under which this translation of the Chronicle enters the passage; the Chronicle's own year-beginning (Christmas, Annunciation or September, varying by manuscript) is not converted.
File names and line numbers in these notes, and in the limits above, refer to the project’s retained copies of the cited sources. Names such as calendar_headers are the project’s calendar look-ups, and “the investigator” is the research step that prepared the record.
Sources and quoted text
Line and character numbers under “Location” refer to the project’s retained copy of the source. For database rows, “Edition” names the batch of rows that was fetched together.
Source 1 · Supports the statement
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (English translation by J. Ingram, with J. A. Giles)
Anonymous Anglo-Saxon chroniclers; translated by James Ingram (1823) and J. A. Giles (1847)
Published English translation, as quoted
But Harald, King of
Norway, and Earl Tosty, with their forces, were gone from their
ships beyond York to Stanfordbridge; for that it was given them
to understand, that hostages would be brought to them there from
all the shire. Thither came Harold, king of the English,
unawares against them beyond the bridge; and they closed together
there, and continued long in the day fighting very severely.
There was slain Harald the Fair-hair'd, King of Norway, and Earl
Tosty, and a multitude of people with them, both of Normans and
English; (91)Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. J. Ingram and J. A. Giles, Project Gutenberg eBook #657. Wording is a 19th-century translation; the Chronicle's year headings follow its own reckoning.
Exact source version
29fd0af2fcddbade6ab661734fa77c2d8fdd938b0ff3a639bdfc2c757cceb134Source 2 · Context for reading it
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (English translation by J. Ingram, with J. A. Giles)
Anonymous Anglo-Saxon chroniclers; translated by James Ingram (1823) and J. A. Giles (1847)
Published English translation, as quoted
(91) It is scarcely necessary to observe that the term "English"
begins about this time to be substituted for "Angles"; and
that the Normans are not merely the Norwegians, but the
Danes and other adventurers from the north, joined with the
forces of France and Flanders; who, we shall presently see,
overwhelmed by their numbers the expiring, liberties of
England. The Franks begin also to assume the name of
Frencyscan or "Frenchmen".Source credit and reuse conditions recorded for this source: Source: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. J. Ingram and J. A. Giles, Project Gutenberg eBook #657. Wording is a 19th-century translation; the Chronicle's year headings follow its own reckoning.
Exact source version
29fd0af2fcddbade6ab661734fa77c2d8fdd938b0ff3a639bdfc2c757cceb134Checks and changes
Source checked 2026-11-04. An independent AI evidence review supports this bounded, attributed wording. That review does not guarantee historical truth. How records are checked
This is a corrected version of this record. During research, before this release, an earlier version was withdrawn after independent review and replaced by this one.
Revision s1p_1066_asc_1_r2
Exact revision fingerprint
04fc80c0bd375b874083476451afc149d2cf826dc2e80b64e27810d89016c785