Who killed King Harold at the Battle of Hastings?

This scene from the Carmen is the one that most interests popular historians.  The death of King Harold is described from line 533 to line 554.

535.           Advocat Eustachium liquens ibi praelia Francis,

The duke summons Eustace from the Franks then clearing the field,

536.           Oppressis validum contulit auxilium.

He musters strong aid for the oppressed.

537.           Alter ut Hectorides Pontivi nobilis heres,

Like a second Hector, the noble heir of Ponthieu,

538.           Hos comitatur Hugo promptus in officio.

Hugh accompanies these, ever ready for duty.

539.           Quartus Gilfardus patris a cognomine dictus.

Fourth is Gilfard, called by his father’s surname.

540.           Regis ad exicium quatuor arma ferunt.

The four come armed to overwhelm the king.

Each of the four plays a role in the death, so that King Harold falls to lance, sword, pike and axe. 

The death of Harold was already in dispute in 1067, as the Carmen's composer notes at line 542, so he would have been cautious in writing a record of the battle that he then hoped would be read throughout the world.

It seems likely quite a mob of allied cavalry responded to the duke's summons for an assault on the summit.  The resulting melee may have been variously reported.

Guy d'Amiens may have been anticipating other claims for the credit of killing King Harold. The story of an arrow striking down the king first emerges from Amatus of Monte Cassino in 1080.  The Italian archers at the Battle of Hastings may have wanted credit for the famous victory. 

Certainly the archers and crossbowmen were critical in overwhelming the superior numbers of Saxons in the shield wall and fyrd.  Their pikes, swords and axes, and even their spears, would have been ineffectual against allied artillery firing at them all through the morning, as described in the Carmen, decimating their ranks from a safe distance.  The terror of death raining down on them while they stood helpless must have been maddening.  Saxons had never confronted crossbow bolts before, capable of piercing their shields and chainmail.  Even the Norman arrows were steel tipped and barbed for maximum penetration and damage, and they had spent all year manufacturing sufficient arms for the attack.  Having provided the strategic advantage which assured victory for the Normans, the allied archers from Italy may have sought credit for the death of King Harold as well.

The Bayeux Tapestry does not clarify things much here.  There are two figures potentially identified as Harold in the scene titled "Here King Harold is killed".

One might have an arrow in his eye, although it is suggested this was added later.  The other is being cut down by a knight, and possibly having his leg cut off.  The Carmen would support the later image as being King Harold.  The Carmen depicts Harold as fighting bravely to the last.

Interesting to note the French already stripping the dead of anything of value in the lower margin of the Tapestry, again consistent with the narrative of the Carmen.

A medieval data standard? The Carmen suggests a Barony Naming Convention

A lot of the globalisation of financial markets has been driven by the implementation of global data standards so that computers can talk to each other in the same language around the world.  I've been involved in developing these data standards for international payments and securities markets for almost 20 years.  As a result, I am perhaps more sensitive to data standards than many.

Perhaps that is why I am drawn to Latin.  Latin was a global Roman-era and medieval data standard for globally consistent communications.  Anyone speaking or writing Latin could communicate with anyone else speaking or writing Latin throughout the Roman Empire or the Catholic Church.

When I first read through the Carmen in Latin portus ab antiquis Vimaci - the ancient port of Vimeu - at line 48 leapt out at me, as I had already read somewhere that the Norman invasion fleet departed from St Valery-sur-Somme, at the mouth of the Somme River.  Indeed, the description of the port in the Carmen said that the Abbey of Saint Valery overlooked the port and that it was at the mouth of the Somme, so there could be no mistake.

So what or where was Vimaci?  Why was the name Vimaci used by the Guy d'Amiens writing the Carmen instead of the name of the port, despite his being otherwise very economical in his text?

Vimeu is not a port or even a town.  It was a medieval barony.  The medieval barony spread inland from the coast of the Somme covering a pretty large area.   As soon as I saw this, I thought <barony naming convention/>!

The cleric who wrote the Carmen adopted a convention of ignoring local place names in favour of referencing the barony associated with the local place and supplementing the barony name with locally descriptive features.  If this was true for Guy d'Amiens, it might be true for other medieval clerics as well.

A barony naming convention would explain why the Normans called it the Battle of Hastings instead of naming it for the battlefield.  The battle took place in the Rape (barony) of Hastings on land that was subject to Hastings' jurisdiction.  The Saxons called it the Battle of Senlac according to Orderic Vitalis, after the local name of the place.  Senlac means "sandy loch" and would fit the wide, sandy Brede Valley flood plain through which the estuarine Brede River meandered.

A barony naming convention would explain why the makers of the Bayeux Tapestry wrote that the fleet sailed for Pevensey if it landed in the valley.  The ports of Brede and Petit Iham were limbs of Pevensey, owing the service of ships, men and boys to the League of Pevensey each year for fixed terms.

38

HIC WILLELM[US] DUX IN MAGNO NAVIGIO MARE TRANSIVIT ET VENIT AD PEVENESAE

Here Duke William in a great fleet crossed the sea and came to Pevensey

A barony naming convention would explain why the raiding parties went to loot Hastings though it is clear from the pictures in the tapestry - and particularly the depiction of the boats with open oar ports - that the camp was some remote distance from Hastings along the coast.

40

ET HIC MILITES FESTINAVERUNT HESTINGA UT CIBUM RAPERENTUR

and here the knights have hurried to Hastings to seize food

A barony naming convention would explain why the makers of the Bayeux Tapestry wrote that the a motte was erected at the Hastings camp.  Iham Hill was a parish in the jurisdiction of medieval Hastingas, probably going back to the original 790 King Offa charter giving Hastings, Pevensey, Londonwick and other ports and trade privileges to the Abbey of Saint-Denis.  The camp of the invasion force was in the Rape of Hastings.

45	ISTE JUSSIT UT FODERETUR CASTELLUM AT HESTENGA CEASTRA	He ordered that a motte should be dug at Hastings Camp

The same barony naming convention would explain why the army marched from Hastings to go to battle.  If the building shown is the rebuilt "fortress lately razed" of St Leonard's Church on Iham Hill, then it makes sense.  St Leonard's was a parish of Hastings, in the Rape of Hastings.

48

HIC MILITES EXIERUNT DE HESTENGA ET VENERUNT AD PR[O]ELIUM CONTRA HAROLDUM REGE[M]

Here the knights have left Hastings and have come to the battle against King Harold

Hastinga being sacked is clearly different to Hastinga Ceastra where they have camped, and both look different to the fortified place from which the army marches.  If they are all named Hastings because of a Barony Naming Convention, then these diverse scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry which seem to imply three different places may finally make sense.

I am not enough of a medieval scholar to know whether others have detected the use of a barony naming convention before in other medieval clerical works, but I am very keen to find out!