So, King Harald Hardrada of Norway arrives as Fulford Gate with the largest Norse army ever to set foot in England and what does he find? A smaller but well placed Anglo-Saxon army waiting to receive him. This is not what his Saxon ally, Tostig Godwinson, had told him would happen. They both expected the young eorldermen, Edwin and Morcar, to shut the gates and man the walls of York.

Harald Hardrada was the most famous Viking of his day. His exploits were legendary and, it was claimed, that he had only ever lost one battle and that was when he was a boy and not a commander of men. Although Edwin and Morcar had seized the initiative and chosen the site of the battle, Hardrada thought quickly and set out his troops to best suit his own battleplan. This chapter looks at how this mighty warrior chief reacted to what he saw before the walls of York.

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