Timeline (Battle of Caldbeck)

1066
POD: 14/10/1066, 10:34 Harold Godwinson seethes with rage as he watches the Normans dispatch the last of the ill-disciplined troops from his right flank, who had foolishly pursued the fleeing Bretons down into the marshy ground below Caldbeck hill. He resolves to dispatch his Brother Leofwine to that flank, with a handful of hand-picked huscarles, to keep the rabble in line. As an afterthought he sends his brother Gyrth to the left to prevent the same thing happening there. A young Devon Briton, Maelcun ap Geront, is amongst Gyrth's contingent. He would later write the only first hand account of the battle.

 14/10/1066, 10:40-11:15

As Gyrth and Leofwine take position, an accurate but ineffectual barrage of arrows is fired at the English lines. Very few casualties.

 14/10/1066, 11:15-13:00

The Normans send wave after wave of cavalry crashing into the English lines. The huge danish axes of the English (a mixture of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes and a Anglo-Britons, with a few Irish exiles thrown in for good measure) bring down horses and men and cause terrible carnage, particularly amongst the Breton and Flemish contingents, who always seem to be ordered to the areas of strongest defence. Many now believe that William was attempting to lure the best troops down on to lower ground in pursuit of his weakest troops, in effect trying to "buy a wicket". Leofwine, Gyrth and Harold ensure calm prevails and the Normans are forced to keep bringing the battle to the English, secure on the hilltop. Casualties are high on the English side, but Duke williams men have lost a fifth of their strength.

 14/10/1066, 13:15-35

William leads a charge at a weak point in the wall, just left of the English centre. It is a serious misjudgment. He loses half his bodygaurds and takes 20 minutes fighting for his life to extricate himself. Only a simultaneous attack by the Flemish on the English left stops him being surrounded and killed.

 14/10/1066, 13:20-30

Seeing the need to support William. Eustace of Boulogne leads the battered and tired Flemish knights in an attack on the English left flank, commanded by Gyrth Godwinson. According to Maelcun, who claims to have been present in the fierce melee, Gyrth sees the papal standard at the back of the attacking group and attempts to hack a path through to the count. With his picked men Gyrth drives forward to his objective and, just as the Flemish seem ready to retreat again, finds himself looking up at the side profile of the count, with his right arm raised to strike. At that moment a Dubliner (apparently of North African ancestry)