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104 YORK.
thorpe, by the Earls Edwin and Morcar. The invaders
gained the day, and a great slaughter took place,
in which many of the clergy suffered. A few days
after, another engagement took place at Stamford
Bridge, on the river Derwent. [a.d. 1066, Sept. 25. ]
Harold led his army in person and obtained a decisive
victory. Tosti was slain. Tradition has preserved
some memories of the day. A piece of level ground
near the river is still known as Battle Flats, and a
curious custom survives of making pies at Stamford
Feast in the shape of a boat. This is said to be a
sort of memorial of the mode adopted to destroy a
Norwegian who held a wooden bridge, which crossed
the Derwent, single-handed, for upwards of three
hours, and killed forty men. Some one, who combined
craft with his boldness, contrived to run a small
boat under the bridge, watched his opportunity, and
killed the gallant Northman by thrusting a spear between
the joinings of its wood-work.
Three days after this a yet more formidable invasion
took place. William anchored off the coast of
Sussex. lie landed without opposition and marched
his troops to Hastings. There Harold gave him
battle on the 14th October. The details of that
memorable engagement need not be here repeated.
Harold fell on that fatal field, and with him ended
the line of the Saxon kings. His fall gave the
sovereignty of England to the Norman conqueror.
At Christmas he was crowned at Westminster by
Archbishop Aldred.
But Aldred was no time-server. He saw, indeed,
that his country had received another master, and he