In a way, the chief message of this book is that we know less about the battle of Hastings than we tend to think. In particular, Lawson argues that the commonly assumed sizes of the armies, at roughly 5-10,000 each, are very uncertain and that the real figures may have been much larger. He also suggests that they may have been rather more professional than we tend to credit 11C armies with being, and that the Bayeux Tapestry showing Harold as hit by an arrow in the eye is a result of restoration guided by written sources; the king may well have been killed by an arrow, but the evidence for it is weaker than commonly appreciated.

This is then not a book for learning the definite version of what happened during the battle, or even a particular version, but rather for exploring the range of possibilities. I liked it well enough.