1066 New Discovery: The Myth of Harold's March
Gone Medieval
History Hit
4.5 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if one of the most famous stories in English history never happened? What if King Harold did not march his exhausted troops 200 miles before the Battle of Hastings?
Matt Lewis is joined by Professor Tom Licence whose explosive research argues that King Harold’s legendary march never happened, revealing a far more sophisticated Anglo-Saxon military strategy than always thought. So how did Harold get to Hastings? And how does this discovery change our understanding of the Norman Conquest?
MORE:
Harold Godwinson
Battle of Hastings
Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From long-lost Viking ships and kings buried in unexpected places to tales of murder, |
| 0:07.7 | power, faith, and the lives of ordinary people across medieval Europe and beyond. |
| 0:13.2 | Join me, Matt Lewis, Dr. Eleanor Jarniger and some of the world's leading historians, |
| 0:18.0 | as we bring history's most fascinating stories to life only on |
| 0:22.3 | History Hit. With your subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries |
| 0:27.2 | with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. |
| 0:33.6 | Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:40.1 | Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves |
| 0:45.5 | into the greatest millennium in human history. We've got the most intriguing mysteries, |
| 0:51.4 | the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades. |
| 1:00.3 | We cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the stories big and small that tell us how we got here. |
| 1:09.5 | Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval. |
| 1:16.2 | Here at Gone Medieval, we try to keep you up to date with breaking news, and sometimes |
| 1:24.2 | there's breaking news from the medieval world. In this case, we're bringing |
| 1:28.7 | you something from almost a thousand years ago that changes the way we think about one |
| 1:33.4 | of the most critical moments in English history. The events of 1066 are pretty well known. |
| 1:39.8 | I thought I had a handle on what happened. Turns out there's one very important aspect we |
| 1:45.3 | might all have got wrong. I'm delighted to be joined today by Tom licensed professor of medieval |
| 1:50.9 | history and literature at the University of East Anglia and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Tom |
| 1:56.3 | has some news for us that I think you'll find interesting. |
| 2:04.4 | Welcome back to Gone Medieval Time. |
| 2:05.3 | It's great to have you with us. |
... |
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