The day the Vikings broke. On September 25, 1066, the Viking Age in England collapsed in a single day. At Stamford Bridge, King Harald Hardrada of Norway and his ally Tostig Godwinson led thousands of warriors, fresh from victory at Fulford. They expected another triumph. Instead, they found annihilation.+
King Harold Godwinson of England, marching his exhausted troops over 180 miles in four days, caught the Vikings off guard. The battle was brutal, fought under the autumn sun with no time for the Norsemen to don full armor. The legendary Harald Hardrada, known as “the thunderbolt of the North,” fell to an arrow through the throat. Tostig, Harold’s own brother, was also slain.
Of the 300 ships that carried the Viking army across the North Sea, only 24 were needed to bring the survivors home. Thousands of bodies were left on the field, unburied, a dishonor immortalized in sagas. This catastrophic defeat not only ended Norse ambitions in England but also marked the twilight of Viking dominance in Western Europe.
