I promised something about The Bastards trip from Dives to Pevensey, so here it is.
Dives to St Valery Sur Somme
The Bastard left Dives and I would expect took off in a generally northerly direction. This is because the coast from Fecamp to Dives generally goes north/south.Another little factor is that the Normans had to wait for a southerly to blow the ships/boats clear of the mouth of the River Dives.
There has been some discussion in academia about whether it was an actual delay as opposed to a political one. Some historians don't accept an actual delay for the weather but I think they're wrong. Let's look at the geography of the coast at Dives or it's modern equivalent Ouistreham. The coast changes direction from North/South at le Harve to East/West at Ouistreham, making onshore breezes at Ouistreham a straight northerly. Since the Normans had to take out the rowing benches for the horses then they were totally reliant on a southerly wind.
One of the consequences of a southerly wind is that it is usually followed by a wind that veers to the west and strengthens. This is what happened due to the guiding Low pressure system. Fortunately the Norman fleet had passed Fecamp and turning west to flee the strengthening westerly winds meant that the fleet were strung out along the coast from Dieppe to St Valery Sur Somme. So, the real delay, in my opinion, occurred while the fleet was at anchor in the Somme so as to allow any stragglers from the minor storm to regain the fleet.
but as in the board game known as "The War of the Roses", storm at sea, all ships take refuge in nearest port. Well, for the Bastard, this meant St Valery Sur Somme in neighbouring Piccardy. According to reports no ships were lost but more of that later.
St Valery Sur Somme to Pevensey
According to reports the men ROWED for most of the night before hoisting sail and TURNING for England. To me this means that they did not take a direct route which would have been a heading of about 320 degrees but they rowed back along the coast of Normandy until they spotted Fecamp and then "hung a right"! As the distance from St Valery to Fecamp is about 135 km , one assumes it would have taken most of the night if they left St Valery in the early evening as reported.
Also in the reports the writer mentions stopping mid channel to regroup. This tends to support he idea that the Normans needed to land somewhere where they could regroup - this rules out a landing in the vicinity of Bulverhythe.
If the Normans navigation was good ( and as was the visibility ), they would have been able to see Beachy Head some 32 km out to sea.
9 miles out and Pevensey Fort would have been spotted and navigated towards.
At Pevensey
Reports suggest that the Bastard refortified Pevensey Castle left by the Romans and stayed there a few days to accomplish that task. As there is no need for the "nobs" to supervise or to ride their horses around looking pretty, I suggest that the local tradition of the Normans landing at Standard Hill is true in as much as the Bastard's cavalry could have landed there with the orders to "Proceed to the Port of Hastings and secure the required landing zone and like Time Team in 1000 years time - you've got just three days to do it"
Right, let's end it here on the shores of East Sussex and next time I'll go into the landing at the Port of Hastings. Maybe I'll go into where I think the temporary forts where set up.
