Quote Originally Posted by KARTLOS
a big factor is that harolds army were knackered having just marched down from the batle of stamford bridge by newcastle- i.e the entire length of england.
AFAIK that was only the elites (who had horses for transport). Otherwise it was mostly local forces called to duty while those mobilized for Stamford Bridge were still plodding along the roads as fast as they now could.

Which is probably one reason William needed to press for a decisive battle ASAP - he couldn't afford to wait until Harold got all of his potential posse together, nevermind now his own supply issues. Harold, conversely, couldn't really afford to let the invaders pillage the southern parts of the country at will - there was no telling when some provincial strongman might get into his pointy head funny ambitious ideas, especially if the king was busy elsewhere and not looking impressive. Plus of course the fyrd militias had a fixed quota of service time; once it was up they usually just went home, so he couldn't afford to dawdle lest his army start melting into thin air...