The Battle of Rochester occurred in 1066 when the Duke of Normandy, William the Conqueror, destroyed a Kentish army at the port town of Rochester during the Norman conquest of England. The Normans trapped the Kentish army on the beach and annihilated it, with the Kentish transport ships abandoning their men and leaving them to their grisly fates. The battle confirmed William's control over Kent, as Rochester was the last settlement in Kent to fall to the Normans, following Dover, Stutfall (Lympne), Canterbury, and Thanet, in that order.
Background[]
Following his capture of Canterbury, William the Conqueror decided to secure his position in South East England before marching north on London; he was faced with invasions on multiple fronts as the Anglo-Saxons attempted to drive him back into the English Channel. Shortly after the fall of Canterbury, Earl Leofwine Godwinson of Kent advanced south from London with a 1,490-strong army, aiming to reconquer Kent. He first camped near present-day Maidstone before William marched west from Canterbury to confront him. Leofwine's army withdrew further west to Tonbridge and, during the ensuing week-long lull, he and his army pulled back north to Rochester, the last town in Kent still under his control. William decided that this would be the last opportunity to destroy the Kentish army before it could escape up the River Thames estuary or threaten to occupy some ungarrisoned Kentish towns, so he brought his army to Rochester and attacked the Kentish Men as they prepared to leave Rochester on their ships.
Battle[]
The Kentish soldiers retreating from Rochester
By the time that William's army had arrived, only the handful of Kentish cavalry was left ashore, while the remainder of the Kentish army had already embarked onto its ships. Upon hearing of William's approach, Leofwine ordered his ships to return to the shore and disembark his soldiers. William deployed his army to face the beach, and he personally led his army's cavalry to rout the outnumbered Kentish cavalry. When the Kentish soldiers disembarked from their ships, they found that the Norman infantry had arrayed in battle formation. The Kentish soldiers were showered with crossbow bolt and arrow fire as they marched into battle, and the Normans outflanked the Kentish army and closed in from all sides. The Kentish ships - the Kentish army's only escape route - abandoned the soldiers on land, sailing past the Isle of Sheppey and back up the Thames. The Normans cut the Kentish army to ribbons, with 1,426 of the 1,490 Kentish troops being slain, including their earl. Meanwhile, the Normans lost a mere 110 men. The Normans, having annihilated the Kentish field army, proceeded to occupy Rochester, completing the subjugation of Kent.