IN his account of the battle of Hastings William of Poitiers describes the force attacking the English as composed of Normans, Bretons, Frenchmen, Aquitanians and men from the province of Maine. Historians of our own day have written at great length about the identity and role of the Bretons, and above all, the Normans, in the conquest and settlement of England but have scarcely mentioned the Aquitanians with whom Iam, concerned today. Such neglect is not surprising since the main English narrative sources make almost no reference to people from this part of France thus leaving the impression that Aquitanians played no role in English affairs during or after the Conquest, and in the process, casting doubt on the reliability of William of Poitiers’ assertions. To be sure close and far reaching ties came to link England and Aquitaine for nearly three centuries in the later Middle Ages, but it has always been assumed that those resulted from the ascent of Henry Plantagenct to the English throne in 1154 which made his wife Eleanor, heiress of Aquitaine, Queen of England. Modern historians have had nothing to say about any English-Aquitanians relations prior to this time.

Nonetheless the English sources alone cannot be taken unquestioningly to give a complete picture of the reality and invalidate William of Poitiers’ statements. The purpose of my paper today is to look carefully into William’s contention, taking into consideration all the relevant original sources I know of, Norman and Aquitanian as well as some little noticed English ones with a view to answering the following questions. First, can any independent corroboration for an Aquitanian presence at Hastings be found? The answer to this will be positive: indeed without that it would have been pointless to proceed further. There then follow a number of related questions. First, who were the Aquitanians and how did they get involved in a Norman expedition so far from home? Was this merely a military adventure of restless warriors seeking war and booty wherever the opportunity offered itself, or did their participation have any broader political significance at the time? Secondly, what happened to them after the victory?