The Battle Abbey Roll Timekeeper 
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Battle Abbey erected where Harold may have fell. Below is given a list of companions who supposedly accompanied William the Bastard of Falaise, Duke of Normandy, [later William I of England] at the Battle of Hastings. For their services, each commander was granted lordship of large areas of English countryside, albeit each being widely separated from the other. To the victors went the spoils.
The list is an aggregate of a number of names from  different sources which have become known as the "Battle Abbey Rolls"4.  Prior to the Dissolution a scrolled tablet was hung in Battle Abbey, which reputedly held the names of the commanders at the battle. Various "copies" of this roll  with considerable additions and thus differences exist. The French government in 1931 produced yet another roll, the "Falaise Roll" which has considerable differences again. This roll of 315 persons is now  preserved on a bronze plaque at William the Conqueror's chapel in his castle at Falaise, although many were not added in time for the unveiling. Apparently this list is now held at the Falaise Town Hall, below the castle where William was born.8
There are 375 commanders shown below, from a total force of about 5000 men. Those shown in red are accepted by scholars6 to be extremely likely to have been at the Battle of Hastings. Many Anglo-Norman families have claimed descent from an ancestor who supposedly attended the great battle but few can show proof of this. It is probable that for many families who can demonstrate Norman descendancy, their progenitor entered England as a settler in the aftermath of the Conquest.

   'Senlac' or 'the field of blood' -  recreation of the 'Battle of Hastings' at Battle, 2006.

 
                                                         
                                                                             A re-enactment of the battle 

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