Great Commanders

[Kingmaker]

HiHi
Appologies for the delay in replying Paul ‘Life stuff’ got in the way but still bad manners, Sorry P

Right, lets try looking at this from a different angle, you have included Duke William as he was in charge at Hastings (a defining moment in history).

Now, if William had of been killed during the Battle, and (I’m guessing here) his half brother Bishop Odo had taken up the command spot would that then have made Odo a Great commander? Or, lets go to extremes here, if Billy Joe from Clancys bar in Chattanooga had been in charge at Hastings, again would that have made him a great commander? ie are you not putting forward the event rather than the commander?

As suggested in an earlier post, William came very very close to absolute disaster at Hastings; while he had had some success in Normandy and surrounding parts (ironically, in one case due to the input of one Harold Godwinson, future king of England) would you have included him based on those criteria (compare say with Nelson)?

I’ll give you this, William in fact does have one of the important criteria for a great commander ‘Luck’. You suggest Saxon England was “poorly organized”, it was well enough to organised to have a standing fleet (William had to hire his), it was Williams ‘Luck’ that it had to put into port for repairs as he sailed, if it had caught Williams fleet at sea ... ?

Saxon England was well enough organised to enable Harold to put 2 substantial armies in the field within 10 days, one to fight at Stamford Bridge to defeat the Northern invasion, and one in the south to fight at Hastings, it’s Williams ‘Luck’ that Harold chose not to wait for the Northern army under the Northern Earls (Morca ?) to join him, if he had ... ?

Now if we compare the other commanders you choose they all had other claims to fame, strategic/tactical brilliance, leaders of men etc, etc. Williams doesn’t exactly shine when set against them Paul, so again can I suggest it’s the event not his generalship that you are looking at.

All the Best
Peter