Editing Hastings (section)

===Medieval Hastings===
[[File:Manuscript of XIII BC Battle of Hastings.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|[[William the Conqueror|Duke William of Normandy]] (right) lances [[Harold Godwinson|King Harold II of England]] at the [[Battle of Hastings]]. 14th-century manuscript in the [[British Library]], London.]]
The start of the [[Norman Conquest]] was the [[Battle of Hastings]], fought on 14 October 1066, although the battle itself took place {{convert|6|mi|km|abbr=on}} to the northwest at Senlac Hill. William had landed on the coast between Hastings and Eastbourne at Pevensey. It is thought that the Norman encampment was on the town's outskirts, where there was open ground; a new town was already being built in the valley to the east. That "New Burgh" was founded in 1069 and is mentioned in the [[Domesday Book]] as such. [[William the Conqueror|William]] defeated and killed [[Harold Godwinson]], the last Saxon King of England, and destroyed his army, opening England to the Norman conquest.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

William ordered a castle to be built at Hastings, probably using the earthworks of the existing Saxon castle.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Hastings was shown as a [[borough]] by the time of the [[Domesday Book]] (1086); it had also given its name to the [[Rape of Hastings]], one of the six administrative divisions of Sussex. As a borough, Hastings had a corporation consisting of a "bailiff, jurats, and commonalty". By a charter of [[Elizabeth I]] in 1589, the bailiff was replaced by a mayor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hastings {{!}} History of Parliament Online |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/constituencies/hastings |access-date=21 September 2023 |website=historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref>

Muslim scholar [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]], writing c.1153, described Hastings as "a town of large extent and many inhabitants, flourishing and handsome, having markets, workpeople and rich merchants".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cartographyunchained.com/pdfs/cgid1_pdf.pdf |title=Al-Idrisi; The Book of Roger The description of L'Angleterre |access-date=19 December 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922081246/http://www.cartographyunchained.com/pdfs/cgid1_pdf.pdf |archive-date=22 September 2015 }}</ref>