Unfortunately, according to historians, the English king had disbanded his naval fleet weeks before, and so he was forced to march his army almost 300 miles (about 480km) north to Stamford Bridge, near York, confront – and defeat – the Vikings, and then somehow march the troops all the way back to the south coast. Exhausted by this almost superhuman trudge, the English forces were then defeated by William on 14 October, in what would become known as the Battle of Hastings.