The gatehouse to Battle Abbey, which is on the site of the Battle of Hastings which took place on October 14, 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, (later called William the Conquerer) and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson. The battle marked the Norman conquest of England. William founded Battle Abbey on the site as penance for the bloodshed of the conquest.