Senlac Hill or Senlac Ridge is generally accepted as the location in which Harold Godwinson deployed his army for the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It is located near what is now the town of Battle, East Sussex. The name Senlac was popularised by Victorian historian E. A. Freeman, based solely on a description of the battle by the Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis. Freeman went on to suggest that the Normans nicknamed the area Blood lake as a pun on the English Sand lake.
It is probable that Orderic would have known the English name for Senlac, as he spent his early life in England since he had been born to an English mother. His education towards the end of his time in England was from an English monk. However, Freeman's hypothesis has been criticised by other historians since it relies purely on the evidence from Orderic. Orderic was born nine years after the Battle of Hastings, and earlier chroniclers did not use the name Senlac.
