Which Latin poem is one of the earliest surviving accounts of the Battle of Hastings?

The Latin poem that is one of the earliest surviving accounts of the Battle of Hastings is Carmen de Hastingae Proelio.

Its title means “Song of the Battle of Hastings.” The poem is also known as the Carmen Widonis and is attributed to Guy, Bishop of Amiens, a cleric connected with the French and Norman courts. It describes the Norman invasion from the events of 1066 through the conquest’s immediate aftermath.

The work was probably composed soon after William’s coronation, possibly in 1067. It is written in classical Latin verse and contains 835 lines of hexameters and elegiac couplets. Only medieval manuscript copies survive, including two associated with St Eucharius-Matthias in Trier and the Royal Library of Belgium.

The Carmen is valuable because it is exceptionally early and offers one of the fullest surviving accounts from a perspective close to the Norman court, while also revealing the violence and political tensions of the conquest. It should not be confused with the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a set of annalistic records, or the Bayeux Tapestry, which is a visual narrative rather than a Latin poem. Its title itself is a modern designation.