The Battle of Hastings

Sir Godfrey Vassal Webster, 5th Baronet (1789–1836) commissioned this large-scale painting of the Battle of Hastings for the Great Hall at Battle. Sir Godfrey himself was the model for William the Conqueror. The only historical painting by Francis William Wilkin (c.1792–1842), who specialised in portrait miniatures and engravings, it was rediscovered in 1939, badly damaged, in a local museum. In 2002, English Heritage conserved and re-hung it.