The Battle of Hastings Speech

I've blogged a lot about "the sizzle vs. the steak," or what it takes to create a pump-up speech, and I think I have what it takes to make a great speech boiled down to a few elements. So here's what we need for a great speech before the Battle of Hastings.

1. A great motive. The normans weren't fighting to win England, they were fighting for something greater. Something higher that William could appeal to.

Possible motives:

• God/religion
• Country/nationalism
• Justice (did England wrong Norway somehow?)

2. A "go home" clause. This doesn't have to be sincere. You're already there, are you really going to go home? No, but William needs to give this as an option to the soldiers. "You can go back to Normandy if you want" (but can you really?) "If not, we will fight really hard and totally win." He would say it a little more eloquently, but that's the idea. Each person dismisses the first option in their mind, so whatever you say in the second half they see as their only option.

3. "I'm in" clause. Here William shows his dedication. This is where he is the first to publicly declare after the ultimatum that he will go into battle. This establishes him as the undeniable leader.

4. The difficulty clause. If it's all highs and no lows you're setting yourself up for an ankle-breaking crossover. If you don't know the negative you can't understand the positive.

5. The second ultimatum. We win or we die, no turning back, this is it.

6. All together now!

Now to turn all that into iambic pentameter... that blog post might take a while.