William clearly grudgingly respected King Harold

Why otherwise would Duke William's fresh and prepared invasion army, needing a quick battle, simply hug the south coast of an exposed and undefended England for three weeks, when Winchester(treasury) and London were 'his' for the taking?

Duke William's huge armada of c.700 ships (carrying a fighting army of c.7-9000 men, horses plus craftsmen, clerics and smiths etc) sailed from St.Valery during the night of 28/9th September.

The Vikings had first proved this to be possible in the early 1000's, when a returning army sailed from Normandy with horses, to re-invade Ethelred II's England.

After an initial landing at Pevensey on the morning of 29th, he ordered his armada to sail to Hastings, where he constructed a temporary wooden fortress from which his elite cavalry could ravage the land, thus goading the (then absent) Harold into battle.

Before the fearful advice of Robert FitzWimarc(a half-Norman who had been a close confidante of King Edward, and was present at the King's all-important verbal bestowal of his crown to earl Harold), questions in William's mind might have been;

1. Where exactly in the North was harold- nearby?
2. How strong was he and in what condition? How had Tostig's campaign fared?
3. Would he have to fight Harold or Hardrada? (Maybe using Tostig to mediate?)

Meanwhile, King Harold, flushed with victory over a colossal Norwegian invasion army 240m to the north, was beginning to force-march his weary and depleted army(only the King/Housecarls/Thegns were mounted) southwards to meet this new threat.
Whilst Harold dashed southwards to London to raise another army(waiting for fyrdsmen to come in from the shires/from York & who'd been told to follow on to meet at the well-known(to them)'the hoare apple tree'), William sat tight, not moving inland, and only allowed some of his cavalry to ravage locally.

These unexplained actions suggest that he/his nobles and commanders (the enforced 'invasion persuasion' at Bonneville-sur-Torques in spring that year?)respected the fighting prowess of King Harold, his thegns and housecarls much more than the biased and hagiographical Norman sources allowed/dared to suggest...