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Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 was a pivotal moment in English history that led to the Norman conquest of England. King Harold II faced off against William, Duke of Normandy at Senlac Hill near Hastings on October 14, 1066. Though Harold's Saxon army initially held the high ground, William's Norman cavalry forces prevailed, resulting in King Harold's death. William went on to be crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066, marking the end of Anglo-Saxon rule and the beginning of Norman control over England.

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77 views2 pages

Battle of Hastings

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 was a pivotal moment in English history that led to the Norman conquest of England. King Harold II faced off against William, Duke of Normandy at Senlac Hill near Hastings on October 14, 1066. Though Harold's Saxon army initially held the high ground, William's Norman cavalry forces prevailed, resulting in King Harold's death. William went on to be crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066, marking the end of Anglo-Saxon rule and the beginning of Norman control over England.

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Battle of Hastings

In the 5th century, when the Roman Empire was falling, for a better defence of Italy, the
legions abandoned Roman Britannia and left it to the mercy of Saxons’ and Jutes’ invasions
from the sea, and to the Pits’ and Scots’ ones from the north. After a dark period, made of
lootings, wars and destruction, in addition to other invasions, like the Viking’s and Danes’
ones, the Saxon Kingdom of Wessex, little by little, annexed other reigns and became
Kingdom of England. Saint Alfred, named “The Great” started this ambitious plan, but it
will be only under his son’s reign, that would be completed. After a few generations we
arrive at King Edward the Confessor, so called for his strong Christian faith. When he died
there was a fight for the succession to the throne, ( like very often happens in these situations)
in which the participants were various and unexpected. Among them there were important
kings and nobles, but also simple courtiers, as Harold Godwinson, son of a quite important
member of the Saxon court. He took part in some military campaigns in Wales, and because
of this, he was very near to King Edward. Harold was Edward’s brother-in-law, and so he
appointed himself as the new king, but Harold wasn’t alone in this run. William of
Normandy, also known as William the Bastard, cause of his illegitimate father’s relation,
was a far cousin of King Edward and he said that Edward had already promised to him that
he would be crowned king after his death. With a deception Harold pretended to swear
Fidelty to William, but a little later he had himself crowned. In the meantime, Harald III,
King of Norway, known for having recaptured Sicily from the Arabs, as a mercenary of the
Byzantine Empire, thought that it would be fine if he would have entered the conflict,
because as the proverb says, “two dogs strive for a bone, and the third runs away with it”.
And so, he invaded Northumberland with an army of 15,000 men, but he was defeated and
killed by Harold’s soldiers in the battle of Stamford Bridge. Only Harold and William
remained, and right William in the meantime was preparing an army, calling to arms,
according to the feudal custom, groups of soldiers from his vassals, but also noblemen and
cadet sons of nobles that were looking for luck beyond the sea. Cause of the composition
of the army (mainly noble knights), the heavy chivalry lorded it. Differently by the Saxon
army, where it represented only the Royal guard. In facts, into the Saxon army, was still
present the Germanic custom of leveraged militia, that involved a huge number of men, but
much less trained and worse equipped, in addition to the almost complete absence of
shooters and knights. On the 13th of October, Harold, as soon as he was warned of the
landing of a big Norman army on Pevensey’s coast, in East Sussex, ran very fast to intercept
it, marching and running for miles and miles, making his men so much tired, that some of
them died during the journey. Harold’s troops arrived just in time to positioning themselves
on Senlac Hill, and forming a wall of shields, ready for the arrive of Normans in a privileged
position, on a high ground and protected by the torrent Asten. William arrived after not
much time from the coast, and so began the battle which signed the last invasion of England
until today.
Bayeux Tapestry
All the succession war’s story is told in the Bayeux Tapestry, a big polychromatic tapestry,
which overall measures 64 metres, embroidered between the 1070 and 1080, sewn and
conserved in the French town of Bayeux. It tells both the events of the battle that before
and after ones. It’s a propaganda work, in which the facts are narrated to legitimate
William’s claims and to celebrate his victory. This tapestry crossed all the French history
eras: he was about to be burnt during the religious revolts in 1590 and to be used as coverage
for a weapons’ carriage during the French revolution. It was saved both times and in 1803,
Napoleon, about to invade England, declared it national artistic good to protect it
permanently. As I had already said, it tells all the history, from Edward’s death until the
coronation of William in Westminster Abbey, that since that time has hosted all English
kings’ coronations.

Domesday Book
The Domesday Book is a manuscript written in 1086 during a council ordered by King
William I. The purpose was to catalogue, describe and divide the new kingdom’s lands.
William took with him the most part of Norman nobility and appointed many of it to the
administration and the government of 38 baronies. This is the most important source for all
Britain’s medieval history. In this book are reported all the lands, the people and the cities
of each Saxon shire in the country. This enormous work had an objective, to preserve the
precise memory of the feudal scheme, because in the following years after the battle of
Hastings there were many popular revolts, internal rebellions and Vikings’ raids.

Langue d'oïl and Old English


When the Normans began to rule England, they added many words, expressions and
grammar structures to the old Anglo-Celtic-Saxon-Norse English, typically romance ones,
belonging to the Langue d'oïl, the old French. The Norman language was also influenced
by their Scandinavian origins. The other most important thing is that they partially
reintroduced Latin, with the construction of many churches and their own linguistic
additions of Latin, that passed through French. The English nobility will speak French until
the 15th century, with the rise of Tudors. A simple thing which shows how the French
influenced the modern English is the sequent: considering that only the nobility ate often
red meat, we see that the name of the animal is different from the meat’s name, like
pig=pork, calf=veal, steer=beef etc.
Here we have some examples of old English and Langue d'oïl, in particular Normandy’s
dialect, that was more similar to the Norman’s language.

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