Ever wonder how so many French words snuck into English? Thank Harold Godwine...he got pwn3d on this day in 1066.
October 14, 1066 The Battle of Hastings
William the Conqueror
942 years ago today, King Harold II of England is defeated by the Norman forces of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, fought on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, England.
At the end of the bloody, all-day battle, Harold was killed--shot in the eye with an arrow, according to legend--and his forces were destroyed. He was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England.
About fifteen years earlier in 1051, William is believed to have visited England and met with his cousin Edward "the Confessor," then the English king who had no heirs. According to Norman historians, Edward promised to make William his heir.
On his deathbed, however, Edward granted the kingdom to Harold Godwine -- who was head of the leading noble family in England and probably more powerful than the king himself. In January 1066, King Edward died and Harold Godwine was proclaimed King Harold II.
William immediately disputed Harold's royal succession reminding everyone that Edward had promised him the crown way back in 1051. William got more angry the longer it took for the English royal court to answer, and since thery essentially blew him off, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
On September 28, 1066, William embarked his army sailing the relatively short distance across the English Channel and hit the beach on the English coast at Pevensey, with approximately 7,000 troops and cavalry. Seizing Pevensey, he then marched to Hastings, where he paused to organize his forces.
Pevensey. Nice wide beach on which the Normans came ashore.
King Harold II knew if he planned to keep his shiney new crown, he'd have to put up a fight. Harold intended to put his English army between William and London in order to fight on ground of Harold's choosing, and prevent William from getting to the English capital.
On October 13, the English King Harold II arrived near Hastings with his army. The next day, the still hugely p1ssed-off William led his forces out to give battle -- p1ssed-offness prolly due in no small part because William and his boys had already endured English food for a couple weeks.
It was ugly for Harold and his Anglo-Saxon boys. As you read above, Harold took a Norman arrow in the eye socket that went right on into his brain -- which sorta knocked the starch out of him. Semi-leaderless, and prolly realizing this William fellow, having killed his rival, was their new king anyway, the Anglo-Saxon army either got their skulls cleaved-in or ran way.
Anglo-Saxon force atop Senlac Hill, Norman's and their allies (French and Belgian) would assault from below.
View Harold would have had looking down the hill as the Norman army approached, at least until he took that arrow to the face.
View from below the hillltop. The view William's guys would have had as they attacked.
Charging Norman kaniggit...its only a model
After his victory at the Battle of Hastings, William marched on London and the city caved. This was probably because during medieval times, when an attacker showed up, he made you an offer. That offer basically went like this...[paraphrasing] "If you surrender, everything will be cool. If we have to lay siege, and ultimately lose a lot of our dudes defeating you in battle, we'll be really cheesed-off and after we win, we'll burn your flippin' huts down and rape all your wimmens."
On Christmas Day 1066, William was crowned the William I, King of England in Westminster Abbey, and the Anglo-Saxon phase of English history came to an end. William came to be known as William I but is best known by his moniker of William the Conqueror
French became the language of the king's court and gradually blended with the Anglo-Saxon tongue to give birth to modern English. The Norman conquest also had several profound effects on the English judicial system we still feel today, but that's probably beyond the scope of this historical snippet.
Suffice it to say that our law of Decedents Estates (you know, wills and stuff) and Real Property (land conveyances and interests in land) are still easily traceable to the system William I put in place after he ascended to the English throne in 1066.
William I proved to be a capable and effective king of England, and the "Domesday Book," a great census of the lands and people of England, was among his notable achievements.
William was not loved by the Saxons and it is not surprising when one considers the freedoms and rights they lost under Norman rule. William basically set up all his Norman, French and Belgique buds with their own earldoms and stuff, bouncing the original Anglo-Saxon lords.
There were many rebellions but they were generally poorly coordinated and were easily stamped out by William. Invasions by the Welsh and the Danish were just as smartly defeated and for the 21 years of his reign there was only one master of England, William the Conqueror.
William was married to Matilda of Flanders and had no less than 10 children; Robert, Richard, Cecily, William Rufus, Adeliza, Constance, Adela, Agatha, Matilda and Henry. In a death fit for a warrior king, William died whilst in combat against the French near the town of Rouen. His body lies in the Normandy town of Caen.
William's tomb in the church at Caen
Rather ironically, British forces would enter Caen in June of 1944 after the Allied Normandy Invasion (a/k/a "D-Day" in WWII) as they and American forces invaded France in order to free the conquered French from Nazi rule.
Upon the death of William I in 1087, his son, William Rufus, became William II, the second Norman king of England.
Epilogue:
That Norman invasion in September 1066 was the last time a foreign army evar conducted a successful amphibious landing in England. William's conquest was the last time the English submitted to the conquest of a foreign ruler. 941 years without a loss is a pretty impressive record.
So, the next time you see a petite blonde, perhaps in a restaurant while enjoying a dinner of sauteed shrimp served table d'hote...thank William the Conqueror because I have no flippin' idea how you would describe all that without the French words he brought us for a souvenir of his conquest.
Originally Posted by SoonerStormchaser
