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Post by deuce on Oct 8, 2016 9:54:02 GMT -5
 The Battle of Hastings was a turning point in history that affects us today, every day. There is simply no way to argue against it. I've studied it for 30 years, wrote a term paper on it and my opinion hasn't changed. My reasons for thinking so have changed slightly over the years, but that core concept never has. Beside its ramifications, the Battle itself is just damned exciting. Foreign invaders aiming for the throne, backed up by mercenaries, numerous reverses during the battle, a ferocious "fighting bishop", the heroic stand of the housecarles, a king's beautiful mistress coming to view the corpse of her lover... Plenty there for any swords & sorcery fan. Even the months and days leading up to it are awesome. The king's psycho brother scheming, raiding and intriguing with the most feared monarch in the West... The attack of that Viking lord with history's mightiest Norse host in the north just before William the Bastard lands at Hastings... Robert E. Howard certainly thought Hastings was worth noting, doing so in his letters and fiction. The battle was fought on October 14th, so we're just 6 days away. I meant to put this up long ago. Here's the wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_EnglandIf you want to read one book about Hastings and the events leading up to it, Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest is short, accurate, exciting and well-written. It's considered a classic and I think REH would've loved reading it. If you want to know about Harald Hardraada, the king of Norway who likely won the war for William of Normandy, I recommend Poul Anderson's "Last Viking" trilogy. The Sign of the Raven recounts the events in Norway and Harald's final battle at Stamford Bridge. I wasn't around for the 900th anniversary, but I'm damn sure going to give remembrance to those earth-shaking events this month.  |
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Post by deuce on Oct 9, 2016 11:57:15 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Oct 9, 2016 20:38:23 GMT -5
The reenactment in 2006:
It was the largest reenactment of a medieval battle ever. Some good action shots and solid info in there.
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Post by deuce on Oct 10, 2016 10:52:32 GMT -5
William the Bastard -- wielding his trademark club -- clashing with the implacable, stalwart English housecarles:  |
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Post by jmbroberts on Oct 10, 2016 13:04:13 GMT -5
His brother, Bishop Odo, also swung a club at Hastings. As a churchman, he was forbidden to "smite with the edge of the sword." Apparently bashing brains out was okay. There was a tradition of clubs being wielded in battle by kings and it may be the origin of the Mace as a part of the royal regalia.
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Post by deuce on Oct 11, 2016 9:42:11 GMT -5
The preeminent website for the Battle of Hastings: www.battle1066.com/Some of the actual web design is a little clunky, but it has an amazing amount of images and details.  |
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Post by themirrorthief on Oct 11, 2016 10:20:03 GMT -5
My grandfather was in the battle, he said the Normans didnt fight fair, they used topless swordswomen to distract the saxon soldiers
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Post by deuce on Oct 11, 2016 10:48:01 GMT -5
His brother, Bishop Odo, also swung a club at Hastings. As a churchman, he was forbidden to "smite with the edge of the sword." Apparently bashing brains out was okay. There was a tradition of clubs being wielded in battle by kings and it may be the origin of the Mace as a part of the royal regalia. Good to see ya on here, JMR! There is some debate as to whether the horseman in the painting is William or his brother, Bishop Odo. Both men wielded clubs (I referred to Odo in my initial post). www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/1066-and-the-norman-conquest/the-weaponry-of-1066/The whole "edge of the sword" thing seems to be more folktale than fact: l-clausewitz.livejournal.com/394539.htmlYou're probably right that the two men, one the supreme temporal ruler in Normandy and the other the ecclesiastical head, wielded clubs/maces partly as a symbol of rulership.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2016 11:08:39 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Oct 11, 2016 19:25:21 GMT -5
Those look pretty sharp! Thanks, Hun.
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Post by deuce on Oct 12, 2016 12:11:40 GMT -5
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Post by jmbroberts on Oct 12, 2016 13:55:35 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Oct 13, 2016 8:16:51 GMT -5
Today is the feast day of King Edward the Confessor, who died in 1066 and was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1161. Due to his lineage and character, the Norman Invasion was inevitable. Edward was the son of the weak Aethelred "the Unready/Ill-Counselled" and Emma of Normandy. Emma was the daughter of the formidable Richard I of Normandy. The same Richard was grandfather to William the Bastard, who invaded England in 1066. Edward spent his youth in exile in Normandy and favored Normans over his mother's people all his life, allowing many into his kingdom and giving them positions of power. There was general anger amongst the English regarding this and he was finally forced to expel them. This native English hatred for Normans was one reason the Witenagemot (the English "parliament") chose Harold Godwinson as king over William of Normandy. Besides setting up his own country for centuries of foreign rule, Edward also backed the rebellion of Malcolm Canmore (who had grown up at the English court) against Macbeth. Despite what Shakespeare's play alleges, Macbeth had succeeded to the Scottish throne legally according to the ancient Gaelic laws of Scotland. Macbeth seems to have been a good ruler. With Edward's help, Malcolm was installed on the Scottish throne and Anglo-Norman influence in Scotland increased thereafter. Gaelic culture waned in in Scotland from then on, being thought of as "backward". Thus, Edward enabled the Norman infiltration of both countries. This wiki entry is pretty good: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor |
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Post by deuce on Oct 13, 2016 18:43:57 GMT -5
 The night of October 13, 1066, Harold Godwinson sat planning for battle against William the Bastard of Normandy. It had been a long road... Harold was half-Danish, his mother being a sister to Jarl Ulf Thorkilsson, Regent of Denmark. His father was Godwin, Earl of Wessex. Godwin had risen from near-obscurity as a thane to the most powerful noble in England under the Danish kings and Edward the Confessor. Harold was an able commander, leading a fleet to the Netherlands to aid the German king, (most likely) fighting Norse raiders in East Anglia and campaigning in Wales, where he killed the Welsh king. Earl Godwin died, making Harold the most powerful man in England after King Edward. Then, in 1064, Harold seems to have been accidentally shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy. He fell into the hands of William, Duke of Normandy.  What came from that is confused and uncertain. It would appear that Harold swore some sort of oath to William the Bastard (who was a kinsman of of England's King Edward), but the nature of that oath is unclear. It is very likely that Godwinson would've never left Normandy alive without doing so. William's ruthlessness was proverbial. We do know that Harold, while "guesting" in Normandy, went on campaign with William against Count Conan of Brittany and fought well. Harold sailed back to England in 1065 to find Northumbria in an uproar. His brother, Earl Tostig, had been a harsh enough ruler that the earldom had revolted. Tostig was clearly in the wrong and Harold sided with the rebels. This created a permanent split between the brothers. Tostig, who appears to have been borderline insane, fled to the Netherlands and began raiding the east coast of England. King Edward slipped into a coma at the end of 1065 and died on January 6, 1066. From what we can tell, the English witanegemot ("parliament"/council of nobles) elected Harold by a good margin. He was a strong, capable leader who had no liking for the Normans, which is what his people wanted. Meanwhile, his brother Tostig had sailed to Norway and persuaded its king, the legendary Harald Hardrada, to invade England. Hardrada had a weak claim to that throne and the likelihood of the witanegemot accepting him was almost zero, but Tostig waved that aside. Hardrada gathered an enormous fleet of 300 dragon-ships and sailed to Northumbria where he and Tostig won a decisive battle. Harold learned of the invasion. He had been on the lookout for a force from Normandy, since William the Bastard had immediately laid claim to the English throne upon Edward's death. Now, it looked as if Duke William would wait for spring. Harold hastily gathered his forces, marched 210 miles in 5 days and utterly destroyed the Norse host. Then, a rider made it to York with word that William had landed on the south coast, at Hastings. Harold immediately turned around, marched back 200 miles with his able-bodied men and sent out the word to gather all the levies for one last, great battle. It was all or nothing and William seemed to have luck on his side. The wiki on Harold is good: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_GodwinsonThis looks at Harold's claims, good and bad, upon the English throne: www.normaninvasion.info/harold-godwinson-wessex-claim-english-throne.htm |
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Post by deuce on Oct 14, 2016 7:48:34 GMT -5
 William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, looked north from his hastily-built stockade on the morning of October 14, 1066 and felt the crown of England was within his grasp. So far, God and luck had been upon his side. Born in 1028, the illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy, William was a scion of the Vikings who had conquered Normandy two centuries before. His father died when he was 8yrs old, leaving young William in a very precarious position. He was in hiding or fighting rebels for the next 10 years. That period of fear and uncertainty left scars upon him. He rose to become a ruthless man in a ruthless land and he brooked no curbs to his authority or ambition. Harold Godwinson and the English people, in his mind, stood in the way of both. William had welded Normandy back together and then added the county of Maine to his possessions. He also defeated a combined force of Norman rebels and royal French troops. He had then invaded and destabilized his troublesome southern neighbours, the Bretons. By that point, Normans were accounted the best cavalry in Europe. Adventurers from Normandy had already conquered domains in the south of Italy. The Normans were on the move and Europe shook beneath their thundering hooves. William had sheltered his cousin, Edward, the son of AEthelred the Unready, during the rule of the Danish kings in England. When Edward took the English throne and remained childless, the Duke expected the crown to eventually pass to him. Edward died in early January, 1066. The English nobles elected Harold Godwinson, thwarting William's dreams, but the Duke was not a man easily thwarted. He began to build ships. All through the long summer of 1066, Godwinson's ships patrolled the English coast. William bided his time. Finally, for fiscal reasons, Harold had his army and navy stand down. William tried to launch his forces, but contrary winds kept him in port. Then Harald Hardrada of Norway (along with Harold Godwinson's brother) invaded northern England. Godwinson marched north and the Normans landed on the southern English coast relatively unimpeded. Now, the fate of England would be decided.  -------------------------------------------------------------------- This wiki on William of Normandy is fine: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror  |
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