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PDF versionOn this day: Battle of Hastings
by Gerelyn Hollingsworth on Oct. 14, 2011
On this day, in 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings.
Click here for a video about "the most decisive, and certainly the most famous, battle ever fought on English soil. William's triumph, and his subsequent coronation as King William I (1066-87), marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England, the creation of new ties with Western Europe, and the imposition of a new and more cohesive ruling class."
Click here for a video about the Bayeux Tapestry.
Click here for an animated Bayeux Tapestry, by David Newton.
The Bayeux Tapestry is not really a tapestry. It is embroidery, wool on linen, worked probably in Winchester or Canterbury, probably by Saxon nuns, commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William's half-brother. Only two embroidery stitches were used: the stem stitch and couching.
Click here for answers to questions about the Bayeux Tapestry.
David Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest, Viking Press, 1978, contains a great deal of information about the various elements of the invasion illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry, including the ships. "In the hundred and fifty years since their Viking ancestors landed, the Normans had lost the habit of using the sea. . . .The barons, ordered to build a fleet in six months, must desperately have rounded up every woodman and carpenter in the country". Pages 118-120. Search term: Bayeux.
For Howarth's set piece about life in Anglo-Saxon England just before the Norman invasion, see the first chapter, "England: New Year's Day," page 11. "It was not a bad life to be English when the year began; it was the kind of life that many modern people vainly envy." See pages 23-25 for information about what the people of Horstede did for fun.
Click here for a wargamer's web site about the Battle of Hastings.
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Click here for Wikipedia.
the actual Roman Catholic
the actual Roman Catholic SAINT OF THE DAY is FAR more interesting than just more of the trivia from Englisher annals which Gerry prefers. I mean just read this from Catholic.org:
St. Callistus I
"Feastday: October 14"
"Imagine that your biography was written by an enemy of yours. And that its information was all anyone would have not only for the rest of your life but for centuries to come. You would never be able to refute it -- and even if you couldno one would believe you because your accuser was a saint."
"That is the problem we face with Pope Callistus I who died about 222. The only story of his life we have is from someone who hated him and what he stood for, an author identified as Saint Hippolytus, a rival candidate for the chair of Peter. What had made Hippolytus so angry? Hippolytus was very strict and rigid in his adherence to rules and regulations. The early Church had been very rough on those who committed sins of adultery, murder, and fornication. Hippolytus was enraged by the mercy that Callistus showed to these repentant sinners, allowing them back into communion of the Church after they had performed public penance. Callistus' mercy was also matched by his desire for equality among Church members, manifested by his acceptance of marraiges between free people and slaves. Hippolytus saw all of this as a degradation of the Church, a submission to lust and licentiousness that reflected not mercy and holiness in Callistus but perversion and fraud."
SOUNDS VERY CONTEMPORARY. God knows we need him now!
read the rest over at http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=31 (since you will not see it here, but only some more boring breathless British baggage)
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=31
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