October 14th - another important date

 

Another important date – October 14^th  

All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Stained glass window in St Mary's Church, Battle, depicting William the Conqueror and King Harold

On this day in 1066, the Battle of Hastings was fought between the armies of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson of England and the French Duke William of Normandy. Harold battled in vain to retain his crown but was defeated by William.    

The battle lasted all day and the outcome changed the life of the Anglo-Saxons (English) forever. William, henceforth always referred to as ‘William the Conqueror’, spoke only French and never mastered English. Therefore the Norman invasion ensured that for centuries French was the official language of England. The last French-speaking king was Richard II, who died in 1399.

After his victory William marched to London and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

Four years later, in 1070, Pope Alexander II ordered William to make penance for his invasion of England. William commissioned the building of Battle Abbey on the site of his conquest as a memorial to the dead. The high altar was placed at the exact spot where Harold met his death. 

In 1085 William I ordered a ‘Great Survey’ to be undertaken. He sent his agents to survey every shire in England The purpose was to conduct a census of the lands and people of England and the resources from which they gained their livelihoods and to assess their rateable value. It was completed in 1086, the year before William died. It became known as the ‘Domesday Book’ and was originally kept in the royal treasury in Winchester. Today it is kept at the National Archives in Kew, London.

The story of the Norman Conquest is told in the Bayeux Tapestry, which was made in England soon after the Battle of Hastings. It consists of 58 panels of linen embroidered in wool with scenes from the Conquest. Today it is housed in the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Bayeux, France. A replica tapestry, created in 1885, hangs in the Bayeux Gallery of Reading Museum.