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On October 14, 1066, William of Normandy defeated the English King Harold near the city of Hastings in southeast England.
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The Battlefield at Hastings
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William was the bastard son of Duke Robert, sometimes referred to as “Robert the Devil” because it was supposed he had murdered his older brother to gain the throne. Robert had absconded with a tanner’s daughter that he fancied and through their union, William was born.
William was always aware of his birth status, and it hardened and embittered him. While besieging the town of Alençon, the townspeople hung hides upon the wall and taunted him with cries of “Hides for the tanner.” William, livid with rage, destroyed the town, chopped off the hands and feet of thirty-two town leaders, flayed them alive, and threw them off the walls.
When Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king of England, died in January of 1066, the English Council offered the throne to his brother-in-law, Harold Godwin. William protested, claiming that Edward had promised the throne to him and that Harold had sworn an oath to support William’s claim.
The repudiation of this oath by Harold enabled William to assume the character of an avenger of perjury. He believed himself called by God as a champion of the Church, and he obtained from Pope Alexander II not only a blessing on his enterprise, but the gift of a specially consecrated banner used for a religious crusade.
With the papal blessing, William set out for England with an army of 7-9,000 men. He met Harold’s army in a field north of the town of Hastings. The armies were evenly matched and the momentum of battle alternated throughout the day. But when William ordered his archers to shoot high in the air to penetrate beyond the shield wall, a stray arrow struck Harold in the eye. Death was immediate and William had won the day. The English had been conquered for the last time in their history.
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