Good morning. You’ve had plenty of ‘who’s who’ from us so far. But today’s spotlight highlights an historic ‘what’ — an event that’s central to the story of the West. Thanks for starting your day with us.
Today's reading time is 4 minutes.
Spotlight: The Battle of Hastings
‘Hic Harold Rex interfectus est’ (‘Here King Harold is killed’), scene from the Bayeux Tapestry c. 1066-1082.
The Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066 A.D., was one of the most consequential events in European history. It marked the victory of Duke William of Normandy over King Harold Godwinson of England and brought an end to Anglo-Saxon England. The battle was the culmination of a succession crisis that followed the death of King Edward the Confessor, who left no direct heir. Harold was crowned king, but William claimed that Edward (his first cousin once removed) had promised him the throne and that Harold had sworn to support this claim. Determined to enforce what he saw as his rightful inheritance, William crossed the English Channel with an invasion force and confronted Harold near Hastings in southern England.
The battle itself was fiercely contested. Harold’s army, composed of experienced infantry, occupied a strong defensive position on Senlac Hill behind a shield wall. Yet Harold’s army was also after marching 200 miles from a previous battle (which they won) at Stamford Bridge. The defenders’ fate was sealed when King Harold was killed by an arrow through the eye. With their king dead and their lines collapsing, the English resistance disintegrated, and the Normans won the day.
The consequences of William’s victory extended far beyond the battlefield. Hastings effectively ended Anglo-Saxon England and ushered in the Norman era. While William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066, resistance to his rule went on for years — the Conqueror responded with exceptional severity, devastating large areas of northern England in what became known as the ‘Harrying of the North’, and building castles which made Norman authority a permanent fixture of the English landscape. The conquest also displaced much of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, replacing it with a Norman ruling class loyal to William.
The Norman Conquest transformed England’s political institutions, strengthened feudal structures, and tied the kingdom more closely to continental Europe. Norman French became the language of the elite, profoundly influencing the later development of English, while in the centuries that followed, English kings (being William’s descendants) would almost constantly lay claims to French soil, resulting in wars aplenty.
Importantly, the fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Norman traditions helped create the English state that would later play a central role in the growth of parliamentary government, the British Empire, and the global spread of English culture. Because England would eventually become the most influential country in the world, the Battle of Hastings stands as a turning point not only in English history but in the history of the Western world more broadly.
Verse: 'O me! O life!’ by Walt Whitman
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
‘O me! O life!’ begins in exasperation, yet ends with a confident pronouncement as to the purpose of one’s existence. It was published in Whitman’s 1867 collection Leaves of Grass.
Pensées
The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
‘I think it may be the case that Fortune is the mistress of one half our actions, and yet leaves the control of the other half, or a little less, to ourselves…[Fortune] displays her might where there is no organised strength to resist her…[thus] a Prince who rests solely on Fortune is ruined when she changes.’
Q: While Providence plays a hand in all our dealings, if you fail to make any plans, you are de facto planning to fail. How much of your life are you leaving to chance?
Diversions
Weekend watch: Why Beauty Matters with the late Sir Roger Scruton. (1 hr)
A detailed guide to Byzantine Mosaics.
Your home is more just a place, writes Abigail Sefzik for Convivium.
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