THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ANGLO-NORMAN ENGLAND

AN ENGLISH VICTORY?

Should Harold have won? England would have remained an insular northern country. Without the ambition of the Viking Normans and the military technology that com-bined itself with English courage. English knights men-at-arms and longbow men would have been later in coming. England would not have had its 19th century Victo-rian Empire. Yet Harold II would have been proclaimed Europe’s greatest general. To defeat the Vikings at Stamford Bridge, march 400 miles then defeat the Norse men – the Normans at Senlac. A shock wave would have gone across Europe. But - England would not have so readily in turn conquered France and Anglicised it as it did. Englisc or English as a language would not have entered European and World trade so early on. It would not have had the ‘head start’ given by cross European trade. Thus it would not be the language phenomenon it is now. English common law and legal cul-ture would not be the underpin of World governance as it is now. Those few Vikings, known as the Normans, on horseback, not on ships, ultimately armed and gave rise to an English World culture, but one that is not truly English. But known and marketed as ‘British,’ primarily the old Norman aristocracy. The English before this year of change, and remain so now – a northern Germanic people. If Hastings had been an English victory – the country would now be an insular place – akin to Iceland or Norway.

CONTINUED ENGLISH RESISTANCE

English resistance continued. Notably led by Hereward The Wake, A fiery, violent character, he had rebelled against Edward the Confessor before 1066, whom he saw as already aligning England with the Normans, and that he was declared an outlaw as a result. It has been suggested that, at the time of the Norman invasion of England, he was in exile in Europe, working as a successful mercenary for the Count of Flanders, Baldwin V, and that he then returned to England.

The Danes joined in the post Hastings confusion. In 1069 AD or 1070 the Danish king Swein Estrithson sent a small army to try to establish a camp on the Isle of Ely in the easten part of England. A low lying marshy area known as the Fens. They were joined by many, including Hereward. His first act was to storm and sack Peterborough Abbey (about 70 miles north of Londonin 1070,) in company with local men and Swein's Danes. His justification is said to have been that he wished to save the Abbey's treasures and relics from the Normans.

In 1071 he and many others made a desperate stand on the Isle of Ely against the Conqueror's rule. Some say that the Normans made a frontal assault, aided by a huge mile-long timber causeway, but that this sank under the weight of armour and horses. It is said that the Normans, probably led by one of William's knights named Belasius (Belsar), then bribed the monks of the island to reveal a safe route across the marshes, resulting in Ely's capture. Hereward is said to have escaped with some of his followers into the wild fenland, and to have continued his resistance. English resistance continued. But Norman oppresion knew no bounds. The Harrying of the North of England which witnessed the massacre of 150,000 English follwed. That is another story in the history of the English.