Monday 22 April 2013

Battle of 1066 -- Hastings

The year 1066 is a very important year in Britain.  It changed the course of English history to what we know today.  It started on the death of King Edward the Confessor and the fight for who would take his throne.  On one side is his brother in law Harald Godwinson and the other side was a distant french relative William the conqueror.  This part of history is taught in schools here, I am not sure if it is addressed in the US, but my kids know this story and we decided to take a tour of where the battle took place that decided the fate of of England.




An abbey was built here to mark the spot of the battle while there is little that remains of the original abbey it has undergone many restorations, it is still an impressive site to visit.


Every year English Heritage holds a reenactment battle to commemorate the battle in October.  We attended it several years ago and loved it.   Today we were exploring the battlefield and the abbey

I love pictures of old doors:)

The two men both had claims to the throne but it is reported that King Edward promised the throne to William and that Harold broke his oath of fealty and grabbed the throne when the king died.

As my husband is a saxon re enactor this part of history is very important to him.  We have been to see the Bayeux tapestry in France which has the complete story.

My husband was not pleased to see the wrong type of sword in the museum:(  This is a big pet peeve of his.  He almost had a heart attack when he noticed the dress up box had the wrong type of helmets for this period;)

There is a path that takes you around the battlefield.  This is very important as it plays a major part of  battle

Due to the down pour we encounter we had to abandoned the nature walk as it was too muddy and slippery.  So we walked around 


walking around the site

listening to the audio guide

William the Conqueror wanted an abbey built here to remember the fallen from the battle




The spot where Harold Godwinson died, the story goes he was hit in the eye by an arrow

One of the original walls of the abbey


I love the juxtaposition of the red UK phone booth next to the abbey walls



Another great day out, despite the rain, in England.

8 comments:

  1. The reenactment in October is brilliant but I laughed when you wrote about the mud. There was so much mud at the reenactment this last year.

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    1. We were to attend the event last year but at the last moment my husband had to go on a business trip. We thought English heritage did a fab job of telling the story of the battle. We tried to go to the castle you blog about which is near by but the rain made that trip impossible:(

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  2. Very arty pics! Love it.
    poor old Harold.
    I still think Eddy the Confessor was duped into promising William....
    Rx

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  3. We visited the Abbey a few years back on a very cold, dark day and it was a little spooky, we even encountered a rogue sheep out of nowhere! It's a great place to visit though and my youngest son has remembered the arrow in Harold's eye all these years later! Great photos :)

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  4. Oh my, this is amazing...the richness of history...just breathtaking. The pics are unreal as well!! Thanks for the history lesson!!
    So THIS school year, one son is on the early 20th century right now ..the other is in France during Napol's power...when we head back in time to this period though at some point, i will be checking back to your blog for the "real thing" in pics and commentary!

    AnnaMaire, would you coinsider linking a post, this one is perfect perfect perfect...to my memoir Monday hop? Or any one, really...
    I think that bloggers feel "memoir" has to be lengthy or in depth or deeply personal and it surely does not. Short snippets of life in any genre or whatever you feel is "memoir," IS!

    Here is today's post and within that is link to the "details " and other memoir posts. No pressure seriously, really...I know you;re juggling a lot with HSing and packing...if you can, you can.
    If not, no worries.

    http://campfiresandcleats.blogspot.com/2013/04/galileo-in-walmart.html

    Have a great day!

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    1. Absolutely I will link up...I was over thinking the link up...will try to add it to my list soon!

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  5. This is one place that we actually went to when I was a child. It wasn't so fancy back then, kind of just a drive and go site, if I remember correctly (there's always a good chance that I don't remember correctly). Your hubby is funny with his criticism of the sword and so forth! I wonder how many people even notice the difference...

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  6. Sigh, I wish I could go on field trips like that :0

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