September 28- Begin of the Norman Invasion

On September 27, 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, landed his fleet on the English South Coast near Pevensey, Sussex and the Norman invasion of Saxon England began.

William�s appearance on the English shores was bad news for the reigning Saxon King Harold Godwinson indeed, only three days before William�s landing, he had defeated another invading force, that of the Norwegian King Harald Hadrade and his Vikings in the battle of Stamford Bridge, suffering heavy casualties and exhausting his small band of elite Housecarls that were the pride and pillars of the Saxon army.
Harold had but one choice, to force his tired men back to the South of England, on a long 240km march, to confront the Norman danger.

Both invasions, the Viking and the Norman, were the results of a bitter struggle for the succession to the British throne. In May 1066 the undisputed but childless King of England, Edward the Confessor had died, proclaiming his fourteen year old nephew Edgar Atheling as his heir. Having been born in Hungary, Edgar was an outsider amongst the Saxon aristocracy, and the mighty and powerful of England refused to support the claims of the boy King.
Instead, the Witan, the parliament of Saxon nobles, voted Harold Godwinson, son of the great Earl Godwin, and scion of one of the oldest, richest and most influential Saxon families as their new King. Harold�s connection to the royal line of Edward III was somewhat more remote than that of Edgar, but his acclamation reflected the real balance of power in Anglo-Saxon England, and became at least inside the country almost universally accepted.



King Harold Godwinson from the Bayeux Tapestry

Unfortunately for Harold, this view wasn�t shared outside of England.
The Danish Vikings, whose King Canute the Great had ruled over England from 1016-1035 as he had over Norway and Denmark, had never forsaken their claim to the English throne which in 1042 had fallen back to the Saxon royal house. The complicated family relationships between the Viking and Saxon royal families could indeed support a claim, one that was possibly even stronger than that of Harold.
The second pretender sat in the Normandy, just a stone throw from the English coast. Its Duke William was a grand-nephew of Queen Emma, a Norman princess who had been married to the Saxon King Ethelred and to complicate matters even further, subsequently to King Canute.
Because his claim on birth alone stood on rather shaky grounds, Duke William announced after Edward�s III death that the former King had promised him the succession on a visit to France, furthermore alleged that the newly elected King Harold had sworn him allegiance and support of his pretence during a rather involuntarily stay in Normandy.



William, Duke of Normandy

Rather predictably, Harold and the Saxons ignored all other claims and even more predictably, the other two parties decided to support their claims with military action, the Vikings sticking to the good old tradition of invading and pillaging Northern England, while the Normans prepared to cross the English Channel, the last army to have tried that being no one other than the Romans and their Emperor Claudius a thousand years before.
During the summer of 1066 William assembled a fleet of around 500 ships that were to carry an army of approximately 10.000 men ( as always numbers vary in historical accounts) on the French side of the Channel. His troops weren�t exclusively composed by his own vassals, a large number of knights from Northern Europe had joined the cause, in the hope to carve out a little piece of England for themselves.
Small as his army might have seemed, compared to entire weapon-carrying population of the England, William had high hopes for his adventure. His men were better equipped and trained than the Saxons who had stuck to time honoured weaponry and strategies, whilst their Norman cousins had moved on with the times and were to unleash a modern army of heavily armoured cavalry.
At the end of September, William was ready and as soon as the weather allowed, he set sail and after the short crossing of the Channel arrived on English soil on September 28, 1066. The rest is, as they say, history.
To be continued.


What else happened on this day?


48 BC Having flown to Egypt after his defeat at the battle of Pharsalos in the Roman Civil War against Julius Caesar, Pompeius Magnus is murdered on arrival on the orders of the Egyptian King Ptolemy XIII.

1972 Paul Henderson scores �The Goal" to secure Canada�s win over the USSR in the Ice hockey "Summit Series". A Canadian friend has confirmed that this was by far the most significant event in the history of her country. Who am I to argue?

Full list:

Wikipedia

Edited by Komnenos

Also occurring today in

1850 - US Navy abolishes flogging as punishment

1904 - Woman arrested for smoking a cigarette in a car on 5th Avenue, NYC

1968 - Beatles' "Hey Jude," single goes #1 and stays #1 for 9 weeks


Morty


Edited by morticia