Living in England has not only afforded me the opportunity to reconnect with my British roots, it has allowed us to dig into British history. And there is no more iconic event in British history than the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We had travelled down to Kent to help my cousin Ros prepare her house for its sale in the Spring and decided that rather than take the motorway home, we would travel along the south coast to see this historic site.

Harold II, the reigning English king, had just fought a decisive battle at Stamford Bridge, near York, where he had defeated a claimant to the English throne, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, in September of that year. Now he was facing another claimant in William of Normandy, a Nordic colony on the coast of France. When the news of William’s landing reached Harold, he rushed his battle-weary troops back south, stopping only briefly in London to gather any extra forces he could. By October he had them stationed on a hill not far from the English coast using a nearby abbey as a barracks for his troops.

With his army holding the high ground, Harold had a clear advantage over William and was able to repel several charges. As the light began to fade, William mounted a final assault advising his first wave of troops to pretend to flee defeated. Sensing victory at the end of a long day, Harold allowed his army to pursue the Normans downhill to collect the spoils of war. It was a fatal error. William rallied his troops and led them in a crushing defeat and an uncontrolled slaughter of Harold’s men.

As William surveyed the battlefield on the following day, he is said to have been overcome with revulsion and remorse for the bloody carnage his troops had inflicted on Harold’s army. He vowed to rebuild and expand the shattered abbey, where it still stands to this day.

We walked the entire site, stopping to read the informative displays and taking in the significance of the events of that day. England does a great job of preserving and presenting his history to its visitors. We had a sunny day and didn’t mind the stroll through what is now and peaceful and picturesque site

William proved to be an able ruler, uniting the country for the first time in its history and beginning a line of kings that extends down to this day. What looked at the time as a crushing defeat, turned out to be pivotal in England’s rise as a great nation, and in the nearly 1,000 years since the Battle of Hastings, has never again been successfully invaded.

October 2022