Romulus

11-11-05

Romulus >? Ð'- only on throne about a year before being invaded by barbarians. Germanic barbarian felt pity for him and had him banished to an island, even paid him a pension.

Norman conquest of Britain

1066 England was in a fix- huge problem > Edward the Confessor hadn't produced any heirs. He was a very pious man who thought that even sex for the production of children was a sin. Anytime a king didn't have children there was a problemÐ'.....this leads to a violent power struggle for the throne. Those who were after the throne upon Edward's death were Harold Godwinson ( brother-in-law), Harold ?, toughest soldier of all the Vikings, and William Duke of Normandy ( whom Edward had promised the throne to before his death.

* Normandy was is France, across the English Channel, it was inhabited by Vikings, the King of France gave the Vikings Normandy so they would leave the rest of France along. Which is why there are a lot of blue eyed blonde haired French- descendants of the Vikings.

Upon Edward's death, Harold Godwinson seized the throne. Not long after that the Vikings show up at a northern shore about 200 miles from London ( the capital of England). Godwinson was going to have to get to them before the got to him or else let them occupy. Had we been there and betting people we would have bet on the VikingsÐ'....and lost. Godwinson and his men defeat the Vikings at Stanford Bridge. He had them surrounded and surprise attacked them. This was a big accomplishment as the Stanford Bridge was 200 miles away and Godwinson and his men got there, on foot, in 5 days. His army was about 5-6 thousand men. While recovering from there miraculous win they get terrible news from London Ð'- William Duke of Normandy, had arrived from Normandy to the south shore of England, 65 miles from London. Godwinson and his men march back to London, rest for a day or two and goes to meet up against William Duke of Normandy.

William had an impressive cavalry- his horse troop had the bigger horses that England didn't have. Stirrups had been invented and they proved to be an advantage against foot soldiers.

Godwinson had virtually no horses. William has the advantage and he sits and waits on Godwinson , when he does move he doesn't go straight to London, but to Hastings where he sacks and plunders giving Godwinson a chance to meet him. Godwinson gets to a Hastings and sits on top of a hill, which had the only road to London. ( Hastings is 8 miles inland ) . Godwinson has the advantage because geography is always on the side of the man who is at the highest place. He stretched is men out along 600 yards and tells the first line to stay down with their shields raised to block William's forces. This works. Most of these foot soldiers are Saxon farmers( a German ethnic group that had been around for hundreds of years) They fought with pole-axes ( poles 6-7 feet long with axes mounted on them) He told these men to stay behind their shields and not move a step backwards and to keep their pole-axes upÐ'...they would do the killing. There was a small group of real soldiers who were the king's guardÐ'...they are called House Carls. Maybe around 1-2 hundred surrounding the king.

He who holds the high ground wins.

On October 14th 1066 it was really coldÐ'...the Battle of Hastings begins. Williams archers fire arrows into the shield wall-Harold's men stand their ground, very few casualties. Next William sends his infantry up the hill-they are beaten down. Next he sends up his cavalry (vassals) and the pole-axers attack them back and they fight it out. There are casualties. The Normans make three attempts and fail each time. Rumors start that William is dead. He catches wind of this and rides out in front of all his men to show them I AM ALIVE! They are renewed in hope and goes about fighting again in the afternoon. William sends for his cavalry and tells them to concentrate on the