1066: The Year of Conquest<\/a>\u201d is a wonderful read. \u00a0You can polish it off in one setting. \u00a0I particularly enjoy it because he admits his biases, which is nice, but also because he tries to look at the momentous events from the point of view of the little people as well as the movers and shakers. \u00a0 Picking the village of Horstede, \u00a0near the site of destiny, Howarth reminds us that history doesn\u2019t tell us ahead of time when it\u2019s getting ready to happen.<\/p>\nPeople whose fate is reduced in a history book to a simple \u201830,000 were slaughtered by the Mongols\u2019 didn\u2019t see it coming. \u00a0Just like those who were dead at Hastings. \u00a0Just like the 3000 who died on 9\/11. \u00a0When they went to work, I\u2019ll bet they had plans for that Tuesday evening. \u00a0Or that person who was killed in an auto accident on their way home on I-71. \u00a0One never knows what tomorrow will bring. \u00a0 When I teach history, I tell people that the problem with history is that you have to wait for it to happen in order to study it. \u00a0By then, of course, it\u2019s too late. \u00a0The good people of small, isolated Horstede\u00a0didn\u2019t know, in January 1066, that by the end of the year many\u00a0of their men\u00a0would be dead, their lands invaded and conquered, and their king killed in battle. \u00a0We never do see it coming.<\/p>\n
As I said during\u00a0the Olympics, we remember the 1936 Olympics because of the obvious reasons. \u00a0What we often don\u2019t wait around for is the closing ceremonies, where the Olympic officials declared the games over and announced their hope for the upcoming 1940 Tokyo Olympics. \u00a0Of course there would be no 1940 Tokyo Olympics. \u00a0And there would be no 1944 Olympics. \u00a0Most youngsters would not be in the stadiums competing, but would be on the battlefield locked in a death struggle with one another. \u00a0Ten years after the 36 Olympics, we would be\u00a0living under the threat of nuclear annihilation as over 60 million people who saw the games lay dead.<\/p>\n
So think on that today. \u00a0950 years ago. \u00a0By this time in the day, the battle was done. \u00a0Harold was dead, according legend with an arrow through the eye. \u00a0William, called the Conqueror for good reason, was on his way to be crowned King of England. \u00a0The people of Horstede, and the rest of England, would experience horrible upheaval, suffering and death over the upcoming years. \u00a0On this day all those years ago, most hadn\u2019t heard yet. \u00a0Within a year, they would all know first hand. \u00a0It makes you wonder what we will know in a year that we don\u2019t know now.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most decisive days in human history. \u00a0The event that changed the course of human events, dragged England away from Scandinavia and dropped it firmly in the lap of northwestern European affairs, merged\u00a0Norman and Anglo-Saxon cultures, \u00a0and laid the groundwork for what would help England emerge as one of the great powers of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-musings"],"yoast_head":"\n
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