A thirteenth-century depiction of the Battle of Stamford Bridge. King Harald Hardr\u00e5da of Norway is shown wielding a battle-ax. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Riccall was the site of the base camp of Harald Hardr\u00e5da \u2014 Harald III, King of Norway \u2014 in 1066. \u00a0King Edward the Confessor had died without an heir in January of that year, creating a dispute over the royal succession. \u00a0Harold Godwinson, usually termed an Anglo-Saxon but also related to King Cnut (or Canute) the Great (d. 1035) \u2013who was the king of Denmark, Norway, and England \u2013was chosen by the Witenagemot<\/em>\u00a0and was crowned at Westminster Abbey. \u00a0Norway\u2019s King Harald, however, contested Harold Godwinson\u2019s coronation and claimed the English throne for himself. \u00a0Accordingly, he invaded England. \u00a0He had\u00a0sailed up the estuary of the River Humber (from which Northumbria takes its name) and landed on the banks of the River Ouse, which is near Riccall. \u00a0He set up his camp there before his victory over the northern English earls at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066. \u00a0Just five days later, though, on 25 September 1066, he was defeated and killed by Harold Godwinson \u00a0at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
That battle itself, though, proved disastrous for the English King Harold even though he was victorious in it. \u00a0He had been in southern England,\u00a0anticipating an invasion from France by William, Duke of Normandy, who was\u00a0another contender for the English throne. \u00a0Learning of the Norwegian invasion, though, King Harold headed north at great speed with as many warriors\u00a0as he could gather, travelling day and night with his best and most dedicated fighters. \u00a0He made the journey from London to Yorkshire, a distance of about 185 miles, in only four days, which enabled him to take the Norwegians completely by surprise. His army of 5,000 defeated a Norwegian army that is usually put at 6,000 but may have been even larger. \u00a0However, he suffered heavy casualties (roughly 15% of his soldiers were killed)\u00a0and the battle\u00a0distracted him from his necessary defense of England\u2019s south coast at precisely the wrong time, which, thus, left it open to Norman invasion. \u00a0And the rest, as they say, is history: \u00a0Force-marching his exhausted and depleted army back down to the south after their victory over the Norwegians at Stamford Bridge, without enough time to recruit more fighters, Harold was defeated by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. \u00a0And, so, the Normans (who were themselves of Viking origin, the descendants of Norsemen<\/em>), became the lords of England.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most \u201cimportant\u201d historical battles aren\u2019t really all that decisive or pivotal, except in a narrow political and military context. \u00a0But the Battle of Hastings was of incalculable importance, politically, militarily, and culturally. \u00a0The imposition of elite Norman French on the Germanic Anglo-Saxon language of the conquered English, for example, created our English language. \u00a0It\u2019s why English has such a rich and supple vocabulary \u2014 with such interesting pairings as Germanic handbook<\/em> and ghost<\/em> and their more elevated Latinate synonyms manual<\/em> and spirit<\/em> \u2014 and is one of the factors that made Chaucer, Milton, and Shakespeare possible.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The article to which I link below may suggest\u00a0some implications for my own family\u2019s history, as well as for the genealogies of more than a few readers of this blog. \u00a0(It\u00a0may also have something to suggest about today\u2019s refugee situation and the treatment of immigrants.) \u00a0 http:\/\/www.realclearscience.com\/articles\/2017\/02\/25\/why_did_danish_vikings_move_to_england.html \u00a0 My paternal grandfather was from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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