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By 1066, the old Saxon barbarians who had displaced the Roman Empire in Britain and driven the Celts to the extremities of the country had reached the height of their own civilization. They were by now under a heavy Christian influence (not what we would now recognize as Christianity, although in some ways it resembles the charismatic born-again movements that emphasize miracles and 'God's will' -- there was a lot of belief in the power of saints' relics and other claptrap -- but politics and power-playing, as always, was as usual!). The old Britons, and their relatives the Scots and Irish, were now relegated to the role of bandits and rabble-rousers -- an ambitious Earl could always marry off his daughter to King Griffith or Dermot or whoever and depend on allies when he was forced into exile and wanted to raise an invasion force -- whereas the old Roman cities of Canterbury, Worcester, Winchester, etc., now resettled, were centers of culture and learning. England was united, more or less, under a single King, although the Earls still exercised considerable power (for example, Siward of Northumbria, who helped Malcolm overthrow Macbeth, and Leofric of Mercia, husband to the famous Lady Godiva). There had been two centuries or more of strife with the Vikings, and then the Danes, with even a brief usurpation of power by your Sweyns, Knuts, and Haralds over the Edmunds, Alfreds, and Ethelreds. But by the late 11th Century, England was one of the most advanced civilizations in Western Europe, prosperous and not bedeviled by plagues and crop failures, not to reach the same heights until the later Middle Ages. Unfortunately, Edward the Confessor had no heirs, the closest being Edmund Ironside's son in exile in Hungary. You had the powerful upstart Godwin family ... and you had those pesky and greedy Normans (of Viking descent, but all intermarried with the Royal Houses of France and England and Flanders in a very complicated fashion). And off in distant Rome you had the wicked Hildebrand and the puppet Popes, all plotting to take over the Western World in the name of Christ (and his vicars, of course).
The theme of this Arthurian Web Site has been veering more and more to the sympathetic support of all established and civilized cultures against the pirates and anarchists, reivers and looters, opportunists and vandals who come against them and ultimately overwhelm them. The Norman Conquest was a particularly horrendous and revolutionary event, with permanent repercussions -- I'm not judging the results bad over the long run (it's just what happened, and we can't do much about that now), but they certainly changed the course of history and generate deep sympathy for the folk who suffered the brunt of the misfortune while it was happening. Normans, in effect, established the whole concept of British imperialism, with all its effects on Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and ultimately the World. It also created great doomed heros like Hereward the Wake, William Wallace, Robin Hood, Llewellyn the Great, and others -- even your Wat Tylers and Lambert Simnels, whom you can't avoid feeling some sympathy for, ultimately leading to the unfortunate Richard III. He was not perfect! Neither was King Harold II of England. But that brings us back to the subject.
| That pretty much sums up what I wanted to preach about this. What inspired this web page was a recent re-reading of Hope Muntz's chronicle-like epic (pub. 1949) of the story of Harold Godwinson and William
Duke of Normandy, The Golden Warrior, which is one of the all-time classics of
historical fiction. This is a book review and a tribute. The morality of the characters is
left to your judgement, as it is in the story -- no social commentary need be implied. It
is basically a Hector and Achilles epic with some larger-than-life protagonists.
Of the Feast of Kings "Earl Godwin was a commoner, but he had to wife, Gytha, the great Canute's fair kinswoman, and upon that marriage and his own wits he built his fortune...." Every chapter is headed thus: Of this or that..., and the prose is plain and straightforward like this, with just a touch of archaism to suggest the Anglo-Saxon chronicles. Supernatural events, deaths, murders, betrayals, love scenes, whatever are described in the same matter-of-fact way, but that technique becomes very effective as the pages roll on and on. You are reading 'history' not 'poetry' -- yet the effect is very poetic. The vocabulary is very basic English, not overly laced with adjectives, adverbs, and subjunctive tenses etc. Still the descriptiveness of the scenes jumps right out at you (you are not given a description of the king's great hall, but see the cook drop the pastry he had worked all afternoon on as Godwin suffers a stroke at the king's high table). There are saintly wise councillors (Bishop Wulfstan, Lanfranc, etc.), Machiavellian and ambitious churchmen (Hildebrand, Stigand, Odo William's half-brother, who fought with an iron mace because priests were not allowed to bear swords), weak but good-hearted Kings (Edward the Confessor), greedy Barons (Guy of Ponthieu, Earl Tosti -- Harold's brother, William's allies), rash hot-headed younger sons constantly getting into trouble and always forgiven (Leofric's son Alfgar and Harold's best friend), wolves plotting from abroad (Harald Hardcounsel of Norway and his son Magnus), witches and sorcerers (Morgan, the Welsh thrall in Harold's house in Bosham who conjures up the shipwreck that strands him in Normandy and results in the fateful false oath sworn to William, the nameless Welsh beggar woman who bites Harold as he gives her alms and subjects him to the curse of Merlin and Arthur by causing a year-long paralysis that is only cured by the Miracle of the Rood at Waltham Abbey), lovely ladies galore (Edith Swan-neck -- Harold's common-law wife and mother to his half-dozen children who are not considered heirs -- William's lovely child-daughter Agatha betrothed to Harold as part of that infamous deal of the false oath, Harold's long-suffering but saintly sister Edith, married to the celibate King Edward), loyal friends (William Mallet, torn between two masters, and whose direct descendent, with the same name, died just a few years ago, last of his line, of a family that never rose above squires -- but remained honorable men for centuries and never suffered the fates of their 'betters'). Great battles, palace intrigue, broken oaths and pledges. A real and attractive villain in the person of Tosti. And ultimately, a true and moving tragedy. All in all, a rousing saga and well worthy of being placed in the Arthurian Canon, no matter how indirectly. The 'true facts' of the story are still subject to controversy, especially the bindingness of an oath, however given, coerced or voluntary -- as William's brother Odo puts it, oaths are like pie-crusts, meant to be broken. Neither Harold Godwinson nor William (the Bastard) of Normandy had any true claim to the crown of England -- that 'right' was held by the boy Edgar Atheling, as a direct descendant of Edmund Ironside, who was usurped (and murdered by) the Danish ruler King Canute and his brief interregnum of Scandinavians, but the boy was brought up in exile in Hungary, of all places, and was certainly no match for the like of the Godwin Earls or Norman Dukes. His sister Margaret, however, made her permanent mark on history as the Queen of Scotland by marriage, and reputedly one of the most influential women in British history. Whatever happened to the atheling's heirs (if he had any), or to the many sons of King Harold, I have no idea. There must have been a Bonnie Prince Charlie type movement for many years but that has all faded into the distant past, like who was the legitimate successor to Tut-ankh-amen. William Malet, a squire, who was friend to both William and Harold, survived the conquest, and I was astounded to see his direct descendant profiled in the London Sunday Times in 1966 when they did a commemerative magazine issue about the Battle of Hastings. (There was a 'where are they now' section, and I wish I'd saved it -- it's surprising how many people can still can connect their families back to then, like our "Mayflower" folk. Probably just as phony too for the most part. But these profiles were documented. It was very moving, and didn't involve dukes or barons, but just commoners -- wouldn't you love to be a garage mechanic and be able to claim that your umpty-umph great-grandfather fought at the Battle of Hastings?) |
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Some Sample Quotations and Extracts HAROLD HAS TAKEN THE KINGSHIP AFTER THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD.... A private conversation between Bishop Odo and William the Bastard Of Men in Normandy Odo: [we can't handle this alone, we need support...] "all these must help us. France must be bought. We must attempt the Empire. Most needful of all is it that you send to Rome." "Hildebrand lends help on one condition," said the Duke. "I will do homage to no man for my crown." Odo smiled. "Our countrymen, Robert the Crafty and his kindred, thrive well in Italy," he said. "They are St Peter's Dukes and Princes now. The conquest of Apulia was blessed. The Apostle's banner went before. They say that Robert looks towards Byzantium. Shall he be Emperor of the East, a poor knight's son, and you sit here and fear to be a King?" William said nothing. "Learn of Robert, brother," said Odo. "He is happy in expedients. Is it not written, 'oaths and pie-crust are made to be broken'?" ...His brother did not answer. Odo began to speak of England, the riches and splendour of the Kingdom, excelling all lands in the West. "A man might think," said the Duke, "that you sought the crown yourself." "What if I seek a crown?" said Odo. "We two may reign." William lifted his eyes and stared upon him. "The crown of Canterbury?" he said. "That first," said Odo. "Stigand's coffers are full, they say. Gold paves the way to Peter's Chair." When he saw his brother's look, he said: "Because you made a churchman of me when I was a boy, did you suppose that I should be content to dwell in contemplation?" "Ah, is it so?" said the Duke. They looked upon each other. "'Bare is back without brother'," said Odo. "I too am a Norman, William." [Just as an aside, the Normans were illiterate (except for Odo of course) and prided themselves on that -- it was beneath their dignity as warriors. Harold, and the English upper class, were almost scholars because of Alfred the Great's encouragement of learning. The Saxons were into the philosopher Boethius, Marcus Aurelius, and other Stoic types, plus hopeless but heroic poems about the Battle of Maldon, etc. Laudible as this is, it obviously didn't do them any good.] ----------- Harald Sigurdson (Hardcounsel) of Norway Treats with Some English Exiles Of Men in Norway [The King has been hunting capercailzie in the woods above Bergen, and returns to town to find a strange ship harbored there. He asked a townsman:] "What ship is that that lies in by the quay?" The man answered that there was a change of Kings in England... "And this ship," he said, "is full of outlaws and lawless men whom Harold has driven out for manslayings and other such matters." King Harald Sigurdson sent for the men and spoke with them at his ale. "Is it a true tale," he said, "that Harold Godwinson is King in England, and that he drove you out?" ...The outlaws answered: "We know nothing good to say of him. He is a tyrant to our brotherhood. We understand that you are a better lord for men of our mind. We have come to offer you our service." "Is that all?" said Harald. They answered: "We do not hide from you that there is much wealth and plunder to be gained in England. Our wish is that you should go there with an army and win the Kingdom; and if we help you well, we look for our reward....We have heard it told of you, lord King, that you have conquered many Kingdoms in the East and never been defeated by any odds." "That is true," said Harald, "but I have never yet been other men's cats-paw; and you shall sooner serve me than I you." King Harald kept the men about him, but showed them little honour. [However,] the Earls sent out the weapon-token, both north to Shetland and Fair Isle and westward to the Hebrides, and all their chiefs began to gather men and ships. Nothing was known as to the reason for the King's levy, but all men understood that mighty matters were afoot. Ships came from over the western sea from Iceland to join the host in Scapa Flow. ----------- [The Plot Thickens! Although in the meantime, Harold has won over the independent folk of Northumberland, and Edwin and Morcar, sons of Alfgar -- all of whom had been wronged by Harold's brother Tosti, now exiled by Harold for his depredations against the northern kingdom. As a sign of his kingship, he puts aside Edith Swan-neck and marries Morcar's beautiful sister Aldyth in the city of York, to the approbation of the northerners. On their wedding night: "When he embraced her, the Queen held him with a passion more than his; and when she spoke, her words seemed shameless to him. He made as though he would draw back. Aldyth laughed low and said: 'You who fear nothing, Harold, do you fear a woman?'"] ----------- [Through the summer of 1066, William and Harold play the waiting game, both have their forces out in full (William, now with the support of the Pope -- which thus makes his conquest a 'holy cause' -- trying to keep his mass of free-lance warriors together by promising them baronages and manors and heiresses, etc. and of course pre-disposing properties that belong to other people; Harold, having called out the Fyrd [the 'National Guard'] trying to keep them beyond the call-up period, while the harvest time is approaching). The weather is foul for the sailing of the invasion forces, except for the Norwegians. The first foray of the Norman fleet has been decimated by Harold's, and by lousy weather, but in the meantime, William's delaying tactics have resulted in major resentment and desertions among Harold's folk, who think he is crying 'Wolf' in keeping the kingdom on full-time alert all this time with nothing happening. Everybody is very despondent..] William talks with his son Robert Of Duke William They were lodged in the town by the waterside... The banner by the weather vane on the church tower was rent and tattered by the raging wind. He sat down and took his head in his hands. His lady [Matilda] looked upon him with dismay. "To fail," said William, "it would make me the jest of Christendom. Rome is with us, why does God hide His face?" Their son Robert came into the chamber... "I saw a dead man on the shore, mother... He was blue." ..."I will speak to the men," he [William] said. "They must be heartened." [as he and his son walk together hand in hand, Robert says...] "I would I were a man to fight for you, my Lord. Why did Earl Harold betray you?" "He was ambitious for a crown," said William. "What is ambition?" "Greed of gain..." They walked on a while. Then Robert said: "My Uncle Odo is a greedy man. Is he ambitious?" William made no answer. "When I am a man," said Robert, "I shall not be like him. I shall be like you, father. I will fight for you always. You made me Duke." "Duke?" said William. "You are not Duke until I die." Robert said: "But, Sire, you made me Duke of Normandy." "Hold your peace," said Duke William. "Know this, Robert, I do not take my clothes off until I go to bed." He took his hand away and strode before him. ----------- Of the Fight at Stamford Bridge [The Battle of Stamford Bridge (over the river Derwent where there was no "crossing save by the bridge, which was of wood with a single handrail, and wide enough but for one man to pass"). Harald Hardrada and Tosti take advantage of Harold's distractions guarding against the Normans in the south to quickly capture the city of York, humiliating Edwin and Morcar, Harold's haughty brothers-in-law in the process. Harold does a forced march from London -- moves his whole army 200 miles in four days (remarkable for the time, or in fact for any time before the invention of trucks and tanks). Tosti and Harald are waiting there for Edwin and Morcar to deliver up the hostages they required to make peace and subvert these Earls into supporting their cause. Guess who shows up in all battle array with his Housecarls (the English king's Housecarls, or personal storm troopers, were the old equivalent of the SAS or the Green Berets). It is a hot day, and most of the Norwegians have left their armor back at their camp downstream. Harold rides up disguised as a herald and offers Tosti one-third of his kingdom, and Harald (who was seven feet tall) as much English soil as would allow for his burial -- this was a very famous challenge, and Harold deserves to be famous just for saying it. Tosti refuses:] "...I am not wont to sell my friends. They shall not say in Norway that I brought their King here to betray him. We will win the land or die..." [So die they do, but not after a very hard fight. Here, as with the cook with the pastry, the author epitomizes the battle, although it is described in full, with a single incident.] Last of the army fought against a great berserk with a red beard and a mighty axe. He stood alone upon the bridge to hold it. As many as came against him found their death. He did such deeds that all men wondered. The berserk shouted jeers and taunts and bade the Englishmen come on. When a man fell, he brandished his axe on high and all the Northmen cheered. He kicked the slain men with his foot into the river. Peace-offers he laughed to scorn. Time passed, and still the bridge was held. One of the English cast a great spear at the axe-man. A second man threw at the same time. The berserk turned lightly on his feet, so that one spear flew wide. The other he hewed asunder in mid air. King Harold cupped his hands and shouted to him: "Well fought, axe-man! Peace and honours to you, if you yield. The King's word for it." "That for the King!" said the axe-man, and he made unseemly gestures. The Northmen roared with laughter and the English raged. "Curse his impudence," said Harold, "the fool is a hero." One of the Housecarles ran out on the bridge with his axe raised. At the second stroke the berserk hewed him asunder to the chine. The Northmen shouted: "Two score!" Another man rushed out and fell. "Two score-and-one," roared Harald's men. A third Housecarl went to his death. The Northmen cried: "Two score-and-two!" A groan rose from the English. King Harold swore aloud. [Our hero Harold then proceeds to go after him himself, to the dismay of his advisers...] 'By Thor,' said the axe-man, 'is there a stallion with these geldings?' [Well they slug it out mightily. Harold held his own but kept having to withdraw, at which point his groom and foster-father Leif "said something to a Housecarl." i.e. let's get this nonsense over with.] "There were many willows growing by the bridge. Their boughs hung low over the water, and under them a boat was moored. The Housecarl got into it unspied, and loosed the rope. The bridge was made of four planks laid on uprights. There were large cracks between the planks. Harold saw a spear thrust up under the axe-man. The berserk fell, shrieking. A yell of fury went up from his countrymen. The King stared a moment; then he shook himself and shouted to his men. They rushed after him over the axe-man, and the bridge was won." [Harold's thane Leif, who had a long-standing grudge against Harald Sigurdson, puts an end to him with a well-aimed arrow, and Harold Godwinson chops off Tosti Godwinson's head in single-handed combat. The remaining Norwegians are shown mercy and sent home in disgrace but vowing eternal peace. And that was that -- one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon victories in years, which finally put paid to the Viking threat. But soon to be forgotten in history because in the meantime, Duke William had finally landed at Hastings.... I dwelt a bit long on this scene, because this is the way great battles should be in my humble, non-combatant opinion, even though they cheated the poor axe-man of his victory the way Indiana Jones blew away the Arab assassin in the movie (dirty pool, but hey, the battle had to be won). I can just see this rousing sporting event as the Norwegians roar out "20, 21, 22...". Wish we knew the name of that axe-man doing his Horatio-at-the-bridge routine.] ----------- Editorial: [This story comes to a sad end, as we knew from the beginning, the result being the end of British civilization for 200 years or so as the country got involved with the Matter of France, the Crusades, and the attempt of the ecclesiastics to take over secular power -- also the destruction of the English aristocracy and its replacement by those awful Fitzers (Fitz being that terrible Norman/Viking pronunciation of the French word Fils -- son of, as in Mac and O' and ap and Johnson -- or vich if you really want to labor the point -- I'm blithering, but if all these languages are Indo-European, why don't they have the same root for 'son-of'?) who went on to devastate the rest of the British Isles. Why the Saxons let this setback of the Battle of Hastings allow William to consolidate his conquest, I'm not sure, but probably because they were leaderless and at odds over who should rule, just as it was after the death of Arthur. William had done a desperate enterprise, even though he had the backing of the papacy, and could have easily been defeated -- but not on this particular throw. Harold was exhausted from the Viking business, his Housecarls had been decimated, the levies had been let go for the harvest, and his so-called allies in the North (whose asses he'd saved) were not there when he needed them. He also made a big strategic mistake in not sending his army under his brother Gyrth just to contain the Normans until the English could get better organized. He staked it all, because he just wanted it to be over with. William helped draw him into this decision by some horrendous massacres and looting and rapine (intentional) in the areas of Sussex he was occupying. Harold, he knew, would regard that, as protector of his subjects, as a personal challenge. King Harold fights under the banner of the Golden Warrior, because as an oath-breaker (even under duress and trickery) he cannot fight under the Holy Cross. This was not bad, just unlucky. Symbolic crap like this mattered back then -- these people were incredibly superstitious from our point of view. Halley's Comet had appeared that summer, and for some reason the Normans took that as a good sign, whereas the English were horrified -- well actually, we only have the Norman reaction in the history books, and not the other side's. Edgar Atheling, brought back from Hungary, in London, was Harold's declared heir, but although after Harold's death he was declared King by the independent burgers of London, he quickly fled to Scotland, and William soon built his bloody Tower of London to put the Londoners in their place -- not for long, by the way, but it was the most impressive building in that city until St. Paul's Cathedral, and it continued as a place of terror for centuries, at least for those that messed with the Royals.] ----------- Of the Fighting Man YES I'LL GET TO THE END OF THIS SOON. I just don't want the book to end yet, so with 30 pages to go, I have put it aside and have been reading other things................. It was over rather quickly -- a long battle over 12 hours, but done in a day (Oct. 14). Neither army was very large, perhaps 3000 men on each side, because Harold had had trouble mustering after Stamford Bridge, and William's reinforcements were still weather-bound in Normandy. The English had a strong position on high ground, but the Normans had the advantage of bowmen and cavalry (when they could use it). Harold depended on the old Saxon shieldwall, William on constant attack and whittling away both by the archers and feinted retreats that drew the English pursuers into the range of the cavalry. Harold should well have remembered the tactics of King Arthur, but he didn't. So was dead by the end of the day. It took about four more years for William to consolidate his conquest, very brutally when necessary, but consolidate he did. And that's that.... |