Year 1066 in review

1. Battle of Hastings

• English vs the Vikings
  
• The English prepared according to their customs by drinking and singing all night. In the morning they went out for battle; they were all on foot, shielded. They were grouped together so that nothing could separate them.
  
• The Normans prepared according to their own customs by praying and asking for the forgiveness of their sins. The Norman duke, William, believed that he and the Normans would win because God favored them. "The power of my dukedom shall be turned into a kingdom."(Duke of Normandy).
  

• The Normans tricked the English into opening their phalanx by acting as if the Normans were fleeing so that the English soldiers divided and tried o kill the fleeing Normans. The Normans stopped running, stood their grounded, and created hysteria by fighting the English from the inside-out. But then, a sudden change occured. When the English stood their own ground and ended up killing the Normans by the handful. The Normans ended up actually running away. The English followed them into a valley and when the Normans were in the valley the English threw their spears and stones killing many of the Normans. The Battle was going back and forth and King Harold himself ended up dying when he had an arrow go through his head. The English retreated.
  
• As for the men in charge, Harold and William fought valiantly. Harold fought amoong his soldiers as one of them and he fought the Normans in close combat. William had three of his horses killed under him, his soldiers that aided him tried to keep him from going to far out into the battle but he kept on until he had pushed the English far enough. What was a horrible day for England, was a great day for Normandy.

1. Human Trafficing!

• Selling family members and buying beautiful people seemed to be the trend of 1066.
  
• Godwin's wife and son ended up dying and many believe their deaths were punsihment for her cruelty. Godwin's son drowned in the Thames and the wife was struck by lightning.
• Men would sell female relatives in turn for necessities, the women were sold as prostitutes."You would have seen queues of the wretches of both sexes shackled together and you would have pitied them; those who were beautiful and those who were in the flower of youth were daily prostituted and sold amidst much wailing to the barbarians "(Life of St. Wulfstan)
  

1. Citation

Of Malmesbury, William. "The Battle of Hastings. 1066." Medieval Sourcebook. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

• St Wulfstan "Traffic in Slaves: England1065-1066." Medieval Sourcebook. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

Of Malmsbury, William "Traffic in Slaves: England1065-1066." Medieval Sourcebook. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .