Blogs
Beyond Hastings
The International Lens on William the Conqueror’s Invasion of 1066 A Butterfly Beats Its Wings on Senlac Hill The Battle of Hastings on October 14,
Stitches in Time: A Writer’s Story
The Leopards of Normandie Series: Interpreting the Tapesty’s Tale Dispelling the Myth Few artefacts from the medieval world capture the imagination quite like the Bayeux
The Lost Finale
Reclaiming the Gritty History of the Tapestry’s Missing Scenes Missing Piece of the Story The Bayeux Tapestry, as it hangs today, ends in mid-air. The
Threads of Power
The Creation, Craft, and Controversy of the Bayeux Tapestry The Invasion Fleet The year 1066 is permanently etched into the bedrock of Western history. In
From Longships to Destriers
How the Vikings of Nuestria Became the Successful Normans In the grand tapestry of medieval history, there is no transformation quite as spectacular—or as swift—as
The Day the North Sea Stood Still: End of The Golden Age
How Stamford Bridge 1066 Reshaped Viking Norway When we think of the year 1066, the mind inevitably wanders to the south of England—to the bloody
The White Ship Disaster
The Sinking of the White Ship (1120) — A Night of Medieval Chaos The Wreck That Changed History: The White Ship Disaster of 1120 Imagine
William Marshal: England’s Greatest Knight?
William Marshal: Norman Throwback or Prototype English Knight? When Archbishop Stephen Langton stood over the lifeless body of William Marshal in 1219, he famously pronounced
The Life, Power, and Poisoned Legacy of Queen Mathilda
The Invasion Fleet When we think of the year 1066, history books tend to focus entirely on one man: William the Conqueror, the brutal Norman
The Personal Cost of Conquest
The Highs, Lows, and Haunted Death of William the Conqueror A Bitter Harvest? He was born a bastard and died a king. Few figures in
The Iron Fade
The Rise and Fall of the Norman Empire They arrived as raiders, conquered as mercenaries, and ruled as kings. In the 11th century, the Normans
Iron Brotherhood: The Staunchest Companions of William the Conqueror
Brotherhood of Steel: The Companions at Battle’s End History books often paint the Norman Conquest of 1066 as a singular achievement—the masterstroke of one brilliant,
The Great Land Grab: The Domesday Book
Beyond the sword: The Great Survey provided the fiscal blueprint for the modern administrative state. In the winter of 1085, William the Conqueror sat at
The Long Shadow: The Legacy of the Harrying
History is often written by the victors, but even the victors’ own chroniclers couldn’t hide the horror of 1069. When William the Conqueror marched north
Legitimacy through Fire: Was the Harrying Necessary?
The crowning of William the Conqueror on Christmas Day, 1066, did not end the Norman Conquest; it merely signaled its bloodiest phase. While Southern England
Two Queens for England
Two Opposing Medieval Queens, Two Differing Fates In the year 1066, the fate of England was not decided solely by the clash of steel at
Mathilda of Flanders: The Queen Behind the Conqueror
We know his name: William the Conqueror. We know the date: 1066. We know the outcome: The Battle of Hastings and the start of Norman
The Fate of Edith Swanneck: Royal Widow, Saxon Rebel
Edith the Fair, known to history as Edith Swanneck, was one of the most enigmatic and, in some ways, powerful women of 11th-century England. Her
The Saxons Who Refused to Buckle and Their Fate
Introduction 1066 is often taught as a clean break—a single day at Hastings where the crown changed hands and the Saxon era ended. But the
Is Harold Godwinson’s 1066 “Forced March” a Myth?
Did the Long Forced March Ever happen? I always wondered whether King Harold’s forced march from Stamford bridge actually happened as conventional history tells us
5 Secrets of the Bayeux Tapestry: More Than Just a History Lesson
What you might not know about the Bayeux Tapestry The Bayeux Tapestry is perhaps the world’s most famous “comic strip.” Stretching nearly 70 metres, it
Tancred of Hauteville & the ‘Norman Miracle’
In the annals of medieval history, few transformations are as breathtaking as the rise of the Normans. In just a few generations, they evolved from
The Norman Miracle: Viking Traces in the Warriors of 1066
How much Viking was left in the Norman Warrior of 1066? The Norman warrior who charged up Senlac Hill in 1066, armoured on horseback, cut
From Longships to Lancers: The Rapid Metamorphosis of the Normans
The Evolution of Norsemen to Normans In the year 911 AD, the land we now call Normandy was simply “Neustria”—a fractured, raid-weary province of the
The Iron Pulse of the Shieldwall: The Science and Soul
The Early Medieval Shieldwall: Not for the Faint-hearted There was nothing remotely romantic about standing in a medieval shieldwall, it was simply a highly efficient
The Wings of the All-Father: The Raven’s Shadow in Norse Legend
Raven in flight In the mist-choked fjords of the tenth century, the sight of a raven was rarely viewed as a mere coincidence. For Scandinavian
The Conqueror’s Children: William and Mathilda’s best and worst
Like many medieval monarchs, William ‘the Bastard’, Duke of Normandy and King of England, fulfilled his destiny by creating a dynasty that, although it did
The Importance of William the Conqueror’s Follow-up Actions
Whether William the Conqueror was a brilliant strategist or just a lucky general has been a matter of conjecture, depending on whose side you were
If the Conqueror had stayed at home.
After attending a recent enactment at Battle Abbey, I was reminded of the old Irish saying, “If ifs and buts were pots and pans, they’d
William the Conqueror, Viking, French or just Norman?
Just over 150 years after the Frankish monarch Charles the Simple gave Neustria to the Viking Sea King, Rollo the Walker, the Normans of 1066
