Advertisement
Published: June 17th 2022
Departing Canterbury, we headed directly to Hastings, or more accurately Battle, the site of the actual battle of Hastings in 1066. The Roman rule in Britain lasted roughly from the founding of Londinium in 43 CE until about 500 CE.. Caesar had invaded twice about 100 years earlier, but then left locals in charge and departed. By 84 CE the Romans had conquered all of the island with the exception of the Caledonian holdouts in the Scottish highlands. At the end of the 3rd century CE, barbarian invasions became more common, and the Romans finally quit Britain in 410 CE. Invaders from the continent, known as Anglo-Saxons, rose to power by the beginning of the 6th century CE. King Arthur (of whom we shall hear more later) is the reputed Briton king who tried in vain to repulse the Anglo-Saxon invaders. The Anglo-Saxons remained in control, mostly by dynastic succession, until Edward the Confessor died without heirs. As is always the case, this led to chaos. The crown was claimed by Harold Godwinson, but his brother Totig conspired with Harold Hardrada (King Harold III of Norway) and they invaded to depose Harold. (It occurs to me that then, as is true
now, royal family reunions must have been rather strained affairs.) They won their initial battle at Fulford, but then were soundly defeated and both were killed at the battle of Stamford Bridge near present-day York. But Harold had no time to re-group. William of Normandy had invaded from the south across the Channel. He had a claim to the thrown by virtue of the fact that he was descended from Rollo, the Viking who was the first Duke of Normandy.
Although some scholars feel that Harold would have been better served by proceeding more slowly and gathering more forces, but he felt compelled to hurry to meet William, hoping to surprise the invading force. A forced march of 200 miles in a week may have resulted in a fatigued fighting force. Spies from William discovered Harold's arrival, and at about 9 AM on the morning of October 14 1066 battle was joined. It was more apparent on our visit than in dry accounts that the Normans were fighting up a fairly sleep slope. The forces were probably about equal at about 7000-8000 troops on each side. They were mostly infantry for the Anglo-Saxons, with a larger proportion of archers
and cavalry in William's forces. At first it was quite literally an uphill battle for the Normans, and it started going badly for them. They then employed an old Norman tactic, seeming to flee in the middle of their line, then initiating flanking attacks from both sides when the English forces imprudently followed too rapidly without any chance for organization. William's forces closed in from the flanks and defeated them in detail, the pivotal moment coming when Harold was killed, tradition says by an arrow through the eye. The English army collapsed, and William went from William of Normandy to William the Conqueror.
As we wandered through the Battle Abbey grounds, we could clearly see the slope of the battle. We were not inclined even to walk down and back up - I can't imaging fighting up that slope. Reportedly, the slope has been made more gentle by the construction and alterations of the Abbey. The Abbey itself is not particularly impressive. Most of it was torn down in the Dissolution. The monks were pensioned off and the church building was destroyed, although the marker under the high altar that is said to make the site of the death
of Harold, was preserved. The abbott's house was converted to a private residence. During World War II Canadians occupied the site and part of it became a girls' school which still persists.
The overall effects of the Norman conquest were immense. William immediately moved to conquer all of England, and deliberately stripped nobles of their rank and possessions. Many fled to Ireland and elsewhere. There was an extensive emigration to the Byzantine Empire where they became mercenaries or members of the emperor's Varangian Guard. At one point 235 ships full of men and materiel sailed together for that distant port. The Anglo-Saxon government, with its shires managed by powerful local magistrates known as reeves (shire reeve later was shortened to sheriff), was well structured and functional. The Normans, whose government had been much less sophisticated, took over that basic structure but replaced all the officials with Normans. The language of official documents was changed from Old English to Latin, and the language of the court changed to Anglo-Norman, a northern dialect of Old French. Male names that we tend to think of as quintessentially English, such as William, Richard, and Robert, were introduced that this time. This marked the
transition from a fairly standardized Old English to a fragmented and largely regional Middle English which became more standardized only after the invention of the printing press in 1470. During most of the time of Middle English the ruling royalty remained largely ignorant of English speech. It is difficult to ascertain the effects of the Norman conquest on society, and scholars continue to argue whether the conquest radically changed English society or simply accelerated processes already underway. Certainly it can be said that slavery ceased in practice if not in legality and peasants began to congregate into communal centers rather than scattered farms.
We departed Hastings, with its clash and clang of a battleground to change all of England forever, to find a small space which changed childhood forever.
From my earliest days in my memory, I have known the tales of Winnie-the-Pooh. I have several books that were mine when I was growing up and first became able to read. One was called All About Stars. One, called All About Dinosaurs, was written by, and told the paleontological adventures of, Roy Chapman Andrews. There is a boxed copy of Steinbeck's The Red Pony, whose scene of the
buzzard with its beak dripping with the eye juices of Jody's dead pony has forever remained fixed in my memory. There are other books which I have replaced more recently, such as The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek, and most of the wonderful Enid Blyton "Adventure" series. But the one book to which I have repeatedly returned is Winnie-the-Pooh. The tales of the lovable bear with very little brain and Christopher Robin and their friends simply captures you and never lets you go. They were read to me as a child, and I daresay they were greatly involved in my learning to read at an early age, although photographic evidence reveals that National Geographic and chemistry texts may also have played a role. Once I was able to read I read and re-read the Pooh books, then read them to my children, and now to my grandchildren. (I am sure you can empathize with my pain when I discovered that my 4 year old grandson did not yet know what a heffalump was).
In 1925 a well-known English playwright and novelist named A. A. Milne purchased a farm 30 miles southeast of London at the edge of Ashdown Forest
and its contained area known as the 500 Hundred Acre Wood. Every Saturday morning he, his wife, their small son, and their nanny would drive down to the farm to spend the weekend until Monday afternoon. They also spent a month there every spring and two months in the summer. Milne would take young Christopher Robin on walks through the Wood, and in the course of these walks he would imagine stories that included as the central characters the stuffed animal collection that Christopher Robin owned. There was a Harrod's bear originally named Edward, but whose name was later changed to Winnie after a favorite pet bear that Christoph Robin loved to visit in the London Zoological Society. A favorite black swan at the same zoo received the appellation Pooh from Christopher Robin, and his name was added to that of Winnie. Tigger, Roo, Eeyore, and Kanga are also fictional analogs of Christopher Robin's stuffed animals, although there are no stuffed doppelgängers for Owl and Rabbit.
As an adult, Christopher Robin showed where the various stories were conceived, so now there is a map of the 100 Aker Wood. Gills Lap became Galleon's Lap, a bluff at the top
Gills Lap and 100 Aker Wood Montgomery Corner 006 Gills Lap UK 051022
If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll be there forever
Winnie-the-Pooh
of the hill. The parking area is at the Enchanted Forest, which continues to have a somewhat enchanted feel about it. The hilltop is fairly exposed, and is covered with heather, gorse bushes, and bracken. In the first Pooh story, he fell into gorse bushes, and simply seeing those made it clear to me what that meant. Falling into them would certainly be a prickly experience.
Pooh has come far from the rotund bear living in the 100 Aker Wood under the name of Sanders. The two Pooh books were immensely popular from the very start. In 1930 the licensing rights business was virtually invented by a man named Peter Slesinger. when he purchased all television, recording, and other trade rights to the Pooh works, and with relentless promotion had made it a $50 million a year industry within two years. The Milne family got rich from the deal since they got â…” of the proceeds. In 1953 Slesinger died, and in 1961 Disney purchased the rights. By 2005 Pooh was a $6 billion per year juggernaut. It will be interesting to see what happens since the U.S. copyright to the Pooh material expired in 2021.
We can't
discuss Pooh without at least mentioning E.H. Shepard who illustrated the Pooh books, as well as Grahame Green's The Wind in the Willows. The drawings became so popular that Milne gave Shepherd some of the rights to the books.
I would love to be able to explain just why this place had such a hold on me. There is little of Pooh there. No hole in the ground to catch a heffalump. No bridge for Poohsticks. Yet still, as we drove away from our parking place at the Enchanted Forest, I thought I caught a glimpse of a small brown form with a pot labeled "Hunny". Maybe it was just a bush.
We overnighted in Portsmouth, the city of no direct path to anywhere from anywhere else.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.421s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 17; qc: 69; dbt: 0.1394s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Another great blog full of interesting history and characters.
I'm presently reading "The Last Viking" by Don Hollway, which is about King Harold III "Hardrada" of Norway. Fifteen year old Harold was badly injured in the Battle of Stiklestad where thirty five year old half brother King/Saint Olaf II was killed. I walked the St. Olavsleden Pilgrim trail from Stiklestad to the Nidaros Cathedral in 2017. Harold escaped eastward together with Rognvald Brusason, Earl of Orkney ending up in Novograd, the Swedish viking capital of what would become Russia, where King Yaroslav "The Wise" ruled. He then served as the leader of the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine Emperors. He eventually returned to Norway where he then turned his eyes and army on Northumbria...winning at Fulford and dying at Stamford Bridge. It is a good read!