Harold Rex Interfectum Est...

This is probably the most important line in all of history- because this represents the last time the British Isles was conquered. It is as good a tale you can get, and it represents the struggles between two countries- The Normans from Normandy and the Britons in England( England actually got its name from the Angles who conquered the land at the fall of the Roman Empire). Normandy is now a province of "Le France" and they are now famous for making cheeses. :D From then on of course, England did most of the conquering, and they were almost defeated, ONLY twice since- first by the Spanish Armada, where Queen Elizabeth I had a weird way of cheering up her troops(read about it yourselves! :D, I am not posting a link about these rumours!) and when One Bo****k Hitler tried to invade them.. Gosh! Imagine being defeated by a man who has only half of his "things"...

So let's cut to the chase- England had a king, whose name was Edward the Confessor( Unfortunately this was during a time when people actually thought that these "descriptions" or "suffixes", like "The Red", "The Bearded", "The Unready" and so on was actually cool). Now this chap ended up having no heir- many reasons have been put forth for this, ranging from him actually considering marriage as a spiritual connection rather than a, you know, "normal" marriage or the way it is ought to be and all that, to the usual theory of his charlies being unable to do their business. So now, Edward had a group of Elders, like a council of ministers, the Witanegamot, or something( now you know how Rowling came by the word Wizengamot, :D), and they actually were composed of Earls who had their own "fiefdoms". As many people would know, the kings around this area were all related. So one day, Ed's cousin's son, William from Normandy, came to England, and out of some affection for William or something, Edward promised the crown of England to him( this was of course what the Normans said). Years passed and Edward died, leaving the throne of England without any heir. William, now Duke of Normandy, said that he alone claimed the right to the English throne because Edward said so. Now Edward also had an earl called Godwin and this guy revolted against Edward and was sent into exile. His son was Harold Godwinson (no brainer that) and a year later he helped his father regain his position once again. Soon after all this Harold became Earl of Wessex and became a very powerful person. Upon Edward's death, the Witan made him King of England.

Of course, William didn't like this!

This is William... Yes, he is the chap with the sword and no, he isn't thrusting it through the other guy's neck and no again, that chap isn't holding his neck in agony... Glad I could clear that up...


So he decided to take his place as the rightful owner of the English crown and decided to march upon Harold. At the same time we had some Danes( Vikings!) and due to some problems in taxation and all that, Harold's brother joined the Danish king, Harald Hardrada, and a conquest of England began from the north. After some initial success, Harald Hardrada was utterly routed by Harold( I know this is a bit confusing, but the Danes were defeated). At the same time, William wanted to set sail for England, with his fleet of ships and cavalry. Harold ( yes, the King of England) was waiting for him with a hastily arranged army. Due to unfavourable winds, the Norman conquest was delayed, which played into William's hands because the English were waiting and they decided to disband slowly as they were running out of food. Then the attack by the Normans caught the Angles by unawares and soon began the Battle Of Hastings, at... Hastings of course. So at the end of the battle, Harold is supposed to have either been hacked down by a knight or pierced in the eye by an arrow. Whatever happened to him, this much is certain- he died. Then came William "The Conqueror"( for obvious reasons) and began his rule of England, which included building Whitehall (the white colour castle near the Tower Bridge) and the Domesday book, which was the first record of the amount of land each person in the kingdom actually had.



William I kingdom and lands he held

The Bayeaux Tapestry is a comic like tapestry chronicling the events of the Battle Of Hastings and what took place just before it. Here is how Harold's death was depicted...

Harold is either the guy with the arrow in his eye or being struck down by a knight

Harold Rex Interfectum Est... King Harold is dead...