…1066, was fought the Battle of Senlac Hill, otherwise known as the Battle of Hastings. This Battle was the ultimate in turning point in British History, especially after the Romans vacated in 410AD, and it could be argued for the entire English-speaking world, and eventually worldwide too. Why; because the old order of Anglo-Saxon (A-S) society was overthrown by a Norman-French (N-F) version.

Prior to this, A-S society was inward-looking but free-holding in property and person, and was just trying to survive the everyday miseries of life in the Early Middle Ages, not to mention the occasional Viking raids. When A-S King Harold took that arrow in the eye and was killed, the Anglo-Saxon army known as the “Fyrd” broke and ran even though they had been holding the line against the Norman-French cavalry.

After Norman-French Duke William won this battle, he was later crowned as King of England on Christmas Day 1066, and he further supplanted the A-S aristocracy with his N-F allies, and then began imposing a foreign-concept society, most notable for its peasant serf/not-quite-slave outlook, on the Anglo-Saxons. That supplanting continued for well over 300 years (the “Robin Hood” legend stories all harkened on the A-S/N-F conflicts) until a melding of A-S concepts and culture occurred with N-F society through inter-marriage of N-F nobles with A-S aristocracy. King Henry V, he of the Shakespearean plays, was the first of the truly new English kings, and the now newly-invented Middle English language was made equal, and often superior to the Anglo/Norman-French and Latin used in legal and everyday documents.

Once the “War of the Roses” (York/Lancaster sub-families of the N-F Plantagenet line) ended with the Tudor ascendancy, English, later British after the Scottish Stuarts [spelling of family name corrected!] came to the throne, power, influence, and expansion (exploration and colonization) began during the Renaissance/Early Modern period of History.

So yes, English/British History has been a main and driving force, both good and bad, in World History; with the English language becoming the most widely spoken language, as either a first- or second- language on Earth today.

How different would History be today had it been William and not Harold who had lost and/or been killed today on this day in 1066. That’s one of the favorite “What If’s…” that Historians like to argue over.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 2BobTanner,

Two of my ancestors fought at Hastings, both of them are even listed in the Domesday Book. I was always sort of skeptical about it being that long ago but the paper trail looked good and then my DNA test backed it up. They were Normans.

I saw this on Quora a few years ago and always thought it was pretty fascinating to see how the English language evolved and in large part due to this event:

quote:

Posted by:

Alex Johnston
Master's degree in linguistics and studied Linguistics at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology


Would an Old English speaker, a Middle English speaker, and a Modern English speaker be able to understand each other?


—Hello, I am a Modern English speaker.

—By God and seint Martyn, I too an Englissh speaker am.

—Super. Lovely to meet you.

—And yow too, god wot.

—Ic cwidde Englisc.

—Eh? Did you get that?

—Pardee, I understounde not.

—Sounded like he said something about ‘English’.

—I wolde prey yow, sire, speak agayn, for certes, I wot not what ye say.

—Ic eom Aeldred.

—Hmm, still not really getting it, old chap.

— Ic ne wát þæt hwilc þu cwiddest.

—Oh, this is going nowhere.

—By god, ye speak trouthe, withouten doute.

—I’m glad you think so. Shall we get a beer?

—Upon my lyf, ye, certes, a cup of ale I wold drinke with thee.

—Cheerio. Weirdo.

—Ay, farwel, brother.

[The Modern English and Middle English speaker leave.]

—…Þæt wæs gód spræce.

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
Two of my ancestors fought at Hastings, both of them are even listed in the Domesday Book. I was always sort of skeptical about it being that long ago but the paper trail looked good and then my DNA test backed it up. They were Normans.

That's pretty wild. I know people who've traced their ancestry back a couple of hundred years. But, to be able to go back almost a thousand years is very cool.

Norman English Anglo-Saxon English
Poultry Chicken
Pork Pig
Beef Cow
Mutton Sheep

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
Two of my ancestors fought at Hastings, both of them are even listed in the Domesday Book. I was always sort of skeptical about it being that long ago but the paper trail looked good and then my DNA test backed it up. They were Normans.

I haven't done a dna ancestry test, and won't ever, but paper records can be quite good for people who weren't plain peasants. Even then some of the local records can be pretty good (baptism, marriage, death). The Domesday book was probably as good as any source since it was commissioned by William the Conqueror as an inventory of every bit of wealth under his rule.

One of my ancestors fought on the Norman side, and his lineage is well documented. I don't know about any on the Anglo-Saxon side but it seems quite possible given what I do know about my family tree.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:
Two of my ancestors fought at Hastings, both of them are even listed in the Domesday Book. I was always sort of skeptical about it being that long ago but the paper trail looked good and then my DNA test backed it up. They were Normans.

That's pretty wild. I know people who've traced their ancestry back a couple of hundred years. But, to be able to go back almost a thousand years is very cool.

Both my parents have unique last names so that made it easy. What's really amazing is how many people are related. Example go back 500 years 15 generation and you have almost 30,000 grandparents and by the time you go back 1000 we are talking 1,000,000 ancestors. And considering populations were smaller back then you can see where family trees actually tend to collapse or people that are related are marrying distant relations.

Fly-Sig, pretty sure I probably had some ancestors fighting on the Anglo-Saxon side too. I ran my DNA thru mytrueancestry.com which you can do anonymously, and it matches it to archaeological samples and gives you the matches, that one was really eye opening. Lots of dead relatives buried all over England and Denmark. I know the Government has my DNA and I figured if you have ever given blood you are on file somewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by fischtown7:

Both my parents have unique last names so that made it easy. What's really amazing is how many people are related.

My half-brother's mother's lineage converges with my lineage about 500 years ago in one of the branches. But we also have several connections where our ancestors knew each other. I had one ancestor in the Jamestown settlement in around 1610 who was a close friend of one of my brother's ancestors. Circumstances suggest several other such connections.

The math works in both directions, too. While it is true that going back x generations requires 2 to the x power of ancestors, it is also true that one set of ancestors will have a huge number of descendants. The convergences can be really interesting.