Hastings Sunday 1st October 1066
Latest news
The newly formed Anglo-Saxon Society ‘ASS’ are claiming responsibility but as yet this is unconfirmed.
Little is known about ASS and we await further details although the Normans are already classifying ASS as a terrorist group.
For all the latest news read The Saxon Times: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
Hastings Sunday 1st October 1066
Pinned to the Church door moments before Duke William arrived for Mass.
Nobody was seen and nobody was found. It makes a mockery of the Norman bodyguard and security is being increased from ‘peeved to irritated’.
For all the latest news read The Saxon Times: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
Hastings Sunday 1st October 1066
Found by the gates to the new castle.
It seems the Norman guards are in trouble and although they claim they were distracted by a Saxon woman it is not going to cut much ice with the Duke.
For all the latest news read The Saxon Times: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
Hastings Sunday 1st October 1066
As fast as the Normans pull down the posters, the more they appear and the crosser Bill gets.
The Normans seem to be chasing their tails.
Nobody has come forward to claim responsibility.
Saturday 30th September 1066 – Hastings
The Saxon Times reports that last night throughout Hastings leaflets were pinned to doors and trees purporting to offer a reward to ‘Kill Bill’.
The Norman hierarchy first dismissed the posters as a prank but it is understood, from sources close to the Duke, that Duke William was apoplexic with rage and demanded that the culprits be brought to summary justice.
There is now tension within the town as the Norman ‘police’ investigate the mysterious ‘poster’ poster.
We will continue to follow this story as the investigation unfolds.
For all the latest news read The Saxon Times: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
The following is reprinted from an article in the Norman newspaper ‘Le Monde Du Normandie’ published 29th September 1066.
The Noble Quest For The Throne Of England
William of Jumièges and William of Poitiers, Duke William’s chroniclers, were with The Great Duke on his landing on English soil at the start of ‘The Noble Adventure to Claim the Throne of England’.
Beachhead secured and is spread across the wide Pevensey Bay from west to east towards Bexhill.
The Norman cavalry, foot soldiers and archers disembark and take their first steps on English soil.
Next are the carpenters who have been ordered to assemble a castle on the site of the old Roman fort from panels already constructed in Normandy and brought over with the invasion. Even the boats are being taken apart as part of the castle construction.
If they are defeated by King Harold there is no chance of them returning home but any such talk is quickly quashed by Duke William with promises of untold wealth.
But with King Harold in York, it has given the Duke free reign in Wessex to build a strong base rumoured to be at Hastings.
This issue of The Saxon Times is included in the 1066 Saxon Times Resource book: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
Today, 29th September, is the celebration of Michaelmas. St Michael, the warrior Archangel, is honoured as the protector of the individual against evil forces. Let us all hope that St Michael looks kindly on this Anglo-Saxon England and protects us all from the evil overseas.
Travel News
It has been announced that Cross Channel sailings on the Hastings to St Valery route have been suspended at the behest of the Wessex Border Patrol. It is as a precaution for the anticipated invasion of Normans in exceptionally large numbers expected at the end of September but stories of a fleet of 700 ships must be way off the mark.
This issue of The Saxon Times is included in the 1066 Saxon Times Resource book: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
The Aftermath
The battle at Fulford is all but forgotten in the victory celebrations with the Norse finished as a fighting force and unlikely ever to be a threat again.
The battle at Stamford Bridge marked the end of the Northern invasion and for the moment King Harold and his troops can stay at York, resting and recovering from their victory.
Some commentators rue the loss of so many experienced men from the Northern Army. Their death may prove a problem for the King in the future. It has been a great victory but at a high cost to the King’s elite fighting men, the Huscarls.
This issue of The Saxon Times is included in the 1066 Saxon Times Resource Book: www.1066thesaxontimes.com
“I’ve beaten the Saxon northern army at Fulford and the North is ours” says Hardrada. “Ignore me at your peril Harold for I have the weapons and the army to make the world notice the Vikings again.”
Work begins on a new manifesto designed to win the hearts and minds of the northern people. Free trade links with Norway, The Shetlands and The Orkneys. The opportunity for travel to the new lands of Greenland and Newfoundland.
‘A strong North as befits a strong Northern people,’ were some of the promises.
Some of the locals were already willing to help Hardrada with supplies for his army, tantalised by the thoughts of making money no doubt.
But is Hardrada too hasty for there are rumours that the King is about……
This issue of The Saxon Times is included in the 1066 Saxon Times Resource book: 1066 The Saxon Times/Resources
Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 1060-66
The Saxon Times looks at how the events of 1066 may have been reported by an English newspaper and takes a chronological, topical and contemporary view of the tumultuous events that surround the Norman Conquest of England as they unfolded and appeared to its readers through the ‘eye-witnesses’ reports of the Saxon Times reporters.
By the time of the Norman Conquest, England had been Anglo-Saxon for 600 years but the death of King Edward the Confessor (1042–66) and the subsequent events that led to the Battle of Hastings changed England forever.
When King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 nobody could have foreseen the year of bloodshed and mayhem that would take place. Everything seemed settled and peaceful.
England had developed a strong government, a prosperous economy and extensive trade links across the North Sea and the Channel.
A strict social system was headed by the aristocracy with most Anglo-Saxons ‘peasant farmers’, who in return for protection from a lord, owed him service such as military service in return for land to farm.
This military service had created a militia ‘the fyrd’ for defence of the realm which had finally provided some peace from Viking invasion and was one of the reasons that England had such a well-organised government.
The succession crisis of 1066, following the death of King Edward the Confessor meant that once again greedy, envious foreign eyes were being cast toward England.
Invasion was not far off.
The Saxon times is available from all good bookshops, the internet, Amazon
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Learning outcomes
· How Anglo-Saxon society worked
· How Harold Godwinson became king of England
· Why other people also claimed the throne of England
· What happened in 1066: the year of the Norman invasion.
The Saxon Times aims to:
· Inspire curiosity to know more about the past
· Increase knowledge of and understanding about 1066
· Understand how people’s lives have shaped the nation
The Saxon Times will:
· Extend knowledge of the year 1066
· Identify the significant events of 1066 in chronological order
· Help develop perspective and argument
· Help weigh the available evidence
· Help understand the complexity of people’s lives and the relationships between different groups
