1066
Having built this date up in previous posts, I'm wondering if you know why? And so I'll postpone mentioning what I consider the key event of the year until the end!
No papal dramas this year! The drama seems to have been all blood related... Even for the church, with Bishop Johannes Scotus sacrificed to Radegast, one of the gods of the Slavic pantheon, claimed to have been the god of hospitality. Doesn't seem very hospitable to sacrifice a man, personally, but I don't know anything about Slavic mythology! Mind you, it was in the midst of a pagan rebellion against Christianity by the Wends.
Across to China, and Sima Guang finished a large dictionary. Well done!
The trading settlement of Hedeby was destroyed by the Slavic army and permanently abandoned. (See here for a map and more information about this unusually named site.)
The sky demonstrated an astronomical feature this year, with Halley's Comet reaching perihelion, recorded in a tapestry!
But back to the blood... a massacre in Granada (southern Spain), with a Muslim mob storming the palace, crucifying Jewish vizier Joseph Ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city.
The Republic of Genoa, jealous of the success of their former ally, launched a naval assault on the Republic of Pisa.
And finally we come to the deaths of kings. Edward the Confessor, king of England, died on January 4. This event triggers significant aftermath - who could have thought that a king under a vow of chastity could have caused so much drama! Four days later the Earl of Wessex (and maybe a few other places!) is crowned Harold II, King of England. But William the Duke of Normandy claimed the right to the English throne, and claimed Harold had sworn to support him.
William isn't the only person upset with Harold II. His brother, Tostig, was mad with him, and living in Denmark with the Vikings, and so he came with the King of Norway to attack, invading England from the north. The Battle of Fulford went to the King of Norway, but a few days later the Battle of Stamford Bridge saw the King of Norway die, and victory went to the King of England. Harold II defeated Harald III. But there was another significant battle to go. William, having built a fleet, invaded England from the south, and won the Battle of Hastings, where Harold II died along with two more of his brothers.And apparently this event ended the Dark Ages and started the Late Middle Ages as far as England is concerned. Because nothing says 'I've seen the light!' like having a foreign army crushing the local forces...
Another king crowned on Christmas Day saw William become the first Norman king of England. Well, the first official one, anyway, considering Edward had grown up there. (Much of the detail for this last section came from this site. But the rest, as seems to be a recurrent theme lately, comes from Wikipedia.)
All in all, a most satisfyingly fascinating year! Next favourite date is 1492... will we reach it by the end of May?
No papal dramas this year! The drama seems to have been all blood related... Even for the church, with Bishop Johannes Scotus sacrificed to Radegast, one of the gods of the Slavic pantheon, claimed to have been the god of hospitality. Doesn't seem very hospitable to sacrifice a man, personally, but I don't know anything about Slavic mythology! Mind you, it was in the midst of a pagan rebellion against Christianity by the Wends.
Across to China, and Sima Guang finished a large dictionary. Well done!
The trading settlement of Hedeby was destroyed by the Slavic army and permanently abandoned. (See here for a map and more information about this unusually named site.)
The sky demonstrated an astronomical feature this year, with Halley's Comet reaching perihelion, recorded in a tapestry!
But back to the blood... a massacre in Granada (southern Spain), with a Muslim mob storming the palace, crucifying Jewish vizier Joseph Ibn Naghrela and massacred most of the Jewish population of the city.
The Republic of Genoa, jealous of the success of their former ally, launched a naval assault on the Republic of Pisa.
And finally we come to the deaths of kings. Edward the Confessor, king of England, died on January 4. This event triggers significant aftermath - who could have thought that a king under a vow of chastity could have caused so much drama! Four days later the Earl of Wessex (and maybe a few other places!) is crowned Harold II, King of England. But William the Duke of Normandy claimed the right to the English throne, and claimed Harold had sworn to support him.
William isn't the only person upset with Harold II. His brother, Tostig, was mad with him, and living in Denmark with the Vikings, and so he came with the King of Norway to attack, invading England from the north. The Battle of Fulford went to the King of Norway, but a few days later the Battle of Stamford Bridge saw the King of Norway die, and victory went to the King of England. Harold II defeated Harald III. But there was another significant battle to go. William, having built a fleet, invaded England from the south, and won the Battle of Hastings, where Harold II died along with two more of his brothers.And apparently this event ended the Dark Ages and started the Late Middle Ages as far as England is concerned. Because nothing says 'I've seen the light!' like having a foreign army crushing the local forces...
Another king crowned on Christmas Day saw William become the first Norman king of England. Well, the first official one, anyway, considering Edward had grown up there. (Much of the detail for this last section came from this site. But the rest, as seems to be a recurrent theme lately, comes from Wikipedia.)
All in all, a most satisfyingly fascinating year! Next favourite date is 1492... will we reach it by the end of May?
Definitely a fascinating year. So much so that books have been written simply about that year. And I have a couple of them. Now that does make me sound like a bit of a history geek...
ReplyDeleteYes, it does! But it is true that it was a fascinating year.
DeleteEven geekier if you can add some info about it from memory, without looking at one of those books!