3 days later

So here we are now. On our long march to God knows where in the north, we weren’t even given proper weapons. They told us to use whatever tools we already had in our workplace. So I brought my faithful old axe which is really a hand-me-down in my family. It hasn’t got blunt for over the fifty years it has been in use.
Now we are slowly marching our way up a couple of hills and hopefully should get sight of the sea soon. Apparently, the king got news from one of his spies there and he was told that they could faintly see Vikings arriving in their long boats.
That vile Harald Hadraada who is leading the Vikings has been trying to get the throne ever since good king Edward died. Now he intends to kill king Harold Godwinson.. But ofcourse no loyal English citizen will accept some Scandinavian to take over the throne. The only reason he has any right to the throne is because he is a direct descendant to some rotting old king who died an age ago. We will surely crush him.
My other worry is that Duke William of Normandy. He claims that king Edward had promised the throne be him to repay an old debt. The Duke is a rather ambitious man who will try anything to get to the top if you ask me. My friends are contemptuous about my opinions and say that if I continue talking like this then they will have serious doubts about my sanity, but I think different. Even if he didn’t have any claim to the throne, he could still come here and forcefully take the throne. But now we have to fight….…

An Introduction

This Blog is dedicated to all my relatives back home in India and anyone else who doesn’t have a clue about England’s (quite honestly) Boring History (no offence History teacher). I hope to make it a bit more interesting reading about the weird and wacky people who came to rule this small island nation and of course the rest of the population of commoners. It will include SCHOOLS, WARS AND BATTLES, and anything else I can think of as I am writing it. You must also be reminded that it is written not only in the view of the winner of the various battles but also the losers. Now, all you have to do is to remember that none of these events are written in Chronological order although I will include the dates. Enjoy (hopefully)!!

The Battle of Hastings (1066) Part 1

From the view of an Anglo-Saxon farmer

We were going about our own business as usual when all of a sudden, the bell started ringing like hell down at the manor! What were we supposed to think? The bell was only ever set off when there was an emergency and the Lord of the Manor wanted us to assemble. Instinct told us that this wasn't just any emergency.
We made our way through the meadows to the main field where to our complete surprise, the Lord of the Manor himself stood waiting for us! We only ever saw the Lord during the harvest festival which he held annually for us. The rest of the time he sent down representatives.
I whispered to my friend standing next to me,
“Looks like he has ants in his pants doesn’t he? Look at how agitated his face is!”
“Yeah mate. This one can’t handle a silly little squabble or what ever is going on.”
But the scale of the event going on was not at all comprehended by us. But by the end of the day, we knew alright and boy, we were not happy about it. Some Prince from Norway was attacking our good king Harold Godwinson and to get the English throne for himself.
“March right up North there?! Has the stupid king lost his marbles? How on earth are we meant to get there in a matter of a few days! Then fight them as well? I’m not going to stand for this.”
But of course what could he do about it? It wasn’t as if the king was going to listen to my poor friend’s rant. And if my friend did try to slip out of fighting for the king, he would surely be hanged, drawn and quartered for treason. But we were the Anglo-Saxons, the bravest in the land and we weren’t going to be scared by some Scandinavian miscreant. And obviously we had the Housecarls who are a group of mercenaries who fight for the king or died trying. These are the true professional soldiers and all of us simple farmers will be led by them.
So after a lot of preparation, here we are ready to go off on our march.