1066: What Fates Impose

Years ago I read a very good book about the Norman Conquest, as it is commonly known, which occurred in the year 1066. It was then that the Duke of Normandy invaded England, taking the crown from the Saxon king, Harold, and establishing the line of monarchs that still rules today. I wanted to revisit that story, but rather than dig that book and read it again, I instead read a different, fictionalized version of events, 1066: What Fates Impose, by G.K. Holloway.

What I found was a historically accurate, yet full of novel-like characterization, that concludes in 1066, but begins much earlier, and gives full vent to the cinematic tale, when King Harold, newly on the throne, has to fend off two invading armies--one he defeats, the other he doesn't, which changes the course of Western history.

The book begins with the coronation of Edward, who will become know as the Confessor. He is a priggish man, and Holloway suggests he dies without an heir because he is horrified by women. While he is king their are many jockeying to replace him, including William, Duke of Normandy across the sea in what is today France, who is a cousin. Harold is part of the Godwinson family, the most powerful Saxons in the land, and he manages to have Edward, his brother-in-law, proclaim him his successor.

William won't be deterred, and gets the Pope to back his cause. Back then the Pope had significant power, unlike the symbolic today, and wanted more, including the right to name the kings of all countries. Threatening Harold with excommunication has a lot of oomph. Harald, Viking king of Norway, also claims the English throne, and gets Harold's disgruntled brother, Tostig, to join him in an invasion, which Harold repulses. But just days later William invades, and Harold's army is too exhausted to fend off another attack. Harold dies after receiving an arrow into the eye, and the course of English history is altered forever. To this day that was the last successful invasion of the island.

Holloway presents all this in a kind of grand soap opera. The writing style is very simple--if it weren't for the sex scenes this book would be fine for middle-schoolers--and he definitely takes sides. The prologue of the book is William on his deathbed, remorseful for all the Saxons he has killed during his reign. He was, to Holloway's view, a butcher, and a scene after the invasion shows how the Normans slaughtered entire towns, killing all the citizens, including babies, and raping the women.

Harold is the hero of the book, and if it were complete fiction he would have come out on top. If a reader didn't know better, there's no way William could win. He is a bumptious leader, surrounding himself with yes-men, and overlooking things, like the reason he has no navy is because he has no ships. Holloway often depicts him comically: "No sooner did he step off the quay and onto English soil than he tripped, falling spread eagle to the ground with a thud and a groan. This was an ill omen. Ever the quick thinker, he instantly turned the accident to his advantage. As he lay stretched out he clawed up a handful of soil and shouted out, ‘By the splendour of the Almighty, I have seized my kingdom; the soil of England is in my own two hands!’"

The entire book contains a thread of the absurd. Harold has married Edith, his great love, but not in a Christian ceremony. Years later, in order to smooth things over with the earls of Northumbria and Mercia, he weds their sister, Aldytha, who is a great beauty. Edith, suffice it to say, is not happy, but eventually realizes his situation, and the man basically has two wives: "He had thought he would be happy again. But just as when he had been with Aldytha he had thought of Edyth, now he was with Edyth he found himself thinking of Aldytha."

The two battles, that of Stamford Bridge and then at Hastings, are painted quite vividly--Holloway describes the battles excellently, and you can get a real sense of what it was like to be there. The English rout the Norwegians--they arrive with 330 ships, but only twenty-four return. At first the English are held off by a seven-foot warrior standing on the bridge who kills dozens of men with his axe, but one of the English sneaks below him in a washtub and skewers him from the river.

At Hastings, Harold is undone by parts of William's army feigning retreat, catching the pursuing army in a trap. He will die when an arrow deflects off a comrade's visor, plunging into his eye from directly above. After he dies, the fight goes out of his army, and William, who has overcome several obstacles, somehow manages to become king.

It's a good story, and it's hard to screw up, but I was a bit annoyed by Holloway's at times very simple and anachronistic style. Of course the participants did not speak the English we know today--William spoke French and Harold Anglo-Saxon--but did they really say things like "Shut up," or "you can hang around here?" One bit, which I hope is true, and so will other Monty Python fans, involves a soldier on top of a fortress wall: "a man who Harold took for the local idiot displayed his backside to the Normans from the top of the wall before breaking wind at them. Heaven only knew what it was he had been eating but you could hear the rasping sound of his farts fifty yards away."