0:04

Welcome to the British History great My

0:07

name is Jamie and this is episode 393

0:09

to kill a legend.

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thank you very Much all rich Eli

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and Joe for signing up already.

0:35

Here's how you probably heard

0:37

the story at the Battle of Hastings. William

0:40

the conqueror boarded a ship he,

0:42

wanted the battle of hastings and

0:44

he was crowned king Kingdom.

0:48

The conqueror Concord. The

0:50

tidy story that wraps up after an

0:52

exciting action scene. It

0:55

now, you know, that the first part of that story

0:57

wasn't Heidi and all. We

0:59

know that there are people politics worse

1:02

for days, shipwrecks, corpse

1:04

magic, mid battle horse, jacking

1:07

sexual mutilation and

1:09

some guy juggling sword for some

1:11

reason. And by now

1:14

you're also starting to get the hint that.

1:17

Well. Then. Second

1:19

part of the story wasn't very tidy

1:21

either for, example,

1:24

you know that the English managed to hurt

1:26

the French cavalry into nightmare have

1:28

spiked booby traps and

1:30

we. Also know about Url was the are throwing

1:32

normal barbecue in the Wield, he

1:35

gets the truth is said the battle

1:37

of Hastings wasn't the beginning

1:40

nor was it the. , Williams

1:43

had the English tiger by, the tail

1:47

and so is the,. made one misstep wound

1:51

if you think back to that gigantic battle

1:53

of hastings episode you might

1:55

recall said the full military

1:57

might have england never We

2:00

need it for he thing meaning,

2:03

there were still a lot of fighters

2:05

out, there and you're,. also

2:07

leaders like

2:10

wealthy

2:14

And. There was also the English

2:17

please remember, them,

2:20

yeah, there's no record of any sort

2:22

of naval engagement towards destruction

2:24

of those ships which means that

2:26

the blockade that blockade Court William

2:28

up on he's thing instead of into a

2:30

complete all night frenzy were even

2:32

commanded as Bishop so literally put relics

2:35

on his body for good. luck while

2:37

those ships and the threat that

2:39

they posed still remains

2:42

The the biggest threat to William right now

2:45

was. if the english found way to rally

2:48

No, of course,

2:50

to do that, they would need something

2:53

or someone to rally around.

2:56

The herald was dead. His

2:58

brother Toss Dig was also

3:00

dead and buried at York though

3:03

you wouldn't be Xactly been a great choice of that

3:05

was probably fine Heralds.

3:07

next two brothers probably really would

3:09

have been have good choice by girth

3:11

and lay off when i were both killed at

3:13

hastings Harold's only

3:15

nephew Hack on swainson had

3:18

also died at Hastings. The

3:20

King's uncle Abbott elf we give New Minster

3:23

had also been killed at Hastings as well

3:26

and that pretty much just left poor

3:28

Wolf not. "The last living

3:30

male", Godwin said. Thanks

3:33

for a hostage situation that started all

3:35

the way back with Edward the confessor well,

3:38

he was now was prisoner held

3:40

by duke william the bastard And

3:43

as for the women of the government's and dynasty

3:46

well, else give whom the king sister

3:48

was dead Living sisters

3:50

the dowager queen either than the non goon

3:53

held were both childless which

3:55

meant there were no male heirs available

3:57

their fittings. mom gif

3:59

us The lived, but after

4:01

all the killing of the last month, she was

4:03

nearly as childless as their daughters.

4:06

So this once enormous

4:09

God Woodson dynasty was

4:11

on the verge of complete annihilation.

4:14

And of the members who remained free

4:16

and living there, were none

4:19

that had the requisite genitalium necessary

4:22

for the nobility of england to proclaim them

4:24

king So.

4:26

In the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings.

4:29

The person with the strongest claim

4:31

in England. There's probably

4:34

little and grappling. That

4:37

grappling with about fourteen years

4:39

old he. been raised in hungary

4:42

and his claim to the throne was

4:44

just that he was the grandson of edmund

4:47

ironside Which let's be

4:49

honest is pretty distant

4:51

late. However

4:53

he was member of the House of Wessex

4:56

and in the chaotic aftermath of the Battle

4:58

of Hastings a, Hungarian

5:00

team who was related to Apple read

5:02

thing unread was still probably

5:05

their best that's. rich

5:08

is grim So

5:11

it's really not surprising that

5:13

before night and even closed in on hastings

5:16

with everything covered in the sick blanketed

5:18

the approaching storm. King

5:20

Harold Godwin Sin have begun

5:23

to pass from man. The math.

5:26

Get the English really, did need something to

5:28

rally around. And I'm guessing

5:30

that legend may have been one of the

5:32

best options they had. This

5:35

King of England for sword, as rain

5:38

was, had actually cast an

5:40

enormous shadow. It

5:42

was such formidable figure in English

5:44

politics that he had managed to rest

5:46

the throne of England from the line of the House

5:49

of Wessex. The military

5:51

feats border on impossible.

5:54

Even now, nearly thousand years later,

5:56

there are historians who stare in

5:58

disbelief and. The Contemporary Records

6:01

report about this guy. Her

6:03

equally herald's rise to power

6:06

in his defense of the thrones is nothing

6:08

short of legendary. And

6:10

so is the remnants of his army escaped into the

6:12

darkness. The being hurled

6:14

goblins in the man was.

6:17

gone The use been replaced

6:19

by King Charles Darwin's in the

6:21

legend. That was very

6:24

dangerous development for the Normans. Even

6:26

in the absence of charismatic leader, the

6:29

legend of falling king who had been

6:31

murdered heroically and battle could

6:33

be enough to sustain renewed resistance

6:36

to their colonization. How

6:38

do you point legend? Well.

6:42

The try to embrace. That's

6:44

what Duke William immediately said about

6:46

doing. Scrubbing any

6:48

version of Harold Goblin's in that didn't suit

6:50

his own goal of domination and conquest.

6:53

This counter propaganda campaigns

6:56

was war that he found himself waging

6:58

for years. William

7:00

needed every one. The British,

7:03

the French, the holy men everyone

7:06

did not see Harold as king who had merely

7:08

been defeated in battle. No, he

7:10

needed them to see Harold as rebel

7:13

vassal of the true King William.

7:16

And as such as failed usurper

7:19

and an enemy of God. That

7:21

was it even married at being mentioned

7:24

and. of william had as druthers people

7:26

probably wouldn't This

7:28

is actually one of the reasons why our understanding

7:31

of this period is so poor. As

7:33

we discussed in earlier episodes and in

7:35

the member speed, we don't actually know

7:37

how King Harold. In

7:40

fact, we aren't sure about lot

7:42

of what goes on regarding Harold Goblins and

7:44

during those last crucial few days

7:47

and also in the immediate aftermath.

7:50

That's not an accident. It's

7:52

quite clear from the surviving contemporary

7:54

Norman accounts that what little we

7:56

do know of what happened here does

7:58

it make the Normans look. It and

8:00

we also know that William and his scribes

8:03

were really trying to scrub the record.

8:06

That hole in the record is evidence

8:08

of this counter propaganda campaign, but

8:10

there's also evidence that they set about trying

8:12

to revise the stories in more

8:14

norman favorable light. Because

8:17

of course they did. It would

8:19

bad. But here's the trick

8:21

with lying. You've gotta

8:23

have really good memories and you also

8:26

have to make sure that everyone stays

8:28

on message. And going by the quality

8:30

of these records the, normans

8:33

hadn't figured those two rules out yet

8:36

What follows here is small story.

8:39

It's story about something that by itself

8:41

has very little material impact.

8:43

Then by following it, we can

8:46

see the first cultural and political

8:48

moves of the norm in colonization

8:50

project. Though becomes extremely

8:52

important. The story.

8:55

That king Harold. Or to

8:57

be specific about. king

8:59

heralds corpse Just

9:01

like the matter of how King Harold died,

9:04

there's quite lot of confusion about

9:06

what happened to his body after the

9:08

battle of Hastings. The tale

9:10

of that body like many tales

9:12

from this period. begins with our

9:14

earliest surviving record. The

9:17

carmen to has thing april leo. And

9:19

as you know, it's the Norman records because

9:22

if there were any contemporary English records

9:25

talking about this, they didn't

9:27

survive, which I'm sure as complete

9:29

coincidence. The

9:31

carmen tells us that after the fighting,

9:34

William ordered for the dead French and

9:37

Norman soldiers to be giving Christian burials.

9:40

That he also ordered that the English

9:42

dead must remain where they lay

9:45

to be eaten by worms, wolves,

9:47

birds and dogs. Now.

9:51

William is known for being vindictive

9:54

little prick especially with anyone

9:56

who challenged his authority in.

9:59

the cool tricks The time what

10:01

he was doing with the English bodies

10:03

was actually really bad like really

10:06

bad culturally. it

10:08

probably would have been better if william

10:10

allowed the soldiers to be buried and

10:12

the just when around personally sitting

10:14

personally every grave Because depending

10:16

on how one interprets Christianity,

10:19

William very well may been interfering

10:21

with the English soldier's chances of

10:23

getting into heaven. That's just

10:26

the start given. what we can find

10:28

of folklore during this period this

10:30

treatment of the dead could will

10:32

open the door to unleashing of horde

10:34

of ghosts and vampires You

10:37

remember Walter maps courtly trifles

10:39

some of those ghost stories

10:42

focused around failure to provide

10:44

proper Christian burial? The

10:46

William's order to neglect the English dead

10:49

was petty. It was cruel

10:51

and it had the potential of supernatural

10:54

effects for both the living and the

10:56

dead. It would have been horrifying

10:59

choice to all who heard

11:01

or witnessed it. Now, of

11:03

course, for to tries to clean

11:05

this up bit and he basically states that

11:07

it's any of English wanted to collect their dad,

11:10

William would have allowed it. Words.

11:13

Think about that for second the.

11:16

french word led by man who believe

11:18

that every english minute hastings

11:20

was hastings traitor supposed traitor the crown

11:22

which he already thought was his and also

11:24

to god And. At

11:26

this very moment the countryside

11:29

was teeming with the same violent

11:31

knights who would just occupied themselves

11:33

over the last few weeks by exterminating

11:36

entire villages and it would just

11:38

spent. The last night executing the second

11:40

wounded but, apparently

11:43

killed A should have assumed that she had

11:45

safe passage to go collect your son's body.

11:47

and so if she didn't do that that's

11:50

really on her Cool

11:53

man. Real cool. Regardless

11:56

of what party says, the English

11:59

dead couldn't. That and would not

12:01

be collected. There's no

12:03

record of even the nobility being

12:05

given passage to collect their family members,

12:08

as no record exists of the body of

12:10

girth lay of winner Er Hat on

12:12

Swainson been reclaimed and been

12:14

given a proper burial. None.

12:18

"That brings us back to the

12:20

body of King Harold", Godwin said. The

12:23

complicated little tail that

12:25

central to how Harold was passing

12:27

into legend. And also. How

12:30

the Normans were trying to stamp out that legend

12:32

before it grill? Because the karmic

12:34

goes on to tell us that William ordered

12:36

the mutilated body of Harold to

12:39

be reassembled, bunch of

12:41

gross and then wrapped in purple

12:43

linen and brought to his camp at

12:45

Hastings. Harold's mother get

12:47

the pleading. with William to return

12:50

her son's body. The

12:52

norm and Duke refused. There

12:55

have been offered to pay William's promising

12:57

to give him her son's weight in gold

12:59

just to get her child's body back. The

13:02

again. That bastard reviews.

13:05

Instead, he gave the body to man and

13:08

his company. This man then buried

13:10

Harold on cliff overlooking the sea,

13:12

inscribing in the stone quote you

13:15

rest here, King Harold by the order

13:17

of the Duke so that you may still be guardian

13:19

of the sea and the shore and quote.

13:22

No becoming claims that this man and William's

13:24

company was an Anglo Norman. And

13:27

herald's relative. Import,

13:29

yeah, he adds to that, giving him name.

13:32

William Mallet, Lord of Greville,

13:34

in Normandy. But there's

13:36

no record of Malik coming to England

13:39

prior to the invasion and looking at

13:41

the lineages there doesn't seem to be any

13:43

familial relationships leaking the to.

13:45

The someone got something wrong

13:47

there. The identity of precisely

13:50

who buried the body isn't really the point

13:52

some going to move on because, what

13:54

this really this is heartbreaking

13:56

story about seeping cruelty

13:58

upon woman who The desert, pity

14:01

and mercy. Not more suffering.

14:04

It was very William's thing to do.

14:07

It's Palace. It's cruel

14:10

and it's just completely and utterly culturally

14:12

inappropriate. By burying

14:15

Harold in this manner. William

14:17

wasn't just refusing to give grieving mother

14:19

the body of her son or. The was

14:21

also denying King Harold Christian

14:23

burial. The gives the burial

14:25

this described is Downright

14:28

Pig and. The William

14:30

was single for Harold in this life

14:32

and the next. And he was also

14:35

doing something that was for the Times

14:37

seen as pretty much downright evil.

14:40

That, remember? William did

14:42

have the people standard. And

14:45

he did have people absolution coming.

14:48

There he was good with God, and he could

14:50

do whatever he wanted. So,

14:52

according to the carmen. Harold

14:54

was denied Christian burial. With

14:57

instead plunked. down on

14:59

cliff under some rocks A

15:01

club. That no one identified

15:04

and as such the English rebellion

15:07

couldn't use as a rallying point. Now

15:10

what the A does his best to clean this public relations

15:13

mess up and, he claims that guess i

15:15

did ask for her son's body back

15:18

Like. They also offered to pay

15:20

William for it. The William

15:22

refused because it was unseemly

15:25

to be paid for the body of a king. Yeah.

15:29

Apparently this will give us fault.

15:32

Maybe if she had acted so desperate to save

15:34

her son, souls William would have spared

15:36

them both this embarrassment or relented, but

15:38

she just ruined it.

15:42

However, forty eight was apparently unable

15:44

to keep his own story straight because he adds

15:46

that William didn't think that Heralds should

15:48

be given a proper burial. Because

15:50

there are so many other Englishman who remained

15:52

on buried. The instead

15:55

William declared could ingest

15:57

end quote that the king should be. Slapped

16:00

by the seashore that the garden so

16:02

zealously. Oh, yeah. William's

16:05

own hype man admits that the

16:07

Duke refused to give the English soldiers a proper

16:09

burial and refused to hand over

16:11

the body of Harold to is grieving mother. And

16:14

he tells us that actually it

16:16

was the fault of guess not and the English

16:19

and certainly not the norm and do who

16:22

was the one out there issuing orders and

16:24

cracking jokes about it. No,

16:26

that's how our earliest records discuss

16:28

this issue. And then generations

16:31

later, William of Mom's very

16:33

give us different story. One

16:35

that makes William look nicer. The

16:38

to be honest will be difficult to make

16:40

him look worse. And Mom's

16:42

where he says that despite the contemporary

16:45

Norman accounts. Actually,

16:47

Williams did give the body to his mother.

16:50

And he did it and gratis.

16:53

No need for the payment, ma'am, you have

16:55

this one on me. Missouri

16:57

also claims that gifts or then buried

17:00

Harold and his beloved church at Waltham.

17:03

Obviously, this story

17:05

is bullshit. No contemporary

17:08

accounts suggest anything of the sort also

17:10

note Norman's who actually new William

17:12

in life ever spoke about I'm in way

17:15

to suggested he was kind or

17:17

worried about mother's feelings or, you

17:19

know, completely uninterested

17:21

in money. The people

17:23

who knew William were all like, oh, no,

17:26

he and his buddies mutilated the body,

17:28

they kept it for themselves and told Herald's

17:31

family what they do with their tears. That

17:34

doesn't make for good fanfare. So

17:36

we have Mom's Barry riding in the twelfth century

17:39

trying to fix it. But here's the crazy

17:41

thing about. fifty years

17:43

later after the church in waltham

17:45

was reformed This claim

17:47

was repeated, my Waltham.

17:51

With a twist. This new records

17:53

claims that to cannons of Waltham

17:56

of good start and Atholl Rich till

17:58

the may stir. The company. Harold

18:00

on his famous march to Hastings and,

18:03

after the battle they were

18:05

they ones who persuaded william to hand

18:07

over the corpse There

18:10

was a problem. He

18:12

didn't know which body was the king. The

18:14

listen for the King's wife, Edith. Came

18:17

to Hastings and identified Herald's mangled

18:19

corpse and then they've all

18:22

together took his body back to Waltham

18:24

and buried up there. Know?

18:27

That story means that despite

18:29

having generations to massage the story,

18:31

the best that Waltham to come up with was

18:34

version that replaced Guess up with some

18:36

shirts, men and then. For good

18:38

measure added in Herald's grieving

18:40

widow, doing little see size style

18:43

body identification. And

18:45

as you might have gathered, I think

18:47

that this story is just as much bulls

18:50

as Mom's res version. Yet

18:53

this is still far from the worst

18:55

accounts that we have of what happened

18:57

to Herald's body. That

18:59

honor goes to a thirteenth century

19:02

document called the Vida Her

19:04

all day. The author of the vita it

19:06

does think it's silly to believe that Harold

19:09

was buried at Waltham he. tells

19:11

us that mom's very was spouting nonsense

19:14

Which actually is reasonable statement.

19:17

But it's also the last reasonable thing

19:19

that the author had to say on the matter. Instead,

19:22

what he provides is some

19:25

of the craziest medieval fan

19:27

think I've seen in quite while. So

19:30

here's what I suggest we do. The press

19:32

pause. The bond and

19:35

buckle up for some of the weirdest revisionism

19:37

I've heard outside of that Viking's TV

19:39

show.

19:44

Though, according to the her old age. Harold

19:47

Godwin Sin was terribly wounded in battle

19:50

and collapsed amongst the many dead who

19:52

lay there and the battlefield.

19:54

Despite his numerous deadly

19:56

injuries. He wasn't

19:58

dead. And when the Normans

20:01

left the battlefield. A woman

20:03

came upon Harold and discovered

20:05

that he was still breathing. Then

20:08

she dragged him to a nearby hot. Realizing

20:11

who this patient was too common,

20:13

men from the village decided to carry his body

20:15

in secret to the city of Winchester.

20:18

Where he quickly brought into seller where

20:20

he can evade detection by the Normans.

20:23

And there. The created his wounds.

20:26

This treatment, or told, was provided

20:28

by Sarasin women trained in the medical

20:30

arts. Which meant that she would

20:33

have been basically providing stated the art

20:35

medicine at this point in England's history.

20:37

The brilliant stroke of luck for Harry. And

20:40

for two years Harold

20:42

and, as Sarah's and Doctor, remained

20:44

in that cellar. Eventually.

20:48

The true king regained his strength and,

20:50

he decided that if he wanted to win back

20:52

his kingdom he'd need some help

20:55

We climbed out of the cellar and went

20:57

on tour. He secretly

20:59

visited the Saxons and the danes

21:02

and begged for their support. That'is

21:04

is words fell on deaf ears. Because

21:08

they had already allied themselves

21:10

with the Normans. The now.

21:13

defeated and exiled. Harold

21:15

chose to wander the continent as

21:17

religious pilgrim. Going

21:19

from Holy Site to Holy Site until,

21:22

finally reaching rome Honestly.

21:25

This part of the whole story is really boring,

21:28

it's standard set of tropes from this era,

21:30

the kind of religious track that you'd expect

21:32

to read from someone who's serving. A life sentence,

21:35

lots of stuff about the importance of focusing on

21:37

the next life, the idea that all the suffering

21:40

his have a purpose that God watches

21:42

and judges everything you. Know the deal

21:44

and, so heralds fight for england

21:47

becomes instead of fight

21:49

for his own soul Many

21:51

years later, with Herald's body weekend

21:54

from his injuries from his years

21:56

as an exile pilgrim and

21:58

also just from old age. The

22:00

decides to return home to England. And

22:03

upon his arrival, he takes

22:05

new name. Christian.

22:09

Having choice, Harry. And

22:11

for ten years he lived in

22:14

cave in Dover. As hermit.

22:17

After that decade, he decided to try

22:19

to live closer to society. Then

22:21

we moved to the Welsh marches. The

22:24

atrocities that he deflected upon the Welsh

22:26

meant that, herald, I mean, Christian didn't

22:29

find any friends there. The

22:31

move from place to place but

22:34

no matter where in Wales Harold went

22:36

whenever people figured out who he was

22:39

the. kicked his ass The

22:42

next, kinda like this part of the story.

22:45

But eventually Christian God wins and gave

22:47

up and. he moved to a secret dwelling

22:50

near chester There

22:52

he resolved to live the rest of his life

22:54

as a hermit. And not

22:57

wanting to suffer anymore ass kicking, so whenever

22:59

he went out into public, he covered his face.

23:02

Though some people began

23:04

to suspect who he was a. When

23:06

pressed he didn't want to live,

23:09

so you'll only admit that he was at

23:11

Hastings and that he was bound

23:13

to King Harold. Eventually,

23:16

on his deathbed, he demanded that

23:18

it's confess or promise to keep secret. And

23:20

then he must keep it in till after

23:22

his death. The priest

23:25

agreed. A Christian,

23:27

the human punching bag, finally

23:29

admitted that he was actually

23:31

Harold Godwin said. So

23:34

that's the take in the vida her older. And

23:37

it's Bonkers. The

23:40

author urges us to believe him because

23:42

he claims that he heard the story from

23:44

a it needs Sabres, who

23:46

claims to been servant of Heralds

23:49

during his hermitage. Which means

23:51

we're left with two choices either.

23:53

this author this lying or

23:55

is the most gullible person ever

23:58

And actually the account. Doesn't stop

24:00

there. The of don't forget

24:03

that the author was adamant that Mom's

24:05

very was wrong and Waltham didn't

24:07

have Herald's body. Three goes

24:09

on to relate story about the reign of King

24:11

Henry, the second. The first

24:14

of the point had to make Kings. The

24:17

author tells us that during royal

24:19

court held at Woodstock. Man

24:21

approached the habit of gets and he

24:23

told him that Harold Godman Sin

24:26

wasn't buried at Waltham. Which

24:28

is an odd way to open up conversation

24:30

if we're being honest. "It goes on to

24:32

say that he should know because he

24:34

was Herald's brother", Girth Godwin

24:37

said. The Earth would

24:39

have been about one hundred and forty years old

24:41

at this point, you know? If

24:43

he was living. That he wasn't.

24:46

Because he was killed in battle. Let's

24:48

imagine that he's like Harold also

24:51

secretly survived this battle and,.

24:53

in his case he just happen to be basically

24:56

methuselah I

24:58

find it hard to imagine that the oldest

25:00

man in the world would have taken the time

25:02

to travel to the Court of William's great

25:04

grand sons just to go and say

25:06

"Hey guys," dup that

25:09

burial Apparently, when

25:11

thirteenth century months right san

25:13

fix, the really go for

25:15

it. And to be clear, no

25:18

one considers the vida her all the

25:20

to be a factual account. Because

25:22

it clearly isn't. It's completely

25:24

nuts. Like we

25:26

still pay attention to it because it shows

25:29

that there was continuing development of the

25:31

legend of Harold Godwin Sin and,

25:33

what makes it an extra fascinating document

25:36

is where it was kept Want

25:39

them? It actually wasn't just

25:41

kept Waltham it was pinned

25:43

they're still lot of equals

25:45

being spilled just in the effort

25:48

of saying now we seriously

25:50

don't have his body which,. is

25:52

weird What's even

25:54

more weird is that, even in spite

25:56

of this, this belief that while

25:58

some held the king's body. Persisted

26:00

for hundreds of years, in

26:03

fact, in elite seventeen hundreds, man

26:05

claimed that he found Heralds to while

26:07

you're doing renovations and is sellers

26:09

because he happened to own house that was next door

26:11

and Waltham. Was the house

26:14

burned down soon thereafter and was completely

26:16

demolished by seventeen seventy with

26:18

no trace of the A Legend tomb surviving?

26:22

The who knows what happened there, but I'm guessing

26:24

that someone was telling tall tales. Story

26:27

continues, but now not in Waltham because

26:29

not everyone believed that Waltham

26:32

held King Heralds. The

26:34

nineteen fifty for a stone

26:36

coffin was discovered him. Gilded

26:39

him that it contained was badly damaged

26:42

and was missing it's skull and one of it's beamers.

26:45

Nineteen ninety six, one of the residents

26:48

of Bosh, I'm playing that the body it contained

26:50

was that of things Harold Godwin said.

26:54

Why? Yeah, now. The

26:57

Martian was family estate, but

26:59

it was also about sixty miles away from Hastings

27:01

and there's no record of any one lugging

27:03

the king's body all that way. This

27:06

is kind of how it goes with the legends. People

27:09

are always taking swing at it and this

27:11

probably won't be the last time that we hear

27:13

claim that some once found the body of Harold Godwin

27:15

same. Right about now

27:18

I'm guessing that some of you are saying what.

27:21

about battle about hobby Then he buried

27:23

battle abby. The bike, whole

27:25

abby dedicated to herald's

27:27

death. And we're going

27:29

to get to battle Abby when is constructed because

27:32

it's odd but. Here's

27:34

the funny thing about Battle Abby. No

27:37

one has ever claimed that it contains

27:39

herald's bones. Now

27:41

whether or not Battle Abby actually as place

27:44

to the side of Herald's death is an open question,

27:47

but what is uncontested is that

27:49

when Battle Abby was constructed

27:51

there was no effort to locate

27:53

Herald's remains and her them

27:55

there. None. Possibly

27:59

because if Harold. Was relocated to

28:01

the Abbey, he would have finally been

28:03

given Christian burial. And

28:06

William was just that much of soul.

28:09

There's also good chance that was political. Because

28:12

if he was buried there than that

28:14

would transform the Abbey from one proclaiming

28:16

William's piety and turn it

28:18

instead into the resting place

28:20

for martyred king. Finally,

28:23

there's also the issue of logistics. It

28:27

might not have know where the body was. It

28:29

may have never found the body. We

28:32

really don't know. Though.

28:35

That's the saga of Herald's corpse.

28:39

The vitality and. Well,

28:41

it's actually really good opportunity to

28:43

learn about how our record develops. And

28:45

how these legends change over time? The

28:48

carmen, which I started with, is our

28:51

earliest record and it's very

28:53

clear that William refuse to give

28:55

heralds body together. The even

28:57

after being offered a literal King's ransom.

29:00

The not clear that William instead chose

29:02

to give the falling king pig and burial

29:05

with all the repercussions that entails. But

29:08

now that we went through all these records one by one

29:10

you can see how they didn't sit well with later

29:12

writers and. so it was revised

29:15

time and time again Sometimes

29:18

in extremely outlandish ways. In

29:21

whole saga tells us that there wasn't

29:24

just war for territory and battlefields.

29:27

The result, or war, for the mind, for

29:29

the very concept of what was English

29:32

and what wasn't for who was at fault

29:34

and who was it? For what was

29:36

real? And what wasn't?

29:40

William, by refusing to bury the

29:42

English, was making profound

29:44

spiritual threats. Then by refusing

29:47

to surrender Herald's body and,

29:49

not even identify where identify anywhere

29:51

he was buried The was also denying

29:54

the English rallying point. The

29:57

back to the complete disappearance of all

29:59

the god when. Who fought hastings

30:01

meant that even if the English wanted

30:04

to turn to girth or any of the others

30:06

as martyr seed. have nowhere

30:08

to go to focus their rage The

30:11

weapon Norman's were doing was cruel, certainly.

30:14

This cruelty with strategic. Just

30:17

like is landing. And the ravaging

30:19

the south and, the extermination

30:22

of the wounded William

30:24

and his army were on conquest

30:26

and if they were to be successful, the

30:28

would need to break the will of the people

30:30

that they intended to colonize. And

30:33

so the were denying them any psychological

30:36

refuge. You're

30:38

denying them even their legends. "The

30:40

doing something like this is long process

30:42

and, as I said, William

30:45

would be waiting this war for the mind for

30:47

the rest of his life" The with a

30:49

matter of herald's body settled probably.

30:52

on cliff William was now

30:54

free to continue his conquest.

30:57

And he had score to settle. Not

31:00

all those men made it to Hastings as

31:02

you might remember. There been that unfortunate

31:04

business up the coast and new ROM

31:06

name that Village had

31:09

stood up for itself and

31:11

some of his men died. Now,

31:13

William probably wasn't all that about

31:16

few dead men, but he

31:18

also wasn't the sort of man to tolerate challenge

31:21

to his authority. William

31:23

didn't like people who stood up for themselves. So

31:26

we left Hastings under the command of one of

31:28

his captains and he rode

31:30

out with some of his Knights to nooran

31:32

name. And once there, according

31:36

to his own panegyrist, Poitier

31:38

William, quote punished

31:41

at his pleasure, and quote, the

31:43

people of that unfortunate, coastal

31:45

town. Because

31:47

in there is no

31:49

such thing as Justified defense

31:51

of your home. or. To

31:54

William. These were his subjects.

31:56

This was his land and

31:59

that meant The people, new Romney,

32:02

were insurgents. And.

32:04

So the town was butchered if,

32:07

you have any questions, comments or concerns you can reach me

32:09

at the British History Podcast at Gmail.com. dot com

32:12

you can also find us on social media we

32:14

have lakes in the community section the

32:16

british history podcast dot com extra

32:18

listening And

32:20

you? Yeah, yeah. I'm

32:22

new the, yeah