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From: "D. Spencer Hines" <>
Subject: Re: Rivals Race To Film 1066
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:40:35 -0000


> Is Howarth's "spin" on 1066 accurate? At least William I The
> Conqueror King of England, my ancestor, won...
>
> ~Bret, scion of Charle de Magne
-------------------------------------------------------

Indeed...

But many of us here are descended from BOTH Harold and William....

It's no big thing.

One might, with perfect justification, refer to it as a prime example of
the Principle of Historical Symmetry.
--
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Vires et Honor

"~Bret, scion of Charle de Magne"
<> wrote in message
news:...

> On Dec 21, 8:27 pm, CE Wood <> wrote:

>> We'll be fortunate if William wins..............
>
> Review of 1066: The Year of the Conquest
>
> http://www.amazon.com/1066-Conquest-David-Armine-Howarth/dp/1556905793
>
> In this short but well written narrative, Howarth paints moving
> portraits of King Edward the Confessor, Harold of England, William of
> Normandy, Earl Tostig, King Harald Hardrada, the people of England and
> other players in the Norman conquest. Howarth does not conceal his
> views, admitting at the outset that he "would have liked King Harold,
> heartily disliked King Edward the Confessor, felt sorry for Earl
> Tostig and terrified of Duke William, and found nothing whatever to
> say to King Harald Hardrada of Norway." This is history with a bit of
> passion, which makes it all the more enjoyable for the reader.
> "1066" will also make you appreciate how hard it is to know anything
> about a time like the Middle Ages, when very few people could read and
> write and those who could were invariably working for whoever won the
> latest battle. It will also give a sense of how contingent history is,
> of how the world might have become a very different place if a few
> events had happened in a different order. As it was, William the
> Conqueror arrived at exactly the right time, while King Harold was at
> the other end of England crushing King Harald Hardrada at the Battle
> of Stamford Bridge. What would have happened if William's fleet had
> been destroyed in a storm, or if he had arrived in England in the
> summer of 1066, when King Harold was ready and able to meet him? We'll
> never know--King Harold and his army arrived at Hastings exhausted and
> depleted, and the rest, as they say, is history.
>
> Howarth approaches 1066 as if it were the stuff of a novel, and he has
> been criticized for doing so. I don't know whether Howarth is
> perfectly accurate, or whether his "spin" on the story is correct--but
> the same can be said of the most boring and heavily footnoted history
> that anyone cares to name. For those who enjoy history but also prize
> elegant and engaging storytelling, this book is a joy to read.
>
> Is Howarth's "spin" on 1066 accurate? At least William I The
> Conqueror King of England, my ancestor, won...
>
> ~Bret, scion of Charle de Magne
>
> http://Back-stabbing Ancestral Descendants ASSoc.genealogy.medieval


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