My thoughts on 1066 events

 Rehabilitation of "The Chronicle of Battle Abbey" From my reading of John Grehan's book "1066 - An Uncomfortable Truth" I developed an antipathy for the Chronicle and being exposed to Nick Austin's work just made it worse. However, since I've obtained a translation of it, my distrust has lessened to the point where I shall spend some time to try to weave it into the fabric of the timeline of that fateful day.  As with all 12th cent. sources things have been mis-remembered, forgotten and twisted. The Chronicle makes no mention of any skirmish but starts off with the main battle and closes with the Malfosse incident. But the Chronicle only makes sense to me if there was a skirmish.  Description of Sites Let's look at the location of Battle Abbey.  It stands on top of a ridge that dominates the landscape and no doubt could be seen for miles around although its view north would have been limited.  Some commentators cite a lack of water at Battle Abbey a...

  Battle of Hastings - An Additional Criterion? From Wace's Roman de Rou we learn that the clergy separated from the troops by going to the top of a nearby hill in order to pray to God and observe the Battle. This is the first time I've seen this and to me it seems to be a very important restriction on the site of the Battle.  To me, it explains why the Bayeux Tapestry gives so much detail  of the battle  - someone was keeping tabs on the fighting. I also feel more confident about splitting up those last 8 scenes ( 51 through 58) into 4 x 3 hour slots in order to keep "church" time.  Although there seems to be no formal written evidence, there must have been English clergy doing the same for Harold and his army.  Let's apply this criterion to the proposed sites for the battle Official site                                  Distance to Clergy   approx...