12 January 1066:
Edward is dead! Harold is King! Can you believe it Edward has just died and that atrocious Harold Godwinson has already crowned himself
king. That backstabbing liar I fought with him in Brittany and never thought he could be this sinful. Anyway I expect William shall decide to invade and claim what is rightfully his.
15 January 1066:
A messenger from William just arrived he says William has decided to invade and is going to Italy to get the Pope’s support.
7 March 1066:
William has returned from Italy not only with the Pope’s blessing but also with many Italian nobles willing to help the Normans in the Invasion of Britain.
9 March 1066:
Another messenger from William came today. This time he is requesting (ordering), that I provide the materials for 50 ships and 200 men + the supplies to feed them. He says without them the invasion would fail. Apparently he is being very persuasive because some of the other nobles don’t want to fight, even for the glory of Normandy. He also says it is my duty as a nobleman to help the greater cause of Normandy. Of course I agreed to his ‘request.’
18 March 1066:
I’ve gathered together the men William required and commandeered enough wood and carts to transport them to Dieppe where William is building the invasion fleet. When that is finished we will invade England.
23 March 1066:
I and my men arrived at the beach today. William, himself, greeted me and said “thank you providing the men to fight for the glory of your country.” He also told me that, “the building of the ships will commence immediately.”
8 August 1066:
The fleet was finished today. It was great news to the soldiers who had been getting very restless. But then the sea captain emerged from William’s tent and proclaimed that the wind was not blowing in the right direction and we could not set sail yet. It crushed the spirits of the soldiers and made them ever so more restless.
27 September 1066:
Amazing news! The wind has changed. We can set sail today. All the soldiers are forming a crush towards the boats and spirits are up. Hopefully, next time I write it will be in England.
28 September 1066:
We landed in England at about 10 in the morning. It surprised us all and made us happy that the English had left the beaches and we were completely unopposed. Although most of the men would have liked a fight as they spent most of the journey over the Channel firing themselves up for battle. Later, I found out that in a great bit of luck, our invasion had coincided with the invasion of the Vikings in the North and the English were occupied fighting them.
13 October 1066:
We have received word from our scouts that the English are storming down from the North after they defeated the Vikings at Stamford Bridge. Hopefully, t
hey will be very tired when they arrive. William gave a rousing speech in which he talked about the riches of England and how he had the Pope’s support, which means he must win. He also told
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prepare for battle. My Stable boy immediately came over immediately and started to help me put on the leather shirt used for comfort, he then slid the ¾ length chain mail hauberk that split at the waist to below the knee to make for easy riding. On my left side he strapped on the baldric, and then handed me my sword which I twirled in the air before majestically slotting it into my baldric. He promptly tied the kite shaped shield to my left arm and finally slides my helmet onto my head and helped me onto my horse. Lastly he handed me my spear.
15 October 1066:
We won! It’s amazing nine long hours of fighting and finally we broke the English shield wall. It was amazing the feeling of relief it gave us, the Normans. The fact that we could finally use our position as cavalry to do something other than smash against the wall. I even advanced through the English and found Harold almost dead with an arrow in his eye. I and five other knights were responsible for making sure he was dead and mutilating him. The battle started of with both of us staring each other down them at the top of the hill and us at the bottom of the hill. In Hasting we used the proved and effective benchmark Norman tactics. Which proceeded as follows: Firstly we tried to soften them up with arrows but they just clashed into their shields or soared over their heads. Then the infantry charged but they couldn’t break the shield wall either. We tried to helped but charging the shield wall was suicide. Eventually we settled for just throw our spears into their ranks and then turning back for another. But then suddenly the Bretons turned and ran (we argued for hours after the battle about whether it was William’s brilliant tactics or the Bretons cowardice) the English sensing victory charged after them and rushed down the hill. But then William led some Normans around the back of the English and the Bretons inspired turned and slaughtered every last English pursuer. The gap in our lines was sealed up soon afterwards. William seeing the success of this false retreat ordered us to use this tactic to tempt the English out of the shield wall in small groups. We used this many times up and down the shield wall each time killing a fair number of English soldiers each time. Then William had another brilliant idea, he ordered the archers to fire their arrows up into the sky. This killed many an English soldier, including Harold himself. Most of the English seeing that Harold was dead ran from the battlefield apart from the loyal housecarls who fought to their death protecting Harold’s body. In the end Harold’s body was chopped up and thrown in the sea. The Normans had won the Battle of Hastings and changed the history of England for ever.
The End.
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