The date is the 14th of october 1066 (by Mitchell McGuire)

The date is the 14th of october 1066. It is late at night we have have just finished our campaign against Harold’s forces in the south of england. We defeated them, it was a bloodbath for either side but we did. Harold’s men are undisciplined and they fought like savages and then cowards all within a day. I watched most of my friends die and and believe me, that is not a nice feeling. The fight was incredibly gruesome we used anything that we could find to kill the enemy after we ran out of arrows. I saw men getting beaten to death by helmets it was a most disturbing sight. At one point in the battle someone started a rumor that william had been killed we hightailed it in full retreat before william came out on his horse and led us back into battle.

The battle started very slowly not much was happening both sides were seemingly een,y matched as an archer I didn’t do much during this part of the battle but I keep remembering my family back in normandy it’s hard to think that you may never see them again. England doesn’t seem like too bad a place though. The weather is close to what it was at home the landscape is beautiful and william treats us well, I get paid a lot more than I would have been if I had opted out of the invasion plus I get free meals. The weapons I fought with today were more or less the usual I used and a bow that was made of yew and an arrow that was made of pine and tipped with iron. I also carried an iron sword in case something went wrong. Our forces were split up into 4 components The Cavalry, the infantry and my unit the archers. The infantry always went in first they are like the testers making sure that the valuable people like me and the cavalry don’t get hurt. They are formidable fighters I must say but we have to send someone in first. As the battle progressed it became evident that we were losing so william the genius that he is devised a new plan. The new plan was that us archers would aim high and bombard the english aiming for their faces. This plan worked so well we killed harold! The cavalry then made one final charge and destroyed the english lines, the english ran for it giving us time to to slaughter them. The bloodshed didn’t stop there we continued to loot all he towns we could find and slaughtered the population looting all the gold we could find we even burned down part of london.



Well that was the most exciting day of my life I just cant believe it I’d never expect to be able to go on a foreign conquest. From looking around here in england I can tell that this place isn’t half as peaceful as Normandy, but do you know what i think with william in charge he can make anywhere more peaceful and better to live in. I heard some good news today, as a soldier of the conquest I am immune from all taxes and I might even get some land.

(by Mitchell McGuire)