Tucked away within the outer areas of the Byzantine empire was a pocket of cities with a collection of bizarre names which have puzzled educational and armchair historians alike, for among the many most sudden of the eccentricities that dot the antiquated maps of medieval cartographers in regards to the Black Sea area, is the shock inclusion of a city known as ‘Londinia’ resting surprisingly within the north-eastern Crimea. To many, these are merely the remnants of a medieval Anglo-Saxon colony established by a band of English fugitives, who forsook their motherland after being defeated by William the Conqueror and his Norman armies on the Battle of Hastings in 1066 . A rip-roaring story of journey principally discovered inside the pages of an obscure Icelandic saga and a dusty French manuscript, this unbelievable story has truly been authenticated by many different historic sources, which attest to an Anglo-Saxon presence in what’s now known as Ukraine.
The Battle of Hastings
In 1066 following the demise of King Edward the Confessor, England was plunged right into a succession disaster as three rival claimants, specifically the Norwegian warlord Harold Hardrada, the French warrior-baron William of Normandy, and the English king Harold Godwin battled for mastery over the dominion.
Dealing with a twin invasion, Harold Godwin first fought towards Harold Hardrada, who alleged that the predecessor to Edward the Confessor, King Harthacnut, had pledged him the English throne. Encountering one another on the River Derwent simply east of York on September 25 1066, Harold efficiently vanquished the Scandinavian marauder with a daring shock assault on the Battle of Stamford Bridge. With Harold’s personal brother Tostig slain, the victory would come at some value, not least as a result of it additionally gave William of Normandy sufficient time to determine a safe base of operations within the south of the nation.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge, from The Lifetime of King Edward the Confessor by Matthew Paris.( thirteenth century) Cambridge College Library ( Public Domain )
On the night of October 13 1066, Harold and William’s armies, camped nearby of one another at a hill situated round seven miles (11 kilometers) from the city of Hastings, and made their remaining preparations for a showdown that might decide the destiny of the realm. Within the early morning hours of October 14, Harold’s battle-weary warriors, primarily infantry brandishing devastating two-handed axes, organized themselves right into a defensive protect wall formation alongside a ridge that stretched for almost half a mile, as William organized his ranks, composed of males from Brittany, Aquitaine, France, and Maine, on the backside of the hill in three regiments, with the archers taking the entrance, the infantry the center, and the armored cavalry stationed on the again.
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Jake Leigh-Howarth holds a masters diploma in Fashionable Historical past from the College of Leeds, the place he specialised within the travelogues of Western guests to Soviet Central Asia. His favourite historic intervals embrace the Tamerlane Empire, the Mongolian Empire, and the Eleusinian Mysteries of Historical Greece.
High Picture : The physique of Leo V is dragged to the Hippodrome by way of the Skyla Gate. Varangian Guardsmen, an illumination from the Skylitzes Chronicle; many if not most members of the Varangian guard have been English after the eleventh century ( Public Domain )
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