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When a Comet Predicted Doom · Ebbs of History

• Jason: Welcome back, history lovers, to the Ebbs of History, the show where we dig up the strangest, wildest, and creepiest true stories the past has to offer. From dancing plagues to pirate queens, you'll laugh, you'll gasp, and you'll love my impeccable dad jokes. But mostly, you'll learn that history is way cooler than your textbook let on. We are history loving hosts, Zoe. Gavin. And I'm Jason, and this Is the ebbs of history Zoe, Gavin, how was everyone's week? Pretty good. Yeah. I agree. I did pretty good on my it was State's Capitals and Postal Abreviations Test for A push. So I was pretty happy about that. I had a minimum day yesterday because of back to school night and I had a sleepover with my friend. So that was really fun. That's pretty second ever sleepover. Very good. And then you guys have tomorrow off school, right? Yes. Anything else before we start today? Not that I I think so. Alright. To recap from last time, january sixth, ten sixty six, Westminster Abbey in London. Two ceremonies happen in the same building on the same day. In the morning, they bury King Edward the Confessor, the king who built that abbey, who ruled England for twenty four years and died the day before, who left no children, and who maybe possibly promised the throne to three different people. By noon he's in the ground. In the afternoon, in the same building, they crown Harold Godwinson King of England. Harold is in his forties. He's the most powerful nobleman in the country. He's the brother of the dead king's wife, and the night before, on his deathbed, Eddie grabbed Harold's hand and said something either take the kingdom or protect the kingdom. Nobody is totally sure. Who'd they give Dosun to again? Harold. This is just recap stuff. This is just recap stuff. this is stuff that we are. Listen to my next sentence. Either way, Harold has the crown. Kevin, just wait. It's like five seconds. And he's gonna keep it for exactly two hundred and eighty days. Ten months. I thought you were gonna say years. I was like, how is that possible? Ten months from January to October, after which everything in English history changes forever. Welcome to episode four. This is 1066, the most famous year in English history. And we're gonna spend an entire episode on the first nine months of it. Because more drama happens in nine months in 1066 than happens in most centuries. There's a giant flaming comet in the sky. There's a Viking warlord with the most insane resume in medieval Europe. There's a brother's betrayal. There's a battle on a bridge with a lone berserker, and by the end of this episode, Harold is going to think he has won the war. Da da don I was just about to do it. Let me set up the players. By April of ten sixty six, three months into Harold's reign, three other men are watching England, and they all think the throne should be theirs. Player one, William, Duke of Normandy. He's in his late thirties. He's the bastard son of the previous Duke of Normandy and a tanner's daughter. And that's gonna be relevant later when people insult him. He has Harold's holy relic oath, signed and witnessed, that says Harold will help him become king. And as far as William is concerned, when Harold put that crown on his head on January 6th, he committed the most serious crime in the medieval world. He broke an oath, sworn on saints' bones. He is, by William's definition, an oathbreaker, a perjur, and a traitor. William sends a message to Pope Alexander II in Rome to Explaining the situation. The Pope, who likes William and who is mad at the English Church for various political reasons, agrees. He sends William a papal banner blessed for war. He basically declares that William invading England is a holy war. This is the eleventh century equivalent of getting a personal endorsement from God. William starts building ships. Player two, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway. I need to pause here and tell you about this guy, because Hardrada has the most ridiculous resume of any human being who has ever lived. And I am not exaggerating. Hardrata was born in Norway around 1015. his half-brother was Saint Olaf, the king of Norway, who was killed in battle in 1030 when Hardrata was 15 years old. Hardrada also fights in that battle. gets wounded and barely escapes alive. He flees to what is now Russia, joins the army of Yaroslav the Wise, the Grand Prince of Kyiv, and becomes a Viking mercenary fighting Poles and Estonians and other Eastern European tribes for about four years. Then, when he's around 20, Hardrata gets bored and decides to go to the then richest city on earth, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Can you guys guess? Constantinople. Which was Istanbul. Modern Istanbul. Istanbul? Constantinople. Istanbul. He joins the Varangian Guard, which is the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine Empire, made up entirely of Viking warriors. And Hardrata becomes their chief. In the next ten years, Harald fights for the Byzantine Empire all over the Mediterranean. He fights Arab pirates in the Aegean Sea. He fights Bulgarian rebels. He goes on an expedition to Sicily. He probably fights in Jerusalem, like the actual Jerusalem, the city Christians and Muslims have been fighting over for centuries. By the time he's thirty, this Viking from Norway has fought wars on three continents. And then around ten forty two, Hardrata gets involved in a coup Against the Byzantine Emperor Michael V. The Varangians help overthrow him. Michael is captured, blinded, and exiled. According to the Norse sagas, which are, I will admit, very biased, Hardrada himself personally blinded the Emperor. We're not totally sure that is true, but Michael definitely got blinded, and Hardrada was definitely there. Then Hardrata, who has now collected an absurd amount of treasure from a decade of looting Mediterranean cities. Ask the new Empress for permission to leave Constantinople. She says no. So Hardrata does what Hardrata does. He escapes with the treasure. He sneaks past the giant iron chain that blocks the harbor of Constantinople, sails back to Russia, marries Yaroslav's daughter, and finally returns to Norway around 1045. in Norway he muscles his way into a co kingship with his nephew. The nephew conveniently dies a year later. Hardrata is now the sole king of Norway. He spends the next 20 years being so harsh and authoritarian that his subjects nickname Hardrada or Hard Ruler. So that's what Hardrada means. This is the guy who, in 1066, hears that Eddie the Confessor is dead and thinks, huh, an old Viking treaty from Canute's time says I have a claim to England. I've spent my whole life fighting wars. I'm fifty years old, I have hundreds of ships, and I have a Norwegian army full of Vikings who would absolutely love to invade England. Let's go. Harold Hardrata is genuinely one of the most dangerous human beings alive in the year ten sixty six, and he's coming to England. Any questions about Harold Hardrata at all? I feel like it's gonna be a question and I did not take notes on it because I like that is just a whole jumble of information. No, I that's that there's no question. I'll I'll tell you that. There's no question on Harold Hardrata. Good. Well, is there There isn't. Player three. Tostig Godwinson. This is Harold's own brother. Younger than Harold, by maybe five years, Edward had made him an earl in Northumbria, the giant chunk of Northern England back in ten fifty five, and Tostig had been terrible at it. Northumbria is a wild place in ten sixty six. It's half Danish, Full of independent minded Thegns or noblemen who do not like being told what to do. Do you guys know the difference between a thane and a nobleman? I do not know. Well a thane is is a nobleman. Only thanes are Danish. Noblemen are English. And Thane and Noblemen. Mm-hmm. Thane. They're both the same thing. They have the same roles, just in their different cultural societies. And nobleman's and nobleman. Mm-hmm. Just from England. Yep. Did not know the difference. Now I do. Tostig's from the South. He raises their taxes. He travels around constantly with a giant expensive bodyguard. He murders several Northumbian political rivals. Just hasn't killed openly, and in ten sixty four his right hand man, tax collector, burns a guy's house down with the guy inside. So the Northumbrians aren't very happy with Tostik. In October of ten sixty five, while Tostig is hundreds of miles away at the royal court in the south, the entire region of Northumbria revolts. The local Thegns march on the city of York, kill Tostig's officials, loot his treasury and declare him outlawed. They invite a guy named Morcar to be their new Earl instead. Now this is a huge crisis. King Eddie, who's still alive at this point, this is two months before he actually dies, sends Harold north to put the rebellion down. And Harold, looking at the situation, realizes the rebels are right. His brother has been a tyrant. So Harold negotiates with the rebels and agrees to all of their demands. Tostik is exiled, and Morkar gets Northumbria. Now Tostik is furious, like beyond furious. He believes his own brother has betrayed him for political gain. There's even a wild story from a chronicler named Henry of Huntington, And to be fair, this one is most certainly made up, that Tostig once got so jealous of Harold's favorite status at court that he went to Harold's house, killed his servants, chopped them up, and served them in a stew to King Eddie at a banquet. my god. Right. my and this is proven not correct, right? probably not real. Yeah. but it gives you a sense of how poisonous the relationship between the two had really become. Tostig flees to Flanders. He spends 1066 traveling around looking for an ally. He goes to Normandy and offers to help William. William says, Cool, stand by. He goes to Norway and offers help to Hardrata, and Hardrata says, Yeah, let's invade England together. So now April ten sixty six, Harold has been king for three months. William is building ships in Normandy, Hardrata is gathering Vikings in Norway, and Tostig is sailing around the North Sea looking for a fight. And right on cue, the sky decides to add a little extra drama. On April twenty fourth, ten sixty-six, a giant flaming object appears in the sky over England. It has a glowing head and a long burning tail. It is visible for seven nights. People can see it during the day even. Nobody in living memory has ever seen anything like it. What it actually is is can any of you guess? Halley's Comet? It is Halley's Comet. We know this now because we know about the orbital mechanics of comets, and we know Halley's Comet swings by Earth roughly every seventy six years. The same comet that showed up over England in ten sixty six is the same comet that showed up in nineteen ten and nineteen eighty six, and that will show up again in 2061. But in ten sixty six nobody had any idea what comets were. They thought they were divine omens. Specifically, they thought they were a bad omen. Comets meant change. Comets meant kings would die. Comets meant blood. Watch out for 2061. Yeah, you're you'll see it. I vaguely remember it from when I was like four. Really? Like I remember I don't remember seeing it. I remember the like everybody like you know how kids really feel the emotions of the room? Yes. I remember that that emotion that you know people were excited to see it and stuff like that. That's what I remember from it. I don't remember actually seeing it. Interest I always like see videos like this is gonna happen in the sky on this day. Be watch out and it's like always at like three in the morning. I'm like I'm not waking up for that. You'll be able to see it during the day when it comes. Yeah. Does it just last the day? Well no, it's just up in the sky moving through and it's bright enough to see during the day. Which is crazy. See like that's something I I feel like I either it's either way too late or I either forget about it. Alright, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the comet appearing and notes A portent such as men had never seen before was seen in the heavens. That's what the Anglo Saxon Chronicle said. A monk at the monastery of Malmesbury named Athelmere. Who claimed he had also seen the comet 76 years earlier as a young man in 989, the last time it came around, looks up at it and reportedly says, You have come, have you? You have come, you source of tears to many mothers. It is long since I last saw you, but as I see you now, you are much more terrible. For I see you brandishing the downfall of my country. Now that's a famous quote. So I I really it's the you have come, you source of tears to many mothers. That's the whole portion that kinda gets wrapped around this Norman invasion from the English side because they see it, you know, this guy said it about the comet, but what happened afterwards and with William the Conqueror, he was he was the source of many tears to many mothers. That is a real quote from a real eleventh century monk about an actual comet that he had seen twice in his life, and he was right. And the same comet shows up on the bayou tapestry a few panels after Harold's coronation, with English peasants pointing at it in horror. For Harold's people, the comet means doom. For Williams people across the channel, the same comet means God is on Williams' side. Same comet, two completely opposite interpretations. Welcome to medieval propaganda. while the comet burns over England, Harold does the smart thing. He races the fjord, the English militia, and stations his entire army on the south coast all summer, watching for William's invasion fleet. Now do you guys I just said what the fjord is, the fjord FY R D. Do you guys know what that is? Isn't it isn't a fjord kind of dislike it It's a word in another language, I don't know which one, but it's a language like for field. So f fjord is the valleys and the mountains in Norway. Yeah. that were cut by glaciers and stuff. Those are the fjords. This is Feard. F Y R D. Means something totally different. Is it an army? It's an army. It's the English militia, meaning that it was farmers and peasants that had to fight for the king. So in the medieval era, the king owned everything, right? And then his vassals owned tracts of land, but they owed the king money for those lands. And then underneath the vassals you had the you know, the serfs and all that feudalism. It is basically it was feudalism before feudalism really kicked in. But one of the things that all the people beneath the king had to do, one of their tithes to the king, was that when he called them up, they had to arm themselves and go to war. That's how he raised an army. Cause they didn't have a you know an actual army like we do today. So it was the Fjord and he would raise all the he would raise the Fjord and they would all Take their pitchforks and they'd give swords and stuff if they had but th they didn't always have to give. So some of these people were fighting with pitchforks and, you know, hay rakes and just whatever they had at their houses. So that's what a feard is. Hail races of feud? Yes. To like protect the coast all summer. Mm-hmm. So he's on the south coast all summer. And he's watching for William's invasion fleet. He keeps him there in May. He keeps him there in June. He keeps him there in July. He keeps him there in August. Can I guess when he does he invade in September, the month that he stops? Hold on, before we get there, the English Fjord is a peasant army. What are they supposed to be doing? The peasants and the serfs and well there's no serfs yet, but they're just peasants at the time. It's like serving their masters that who like and on like If they weren't in the fjord, where would they be? On the farms. On the farms. What are they supposed to be doing on their farms? Getting food for the For the country, so I'm assuming there's gonna be a food source shortage. They're supposed to be farming. Uh-huh. So by September, the harvest is rotting in the fields. The men are sick of camping on the beach, food is running low, and William still has not come. Why? Because the wind is wrong. William's invasion fleet is ready, and historians think he had something like six or seven hundred ships. With maybe seven thousand men in the harbor at Saint Valerie. But the wind is blowing in the wrong direction across the channel. He can't sail. He sits there for weeks, waiting for the wind to shift. He prays. He has Saints relics paraded through his camp. He's big on the relics, apparently. And still, the wind blows the wrong way. On September eighth, ten sixty six, Harold makes the hardest decision of his life. He disbands the fjord. The peasants go home to save what is left of their harvest. The English Navy goes back to London to resupply. And Harold says, It's too late in the season. William is not coming. We can rebuild the army in the spring. And he disbands. Little did he know month later, from what we know. Eleven days later, the wind in the North Sea, completely opposite end of the country, turns favorable for Norwegian ships. And on September 18th, a fleet of 300 Viking longships carrying around 9,000 of Hardrada's warriors, plus Tostig and his exiles, lands on the northeast coast of England. Near York. the invasion has come. Just from the other direction. The Vikings march inland, they'd burn the town of Scarborough on the way. And then on September twentieth, two days after landing, they meet the local English earls. Morcar of Northumbria and his brother Edwin of Mercia. The same guys who had replaced Hostig. At a place called Fulford, just outside of York. And the English army is crushed. It is a massacre. The Northumbrian forces are basically destroyed. York surrenders without a fight. Hardrata takes 150 children hostage. From prominent Yorkshire families to make sure that York stays loyal. By September 22nd, Hardrat is sitting in a captured English city with his army camped at a nearby crossroads called Stamford Bridge, waiting for Yorkshire's other towns to come pay tribute and surrender. He thinks the war in the north is basically over. He has no idea that Harold Godwinson is even close. this is what is called the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Just so you know. We were gonna go there when we were up in New York, but apparently A, the bridge doesn't exist anymore, and B, it's in the middle of private land. Wow. Sucks. Yeah, it does. All right. He has no idea Harold Godwinson is even close. Because Harold is doing the most insane thing in medieval English military history. When the news of the Viking landing reaches Harold in London on September eighteenth or nineteenth, he raises every man who can fight and runs north. From London to York is about a hundred and ninety miles. And now you guys know how far London and York are from each other. It took us four hours to drive from Winchester to York. We stopped at Stratford upon Avon for the night, but you get the idea, right? Mm-hmm. Then we took a high speed train from York to London and that was two hours. That was a high speed train nonstop, two hours. All that in mind, the standard medieval army moves maybe 10 or 15 miles a day. Oof. So it should take around 15 to 20 days for Harold's army to march from London to York. And mind you, they're running the entire like Well, yes. That sounds like my that sounds like How many days do you think it took for Harold and his army to cover 190 miles? Well, you said it about 15, 20 days. I'd say about a month. Fifteen to twenty days is what it should have taken. because if they were like walking? If they were doing normal marching like armies do to get place to place, it would take fifteen to twenty days. Twenty. No, whoa, ten days. Okay, Gavin, any idea? Wait, so they were running all the way They were going much faster, basically, yeah, they were running. I'd say about twelve days. Twelve, thirteen days. Alright, Harold's army covers the 190 miles in four days. Four days. That's how fast they were going. They march night and day. They don't stop. Through villages where they grab fresh horses, through fields where they grab whatever food they can. They are dropping from exhaustion. my god. But they keep on marching. Jeez. And on the morning of September 25th, 1066, Hardrata wakes up at Stanford Bridge Camp. It's a warm, sunny day for a late September. The Vikings have left their chainmail armor back at the ships. They thought today was just going to be a relaxing day of accepting tribute from local Yorkshire nobles. They're eating breakfast, they're stretching in the sun. And then they see a dust cloud on the horizon. A massive dust cloud. And out of it, an army emerges. An English army. Harold Godwinson's army. Twelve thousand men out of nowhere. That's gotta be like the most horrifying scene ever. Yeah. Just you're just like kinda keeping guard, like you've let your guard down at this point because you think it's just gonna be another day. And all of a sudden you look Twelve to like thousand men. Twelve running out. Thousand men Taking up a massive dust cloud running straight at you. And you gotta think that he thought that it was gonna take them fifteen to twenty days to march from London. Yeah. And so he thought he had another ten days left at a minimum of just sitting around relaxing, taking tribute from other cities in the area. But that's not what happened. What are like getting ready instead of being ready. What I think of is that scene from the Odyssey when he is talking to dead Agamemnon and then like they all just rise from the Yes the sand and then they all start running at him. Like that's all I can think of is like that's what it must have seen been like. Like you there's some r so many people just running at you so fast. Yeah. Ardrata cannot believe what he sees. He had no warning. He has no armor. Half of his army is back at the ship, eight miles away. He sends a runner to bring the rest, but there's no time. Now before the battle starts, the chronicles say a single rider breaks off from the English army and rides up to the Norwegian lines. He calls out for Tostig. Tostig comes forward. The rider says, Brother, King Harald sends his message, lay down your arms, and you can have all of Northumbria back. Be Earl again and end this peacefully. Tostik says back And what does King Harold offer Harald Hardrata, my ally? And the writer pulls his cloak back, and it's Harold Godwinson himself writing incognito. He says back to Tostig, Seven feet of English ground, or perhaps a little more since he is taller than most men. I'm gonna repeat that quote for you guys. Okay. Seven feet of English ground, or perhaps a little more, since he is taller than most men. That's what Harold has brought. Harald Hardrata. That's it? It's very little. Well it's a grave, dude. it's a grave? Seven feet or six feet s seven feet of English ground. Meaning a grave. He's come to kill him. That's all he's gonna give him. I got it. Okay. Okay. A grave. Harold is offering Hardrata a grave. I literally have that written right here in the next sentence. I didn't get that either, so don't worry, Gavin. Well, because it's kinda one of those like Decipher the code. Poetic type things. Alright. Harold turns and rides back to the English line. Hardrata, watching him go, says to Tostig, Who was that man? He spoke well. And Tostig says, That was my brother, Harold, the King of England. According to the saga, Hardrada turns to his men and says, He was a small man, but he stood well in his stirrups. Which is cocky because Harold Gobinson was actually about five foot eleven, which for The time was very tall. I was laughing at the at the five foot eleven. Well yeah. Yeah, but like if you think about it. It was tall back then. Yeah. And hard drawd talking trash. Yeah. About Harold. Yeah. The battle starts. The Vikings on the west side of the river, caught completely unprepared, are slaughtered fast. The survivors flee across Stamford Bridge, a narrow wooden bridge across the river Derwent, to rejoin the main Viking army on the east side. and here is one of the most famous moments in English military history. As the English army charges the bridge, one enormous Viking, Steps out onto the bridge by himself. He's in full chain mail. He has a long, two handed Danish battle axe. The bridge is only wide enough for two or three men side by side. And this guy plants his feet in the middle of it and dares the entire English army to cross. That's gotta be like another terrifying thing. Yeah. He's doing it and he knows he's gonna die. Mm-hmm. Like there there is only one end to that story. Yeah. For the next hour or more, this one Viking holds the entire English army at bay by himself on a bridge. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle says he killed forty Englishmen before anyone could get past him. Forty. Each one of them rushing him, getting cut down, falling into the river, or onto the bridge. The Vikings on the other side of the river are using this time to form their shield wall and They're still waiting for their army that was eight miles away to come. Eventually the English gets smart. One enterprising Englishman finds a barrel. Sources actually say a swill tub, which is a barrel for collecting kitchen waste. He gets in it, floats himself under the bridge, and stabs upward through the planks of the bridge floor into the berserker's unprotected legs. the Viking finally falls, the English pour across the bridge. We do not know this Viking's name. He's one of the most famous warriors in English history, and we have no idea who he was. Just some giant Norwegian with an axe who decided one September morning in ten sixty six to delay an entire army by himself so his friends could survive. That's crazy. Right? my god. That's gotta like whoa. There's a boss in a game that I play. And it's the Berserker. Well yeah, that's the Viking Berserkers. They were they were nuts. They would their stories, I don't know, I'm not actually quite sure how true they are because I haven't really done any research on it, but they would take drugs and they would be out of their minds and they would go run into battle naked and they were just these big, rage filled people killing everybody they could see, and they knew that they were probably gonna die, but they didn't care because they were high. So that's what a berserker is, yeah. That's what it's like terrifying. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, written by Englishmen, give him an entire heroic passage. Even his enemies thought that he was awesome. Isn't that cool? Yes. Anyway, the Vikings on the East Bank have formed up, the English charge, the fighting is brutal. Vikings without armor against fully armored English housecarls. Hardrata, fighting like a man possessed, takes an arrow in the throat. He drops dead in the middle of the field. The Norwegian shield wall starts to crack. Tostig, Harold's own brother, picks up Hardrata's banner, called Land Ravager, and tries to rally the Vikings. Tostig is cut down too. By the time the rest of the Viking army arrives from the ships, they are out of breath, in heavy armor, on a hot day, and they walk into the battle that is already lost. They too are slaughtered. By evening, the field is covered in Norwegian dead. The numbers are insane. The Vikings had arrived on 300 ships. Harold let the survivors leave, but they only needed 24 ships to carry them home. So they went from 300 ships worth of Vikings to 24. That's nuts. That's how many Norwegians died at Stamford Bridge. The greatest Viking warlord of the age, Harald Hardrada, was dead. Tostik Godwinson, the betraying brother, was dead. The last Viking invasion of England had been crushed. Twelve thousand Norwegians gone. Just did the math in my head and that's one twelfth of the Vikings surviving. Like roughly. that's nuts. Yeah. That's crazy, right? Yeah. So the fact that it was the last vake Viking invasion of England. Mm-hmm. It stopped that is what stopped the Vikings trying to take over England. 'Cause they've been doing it for since like eight hundred, six hundred? Mhm. Six or eight hundred. So it'd been a while. A couple hundred years that they were Trying to take over. It is, by any measure, an absolutely stunning military victory. Harold Godwinson had just done something legendary. He marched 190 miles in four days, surprised one of the most experienced warriors in Europe, and destroyed his army. Harold is feeling good. But that won't last for long. the only living person that has thinks he has claim to the throne is William of Normandy. So That's all that's left. Yeah. When Harold dies at this moment he thinks that William is gonna wait until spring because it's too late in the season to sail across and and invade. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's what he thinks. But we're in ten sixty six September. And as we all know, October fourteenth, ten sixty six is it's coming up. It's and what is that date? The Battle of Hastings. That's right. When it all goes down. That's right. We're pretty close. Histography Hardrata's incredible biography mostly comes from the Heims Kringla, a collection of Norse sagas written by the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturlson around twelve thirty. Love that name. Of the book or him. Almost two hundred years after the events. Sagas are great fun, but they tend to dramatize, mythologize, and exaggerate, so the details should be taken with caution. That said, Hardrata's career is also corroborated by Byzantine sources. Specifically a treatise called Strategikon, but the eleventh century general who knew Hardrata personally and confirms he led the Varangian Guard. So the broad strokes of his life Norway, Russia, Constantinople, returned to Norway, all real. The Seven Feet of English Ground Exchange before Stamford Bridge is also from Snorri. So it might be invented, but it's too good not to tell. The Lone Viking Berserker on the Bridge appears in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, which was written soon after the events. So the basic story is genuine, though 40 killed is probably exaggerated. The Haley's Comet apparition in April of 1066 is very well documented. It appears in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, in the Irish Chronicles, In Byzantine chronicles on the bayou tapestry, and even possibly in petroglyphs by the Chaco people in modern day New Mexico. Wow. All describing the same comedy at the same time. Interesting. It seems like the Anglo Saxon Chronicle is like the one source that most people can trust when it comes to time for this time period about all the different things. Cause like it gets come up in almost every single historiography. It's like the only actual primary source. Yeah. Would you count the Bayou Tapestry as a primary source? I would not. We're gonna go into the Bayou Tapestry later and I'll tell you why. I'm excited, because that's one of our two fifty works in art history. So I'm so excited when we get to that. I'm gonna have so much. It's gonna be so great. So I guess we could talk about it a little bit here. Sneak peek. Sneak peek. Historians call it a primary source. I don't think it is. Because it was made after The invasion like three years after it was commissioned by William's half brother. Mm-hmm. And it's one sided by far. It just shows English. It's it's just it's just the French perspective of it. Because the French are the ones that won. Uhhuh. His shoe shows the winner. That's right. Yeah. And that's why I don't think it's I don't consider it a primary source specifically because it was made three years later. Yeah. That's not primary. That's still secondary because it didn't it didn't the Anglo Saxon Chronicle is written within, you know, a couple days or weeks of the events happening. Yeah. Because that's how long it took for the information to get to them. This is a propaganda piece trying to make William look good. So interesting. That's just a sneak preview. I feel in my opinion, it is a primary source, but just not like a reputable. That's from the era. And that's how historians feel too. They really do. They they see it as a primary source, but they do know that it's biased. The Bayou Tapestry was Embroidered because it's an embroidery, not a tapestry. It was embroidered in Canterbury by English nuns. Interesting. Okay. And there's a book that goes into the little itty bitty things that the English nuns put into the margins of it. Because there's like a comic strip running across the top and the bottom with different animals and different things that are just they seem random. Yeah. But there's some people that believe that these nuns were trying to be subversive. in a not so forthright way. Interesting. So yeah. I hope that's a really interesting tap the whole tapestry is really interesting so far. I hope that gets brought up in our class. Cause I don't know, at least my teacher, he brings a bunch of different so far what we've been doing, there's really not been much to do 'cause we've just done prehistory, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. So like that's kind of what we've done so far. But like He's kind of brought different sides and like he said this side, but also this also did happen. But we also don't know because it is so old. Like d we just have no clue of actually proving that like this is what this was used for. Or this is the context before this, especially for prehistory, because you can't really have context because there's it's before history was documented. Like you can't have context if there's literally nothing to put like No nothing to have context of. Yeah, 'cause it's it's what we're looking at is the context of events. Yeah. Like so there's no context for the event itself, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, I get it. The the story of the tapestry itself and why it still survives today is almost as interesting as what the tapestry depicts. I find it interesting that English nuns weaved it for a story about French. Mm-hmm. People. That's yeah, I just power that the French, the Normans had over England at the time because William conquered England. the Henry of Huntington story about Tostig serving Harold's servants in stew to King Eddie is almost certainly fictional. it appears in only one late source and has the hallmarks of medieval moral storytelling rather than reporting. And Tostig's actual misrule of Northumbria, by contrast, is well attested in multiple sources, including the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Lessons we've learned today. The big lesson of this episode is about timing. Specifically how thin the margins of history can really be. If the wind in the English Channel had shifted three weeks earlier, William would have landed in the south of England while Harold's fjord was still there waiting for him. And the Battle of Hastings might have been an English victory. Three weeks of weather in two different seas, hundreds of miles apart. Determined who would rule England for the next thousand years. History is not always made by the great speeches and the famous battles. Sometimes it's made by the wind direction in late summer. It was literally written in the stars. Like you that's exactly right. It's like you can't control that. That's no. Yeah. No. And actually it's what made William the Conqueror actually win. Because he was able to land. You'll you'll see in the next episode, 'cause the next episode's all about that. Mm-hmm. he lands and there's nobody there to for you know, against him. Yeah. It gives him a chance to group on land and yeah. Gain some group. If if he didn't have that, yeah, there's very little chance that he wins the Battle of Hastings because there was he almost didn't win it, and you'll see why next week. Yeah. Time for the Fun Fact Challenge! Last week's didn't work because there was a first answer bias, and Zoe has an advantage on those types of questions. So I don't I'm gonna throw that out. So we're going back to the locking in, but new rules. Do not lock in until you have the answer. If you lock in and then have to search your notes. It automatically goes to the other person. I like this. We will see how this format works and I'm just trying to make it fair. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So locking in and then looking for your answer is no longer allowed. Gavin. If you want to lock in because you think you have the answer, go right ahead. I'll stop asking the question. Like normal. Okay? Exclusive. We good? Gavin, did you want to go over where we where we stand? Okay. So last game I lost one to two. And overall I'm winning two to one. And overall the score is five to four me. Okay. I'm close. Yeah, you guys are very close. You got you gained so much ground just in one just from last week. Gavin, I'm glad to see that you took notes the entire time this time and didn't give up halfway. Alright, question one. How did the English finally defeat the lone berserker who was single handedly? Zoe. An Englishman got into a little like crate, like yeah, like a little crate. And then he got into the the river underneath the boat and he stabbed from up above and that finally got the berserker to s stop. That is correct. She said crate, but go on. It was a barrel. I couldn't think of the word barrel. It was also a swill tub, that's what they called it. Ugh Gavin kept shaking his head like you're wrong. Floated under the bridge. You said boat, but you I I know what but I know what you meant. Yeah. Yeah. Don't you don't even know what I mean. All right, question two. What did Harold famously offer Hardrata? Often Gavin? Seven feet of ground. Of English ground. That's right. Seven feet of English ground. Or perhaps a little more since he is taller than most men. That's was the actual thing. AKA a grave. AKA a grave. All right. Tied up. Ooh, I this is so We did get this. I think we finally figured out this whole fun fact challenge thing. Alright, last question. Tiebreaker. The Vikings arrived in England with three hundred ships. Fucked in twenty-four. Okay, hold on. You should give it to me because of that. I didn't answer who answered who said locked in first. I I I would have said twenty-four. I I'm not I didn't I did the math in my head and I said roughly around one twelfth. All right. So here's the thing. I heard both of you say locked in at the exact same time. That's why I took a beep because I was trying to figure out in my head. But then you answer, which was a penalty. I didn't know that. You never said that. I think it's applied. But because I don't know if you really would have known twenty-four, there's no way for me to know that for sure. Even though you said you didn't I I I do believe you, but there's no way for me to know. I'll come up with another question. sorry I ruined it for everyone. My bad. I feel like you do know that I know it because I did the math. It's okay. It's okay. Actually it was roughly on one thirteenth because that mine is one, but so Gabby's just gonna answer ask a different question. You can't flex your math skills and get the point. I just Little cheetah. You did that on purpose, didn't you? 'Cause you know we would have done that. And our next question's gonna be in your favor. Okay. I don't In the battle between Harold Gowinson and Hardrata, what was the name of that battle? Knocked in Gavin. The Battle of Stanford Bridge. No got it. Ha ha ha There you go. All right. So Gavin won that one two to one. yeah. I think I should have won, but I understand why I didn't. Yeah. I didn't call on you. You would have called on Gavin anyway. I honestly heard both of you at the exact same time and I c I'm not gonna say who it was until I go and edit and see. Check it out. I could, but I don't want I wanna see the wavelengths. you can't see wavelengths on there? It's just like we really did say it at the exact same time. You really did. Like And I was more shocked because I hadn't even gone like halfway through the question yet. Yeah. Yeah. This day in History! ⁓ today is October first. And on this day in three thirty-one BC The Battle of Guagamela. Alexander the Great decisively debe defeats Darius the Third of Persia, Effectively ending the Achaemenid Empire and opening the door to Alexander's conquest of the ancient Near East. Bigger than me when you said 330, whatever, I'm like, now what could have happened? that early in history. Like And then I said BC. Yep. B C and I'm like, okay, that makes more sense. I'm like that's but that's before really in the conquer. Like they that's before this. This is like seven hundred years before that. I'm like it's like thirteen hundred years before that. Yeah, it's pretty puty putty far. All right. Fifteen fifty three, Mary the First is crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey, becoming the first woman to rule England in her own right. Who run the world, girls. That's right. And who okay, do you guys know the nickname for Mary the First? Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. Because she wanted to kill all the men protestants Men. okay. yeah, because Henry VIII the Eighth was her dad was her dad. I actually couldn't remember why she was called Bloody Mary. I just knew she was called Bloody Mary. Yep. She was the sister of Elizabeth. Elizabeth the First, that's right. And lastly, in nineteen forty six, this one you guys will find very interesting. The Nuremberg trial verdicts are handed down on this day. When you said that date, I'm like, it's after World War Two. So like I love that movie. Twelve Nazi leaders are sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity. the movie was that was such a good movie. It was a good movie. Ugh it was so good. I wanna re watch it with Mom 'cause she hasn't watched it. No, it's right, she hasn't. So, on the morning of september twenty eighth, ten sixty six, three days later after the Battle of Stanford Bridge, while Harold's army is still in York celebrating and burying their dead and tending to their wounded, while the messengers and news of the great victory at Stamford Bridge have not even reached most of England yet, and while Harold himself is probably writing letters about his triumph, the wind in the English Channel finally shifts. William of Normandy gives the order. Set sail. We will see you next episode. Cliff Hang anyway, the wind blows. That's it for this episode. Thanks for traveling through time with us. If you like today's story, share it with a friend, a teacher, or your family, and then come find us on Instagram at Ebbs of History with your show ideas, corrections, and questions. Signing off, this is your co-host, Gavin, Zoe. And me, Jason. Until next time. Keep wondering. Keep laughing. And keep learning. Through the ebbs of history.