Today I slept in a bit to recover some of my stamina after a week of near-constant touring, and then hopped on a train for an afternoon journey to Battle, the village that is home to the site of the Battle of Hastings. If you've lived under a rock your entire life and failed to take note of even the most basic aspects of Western civilization, the Battle of Hastings was when William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy in 1066, killing the English King Harold and taking the English crown. And the rest, as they say, is history, since the Norman Conquest created the Britain that exists today.
I was surprisingly moved by the battleground, even though a thousand years is more than enough to wipe away all traces of a battle fought with arrows, swords, and battleaxes. But the audioguide was pretty good, and the long path curving around the battlefield took you into the valley below so that you could better appreciate the difficulties of the Normans' approach up the hill to the English shields waiting at the top. The hill isn't on par with the foothills in California, but it's still steep enough that you wouldn't want to have to go up it under a hail of arrows and stones, and Harold clearly had a strategic advantage that he unfortunately wasn't able to capitalize upon. It didn't help that he was killed during the battle, making all capitalization rather pointless for him anyway. But I had tears in my eyes listening to the description of Harold -- I never cry over my own issues, but give me a thirty-second monologue in a British accent about the doomed English king, and I'm ready to lose it.
The only building on the site is Battle Abbey, which was mostly destroyed by Henry VIII's followers as part of the dissolution of the monasteries during the break from the Catholic Church. Overall, the abbey ruins and the beautiful grassy fields of the battleground were incredibly peaceful, and it was a really nice outing -- while I really like London, it was nice to get out into the country and to a place that isn't thronging with tourists. Tourists do go to Battle, but only in handfuls compared to the crowds at Bath, Windsor, etc., so it almost felt like I had the place to myself.
I did not see or hear any mention of William de Warenne, one of William the Conqueror's advisors who fought with him at Hastings -- Uncle Mark claims we're descended from him, which made the tour all the more exciting, but the audiotour focused solely on William and Harold, and didn't talk about any of the other participants. But it was just a little surreal to think that I was standing on the ground where one of my ancestors fought almost a thousand years ago -- even though I probably wouldn't want to meet him, since views about issues like women's rights and general freedom and sanitation weren't particularly enlightened when he lived.
After finishing the tour and getting just the tiniest sunburn on the battlefield, I had a late afternoon snack in Battle -- I could really get used to having tea and scones (instead of just tea, which is what I usually have in the afternoon anyway). Then I came back to London, did some laundry, and worked on some stuff until now. I'm not sure what's on tap for tomorrow -- I had planned to go to Salisbury/Stonehenge, but there are some other museums I want to see, so it depends on the weather and how early I get up. Goodnight!
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