Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday 14 October 2016

Battle of Hastings 950


Today is the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. This was arguably the most important event in English - and by extension British/UK  - history in the last thousand years. I posted something about the victor in 2012 at William the Conqueror

The anniversary is being commemorated on the latest 50pence piece with the figure, traditionally assumed to be King Harold II, on the reverse.

 Image result for Hastings commemorative coin

Image: changechecker.org

Guernsey has issued a £5 coin to mark the occasion - and as the Channel Islanders are wont to do may be seen as their celebration of 'their' conquest of Engalnd.
 Image result for Hastings commemorative coin

Image: The Westmister Collectyion 

The coins have the portrait of The Queen, who is, of course, descended from both King Harold II and King William I as Montcrieff and Pottinger pointed out in Blood Royal many years ago - Queen Philippa of Hainault was descended from King Harold, so all descendents of her and her husband King Edward III share this joint ancestry.

 

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