Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Saturday, October 14, 2006 9:11:30 PM
On this day in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England’s Howard II and established Norman rule in England. (Chesterton Day by Day) [p. 96]
Gored on the Norman gonfalon
The Golden Dragon died,
We shall not wake with ballad strings
The good time of the smaller things,
We shall not see the holy kings
Ride down the Severn side.
-- Ballad of Alfred [“Dedication,” the Ballad of the White Horse]
The Norman conquest of England was the invasion of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. It is an important watershed in English history for a number of reasons. The conquest linked England more closely with Continental Europe and lessened Scandinavian influence, created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe, created the most sophisticated governmental system in Western Europe, changed the English language and culture, and set the stage for English-French conflict that would last into the 19th century. It remains the last successful military conquest of England.
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October Is Chesterton Month For Daily Quotes: G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) is a three-story intellect* whose “…best illuminations come from above through the skylight.”
* Who are three story thinkers? Oliver Wendell Holmes provided the idea for this series of daily blogs in a quote believed to be from a short story called: “The Three Story House.”
“There are one-story intellects, two story intellects, and three story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine and predict. Their best illuminations come from above through the skylight.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, writer, physician