![]() Having recovered he spent several years travelling around Europe before returning to England and ending his life quietly as a hermit, only revealing his identity on his death bed.ĭetail from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Harold’s coronation. In the Vita, Harold was found wounded but alive on the battlefield. Far from being hit in the eye by an arrow, or even cut to pieces as most early accounts describe, the early thirteenth-century Vita Haroldi claims that King Harold survived the Battle of Hastings. Here are three examples of medieval stories told about the events of 1066 and its aftermath: Story #1: King Harold didn’t die! ![]() ![]() However, the dramatic backdrop of invasion made it easy to turn men into heroes or villains and, as you will see, in the popular-reputation battle the Normans didn’t always come out on top! It is often said that history is written by the winners, and with the Norman Conquest the earliest chronicle accounts do indeed have a Norman bias. Just like a film, these accounts could be exaggerated and inaccurate – but they give us an insight into how medieval people saw their own past. ![]() During the medieval period poems, songs and even Saints’ Lives gave the public a window onto past events in the way a Hollywood movie ‘based on a true story’ can today. People have always told stories about the past to help them understand the present. ![]()
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