On October 14, 1066, William’s Norman forces and Harold’s English army clashed. William’s troops, having moved swiftly to reach Harold’s camp early that morning, caught the English somewhat off guard. The latter’s army had strategically positioned itself on a raised terrain known as the “hammer-head ridge,” which enjoyed natural defences from the surrounding woods. Meanwhile, William’s forces aligned themselves to the south of the ridge, organized into three infantry divisions: Bretons, Normans, and French, each boasting archers and crossbowmen in the front lines, while cavalry reserves stood ready at the rear.

The battle began with a barrage of arrows from the Normans countered by a hail of stone axes thrown by the Anglo-Saxons as the Normans ascended the ridge. The Norman cavalry struggled due to the terrain but was eventually repelled by the Saxon shield wall. A moment of panic swept the Norman ranks when rumours spread that William had fallen. However, William, unscathed, revealed himself to rally his troops. Subsequently, some Anglo-Saxons pursued the retreating Norman cavalry downhill but were ambushed and defeated, once on level ground. Witnessing this success, William ordered two more feigned charges and retreats, luring the Anglo-Saxons into pursuit and then executing counterattacks on favourable terrain.

Whoopsie!

The Norman cavalry’s superiority over the Anglo-Saxon infantry was a crucial factor in tipping the scales, as the housecarls, the best-trained troops, were depleted in number. In the final cavalry charge, Harold and other Saxon leaders, including his brothers Gurth and Leofwine, were killed. According to tradition, Harold suffered an arrow to the eye, fell under a cavalry charge, and was hacked to pieces by Norman swords. Following his death, the remaining Anglo-Saxons conducted a rearguard action as they retreated to a nearby hill, the Malfosse, but they were ultimately overwhelmed, securing total victory for William.

— Source

Genocide! Illegal occupation! Give England back to the Saxons!

Library of Congress

Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis,” Part 3:

“Nature, in the arrangement of mankind, has fitted some for every service in life:

Were all soldiers, all would starve and go naked, and were none soldiers, all would be slaves.

…

All we want to know in America is simply this, Who is for Independence, and who is not?”

Every man in training in the various camps throughout the country is taught to render first aid to a wounded comrade and to see that he reaches a safe place beyond rifle’s fire.

150,000 Men, 900 Ships: Excavation Reveals Size of Antony & Cleopatra’s Fleet
WarHistoryOnline | May 12, 2019

The battle of Actium, which took place off of the west coast of Greece on September 2, 31 B.C., is widely regarded as the decisive moment at which the Roman Republic fell and the Roman Empire rose in its place following the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Octavian, the adopted son and great-nephew of Caesar, faced off against the combined forces of Egypt, led by Cleopatra and Mark Antony, who had been a close friend of the late Caesar.

Octavian’s fleet of 500 ships and 70,000 infantry faced off against Antony and Cleopatra’s combined 400 ships and 80,000 infantry.

Naval historians have studied the battle extensively, curious about the effect that Octavian’s smaller ships might have played in ensuring their decisive victory over the comparatively larger ships which made up Antony and Cleopatra’s fleet.

Now, a recent archaeological discovery has helped to shed light on exactly how much of an advantage this gave the Roman commander.

[Antony’s] underwater battering rams, designed to break down harbor defenses [but primarily to destroy enemy ships — Oppo], were considerably larger than any that had been previously found.

Although only remnants of the rams themselves were discovered in the excavated ruin (it is assumed that later generations or invading forces stole them and melted them down for bronze), the size of the niches they were placed in led historians to estimate that Antony and Cleopatra sailed in ships as large as 40 metres long.

The First Victorian Christmas Trees
December 15, 2020 | John Rabon | anglotopia.net

Coming originally from Germany, there is speculation about how it got started as a decoration.  Stories have it that reformist Martin Luther created the first Christmas tree when he placed candles on an evergreen tree in 1536.  Luther walked out of his home in Wittenberg one night in December and saw the stars twinkling through the tree branches and thought they looked like candles.  He then placed candles on an evergreen as a symbol to remind his children of Christ coming down from the heavens to become one of us. 

The first documented representation of a Christmas tree was on the cornerstone of a private home in Turckheim, Alsace (part of modern-day France) in 1576.

Over time, the popularity of the Christmas tree spread across Germany.  While most people think it didn’t come to Britain and the States until the first Christmas that Prince Albert spent with Queen Victoria, he wasn’t actually the first German spouse of a monarch to do so.  Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, was originally from the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Germany.  In 1800, she placed a Christmas tree in Queen’s Cottage at Kew Palace for her children.  This first display of a Christmas tree by the Royal Family didn’t catch on with the public, and it would be a few decades before the practice returned with the next German-born royal consort.

Fighting actual Nazis.

Photo credit: Library of Congress