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Is it News? Not particularly but certainly Politics

(17 Posts)
MawsRosie Wed 14-Oct-26 08:14:49

In memoriam

GODWINSON.—Harold. King of England. Died fighting the Invader. 14th October 1066.

Whitewavemark2 Wed 14-Oct-26 08:18:32

😊. Yes! What a profound change his death made to England.

eazybee Wed 14-Oct-26 09:37:25

Thank you, Maw. I had forgotten the date. A hero of mine and his death a tragedy.

Maremia Wed 14-Oct-26 09:41:12

So many 'what ifs'.

MaizieD Wed 14-Oct-26 10:10:10

I’m a bit suspicious of the date, Maw. Is it adjusted for the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar? grin

MawsRosie Wed 14-Oct-26 10:21:18

As I surprisingly wasn't actually there, it is hard to say

eazybee Wed 14-Oct-26 10:55:50

The Battle of Hastings is dated according to the Julian Calendar which was used at that time.

AskAlice Wed 14-Oct-26 10:56:51

I had a quick search on Google and it came up with this:

"The universally accepted date of 14 October 1066 is recorded using the Julian calendar, which was the calendar system in active use across Europe at the time.
Historians generally preserve original dates for events that occurred before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar to avoid historical confusion.

What would the date be today?

If you were to align the Battle of Hastings with our modern Gregorian calendar system (a process called using a proleptic Gregorian calendar), the date would shift forward by 6 days to 20 October 1066.
The calculation works as follows:
• In the 11th century, the Julian calendar lagged behind astronomical time by approximately 1 day every 128 years.
• By October 1066, that mathematical drift had accumulated to exactly 6 days.
• When Pope Gregory XIII introduced the modern calendar in 1582, the gap had reached 10 days, and by the time Great Britain adopted it in 1752, the discrepancy required skipping 11 days entirely."

Margs Wed 14-Oct-26 11:06:21

Wasn't the New Year celebrated around March back in those days?

MaizieD Wed 14-Oct-26 11:12:47

Margs

Wasn't the New Year celebrated around March back in those days?

Until the late 17th/ early 18th C you will find many documents are dated with 2 years from January to April, so '17th Feb 1781/2'.

This is why the new tax year starts in April and other similar oddities..

Maremia Wed 14-Oct-26 11:25:22

Yes Margs.

Greyduster Wed 14-Oct-26 11:32:54

The Anglo Saxon Chronicles state that “the battle was fought on Pope Calixtus’ Day, October 14th”. “There king Harold was killed, eorl Leofwine his brother and eorl Gyrth his brother, and many good men. The French held the field of the dead as God granted them because of the peoples sins”.

Oreo Wed 14-Oct-26 13:33:30

Apparently people protested about the calendar being changed I seem to remember from school history lessons, they rioted and yelled ‘Give us back our six days’.😁

Oreo Wed 14-Oct-26 13:36:55

If Harold hadn’t been killed we may never have had a town called Battle.Or so many tourists.Always a silver lining 😄

MaizieD Wed 14-Oct-26 14:02:37

It was actually 11 days, Oreo.

People were as resistant to evidence and reason in the 18th C as they are now...

Oreo Wed 14-Oct-26 14:20:36

Ooh get back in the knife drawer😂

Oreo Wed 14-Oct-26 14:22:28

Anyhoo…it was six days originally so people would have asked for their six days back.