557. 1066: The Norman Conquest (Part 4)

Harold had fallen, as his valiant brothers had fallen before him. The event too truly showed that England had fallen with the sons of Godwin, that as ever in this age, everything turned on the life of one man. and that the one man who could have guarded and saved England was taken from her. Such being the case, it is from that memorable day that we may fairly date the overthrow, what we know to have been only the imperfect and temporary overthrow of our ancient and free Teutonic England. In the eyes of men of the next generation that day was the fatal day of England, the day of the sad overthrow of our dear country, the day of her handing over to foreign lords.

From that day forward the Normans began to work the will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in England no chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought down to bondage and to sorrow. Till it was a shame to be called an Englishman, and the men of England were no more a people. So that was one of the great historians. It was Edward A. Freeman.

It was the man with whom ten episodes ago we began our account of the Norman conquest. Now you can't argue with Edward A. Freeman because he was Regis' Professor of History at Oxford, his book on the Norman conquest, the history of the Norman conquest in England, not just the best, but more importantly the longest history of the Norman conquest at six volumes, published to mark the 800th anniversary. And he correctly identified the Normans as the absolute filth of Europe.

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