Battle of Hastings ! ~ this day 954 years ago !!

·         Hastings   is a seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, 24 mi (39 km) east to the county town of Lewes and 53 mi (85 km) south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place 8 mi (13 km) to the north-west at Senlac Hill in 1066. It later became one of the medieval Cinque Ports.   

·         Founded in 1996 in Bexhill-on-Sea on the Sussex coast, the Hastings Group is one of the leading general insurance providers to the UK market, with over 2.7 million live customer policies and employing people  at sites in Bexhill, Leicester, Gibraltar and London.  

·         Warren Hastings FRS (1732 – 1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of Bengal from 1772 to 1785.

He is credited along with Robert Clive for laying the foundation of the British Empire in India.    Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of India in 1773.   In 1779–1784 he led the forces of the East India Company against a strong coalition of native states and the French.  

Hastings arrived in Madras shortly after the end of the First Anglo-Mysore War of 1767–1769.  The Treaty of Madras (29 March 1769) which ended the war failed to settle the dispute and three further Anglo-Mysore Wars followed (1780–1799).   In 1771 he was appointed to be Governor of Calcutta, the most important of the Presidencies.   He also faced the severe Bengal Famine, which resulted in about ten million deaths.

In 1787, he was accused of corruption and impeached in 1787, but after a long trial he was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.

·         Remember John Hastings who played for CSK – a burly allrounder  right-arm fast-medium bowling and strong lower-order batting, John Hastings became Australia's 430th Test cricketer when Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus were ruled out of the Perth Test against South Africa in 2012. Hastings took the wicket of AB de Villiers in the first innings and made contributions with the bat, but his bowling generally lacked the penetration required to seriously trouble a strong South African line-up.

The Norman conquest of England was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of Norman, Bretons, Flemish and French knights, all led by the Duke of Normandy later styled William the Conqueror.  Anglo-Saxon king Edward  died in 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in Sept 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Within days, William landed in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose him, leaving a significant portion of his army in the north. Harold's army confronted William's invaders on 14 October at the Battle of Hastings; William's force defeated Harold, who was killed in the engagement.

Harold Godwinson [Harold II], was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death  on 14.10.1066 at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England. His death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England.

The Battle of Hastings  was fought  this day 954 years ago ! [on 14 Oct 1066] between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.

The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward's death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig, and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway).  The exact numbers present at the battle are unknown as even modern estimates vary considerably. The composition of the forces is clearer; the English army was composed almost entirely of infantry and had few archers, whereas only about half of the invading force was infantry, the rest split equally between cavalry and archers.   After further marching and some skirmishes, William was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066.

There continued to be rebellions and resistance to William's rule, but Hastings effectively marked the culmination of William's conquest of England. Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some historians estimate that 2,000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen.  

~ and these Britishers mauled in their own country, came as traders to India and ruled the Nation for 3 centuries, bringing untold hardships to the natives !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

14.10.2020.