How important was the Battle of Hastings?

~Well is was important to the people in it…. other than the name is famous I don’t know.

Yeah we were smothered by it, never quite understood why, something to do with this ego maniac named Bill the Conqueror, who had lots of soldiers named Norman & kicked the arse of Harry & his saxon playing soldiers, leading to much drinking & widespread change across this…our glorious island race.

It’s one of the most important battles in English history, and it arguably changed the course of the Western world as we know it today, and certainly forced a rapid change of the English language as it evolved from Old English to Middle English.

I’ll just add that the English nearly won that battle. They had the tactical advantage, but Harold was killed, and the English forces lost their nerve and got routed. This would have been a very different world had Harold beaten back the French invasion.

When Harold was defeated by William the Conqueror it changed the whole power structure of English society. It changed the system of law in England. William was able to control and distribute the land to his Norman followers, who then in turn, had control over their estates as Barons/Earls who could distribute land to knights and give permission for people to farm their lands etc. Those who farmed those lands had to pay those over them a portion of their crop. The people who lived on the Baron’s lands – had little power. Governance was now very much from the top (William and his Barons/Earls) down. The Saxons, those defeated by William, were essentially powerless. The Battle of Hastings therefore brought about changes to the judicial system, the landownership system and the governance of England.

Importanter than fuck.

Well, about 60 to 70 percent of what you say comes from French. The nice part, like farmers grow pigs so you can have ham and pork. Cow’s poop, but when you eat them they’re beef. @Bellatrix said it best.

All part of the rich tapestry which peppers our historic landscape…Blackadder taught me a lot :D

^Indeed. My dad is a medieval scholar, and he has a book about the Bayeux tapestry that I used to pore over when I was a kid.

I’m an American, but I did have an English teacher who told us to memorize that date because of its significance to the English language. Thanks to dad’s book, I already knew it.

I had two teachers named Dave Crockett & William Shakespeare, true dat…boring, but true.

Hastings gave William the Bastard the throne. But, more importantly, Wm gave his new realm the DoomsDay Book by which he had a census compiled of the Island. He knew where the people, the livestock, the crop fields, forests, fisheries, Buildings, everything was; how much was produced annually, and what could be conscripted so no one could ever achieve his exploit again. Not a bad day’s work for “1066 and all that.”