HASTINGS - OVERSIMPLIFIED - Historian Reaction (The War that Changed the English Language)

Well friends, welcome back to everyone who asked for it, you got it. In fact, I've never seen the overly simplified video about the Battle of Hastings. We made the video a couple of days ago about the Battle of Hastings and a lot of you said, "Okay, now you need it." to make the simplified I didn't know there was one I'm not sure how I didn't know there was one but I didn't know there was one so this is the simplified video to follow the one we just made I made about the Battle of Hastings. It's about the war that

changed

the English

language

.

I've never seen it before. I'm curious to see how it can add to what we've already talked about and how it can take a different view. Let's dive into the links in the description if you want to see the original video. Here we go. It was made possible by Skillshare, an online learning community with over 17,000 classes on almost anything you can imagine. Keep watching until the end of the video. to find out how you can get your first two months free england in the middle ages the sun is shining the birds are singing the children are playing in the town square wait have we just rolled rick? we have rick rodado said no strangers to love here the sun shines the birds sing yes, we have rick rollins the children are playing in the town square what a wonderful time today no really hey you're dying away it's okay, i I'm sorry, I don't want to pause this right at the beginning that's not how you spell dysentery that's neither here nor there it has nothing to do with the story, although it makes me think of Oregon Trail, which is one of my favorite games when I was a kid and we're also being raided by Vikings, what a terrible time to be alive, oh it's the year 900, Europe is a Viking raid on the Western Stream galore, hey, you want to raid Paris, okay, that particular raid It didn't go very well, but the king of the Franks said that you guys are pretty tough. and it's scary, how about we give you land in the north of France?

You protect us from other Vikings and it was agreed that the Vikings established the Duchy of Normandy and then they went all in on converting French to Christianity and learning the

language

and having babies with the locals and that's. actually, where the word norman comes from, it's the northmen, it's the vikings, so it's funny that you know that when we think of the norman conquest of england we think of it as french, but in reality normandy was a viking duchy. uh roll and and einstein and all these guys who were Vikings originally said no, obviously they married into French families and stuff like that, but yeah, it wasn't just a French invasion, it was a Viking invasion of England.

England also had its fair share of Viking problems in the 800s. The Danish Vikings had conquered most of the country, but the Anglo-Saxons eventually managed to drive them out, although they left behind a group of Viking settlers. Now this guy's king, who sucks, replaced him with his brother and he said, "Hey, honey, how are you?" and he had a son and then he turned around and said, hey honey, how are you? and I had another son and then he died and no one was sure which son to make this king because he's older, not if I have anything to do with it that works. for us too, then he grew up and married the daughter of the Duke of Normandy, so yes, I mentioned this briefly during the last video about Normandy, the Anglo-Saxon way of choosing kings was not simply who is the heir to the throne there.

It was a council called Witten and if you've ever seen the TV show on Netflix, which is fantastic by the way, the last kingdom, you see a lot of this period, you see the balance of power and the struggle between the various English kingdoms, including some that are ruled by the Danes, the Vikings, uh, you also see that on the TV show Vikings, uh, and yeah, it's not necessarily okay, if you died, your son takes over, you know, there's often a lot of fighting because of that influence on Witten and many times it did not go very well.

He had a group of children. Remember this is important. Then his advisors came up to him and said, "Hey, all those Viking settlers who live here, they might band together and kill you." Well, then why don't we kill them first? Bad idea. Then it was that angry that the Danish king launched an invasion and the Vikings conquered England once again, then the Anglo-Saxons conquered it and the Vikings reconquered it. The king's family had to leave. into exile, including Edward, remember, he went to Normandy, where he lived for 30 years, he and his brother Alfred tried to return to England to take back the throne from the Vikings, but they were betrayed by the Earl of Wessex, who is Crawford.

Hello friend, I will accept it. to London, where all the nobles are waiting to make you king, so now you know, and this is good because this gives a lot more background than what we saw in the video the other day about the Battle of Hastings, this has given a lot more context on why things happened and everything that happened and why uh william the bastard you know had such a claim on the kingdom of england uh here's godwin the earl of wessex who we're talking about harold godwinson and he's godwin's son you know, that's where that kind of name pattern, oh no, look, the red hot poker in the eyes, I can't see it and therefore you can't be the rightful king.

What happened to Normandy after a few more Viking kings came and went? He died gasping for air and Edward was called back to England where he became king and that is where our story begins. All quite precise. This is what happens with becoming king in the Middle Ages. Often your entire country does not support you at first. You can be vulnerable. to the rebellions and it's up to you to take control, luckily for Edward, there was already a super powerful guy who had a lot of control over England and if Edward could get the support of him then England would be here, who is this guy?

I gave my brother the red-hot poker in the air after an awkward moment in which Edward exiled Godwin from the country. Finally he had to relent and let her keep his earldom, possibly after Godwin gave him a pile of gold and told him that he was very sorry. Godwin is an incredibly powerful earl that we talked about yesterday and of course his son as well, but you know, he had no right to the throne for himself, but of course his son eventually gets that right and is in fact named by Witten. like the king later, uh, but he's powerful, he's got money, he's got land, he's got everything you need, uh, in 11th century England to be able to exert significant power over whoever the king is.

King Edward also married Godwin's daughter, then Godwin died and his enormous fortune passed to his sons who became earls, notably this one became the new Earl of Wessex Harold Godwinson was now King Edward's brother-in-law he was a close advisor to the king a brave warrior who had proven himself in battle against the welsh and in many ways was almost like a co-king uh oh edward has grown old and is on his deathbed possibly for religious reasons or perhaps because he was not happy about having to marry her, he did not point out his wife and as a result he has no children which means there is no obvious heir to the throne, yes he is known as Edward the Confessor and he has this very prominent tomb on Westminster Abbey, he knows he is the last great Anglo-Saxon king, and yes, religion may have done it.

It's been a factor that he could have chosen over celibacy, we don't really know for sure what happened, but obviously that creates confusion throughout the land, which means I'm going to be king, he has a great nephew, it could be him, Now let's go with I just have a problem. I mentioned that Edward's mother was Norman. Edward grew up in Normandy and had many Norman friends. The current Duke of Normandy was William the Bastard. Why did they call him a bastard one day? His father was escaping from his castle. when his advisor told him where you go to the tannery why get a tan but that was a lie first because the tanners give you leather not tanners and second because he was really going to see the tanner's daughter one thing leads to another and out comes Baby William was born out of wedlock, therefore, an absolute bastard.

His father died when William was seven or eight and he became the new juke. He spent most of his childhood narrowly avoiding murder, which probably turned him into the tough, big-balled guy he is remembered for today. We also talked about this in the other video. It's actually very unusual that an illegitimate son could inherit a particularly powerful dukedom like Normandy, but this says a lot about William, the kind of person he was, the kind of personal charisma and leadership that he had. the influence he had and the friends he had that allowed him to not only earn this title even as a child, but also keep it and then conquer England in the process, it's impossible not to consider all of those factors as a reason why he was so successful in 1051, the city of Alison tried to rebel against him and the townspeople beat dead animal skins as an insult to their commoner mother.

William was furious and responded by saying: well, let's just say it wasn't pretty, that's the kind of person we're dealing with here. William and Edward were good friends and Edward supposedly promised that William could have the English throne after him a decade later. Afterwards, Howard Garwinson even visited William and swore an oath on the holy relics promising that William could be the next king of England, although it's possible that Harold only did this because William was holding his family hostage, so when William When he found out that the king was on his deathbed he said, "Hooray, I'm going to be king!" So now you have two extremely powerful men who think they are about to become the next king, but wait, this guy is the king of Norway.

He spent most of his life as a hired warrior fighting for whoever gave him the most gold. He names a place where he probably fought in a war and then in Poland, yeah. estonia, yes, against the pirates in the mediterranean, yes, the holy lands, sicily and bulgaria, yes, he became incredibly rich from it and was swimming in gold, then he returned home and became king. One of the previous Norwegian kings had made an agreement with one of the kings of England. viking kings saying that when that viking king died, the king of norway would get the

english

throne.

Hardrada felt that because of this agreement he now had a right to the English throne and was also eager to undertake one last great conquest that would make him a Legend has it that when he learned that Edward was on his deathbed he thought he was going to invade England. and then I'll be king, so these three guys have a legitimate argument for why the king should be a kingdom that should be theirs now. when when edward the confessor dies, the witten names harold godwinson as king and by common law he's the guy, it doesn't matter who he named heir or anything like that, that's the guy they chose and have crowned, you know, obviously Harold Hardrata, his claim goes back to the previous Danish king who hasn't been in power for some time and, you know, he was a previous king, so it's probably a little bit less of a claim than the others, but wow , and then you, actually, I think one of Harold Godwinson's brothers sides with Harold Hardrada in his claim to the throne, so now we have three extremely powerful men who think they are about to become the next king of England and That means someone is probably about to get hurt in England.

Harold Gorwinson is caring for the dying King Edward. He suddenly comes out with a shocking announcement. Hey, everyone, get together, that's it, come closer, don't be shy. Well, I have bad news. The king is dead, I know, it's very sad, but good news, he said I should be the next king, so hooray for me, and oh yeah, he said if I once told anyone else that they could be king, He doesn't like it. and they should just stay in normandy and they are actually shown on the marsh tapestry which is the marsh tapestry that tells the story of these events and i can't wait to see it one day and they actually show edward the confessor on his bed of death pointing In the direction of Harold Godwinson, he gestured for him to be the king and also said that no one should ask any more questions, okay, good talk, go, do whatever you do, it usually took months of preparation to crown a new king. but Harold made haste and had himself crowned on the same day that King Edward was buried in Normandy.

William's advisors came to him and said: Hello Willy, bad news, Harold Goblins in his big Willy and William was furious, so he sent an envoy to Harald, who said: William. says you stole the throne and demands that you give it back to him immediately hmm let me think about that no he said no cute that bastard wait I thought it was you buddy uncool uncool William immediately started gathering his armies and prepare for an invasion of England. Now, killing a king was generally frowned upon in olden Europe because they were considered to have been chosen by God himself, so in Normandy, William had to have God on his side and needed the blessing of the position for his conquest, so he went to the Pope. and he said thatGoblinson swore an oath to me on the sacred relics and then usurped the throne.

Can I kill him? Yes, of course, why not, and it is also something, once again, to talk about illegitimacy here so that the Pope takes the side of an illegitimately born Duke of Normandy. the one chosen by king witten of england uh yeah this really comes down to money and power and influence and all that kind of stuff so the pope gave william his blessing meaning that william now had god on his side aside, everything was ready to go, just one problem. world the wrong way and William had to wait with his army in Normandy while Godwinson waited with his army in the south of England they waited and waited and waited and then William said screw it and sailed for England and got shipwrecked because the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, so he decided to keep waiting, they waited two months and the wind never

changed

.

Finally, Gorwinson became bored and also ran out of food for his soldiers, so he sent them all home and returned to London, the south coast was undefended and all William could do was continue to wait while the north wind kept William in Normandy. He was leading Herdrata and his Viking army to England. Hardrada landed near the ancient Viking city of York and defeated a regional army led by the north. Earls and York surrendered when Godwinson found out about this, he must have been quite upset, he had just disbanded his army and now he had to gather them all together again and march to the end, and it is impressive that he sent the army home and can. not only to raise an army again, but to march to the north of England and win a surprising victory at Stamford Bridge North, he made the grueling journey in just four days, which is incredibly fast and caught the Vikings off guard and unprepared for In the battle, the two armies stood on both sides of the river.

Derwent legend says that a Viking berserker held the only bridge across the river alone, dodging arrows and fending off attackers until some English soldiers crawled under the bridge in a barrel and gave him the old one. Throwing the jewels, this gave the Vikings enough time to form a shield wall, but because they had been caught off guard, many were not wearing their chain mail and armor and the English eventually defeated them by killing Hardrada and with him bringing in the Viking Age. England came to an end and it wasn't that close in the end, the Viking army was pretty much wiped out.

They had brought hundreds of ships to transport their army and only needed a couple dozen to transport whoever was left in the end. a great victory for harold godwinson and here goes the wind finally william's fleet of over 700 ships and 14,000 men set sail and landed on the

english

coast at pevensey and camped near

hastings

and harold was still in york his exhausted army had to marching all the way south just days after his battle with the Vikings. Harold arrived in London and considered just staying there and waiting for William to come to him, but William forced Harold by burning a bunch of villages.

Howard's army left and met Williams on October 14, 1066 and both sides prepared for the battle of Hastings. The English were on a hill so they decided to stay there because it was a good defensive position. The Normans approached and the two Both sides probably spent some time shouting at each other, William and the Normans had some tactical advantages over the English. The first were the archers. The Norman sent volley after volley of arrows at the English, who formed a shield wall in defense. Then Williams sent his infantry up the hill, yes, and the archers were gone. It wasn't as successful shooting uphill firing into a shield wall.

I didn't have anywhere near the impact that the archers had in other battles, for example at Agincourt, the English threw everything they had at them and the Normans couldn't get through the field wall, so the Norman's next tactical advantage came into play. . William sent his cavalry up the hill, but even they struggled to break the shield as they defended and the cavalry actually goes up the middle, the infantry attacks the size the cavalry goes up the middle, uh, and you know. The Anglo-Saxons are winning this battle and all they have to do is hold the fences.

Wave after wave of infantry and cavalry arrived and Harold knew that all he had to do was let the Normans wear themselves out and he would win, but then something a little strange happened. It is possible that the Normans incorrectly believed that William had been killed, perhaps they lost the will to fight against the shield or perhaps it was an intentional deception tactic, but suddenly the Norman forces turned and fled from the English and he You make a good point there and in most of the videos. on this topic we say the same thing, even after a thousand years, even after this battle in this period of time, we have been studied by everyone because this is such an important event that no one knows for sure what happened why they broke up there are conflicting accounts From eyewitnesses there are conflicting stories about No one knows why this happened, but in the end it is the turning point of the battle, believing they had won, the English broke through their shield wall and pursued the retreating Normans, who then gave up.

They turned around and surrounded the English troops and cut them off in the chaotic fighting. What followed Harold Gawwinson being killed, the most popular theory is that he received an arrow in the eye, the English were defeated and William had one, he was no longer just a bastard, he was now a conqueror and again the arrow in the eye returns to the swamp tapestry and that's why we think that's what happened, we don't know for sure if that's how he was killed at first, the English nobles were reluctant to make him king, but William burned a few more villages and the nobles They finally gave in. and offered him the crown when he was crowned, the local villagers in Westminster let out a cheer of support, but William thought it was a riot, so he burned the village.

William had to undertake a long and northern herring, stirring up rebellions and burning. He tore down towns all over England to force people into submission and William, I mean, this was legitimately devastating, especially in the north. William practically leveled the country, burned the country to the ground and rebuilt it in his image, so to speak, he completely transformed Anglo-Saxon England. in Norman England he built castles everywhere, he actually reformed the whole country in his image and England went through a massive transformation under his new Norman rule. The English nobles were replaced by Normans, they built castles and large cathedrals, but one of the most interesting changes. occurred within the English language, the Normans brought their French dialect to England and emerged with Old English in forms that we still live with today in the first place, the Normans were obviously the ones in power, so words related to power such as the government judge's castle and the crown come from The Norman words that are considered elegant are generally more refined are the Norman ones at the beginning.

The Anglo-Saxons were probably not so friendly to the Normans, while the Norms were probably not so friendly to the Anglo-Saxons. Yes, and you know. the French language becomes the language of the English court, you know, the English government, English royalty for the next almost 350 years or so, it's only around 1400, right before the Wars of the Roses, that the English start to dominate the government. an Anglo-Saxon might enter a room but a Norman would enter a chamber an Anglo-Saxon might buy a shirt while the Norman would buy a blouse and although that filthy peasant's new shirt may be fair, the Norman blouse is absolutely beautiful The Normans actually They considered some Anglo-Saxon words so crude that I can't even say them on YouTube, but there's more: ask an Anglo-Saxon what job they do and they might respond with some low-level trade, like a baker, miller or shoemaker but a Norman has a specialized trade like a painter, a tailor or a merchant, Anglo-Saxon farmers working in the fields owned many cows, pigs and sheep, but once they were served at a Norman banquet they became beef, pork and mutton and were written in English.

It also changed, since many Anglo-Saxons couldn't write, the written language was idealized, your annoying friend who says Cool Whip could simply be speaking an old English dialect as the Anglo-Saxons originally wrote it, when, where and what, but the Normans swapped the w and h around and the long English vowel a sounded more like an o to the Normans, so you can thank them you live in a house, not a ham. Hey, fun fact about William, the man couldn't read or write, not in French, not in English, no. In any case, what if I told you that there is a place where you can learn Japanese French if you want and not just learn a musical instrument?

So he's going to talk about skill sharing there and skill sharing is great. I use it myself, watch his video and see the full ad yourself, but it was very well done, in fact, I think you already know, whereas the video we saw the other day from Baz Battles I think does a great job at show us the tactical part of the battle itself. I think this one actually does a much better job of giving the background and why of how and why everything happens. Such cool stuff. Really impressed by that one. You know, I love all things

oversimplified

.

It's entertaining but also pretty accurate most of the time. That's cool, I thank you all for including me in that one. Be sure to check out the original video if you've never seen it and hit like on that one and this one and see you soon. Thank you. to see