Events

Members' zoom lecture

Wednesday 5th May

The Longest Battle: A Hundred Years of Hastings

A century after the Battle of Hastings, it might have seemed clear that the battle’s meaning was a settled thing. The Normans had won England for good, and with divine approval. Yet several writers of poetry and prose in England were asking new questions, and turning to different facets of the battle. They showed a live curiosity about what it was like to be there, whether as a combatant, or as one of the men and women searching for loved ones in the following days. This imaginative reenacting of the battle reveals a fascinating set of changing ideas about Hastings. Writers discussed their renewed desire to commemorate people and their losses, the Crusades revived a sense of unease about shedding Christian blood, and explanations for the battle began to doubt divine approval. Taking the story of the mysterious Malfosse incident as our starting point, we will explore these new variations on the story of Hastings that emerged in narratives of the Battle of Hastings from 1066 to c.1200, from the Bayeux Tapestry, to the epic poems of Wace, to the memoirs of Waltham’s canons who still lamented Harold’s loss.

Dr Emily A. Winkler is an historian of medieval thought and writing. In her research, she examines medieval writers’ ideas about Norman conquests, responsibility and leadership, and what it was like to live through invasion and diplomacy. She is Principal Investigator of a research project on medieval historical writing, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is a Research Fellow at St Edmund Hall and the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford.

The talk will take place at 8.00pm and members will receive an email invitation to register approximately a week before the talk.