KRISstal asked:


I just want to know from the Battle of Hastings of 1066, how religion had to do with it.

3 Responses to “How did Religion play a role in the Battle of Hastings of 1066?”

1. Susanne on March 21st, 2008 10:40 pm

   I would not say true faith had a part in the battle of hastings but religion did, Harold had as a youth taken an oath forswearing the crown of England in favour of William, in French law this oath was considered sacred and inviolable, so that when Harold was crowned war was inevitable.

2. Roderick F on March 22nd, 2008 4:06 pm

   William the Conqueror had to get permission from the Pope to launch his invasion of England in 1066

3. william_byrnes2000 on March 23rd, 2008 3:21 am

   It was a “crusade” according to William.

   William’s agents had convinced the Pope that Harold was a despoiler of churches, and that he had broken his pledge, made over a reliquary which contained the bones of a saint, and the Pope obliged, by allowing William to fly the Papal banner over his troops.

   This would have been news to the Anglo Saxons, since Harold was actually building churches. The women of the family stole Harold’s body and took it to a monastery, where it was buried, and the monks prayed for his soul. So, as Simon Schama says in his History of Britain, Harold, buried under what was later a Norman Church, became part of the foundation of Norman England.