Battlefield Britain Ep02 Hastings part 1/6

[MrBillcale]

Nous vous exclure

[Graham6762]

The Saxons were German and they came from northern Germany. They left due to poor weather conditions.

[Genkish9990]

No, they weren't French they were Normans, a term used by the French to mean, 'North Men', and their land became Normandy, now in the North of France. They had settled thier after raiding the land from Scandinavia, ie. they were vikings or north men.

[expertstrategy]

@Genkish9990, the Normans were no longer Vikings and they never saw themselves as such. After 150 years of assimilation and intermixing with the French, the Normans became French people.

[MrBillcale]

@expertstrategy AND THEY SPOKE french they were distinct they had some viking blood but yes it is so annoying the british can tstand the idea of being totally crushed by the french so they whimper and quibble over details like whether or not the normans were actually french, they spoke french, the vikings settled dublin but they eventually became irish as did normans invading ireland know anyone named fitzsimmons? their ancestors were normans but they ARE irish

[expertstrategy]

@MrBillcale, the Vikings are very quick to adapt to another foreign culture and assimilate themselves in a very short amount of time. The Normans weren't that very distinct from the French, but they did share one thing in common with the Vikings. The Normans even said they were French on the Bayeux tapestry, "hic franci pugnant" (Eustace. Here the French do battle) .

[MrBillcale]

@expertstrategy tell it to the brits the angl saxons were germans and then the danes..the true britons are celts that live in britanny and wales...mention to the brits that 30% of their words are french mention beef(beouf) and cow..

[MrBillcale]

@expertstrategy thank you for the clarification

i am always annoyed when people do this

my cousins telling me the REAL dutch live in the ranstad

between amsterdam and rotterdam and den hague

people in the east Gelderland are more are more german

people from North Brabant are belgians

brittany is celtic(it is a celtic nation)

corsica is italian napoleon family was from genoa

my family is from alsace they did speak alsatian a german dialect and were adamant about being called german

[MrBillcale]

but why? why do petty people waste so much time defining what a REAL frenchman or a REAL german or dutchman is? did it hurt britain pride so badly to be crushed and colonized by the french they they must niggle over a smattering of viking blood?

[xyz49271]

@MrBillcale There was a good series on the Discovery Channel called Mongrel Nation or something a few years ago that traced people's heritage back through the ages via DNA and other factors, one thing they found was that still to this day most people living in the North have Viking Blood and those in the South have family blood ties dating to the Saxon & Norman eras.

[MrBillcale]

@xyz49271 hurt your pride then did it not?

[xyz49271]

@MrBillcale Not one bit, I'm British & proud of it, I was born in England & so were my parents but I've got Scottish,Welsh,Irish & English heritage as I have grandparents from all the Home Nations, going back further on my mothers side there is Norman ancestry & my Paternal Grandfather roots from the Shetland Isles. I'll always support a GB team over an English Scottish Irish or Welsh team as its more representative of who I am and the Nation(s) I come from. I love the cosmopolitan mix

[MrBillcale]

@xyz49271 bon

[olsonsof107]

i loved this show when i was younger and i still do, keep up the good work u history freaks =)

[samwise54321]

I think it's funny how many people are angry at William when they probably have Norman blood in them. If it weren't for William, British history would have been totally different, and probably worse.

[plugs313]

@samwise54321 Exactly, England is the way it is today because of the Norman conquest.

[THthefirst]

@plugs313 but William's line died out within a hundred years or so, and the later families - Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, Hanoverians, Windsor etc etc - had massive influence. To say England is the way it is today because of the Norman Conquest is nonsense - sure, there are some influencences, but our legal system, parliamentary sovereignty, democratic system etc etc are not based on Norman traditions or values. The C17 in particular was hugely important in shaping modern britain.

[Valen123456]

@THthefirst Ill have to disagree with you ... those families did indeed shape england as it is today but if William had lost then it is possible that all those families would never have raisen to the throne and our connections to france might not have happened

[THthefirst]

@Valen123456 Sure, but so what? Lots of things may or may not have happened, we'll never know. That doesn't mean William had the massive positive effect on modern Britain you suggest. You tell me what Norman laws, political systems, administrational impact etc still exists, or indeed did so even 200 years ago. I think you overstate the Normans' influence massively. This country owes it main political, social history to the c17 and glorious revolution that shaped modern britain.

[Valen123456]

@THthefirst I dont doubt that they did, and i did not mean to imply the Norman conquest was a massive positive thing (for most people at the time it was quite the reverse), what i meant was that without the Norman conquest that vastly important french connection that shaped much of early medival englands relationships with europe (france in particular) would have occured quite differently, true its pointless to say what if, but that great upperclass french connection truely began after hastings

[LinkSOB]

@samwise54321 Worse in what manner -- waiting for another full-blooded Viking in-law with his version of the Danelaw to perhaps worsen what the Englishman has for delicacies today?

[Sierra688]

William was Duke of Normandy, a style that Queen Elizabeth II still holds (Duke, not Duchess).

[summoningifrit]

thanks for uploading this series!

[partyhat3]

A sad day for England. If Harlold had not had to go to Stamford Bridge...

[LinkSOB]

@partyhat3 And Hadrada would have to play cards by himself there to wait for the time he'd either had to face Harold or William?

Damn, if that'd be the case -- wouldn't English be a hell of lot more near Danish/Norwegian then?

[mongoose100989]

Harold was King of England, William was King of Watever France was in 1066..., Viking invaded and lost in North England, then the Normans atk'd in South England and beat the Saxons.

Its interesting to note: This occured at a time in the world when; Constantinople was in the East, Islam was a world power in the near east, and only 30 or 40 years before the first crusades.

[plugs313]

@mongoose100989 William was not king of France but Duke of Normandy. He wasn't French at all but a decendant of the Norman people that colonised that part of Europe. They where the Vikings that beseiged Paris countless times sailing the Seine river then returning to the coast after being paid tribute by the Parisians. they settled on that coast since then.

[agricola]

@plugs313 william wasent king of france, but he was french. there was no real memory of their scandanavian roots in 1066. they ate like the french, spoke french and lived like the french, for all purposes, they were french

[Luolapeikk0]

@agricola You can be damn sure that he'd have disagreed with you on that. They certainly didn't see themselves as French.

[mongoose100989]

the scientific revolution book said the invasion of england by william the conqueror in 1066 was an event that changed the world.

[Saxonsoldiers]

Bullshit! The throne of England was NOT promissed to William the Bastard, that was Norman propaganda to legalise their invasion. Yes he was a reletive (though distantly) but the swearing over sacred relics by Earl Harold at Williams court in Normandy is all fictional. There is not even proof that Harold was ever in Normandy!

[TheDarkFrontier]

Hence why he said IT SEEMS HE PROMISED IT.

[princessxxpunz]

Yes there is proof. We know Harold was captured by William, it is likely under William's duress he swore fealty.