Battle of Hastings and Williams Conquest

The Battle of Hastings was part of the invasions of England that followed the death of King Edward the Confessor in 1066.  William of Normandys victory at Hastings occurred on October 14, 1066. Armies and Commanders Normans William of NormandyOdo of Bayeux7,000-8,000 men Anglo-Saxons Harold Godwinson7,000-8,000 men Background: With the death of King Edward the Confessor in early 1066, the throne of England fell into dispute with multiple individuals stepping forward as claimants. Shortly after Edwards death, the English nobles presented the crown to Harold Godwinson, a powerful local lord. Accepting, he was crowned as King Harold II. His ascension to the throne was immediately challenged by William of Normandy and Harold Hardrada of Norway who felt they had superior claims. Both began assembling armies and fleets with the goal of supplanting Harold. Gathering his men at Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, William initially hoped to cross the Channel in mid-August. Due to foul weather, his departure was delayed and Hardrada arrived in England first. Landing in the north, he won an initial victory at Gate Fulford on September 20, 1066, but was defeated and killed by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge five days later. While Harold and his army were recovering from the battle, William landed at Pevensey on September 28. Establishing a base near Hastings, his men constructed a wooden palisade and commenced raiding the countryside. To counter this, Harold raced south with his battered army, arriving on October 13. The Armies Form William and Harold were familiar with each other as they had fought together in France and some sources, such as the Bayeux Tapestry, suggest that the English lord had sworn an oath to support the Norman dukes claim to Edwards throne while in his service. Deploying his army, which was largely composed of infantry, Harold assumed a position along Senlac Hill astride the Hastings-London road. In this location, his flanks were protected by woods and streams with some marshy ground to their front right. With the army in line along the top of the ridge, the Saxons formed a shield wall and waited for the Normans to arrive. Moving north from Hastings, Williams army appeared on the battlefield on the morning of Saturday October 14. Arraying his army into three battles, composed of infantry, archers, and crossbowmen, William moved to attack the English. The center battle consisted of Normans under Williams direct control while the troops to his left were largely Bretons led by Alan Rufus.  The right battle was made up of French soldiers and was commanded by William FitzOsbern and Count Eustace of Boulogne. Williams initial plan called for his archers to weaken Harolds forces with arrows, then for infantry and cavalry assaults to break through the enemy line (Map). William Triumphant This plan began to fail from the outset as the archers were unable to inflict damage due to the Saxons high position on the ridge and the protection offered by the shield wall. They were further hampered by a shortage of arrows as the English lacked archers.  As a result, there were no arrows to gather and reuse. Ordering his infantry forward, William soon saw it pelted with spears and other projectiles which inflicted heavy casualties. Faltering, the infantry withdrew and the Norman cavalry moved in to attack. This too was beaten back with the horses having difficulty climbing the steep ridge. As his attack was failing, Williams left battle, composed primarily of Bretons, broke and fled back down the ridge. It was pursued by many of the English, who had left the safety of the shield wall to continue the killing. Seeing an advantage, William rallied his cavalry and cut down the counterattacking English. Though the English rallied on a small hillock, they were ultimately overwhelmed. As the day progressed, William continued his attacks, possibly feigning several retreats, as his men slowly wore down the English. Late in the day, some sources indicate that William altered his tactics and ordered his archers to shoot at a higher angle so that their arrows fell on those behind the shield wall. This proved lethal for Harolds forces and his men began to fall. Legend states that he was hit in the eye with an arrow and killed. With the English taking casualties, William ordered an assault which finally broke through the shield wall. If Harold was not struck by an arrow, he died during this attack. With their line broken and king dead, the many of the English fled with only Harolds personal bodyguard fighting on until the end. Battle of Hastings Aftermath In the Battle of Hastings it is believed that William lost approximately 2,000 men, while the English suffered around 4,000. Among the English dead was King Harold as well as his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine. Though the Normans were defeated in the Malfosse immediately after the Battle of Hastings, the English did not meet them again in a major battle. After pausing two weeks at Hastings to recover and wait for the English nobles to come and submit to him, William began marching north towards London. After enduring a dysentery outbreak, he was reinforced and closed on the capital. As he approached London, the English nobles came and submitted to William, crowning him king on Christmas Day 1066. Williams invasion marks the last time that Britain was conquered by an outside force and earned him the nickname the Conqueror.

How Harrison Won the Election of 1840

The election of 1840 was fueled by slogans, songs, and alcohol, and in some ways that distant election can be considered  the precursor of the modern presidential campaign. The incumbent was a man of sophisticated political skills. He had served in a variety of offices and put together the coalition that brought Andrew Jackson to the White House. And his challenger was elderly and infirm, with qualifications that were questionable. But that didnt matter. Talk of log cabins and hard cider and an obscure battle from decades earlier culminated in a landslide that turned out the incumbent, Martin Van Buren, and brought an aging and sickly politician, William Henry Harrison, into the White House. Background of the 1840 Presidential Election What really set the stage for the 1840 election was a colossal financial crisis devastating  the nation. After the eight years of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, Jackson’s vice president, the lifelong politician Martin Van Buren of New York, was elected in 1836. And the following year the country was rocked by the Panic of 1837, one of a series of financial panics of the 19th century. Van Buren was hopelessly ineffective in handling the crisis. As banks and businesses failed, and an economic depression dragged on, Van Buren took the blame. Sensing an opportunity, the Whig Party sought a candidate to challenge Van Burens reelection and selected a man whose career had peaked decades earlier. William Henry Harrison, the Whig Candidate Though he would be portrayed as a rustic frontiersman, William Henry Harrison, who was born in Virginia in 1773, actually came from what might be called Virginia nobility. His father, Benjamin Harrison, had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence and later served as governor of Virginia. In his youth, William Henry Harrison had received a classical education in Virginia. After deciding against a career in medicine he joined the military, receiving an officer’s commission signed by President George Washington. Harrison was posted to what was then called the Northwest Territory and served as the territorial governor of Indiana from 1800 to 1812. When Indians led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh rose up against the American settlers and allied with the British in the War of 1812, Harrison fought them. Harrison’s forces killed Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames, in Canada. However, a previous battle, Tippecanoe, though not considered a great triumph at the time, would become part of American political lore years later. His Indian fighting days behind him, Harrison settled in Ohio and served terms in the House of Representatives and the Senate. And in 1836, he ran against Martin Van Buren for the presidency and lost. The Whigs nominated Harrison as the partys presidential candidate in 1840. One obvious point in his favor was that he wasn’t closely associated with any of the controversies gripping the nation, and his candidacy, therefore, didnt offend any particular groups of voters. Image Making Entered American Politics in 1840 The supporters of Harrison began creating an image of him as a war hero, and touted his experience at the Battle of Tippecanoe, 28 years earlier. While it’s true that Harrison had been the commander at that battle against the Indians, he had actually been criticized for his actions at the time. The Shawnee warriors had surprised his troops, and casualties had been high for the soldiers under Harrison’s command. Tippecanoe and Tyler Too! In 1840 the details of that long-ago battle were forgotten. And when John Tyler of Virginia was nominated as Harrison’s running mate, the classic American political slogan was born: â€Å"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too! The Log Cabin Candidate The Whigs also promoted Harrison as the log cabin candidate. He was portrayed in woodcut illustrations as residing in a humble log cabin on the western frontier, a fact that was contradicted by his birth as something of a Virginia aristocrat. The log cabin became a commonplace symbol of Harrisons candidacy. In its collection of materials related to the 1840 Harrison campaign, the Smithsonian Institution has a wooden model of a log cabin that was carried in torchlight parades. Campaign Songs Entered American Politics in 1840 Harrison’s campaign in 1840 was noteworthy not just for slogans, but for songs. A number of campaign ditties were quickly composed and sold by sheet music publishers. Some examples can be viewed at the Library of Congress (on these pages, click the view this item link): Tippecanoe and Tyler TooThe Tippecanoe Club Quick StepOld Tippecanoe’s Raisin’The Invincible Old Tippecanoe Alcohol Fueled the 1840 Presidential Campaign The Democrats supporting Martin Van Buren scoffed at the image created of William Henry Harrison and derided him by saying Harrison was an old man who would be content to sit in his log cabin and drink hard cider. The Whigs neutralized that attack by embracing it, and took to saying that Harrison was the hard cider candidate. A popular legend is that a Philadelphia distiller named E.C. Booz provided hard cider to distribute at rallies of Harrison supporters. That may be true, but a story that Boozs name gave the English language the word booze is a tall tale. The word actually existed for centuries before Harrison and his hard cider campaign. The Hard Cider and Log Cabin Candidate Won the Election Harrison avoided discussion of the issues, and let his campaign based on hard cider and log cabins proceed. And it worked, as Harrison won in an electoral landslide. The 1840 campaign was notable for being the first campaign with slogans and songs, but the victor holds another distinction: the shortest term in office of any American president. William Henry Harrison took the oath of office on March 4, 1841, and delivered the longest inaugural address in history. On a very cold day, the 68-year-old Harrison spoke for two hours on the steps of the Capitol. He developed pneumonia and never recovered. One month later he was dead, becoming the first American president to die in office. Tyler Too Became President After Harrisons Death Harrisons running mate, John Tyler, became the first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of a president. Tylers administration was lackluster, and he was derided as the accidental president. As for William Henry Harrison, his place in history was secured not by his fleeting presidential tenure, but for being the first presidential candidate whose campaign featured slogans, songs, and a carefully manufactured image.

George Orwell s Animal Farm - 908 Words

George Orwell’s novel ‘Animal Farm’, published in 1945, has an overarching theme of power and corruption. In the novel, once certain animals were given the opportunity to control the rest of the animals of the farm, the hierarchy was twisted for the leaders’ nefarious purposes. Misery quickly ensued. The governing animals became corrupted and nasty, while the controlled population was oppressed and miserable, forced to obey the controllers whims. This novel has much relevant social commentary on issues related to discriminatory power. Orwell believed that unjust power corrupted the minds of both the oppressed and the oppressors. People that are given unjust power based on prejudicial laws begin to feel validified in their actions, and in turn transform into monsters who question nothing of the validity of these laws. On the other hand, those who these laws oppress take the brunt of cruelty in these ordinances. These individuals are brutalized by physically, and mentally - leaving it extremely difficult to fight back against these oppressive actions. It is evident that discriminatory certainly can transform everyone involved. Oppressive unjust laws based on biases very often have negative consequences on the oppressed, as well as the oppressors. It is often that the targeted group of an unjust law that suffer the most harmful consequences. Along with physical abuse, the oppressed also suffer mental abuse - leaving them feeling as they are deserving of these fates simplyShow MoreRelatedGeorge Orwell s Animal Farm1361 Words   |  6 Pagesfarmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days†(Orwell 38). 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I will also expand on the idea of how Old Major’s ideas for an organized society get completely destroyed by Napoleon’s revolutionary actions. It was ironic and satirical that Napoleon’s own power annihilates Animal Farm. The satire in George Orwell’s AnimalRead MoreGeorge Orwell s Animal Farm922 Words   |  4 Pages In the novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the wisest boar of the farm, Old Major, mimics Karl Marx, the â€Å"Father of Communism,† and Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist revolutionary. George Orwell introduces direct parallels between the respected figures through their mutual ideas of equality and profoundly appreciated qualities. Furthermore, his utilization of dialect and descriptions represent the key ideas of the novel. Throughout the novel, Orwell continues to show comparisons betweenRead MoreGeorge Orwell s Animal Farm1463 Words   |  6 Pagesbut of late he had fallen on evil days†(Orwell 38). 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All the Difference free essay sample

I want you to know that I still love you, if Its possible, even more so than the day you passed. It hasnt been an easy two years since you departed this world, I lost my path to that of darkness, the very thing we fought so hard against. I apologize to you, I disgraced everything we love about each other, all that we stand for, I fell into evils hold. I hope you can forgive me for my mistakes, even tho0ugh they are many, and there effect has been profound. What bothers me most is that Ive thrown everything we were in your face; after yo passed away, I crumbled into oblivion, taking our plans and actions and used them against our own construction. I ask for forgiveness, because in order to really move on, I need to know that you are willing to restore our love to what it once was, to continue to love me with all your heart. We will write a custom essay sample on All the Difference or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I am ready to move on, ready t accept that you are gone, but a part of our love will always remain, because love is thicker than blood. I want to pick up were we left off, to be a art of the solution, to help create a world that is closer to a utopia. I cant help but to imagine how far we would have been had you not passed, yet I have set us back, and now intend to once more push forth, to put in action our plans. I know I can do i, and it will be the most difficult thing ever done, but I must be the one to do it, because I am the only one who has been born into Its destiny. I will give my life to our cause, our plans, because in my heart, Its the right thing to do, the only road that will lead to something better, for all of those who will come after me. I must give everything I have for the possibility that others may feel the way we do, and to give them the security to do what we have. I am ready to change the world into a better place, a place where love exists in all places, al l over the world, where weapons are lied down to be replaced with peace. I will do it, I will teach others to do it, and together we will help world become a better place. I will let nothing stand in my way, like you let nothing stand in yours, and I, like you, will sacrifice my life for this belief, and when my time comes, we will once more join hands, and look back at a world in which we have made all the difference.