On This Day, October 14, 1066, William of Normandy defeated the English King Harold II.

One of the most decisive battles in English history took place near Hastings in southern England.

Two powerful armies faced each other. On one side stood King Harold II, defending his newly won throne. On the other was William, Duke of Normandy, determined to claim the English crown.

But England was already exhausted by war.

Earlier that year, Harold had defeated a Norwegian invasion at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in the north. When William landed in southern England in September, Harold and his army had to march hundreds of miles to confront another enemy.

On the morning of October 14, the armies clashed.

Harold’s soldiers formed a powerful defensive formation known as the shield wall, standing shoulder to shoulder on high ground. Wave after wave of Norman attacks struggled to break through.

The fighting continued for hours.

Then the battle began to turn. Norman troops reportedly retreated at one point, prompting some English soldiers to leave their defensive positions and pursue them. The Normans regrouped and counterattacked.

By evening, the English army had been defeated.

King Harold II was dead. His brothers Gyrth and Leofwine also died in the battle.

One famous scene in the Bayeux Tapestry appears to show Harold struck in the eye by an arrow, but historians still debate exactly how he died.

William’s victory opened the way to the English throne. On Christmas Day, 1066, he was crowned King of England.

The consequences were enormous.

Norman rulers transformed England’s aristocracy, government, castles, and culture. French-speaking elites influenced the development of English, leaving lasting marks on the language spoken today.

A single day of brutal fighting had helped reshape an entire kingdom.

Part 1 left off with a king who couldn't go back inside a building, a capital on fire, and a country with no functioning government. Someone had to actually run Portugal.
That someone was a minor minister named Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo - a man almost nobody outside Portugal has heard of, who is about to become the most competent person you didn't know existed.

#historical #political #warfare

While looking at this map of European empires, I started reading about British India and came across three figures that really caught my attention:

• The Bengal Famine of 1943: roughly 2 ~3 million deaths, according to commonly cited historical estimates

• Indian soldiers in WWII: more than 2 million volunteers served in the British Indian Army,

• Colonial-era excess deaths: a 2022 study by Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel estimated 50~165 million excess deaths in India between 1881 and 1920, depending on the baseline used the widely repeated figure of 100 million is therefore an estimate, not an undisputed historical death toll

I find these numbers staggering, but I don't want to repeat statistics without understanding how they were calculated

information is beautiful!