Image by Jo Justino from Pixabay

I am now King of England. King William I. Doesn’t that sound great? However it wasn’t such an easy position to gain. Let me go back to the beginning.

Edward, my second cousin, was in exile in Normandy after Cnut had taken the English throne. I decided to go and see him. He was family, after all, and he had no heirs.

While I was there, I played on the family connection, and reminded him that, although he might eventually get an heir with his wife, Emma of Normandy, if he should die suddenly, there would be no obvious claimant to the English throne.

Well, he hummed and hawed and didn’t make a decision then. I’m not surprised, really, because his mother had married Cnut and had a son by him. She supported her son, Harthacnut, and eventually he became king of England.

Edward was lucky. Harthacnut died, and Edward sailed unopposed into England to take the throne. Not long after, he sent his son-in-law, Harold Godwinson to tell me he had decided to make me his heir. King William sounded good, I thought, but I didn’t trust Harold, so I had him imprisoned. Eventually, in order to regain his freedom, he swore an oath of fealty to me: the rat!

In the year of our Lord, 1066, King Edward, who had become to be know as The Confessor, due to his religious convictions, died. Harold, the rat, took the throne and was crowned the day after Edward’s death. He said Edward had made him his heir on his deathbed. A likely story!

It was then I decided I needed to go to England and sort this man out. He had broken a holy oath, and I was the rightful king. But it seemed I wasn’t the only one to want the crown of England. Harald’s own brother, Tostig, joined forces with the Norwegian king, Harald Hardrada, and launched an invasion.

They met initially at a place called Fulford, in the north of England, not far from the city of York. This was on September 20^th 1066. It seems the invaders won, but Harold was not to be defeated so easily. He fought another battle five days later at a place called Stamford Bridge where both Tostig and Harald Hardrada were killed.

Well, this was too good an opportunity to miss. I set sail, knowing that Harold would be occupied, and we landed at a place called Pevensey. There had been a Roman castle there, and we made use of that. I ordered a wooden fort to be built inside the Roman walls. It was a good defensive position.

The whole area was marshland, and the sea came up to the fort walls. We marched over the marshes, heading towards the town of Hastings. Once we got there, I ordered a fort to be built, and we raided the land for supplies.

We waited for Harold to arrive from his battle at Stamford Bridge. We knew they would be tired after a forced march. I set a watch the night before the battle. I would not have put it past Harold to make a surprise attack, but he didn’t, and so on 14^th October, at dawn, the battle began.

I won’t go into details here. Suffice it to say that it was hard fought and lasted all day. It was very bloody, but in the end we won, and Harald was dead. I was now King of England.

I have begun the research for the next book in the series, A Family Through the Ages. This one will start in 1066 with the Battle of Hastings. There’s a lot that is uncertain about the battle. Even the place it happened is disputed, as is how Harold was killed. In the Bayeux tapestry, beneath the word Harold, is a picture of a man being hit in the eye by an arrow. Many believe the name refers to the picture below it, but as the name is part of the text, that could be coincidence, and there are other knights shown being slain by the sword.

Two other books I’m working on are another prequel novella for The Wolves of Vimar series, this one dealing with the horselords, Kimi and Davrael, and I’ve finished the fourth book of The Wolves series. It has yet to go through the critiquing process. I am also writing a book of poetry in which there will be one poem a day to read. January to December is finished, but I’m waiting until a bit closer to Christmas to bring that one out so that people can begin reading in January.

If you enjoyed this little story, perhaps you would like to read another by me.

If you would like to receive this exclusive, free short story, called The Haunted Table, simply click the link. This will take you to the page where you can download it. You can’t get it anywhere else.

Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.

They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.

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