New research from the University of East Anglia suggests that a lost papal letter could change how historians understand the events of 1066 and the Norman Conquest. Surviving excerpts of the letter, preserved in the Vatican archives, point to a major political struggle in Rome that may have influenced the fate of England. The evidence suggests King Harold may have weakened his position well before the Battle of Hastings by supporting the wrong faction during a bitter conflict between two competing popes.
If that interpretation is correct, the outcome of 1066 may have depended not only on what happened on the battlefield at Hastings, but also on political and religious decisions made in Rome. The findings are published today by Yale University Press in a new book titled 'Harold: Warrior King', written by UEA historian Prof Tom Licence. The research arrives as the British Museum prepares to open a major exhibition featuring the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the best-known surviving artifacts connected with the Norman Conquest.
During the 1060s, Western Christendom was split by a major dispute in which two rival popes claimed authority. The new research suggests that England's support for one side of this conflict may have contributed to Pope Alexander II's decision to support William of Normandy's invasion. England's choice of allegiance, in other words, may have carried consequences far beyond Rome.
Prof Tom Licence, Professor of Medieval History and Literature at UEA, said: "1066 was not simply decided on the battlefield at Hastings. The outcome may also have been shaped by decisions taken almost a thousand miles away in Rome." The Norman Conquest has traditionally been viewed largely as a dynastic crisis that followed the death of Edward the Confessor, with competing claimants fighting for control of the English throne. Licence now argues that a contemporary papal letter points to a much broader political and religious conflict that extended across medieval Europe.
He said: "Harold's policy on the papacy may ultimately have played into the hands of his enemies, giving William's opportunistic invasion the legitimacy of a just war." At the center of the research are previously overlooked excerpts from a lost papal letter preserved in a medieval collection of canon law in the Vatican. "The Pope's whole register of letters is lost," said Prof Licence. "But some survive as copies or excerpts.
Two excerpts from this particular letter survive in collections of papal rescripts." Pope Alexander II wrote the letter after William had taken the English throne. In it, Alexander reflected on England's relationship with the papacy before the Norman Conquest. One passage says England had once been protected by St Peter, until people "fired with the pride of their father Satan" led the English away from "the path of truth." "While historians have occasionally noted these remarks, they have generally treated them as unexplained references," said Prof Licence.
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