2-756-518 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The death of Harold at the Battle of Hastings, 1066, (1944). The Latin reads: 'Harold Rex Interfectus Est' - King Harold is killed. English forces led by King Harold II fought the invading Normans under William I. It has been suggested that the 'arrow in the eye' account of Harold's death was deliberately invented by the Normans as an attempt to legitimise William's siezure of the English crown, by portraying Harold as having been 'struck down' by God as punishment for his breaking of his oath to William. Detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, the famous embroidery made a few years after the Norman invasion of England in 1066. From "Battlefields in Britain', by C. V. Wedgwood. [Collins, London, 1944]