FATEFUL CHOICES · 14 OCT 1066 · SENLAC HILL, SUSSEX
Harold holds the hill
On 14 October 1066 the English shield wall held a Sussex ridge from nine in the morning until dusk, and lost England in the last hour by chasing a retreat that was not real. This is the timeline where the wall does not move.
You are reading the timeline that almost was · notes marked THE RECORD are real history
14 OCT 1066 · MORNING
Nineteen days ago King Harold Godwinson destroyed one invader at Stamford Bridge, two hundred miles north of here. Now, having marched an army the length of England, he stands behind the shield wall on Senlac ridge under the gold wyvern of Wessex. He watches Duke William of Normandy’s knights form up in the valley. The English way of war is a wall of linden boards and housecarls that does not move. All morning it does not move, and the Norman charges break on it like weather. In our timeline the wall finally followed a fleeing enemy downhill and died in the open grass.
In the timeline recorded here, the order passes down the line at noon and is obeyed: no man leaves the hill.
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