Word: senlac
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Montague-Smith traces the line through Harold's daughter Gytha, who after the fateful day at Senlac Hill wandered to Denmark, where she met and married Volodymyr Monomakh, Grand Prince of Kiev. The line then meanders through many monarchies-Hungarian, Aragonese, French-and finally back to Britain at the time of Edward II, whose brutal murder in 1327 provided a gory conclusion to Christopher Marlowe's biographical play. To Britons of Saxon descent who may still harbor resentment over the Norman Conquest, the fact that their Queen shares brave Harold Godwinson's blood can only come...
...force in Europe during the lusty ages. And finally there is at its best the Belloc predilection for military history. In a sense, the whole book is an excuse for the bellicose English to write the tactical and strategic history of the Battle of Hastings (whose alternate title of "Senlac" he rejects). it is thrilling and exciting reading, even for a modern anti-war demonstrator. Harold, damned by the author for his fendal perfidy, draws his admiration for his generalship. He held the heights, and it was a hard day's work for the Norman spearmen, archers, and axemen...
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