The Arrow That Changed England

This isn't a king. This is the arrow that ended his entire civilization. In 1066,

England’s throne changed hands faster than TikTok trends. One moment Harold’s shield wall laughed

at Norman arrows—next, a lone shaft slipped through a visor gap. The Bayeux Tapestry

stitches it plain: stick-figure Harold yanking wood from his eye while cavalry charge in.

Norman PR screamed “divine bullseye,” but the earliest battle reports skip the arrow,

saying four knights hacked the king apart. Either way, the Anglo-Saxon

line cracked. By sunset, English dead littered Senlac Hill and William—soon “the

Conqueror”—rode toward London. That single arrow myth rewrote reality: French became the