1066
This is the most famous appearance of the Comet now known as Halley’s Comet. Under its seven rays, that year, William the Conqueror felt inspired to fall upon England, while Harold, the Saxon, on the other hand, saw in the Comet a star of dread foreboding and of doom.
The medieval chronicles of this year all make special mention of the Comet. A picture of the Comet, as it appeared to the doomed Harold, was embroidered by Matilde of France, on the famous coloured tapestry of the Norman Conquest, which is still preserved at Bayeux in Normandy.
Zonares, the Greek historian, in his account of the death of Emperor Constantinus Ducas (who died in May, 1067), writes of the Comet as “large as the full moon, and at first without a tail, on the appearance of which the star dwindled in size.”
The Chinese astronomers have recorded that this Comet had seven tails, and was seen for sixty-seven days, after which “the star, the blaze, and the star’s tails all drew away.”
HALLEY’S COMET, 1066.
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.)
The Christian chroniclers record that this Comet, “in size and brightness equalled the full moon, while its tail, slowly lengthening as it came near the Sun, spread out into seven rays and arched over the heavens in the shape of a dragon’s tail.”
Sigebert of Brabant, the Belgian chronicler of that time, wrote of it: “Over the island of Britain was seen a star of a wonderful bigness, to the train of which hung a fiery sword not unlike a dragon’s tail; and out of the dragon’s mouth issued two vast rays, whereof one reached as far as France, and the other, divided into seven lesser rays, stretched away towards Ireland.”
William of Malmesbury wrote how the apparition affected the mind of a fellow monk of his monastery in England. His words were: “Soon after the death of Henry, King of France, by poison, a wonderful star appeared trailing its long tail over the sky. Wherefore, a certain monk of our monastery, by name Elmir, bowed down with terror at the sight of the strange star, wisely exclaimed, ‘Thou art come back at last, thou that will cause so many mothers to weep; many years have I seen thee shine, but thou seemest to me more terrible now that thou foretellest the ruin of my country.’”