Another old Norman chronicler, by way of defending the divine right of William of Normandy to invade England, wrote: “How a Starre with seven long Tayles appeared in the Skye. How the Learned sayd that newe Starres only shewed themselves when a Kingdom wanted a King, and how the sayd Starre was yclept a Comette.”
William himself appealed to the Comet as his guiding star. It shone at its brightest during the Summer months while William was preparing his expedition at St. Valery. When the spirits of his followers failed them, William pointed to the blazing Comet and bid monks and priests who accompanied his expedition to preach stirring sermons on the “wonderful Sign from Heaven.”
The trip across the English Channel, late in September, was lighted up by the Comet, and under its lustre the Norman invaders first pitched their camp at Pevensey.
Once more, when William’s Norman followers quailed at the fierce work before them, William pointed to the Comet as a token of coming victory.
A fortnight later, directly after the disappearance of the Comet, the Battle of Hastings was fought, in which King Harold and his Saxon thanes lost their lives and their country.
Afterwards, when Queen Matilda and her court ladies embroidered the pictorial story of her husband’s Conquest of England in the huge tapestry of Bayeux, they did not forget the Comet. They represented Harold cowering in alarm on his throne, whilst his people are huddled together, pointing with their fingers at the fearful omen in the sky, the birds even being upset at the sight. The Latin legend over the picture “Isti Mirant Stella” (they marvel at the star), makes it all plain.
As I. C. Bruce, the editor of “The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated,” has said: “This embroidery is remarkable for furnishing us with the earliest human representation we have of a Comet.”
The Comet of 1066 will ever be famous for ushering in a new era for England. Even to-day Halley’s Comet is remembered as “The Comet of the Conquest.”
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
(An English Dream.)