An 11th Century Norman Long Tanged Arrowhead. Battle of Hastings, Norman Invasion Period, Circa 1066. A Battle Abbey Site Discovered Relic. Could This Indeed Be The Arrow Plucked From King Harold's Eye?..

No, it almost certainly isn't, but, the remotest possibility that it might be, however unlikely, is intriguing. Battle Abbey, as universally agreed by historians, commemorates the site of the battle, and where the king fell and was buried, and the abbey was built on the site by King William, for penance, after his conquest

This arrow head was uncovered around 140 years ago, from the grounds near Battle Abbey in Sussex. By an amateur excavation from the grounds of the Abbey in the 1880's, that recovered this and a Anglo Saxon bronze cloak pin, and it is certainly of the earliest Norman age, from the mid to late 1st century.

Searching for relics of Medieval battles is a notoriously difficult task. Looting and stripping of the dead in the aftermath of fighting was a common occurrence. Unsurprisingly, not a single artefact unequivocally linked to the 1066 battle has ever been found. And make matters more complicated the village of Battle that subsequently grew up around the abbey would have obliterated any traces of the fighting, which limited surveying opportunities to the remaining, undeveloped, open areas, especially in the Victorian age, that naturally was devoid of any modern electronic equipment

The Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066, is the most famous battle in English history. There is widespread consensus among historians that William the Conqueror founded Battle Abbey in penance for the blood shed at the battle and to commemorate his great victory, on the very spot where he defeated King Harold.

It has been suggested, however, that the battle was not fought here. Several alternative locations have been put forward, including Crowhurst, about three miles south of Battle, and Caldbec Hill, about a mile to the north. Advocates of both sites claim that the Battle Abbey monks invented the association between their abbey and the battlefield in the Chronicle of Battle Abbey, written in the late 12th century, 100 years or more after 1066. However, maybe this arrow could potentially be a usufull addition to the story

Code: 25604