EP1 - 1066. The Year of the Conquest. (The Papal Banner)

Episode 01: 1066 and the Papal Banner

On the morning of 28 September 1066, William of Normandy fell flat on his face as he stepped onto the beach at Pevensey. The army watched him land in the mud. He stood up, hands full of English earth, and turned the moment into a prophecy.

This episode is about how that moment had already been engineered, years before, in chanceries across Europe. About the work William did in Rome before he commissioned a single ship. About the three near-deaths that nearly ended the campaign before Hastings. And about a pattern that, once you see it, appears in almost every audacious attempt since: legitimacy before logistics. Build your papal banner before you build your ships.

The book is 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth (1977). Two hundred pages. You'll read it in two evenings. You won't forget it.

Episode one of Contact Light: The Bookshelf. Travels in the country of ambition, between idea and reality. Hosted by Mark Zwinderman.