New Research Ties Pope Alexander II to William's 1066 Invasion as England Leaned to Rival
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 4
New Research Ties Pope Alexander II to William's 1066 Invasion as England Leaned to Rival
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 4
Summary
University of East Anglia said newly identified excerpts from a lost papal letter suggest Pope Alexander II backed William the Conqueror's 1066 invasion partly to force regime change in England.
A rare 15th-century royal document in a University of Toronto collection preserved the overlooked text, which Professor Tom Licence linked to Alexander's struggle with antipope Honorius II using advanced imaging and Vatican archive material.
The letter describes England as led astray by an "evil head" and, in Licence's reading, casts the English as "followers of Satan" after they withdrew support from Alexander and leaned toward Honorius.
That interpretation challenges the standard view of the Battle of Hastings as mainly a dynastic fight between Harold II and William, recasting it as part of a wider papal political and religious conflict.
Licence's findings, published in his book "Harold: Warrior King," could reshape historians' understanding of Alexander's motives and the broader causes of the Norman Conquest.