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14 October 1066

Duke William's heart was beating like a drum as his horse galloped ferociously toward the Saxons, faster, faster, leading the charge. The Norman charge would soon reach the Saxon shield-wall, then...

...The world changed. A stray arrow struck the Duke in the neck, piercing the jugular. The Duke fell from his horse, the beating of his very heart driving his own life-blood out. He felt weak and faint, then darkness covered his eyes and he died, his last thought being that it was so unfair.

The Norman charge was too far gone to stop or slow, but the Saxons stood firm as a Roman wall, not breaking under the Norman hammer-blow. The fighting degenerated into a confused melee, but the Normans could not breach the Saxon defense. For several hours the battle continued, but the Normans had lost heart and knew they could not win, not with their Duke slain. At the last, as the sun went down in the sky and dusk approached, the Normans retreated. For several minutes the Saxons stayed on Senlac ridge, their King Harold not sure if this was a trick.

They found William's body some distance from the main mass of the slain, a single arrow fixed firmly in its neck. Then the pursuit began.

~*~

(Excerpt from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Peterborough edition, entry for 1066)

...Meantime Earl William came up from Normandy into Pevensey on the eve of St. Michael's mass; and soon after his landing was effected, they constructed a castle at the port of Hastings. This was then told to King Harold; and he gathered a large force, and came to meet him at the estuary of Appledore. William, however, came against him unawares, ere his army was collected; but the king, nevertheless, very hardly encountered him with the men that would support him: and there was a great slaughter made on either side [1]. But Earl William was slain in the battle, and the Normans made haste to their ships. King Harold made pursuit, and at Pevensey the Normans and many Earls were slain, and England was made secure from the invaders.

[1] Everything up to here is OTL.
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