8)), \('\IJF. \11(\ Oct. 14, marked the 950th anniversary invasion of England in 1066 J\.D., known as the Battle of Hastings. T here were five contenders for the English throne at that point in history. The king, Edvv::ird the Confessor, died without an heir, leaving it up to fi,·e men to baule for the monarchy. At different points in his reign, Edward named different successors, however. nothing was set in stone. A series of battles commenced between the fiye differem potential heirs o,Tr the course of the year l066 - the turning point of which was the Battle of Hastings. Associate p rofessor of histor), Dr.Julie H arris, was an expert on the battle. "Nine-hundred and fifty years ago, the i\'orman army, led by \ \'illiam the Duke of Normandy, arrived in England on the road that goes up the coast leading to London," Harris said. "By Christmas of that year, \ Villiam has England in his pocket. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas day of 1066, King \Villiam, and will then be knmrn as William the Conqueror for all time." Together with he?r coworkers and students, Harris decided to host festivities to commemorate the anni,·ersary, including a lesson on heraldry and a miniature reenactment of the battle. "I have to give credit to Kim Laing, [instructor of history], who noticed this on her history board [andJ she found a script online of how to reenact the battle," Harris said. ··So [\\l' saiclj, 'Okay, [we've got to] do this.· Profl'ssor Greg Laing, who studies the sagas of the Yikings, is going to play Harold Godwinson, and my husband Damon Harris is going to be \Villiarn the Conqueror. Then we're going to go for it and hope for rhe best." According to Laing, despite being fun and entertaining, reenacting the battle brought history Lo life for her students. '~A.s much fun as it is to study, one thing that's hard for people to get a handle on is the feelings of history," Laing said. '·Reenacting makes the students want to knov, more about the history, and it brings in students that maybe arc less comfortable in class. This is their chance to really participate in history and ha\'C fun." Senior history major Nathan Harkey said he thoroughly enjoyed the whole production. "Basically what we did was we got [to] D1~ Harris' house about I 0:30 in the morning," Harkey said. ''There were probably about 20 of us there, and the teachers broke us up into the different armies. \'\'e got out cardboard shields and painted them according to what they would hm·e looked like for those armies. \\'c all had balloon swords and pool noodles for horses. It was really fun, very informative and helped me understand the battle tactics of I that] day much betLer." After being attacked during the reenactment by swords and bombs, instructor of English Greg Laing pretends to be dead at a.1sociale profeJSor of hi1lory }ulie Harris' house on Oct. 15. The history department used the reenactment of the Battle of Hastings to bring the story to life. I Photo by Ka;:.u Fujisawa [,aing, se11iorJ Sarnh .\lcCo_v and Brian Co;:,art, n11d sophomore Ao/ton }cnkins charge fn1'11'ard during the Bal/le of H as lings reenactment on Oct. 15. The hi;to1y students made shields and swords in Jneparationfor thejight. I Photo b)' ha;:,u Fujisawa
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