Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

This battle was fought on the day of Pope Calixtus: and Earl William returned to Hastings, and waited there to know whether the people would submit to him. But when he found that they would not come to him, he went up with all his force that was left and that came since to him from over sea, and ravaged all the country that he overran, until he came to Berkhampstead; where Archbishop Aldred came to meet him, with child Edgar, and Earls Edwin and Morkar, and all the best men from London; who submitted then for need, when the most harm was done. It was very ill-advised that they did not so before, seeing that God would not better things for our sins. And they gave him hostages and took oaths: and he promised them that he would be a faithful lord to them; though in the midst of this they plundered wherever they went. Then on midwinter’s day Archbishop Aldred hallowed him to king at Westminster, and gave him possession with the books of Christ, and also swore him, ere that he would set the crown on his head, that he would so well govern this nation as any before him best did, if they would be faithful to him.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

“Midwinter day” or “midwinter’s day” is no longer used to refer to Christmas Day, 25 December.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Archbishop of Canterbury (4) W/G ·
• Archbishop of York (18) W/G ·
• Battle of Hastings (2) W/G ·
• Berkhamsted (1) W/G ·
• Christmas (16) W/G ·
• Ealdred (archbishop of York) (2) W/G ·
• Edgar Ætheling (2) W/G ·
• Edwin, Earl of Mercia (2) W/G ·
• Excommunication (3) W/G ·
• Morcar (2) W/G ·
• Norman Conquest (6) W/G ·
• Stigand (1) W/G ·
• Westminster Abbey (1) W/G ·
• William the Conqueror (5) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

“Midwinter day” or “midwinter’s day” is no longer used to refer to Christmas Day, 25 December.

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Similar

25 September 1066: The Stamford Bridge massacre by Harold Godwinson’s army of Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson’s force – symbol of the end of the Viking Age

28 January 1069: In the first major northern battle after Hastings, Tynesiders slaughter a Norman army at Durham, whereupon William the Conqueror ravages the north

29 May 1405: On Shipton Moor, the Earl of Westmorland, acting for Henry IV, tricks the Archbishop of York and the Duke of Norfolk, rebellious defenders of York’s rights and purses

29 August 1570: On arriving in Yorkshire, Archbishop Grindal declares war on bloody-minded folk-Catholicism

16 February 1114: The morbidly obese Archbishop Thomas II of York ignores medical advice and dies chaste, unlike an 18th century successor

10 April 1877: Echoing Walter Scott’s “Ivanhoe”, John Collier tells a meeting at Walkley (Sheffield) that local Normans and Anglo-Saxons initially lived apart

12 November 1207: Leeds’s municipal charter seeks to encourage female publicans

31 March 1943: The Archbishop of York calls in the Lords for the wartime ban on ringing church bells to be lifted or modified

18 March 1650: Dorothy Rodes of Bowling (Bradford) blames witchcraft by Mary Sykes for the postpartum illness of her daughter

24 January 1826: Samuel Hick, blacksmith and Methodist preacher of Micklefield (Leeds), writes to his “dear bosom frend and beloved wife” and daughter Jan

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

Comment

This book quotes two letters, and there is mention of them in Everett’s memoir, but whatever happened to the rest? Where’s Polleton?

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