Battle Abbey

Site of a rather unholy act of warfare, Battle Abbey became a place of pilgrimage in atonement at the bloodshed, and now sits on the Old Way to Canterbury

Highlights

• End of the Anglo-Saxon epoch
• Ruined abbey

In its historical context, the Battle of Hastings needs little introduction: the moment William the Conqueror seized control of the English throne. But it was also a watershed moment in the spiritual life of England and Wales. It was the moment the English church fell decisively under the sway of Rome, at a time when ties between eastern and western churches began their Great Schism, which continues to this day.

Though called the Battle of Hastings, the main conflict took place 6 miles inland from Hastings on 14 October 1066. The town that later grew up around the battlefield is called simply Battle.

Today you can walk around the site of the conflict, a series of hilly fields with nothing to mark the carnage that took place here 1,000 years ago. The walk eventually leads up to the ruins of Battle Abbey. This was founded in 1070 by William the Conqueror to atone for bloodshed during his invasion. Its high altar was placed on the exact spot where King Harold II was slain, perhaps with an arrow in his eye.

The parish church of St Mary, just outside the abbey walls, was built by the monastery for the townspeople to use, so they would not disturb the monks’ worship. King Harold II himself was buried at either Bosham in West Sussex or Waltham Abbey in Essex. The abbey church has mostly fallen into ruin since the Dissolution. But a modern inscribed plinth has been placed on the site of the high altar, marking the spot where Anglo-Saxon England came to an abrupt end.

The start of the Norman epoch affected every part of English life – the church included. With the sole exception of St Wulfstan of Worcester, King William removed all the Saxon bishops and replaced them with a new generation of French church leaders.

The religious dimension to the invasion is often overlooked. The English church had been excommunicated by the Pope in 1052. The reason was that Stigand served as both Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Winchester at the same time, an ecclesiastical crime known as pluralism. Unable to resolve the row with the help of Anglo-Saxon kings, Pope Alexander II actively blessed William’s planned conquest of England in a bid to restore his authority.

Meanwhile, the papacy had also fallen out with the Orthodox church in the East, an event in 1054 known as the Great Schism. This remains one of the great fault lines in world Christianity today, still unresolved after nearly a millennium. England was out of step with Rome at the time of the schism, so the Orthodox believe that it only joined the Roman camp after the Conquest of 1066.

It seems almost surreal that the world managed to cling on to Christian unity until 1052, given the current state of relations between the world’s different church groupings. Then as now, there were huge differences in practice and belief, but these were tolerated in the name of a greater good.

The one major consequence is that any saint dating from before 1066 in England is considered a saint by all the major Christian denominations. Indeed Britain’s huge saintly heritage can be shared by anyone open to spiritual experiences.

It may sound far-fetched to claim that England’s arguments with the Pope were linked to a dispute happening thousands of miles away in the East. But one surprising fact should give pause for thought: King Harold’s daughter Gytha fled England after the battle and travelled all the way to Kyiv. Here she married the Grand Duke of Holy Rus, in the birthplace of Russian Orthodoxy, and helped to found the great Orthodox dynasties of Yaroslavl, Smolensk and Galicia.

Directions

1066 Battle of Hastings, Abbey and Battlefield, High Street (A2100), Battle TN33 0AD

www.english-heritage.org.uk (search for Battle)

W3W: streak.walled.update

GPS: 50.9145N 0.4876E.

Battle railway station 600m

Battle Abbey is an English Heritage site. Tickets cost £12:30 for adults, £11.10 for concessions, £7.40 for children (5–17 years). Opening times vary from weekends only in winter to daily in the summer; see www.english-heritage.org.uk (search for Battle)