Norman

A previously overlooked fragment of a lost papal letter is adding an unexpected Roman dimension to the Norman Conquest. Historian Tom Licence argues that Pope Alexander II’s support for William of Normandy may have rested not only on Harold Godwinson’s disputed right to the English throne, but also on England’s possible place in a fierce conflict between rival papal claimants. The interpretation does not move the Battle of Hastings away from Sussex, but it does suggest that the political road to 1066 ran through Rome as well. A Survival in Fragments The evidence is not a newly found, complete papal letter. As the University of East Anglia explains, two passages from Alexander II’s lost register survived as copies in medieval