The Marvel of the Star: How the Appearance of Halley's Comet in the Year 1066 Impacted the Medieval Mind and Changed the Course of History Forever

 If you lived in England during the 11th century then the world around you was full of mysterious omens and ominous portents.  God was not some far distant and hands-off deity, but rather, He interacted with you and with everyone you knew in a very hands-on sort of way that directly impacted your daily life and the entire world in your midst.

In the year 989 at the dawn of the second millenium--when the world around you was already in the midst of a messianic apocalyptic fervor--a young boy of no more than six, or seven years of age, sighted a strange shooting star in the skies over London.  It was so bright; so large and so startling that the boy, and probably everyone else in England who saw what would become known centuries later as Halley’s Comet, at that time, remembered what they saw for the rest of their lives.

That young boy’s name was Elmer.  In his adult life he would go on to become a Benedictine monk and would be known to history in medieval annals as Elmer of Malmesbury.  He would never forget seeing that comet in the night sky as a small boy in 989, and Elmer would go on to spend the rest of his life studying astronomy and astrology in the abbey at Malmesbury.  Elmer of Malmesbury is the Patron Saint of Flight and Aviation and depictions of Elmer are always accompanied by wings (see image below).

Elmer would see Halley’s Comet once more as an old man, but in the year 989 he, like everyone else in London and England as a whole, probably thought Christ would soon return and the world would end sometime around the year 1000.

But comets and portents aside--the world didn’t end in the year 1000 and life in England returned to the slow medieval cadence and rhythm of holy days, seasonal changes, back-breaking agrarian labor and rest that marked the passage of time for innumerable generations before.  But the peaceful and pastoral world of 11th century England was about to change forever.

In October of 1066 William the Duke of Normandy who claimed rightful succession to the English throne invaded England in one of the most daring medieval military maneuvers on record.  He did battle at a place called Hastings with the forces of King Harold who had risen to the throne after the previous king’s passing.  It was one of the bloodiest and largest pitched battles during the early middle ages in the era before the invention of gunpowder in the west. 

William won the battle and became known to posterity as William the Conqueror.  The Normans, the Bretons and the French flooded into England and they changed not only the course of English history but also the English language itself forever.

Interestingly, in April of 1066 what would one day become known as Halley’s Comet was once again sighted by the multitudes in the skies across England.  Elmer of Malmesbury, now an aged and educated monk most likely in his mid to late seventies, who had spent a lifetime writing about the heavens above, once again saw the mysterious and magical comet of his youth.  This time he wrote about what he saw in the skies over England in 1066.

Elmer wrote about the comet in April of 1066 with the prescience of a fortune teller--or the wisdom of a holy man who had spent his entire life observing the skies, “You’ve come again, have you?  You’ve come, source of tears to many mothers.  It is long since I last saw you, but as I see you now, you are much more terrible…I see you brandishing the downfall of my country.”

Elmer of Malmesbury’s words as related above were recorded in a medieval manuscript called Gesta Regum Anglorum translated into English as “The Deeds of English Kings”  The Gesta Regum Anglorum was written sometime around the year 1125 by William of Malmesbury one of the most famous English medieval historians.  William, like Elmer, was a Benedictine monk at the very same monastery in Malmesbury.  It is highly likely that when William wrote about the tumultuous events of 1066 that he had access to many people who may have personally known Elmer and many first hand sources, perhaps even writings by Elmer of Malmesbury himself that have since been lost to history.   But it should be kept in mind that William’s observations regarding sightings of Halley’s comet and the Norman Conquest of 1066 were written down over fifty years after the events he records, so that the true veracity of Elmer’s prophetic prediction about the fate of England after sighting a comet in the night sky does need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Ruins of Malmesbury Abbey today

However, given the zeitgeist of both the 11th and 12th centuries the spirit of William of Malmesbury's words when it comes to people’s beliefs in the divinely ordained pretentious nature of mysterious celestial phenomena can definitely be believed.

History tells us that Halley’s Comet became visible in the skies over England for an entire week during April of 1066, a mere six months or so, prior to William the Duke of Normandy’s invasion of England.  Modern astronomers believe in April of 1066 that Halley’s Comet came within a mere nine million miles of earth--the closest it has ever come during any of its roughly seventy-five year cyclical visits to earth’s orbit--close enough to be observed with the naked eye even in broad daylight by anyone on earth.  

Not only did Elmer, or learned monks, see the comet, but rather, everyone did and it is recorded that the sightings threw the entire nation of England into a panic.  King Harold, for some reason, perhaps because he questioned his own piety or his own legal right to the English throne, is said to have gone into prayer and hiding for a full two weeks after the comet was sighted in the skies above.

It’s interesting to note, that William of Normandy, believed the exact opposite.  He believed that the appearance of Halley’s Comet portended divine sanction and victory for his armies and it emboldened him to attempt a maritime invasion of England in the fall of 1066, a military maneuver so risky and so daring, it should be noted, that not even Napoleon, or Hitler, were bold, reckless or crazy enough to attempt such an invasion.

The Bayeux Tapestry, one of the most remarkable works of western art, was commissioned (most likely) by William the Conqueror or his brother Bishop Odo for the cathedral in Bayeux, France, after his victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.  Harold, like most of his army, fought to the death and he himself is famously depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry as having died from an arrow shot through his eye.

But the Tapestry, not only depicts the build up to the invasion, the subsequent Norman victory and English defeat, but it also depicts a strange object in the sky--Halley’s Comet, perhaps, the first depiction in western art of a true comet. 

The Bayeux Tapestry, displayed in France but probably made by expert weavers in Canterbury, England, is two-hundred and twenty feet long and nearly two feet high.  It was commissioned to document the momentous events of the Norman Conquest  for all of history at a time when the populations of England and France (and quite possibly William the Conqueror himself) were largely illiterate.  

Currently, the Bayeux Tapestry is on display in London at the British Museum.  It is on loan to Great Britain from France through the summer of 2027.  The Tapestry is considered to be not only a masterwork of craftsmanship and western art but also a largely reliable insight into, and depiction of historical events, a true primary source that even today is continually mined by historians and researchers alike for insights into the medieval mindset and warfare during the 11th century.

On the upper right corner of the Bayeux Tapestry is depicted a star--what we today know as Halley’s Comet.  Standing beneath the representation of the comet on the Tapestry are shown a group of people staring up at it and pointing in wonder and awe.  Accompanying the image in Latin are the words, “Isti Mirant Stella” meaning “The Marvel of the Star.”

Halley’s Comet's last visit to earth occurred to the skies above in the year 1986 meaning that sometime around 2061, or so, the Marvel of the Star should return for all of us to once again stare at in wonder, and point up in the sky above with awe just as our ancestors did nearly one-thousand years ago in April of 1066.