(This is a repost of my diary from yesterday, which went largely unnoticed. Given the theme, reposting it today has metacharm.)
What goes around, so we're told, comes around. This may be a good thing, given how short our public memory can be. If what went around did not come around, most of what has been would be lost forever. Even the good stuff.
In 1066, an exhausted, hungry army of Saxon pikemen (with some archers in support) stood on a hill and held off the assaults of the assembled mounted nobility of Normandy. The knights were essentially helpless against the 20 foot pikes that, butted against the earth, formed a thicket that could not be penetrated by the knights' horses.
At some point, the knights retreated, in some disorder. The Saxons -- who were, recall, exhausted and hungry -- lost their discipline and charged down the hill after the fleeing horsemen. The knights rallied, reversed, and brought the hammer down on the now chaotic array of foot soldiers. The victors, it has been noted, get to write the history; in this case, what they wrote was that the "retreat" was a feint, a cunning tactic to draw the Saxons off the hill. Yeah. Right. "We meant to do that." Nevermind that the Saxon king was slain not by a lancer but by an archer.
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