Everyone seems to want to conquer today, it has become fasion. In the 70 years I have been living in this world, countries have changed their names and leaders so often, you have problems keeping up.

I remember Rhodesia which is now Zimbabwe, there was a town called Bombay in India, but that is now Mumbai, Madras is now Chennai, Peking has become Beijing. What a confusing life we live. Even my home country of England has had its ups and downs.

Last year on my visit to England I spent a day In a place called Waltham on the Eastern outskirts of London, which also has a very attractive abbey, known as Waltham Abbey. It is also the place where King Harold is believed to have been buried after his untimely death in 1066, being killed by an arrow which piereced his eye, on the beach at Hastings, in south England. He did not survive to see how the armies of William the Conquerer, the first Norman King of Great Britain, took control of the the British Isles. But this was just another conquerer for the British. They were used to it. It all began when the Romans decided to spend a holiday in England and sailed up the River Thames in 55 b.c. landing in London. They found that blue eyes and blond hair was something completely different to the Roman style olive skin and dark hair, and so when the Romans left, the british fair skinned people were parents of dark complexioned children.

By the time William of Normandy arrived, the british were used to the coming and going of other nations. Anglo Saxon was a thing of the past, they were now beginning to speak a mixture of anglo and french, with a tinge of latin left by the Romans. In between all of this action the Vikings had also raided a few towns in the British Isles for a scandinavian touch, just to add to the whole puzzle, but they stayed in the Noth, hence the local accent.

But was King Harold to be forgotten as the King that lost Britain to a French immigrant? Of course not, In the meanwhile  King Harold’s tomb is now in the grounds of Waltham Abbey, although this is still being discussed as they are not sure whose bones are actually laying there.

Yes many have come and gone in England but Harold has never been forgotten, at least in Waltham. His image is shown on the walls of the cathedral. For me he was just another King to learn about in school. Of course the Scottish gave the british some bother as well , but the british have remained staunch. Brexit? no problem. The British have fought against so many conquerers, a little bit of EU supervision is a joke. After all my mum always said “the french don’t like us and we don’t like them”. She still held a grudge again William the Conquerer. In her younger days she made a day trip to Boulogne on the french coast. Must have been some time in the 1930’s and that settled the question for her. She discovered that the french ate horse meat and she was stung by a hornet – mum knew what she was talking about.

Me, no problem, I am international and I quite like horse meat if it comes from the right source. I can even speak French, and German and Italian and Russian. Forget the conquering, you have to melt into the background these days and like the food.

Waltham Abbey

Daily Prompt: Too much conquering going on.