Cumtun, Sussex, 1009 AD
I"m the first to admit I have not lived an exemplary life. In all honesty, I"ve acted my entire existence out of self-interest, which is the price paid for leadership. I have a natural ability in that respect, born of my impressive personality and physical courage. Would it not have been a wasted life, had I not taken action and decisions to seize personal advantage from the portentous circumstances surrounding me? This is my story and I will not gild it like the Norman witch, who paid a lickspittle to write her Encomium Emmae Reginae: a paean to Queen Emma – dross!
More than any other, and at an impressionable age, one event shaped my character. I will not hide behind it since it explains what drove me to become the most powerful man in England.
The year was 100
