The Norman Conquest is usually told through banners, cavalry charges, and the Battle of Hastings. But medieval history often turns on smaller moments—the kind soldiers remember because they feel like fate. When William of Normandy landed at Pevensey Bay in 1066, some chronicles report that he slipped as he stepped ashore and fell forward into the sand. In an army trained to read omens, it looked awful. A leader stumbling on the first step of an invasion could be interpreted as heaven’s warning: