On this day in history

@Colormegone Indeed they were. About twelve years after they were your dreaded enemies. The French bankrupted themselves helping the USA, with their allies the Spanish and Dutch - and Hyderebadies and Mysorians. Britain had upset the balance of power with her victories in the Seven Years War and Europe took the colonial rebellion as an excuse to reset Europe with no single dominant power. The colonials no longer needed British troops to protect them from the French.

@MandyMitchell c'est la guerre.

@Colormegone Indeed so. That was the nature of 18th century warfare; maintain a balance of power, have a war with professional soldiers blasting at each other then exchange a few frontier fortresses or a colony or two and then back to normal for a few years. God knows how many colonies changed hands back and forth.

@Subsumedpat Ex history teacher now. I would hate to be teaching in today's environment.

@Colormegone It may have ended in England in 1066, but viking raids on Scotland continued until the 12th century, and it was not until 1263 that King Alexander III of Scots finally removed the Norse from his kingdom.

@MandyMitchell Nice to hear from an eyewitness. Oh oh 🏓

@Colormegone I was young at the time, but I remember King Haakon's dragonship. One of these fickle west coast squalls pushed the Norse ships ashore and Alex's knights were waiting and cut them to pieces. The Norse turned tail and fled, with Haakon dying en-route back to Norway. Lots of celebration in Alba afterwards- no more enemies. They didn't know the English had designs on their kingdom.