How many Norman robbers got their blood ennobled, and how many Saxon nobles got theirs Plebeianized by the Battle of Hastings; and how difficult it would be for any of us to say from which we descended-the Britons or the Saxons, the Danes or the Normans; or in what particular action our ancestors were the victors or the vanquished, and became ennobled or Plebeianized by the thousand accidents which influence the fate of battles.
"Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official"
William Sleeman