Its first memorable appearance in the history of France is that of 837, in the reign of Louis le Debonnaire.  An anonymous writer of chronicles of that time, named “The Astronomer,” gave the following details of this appearance, relative to the influence of the comet on the imperial imagination: 

“During the holy days of the solemnization of Easter, a phenomenon ever fatal, and of gloomy foreboding, appeared in the heavens.  As soon as the Emperor, who paid attention to these phenomena, received the first announcement of it, he gave himself no rest until he had called a certain learned man and myself before him.  As soon as I arrived, he anxiously asked me what I thought of such a sign; I asked time of him, in order to consider the aspects of the stars, and to discover the truth by their means, promising to acquaint him on the morrow; but the Emperor, persuaded that I wished to gain time, which was true, in order not to be obliged to announce anything fatal to him, said to me:  ’Go on the terrace of the palace and return at once to tell me what you have seen, for I did not see this star last evening, and you did not point it out to me; but I know that it is a comet; tell me what you think it announces to me.’  Then scarcely allowing me time to say a word, he added:  ’There is still another thing you keep back; it is that a change of reign and the death of a prince are announced by this sign.’  And as I advanced the testimony of the prophet, who said:  ’Fear not the signs of the heavens as the nations fear them,’ the prince with his grand nature, and the wisdom which never forsook him, said, ’We must not only fear Him who has created both us and this star.  But as this phenomenon may refer to us, let us acknowledge it as a warning from Heaven.”

Louis le Debonnaire gave himself and his court to fasting and prayer, and built churches and monasteries.  He died three years later, in 840, and historians have profited by this slight coincidence to prove that the appearance of the comet was a harbinger of death.  The historian, Raoul Glader, added later:  “These phenomena of the universe are never presented to man without surely announcing some wonderful and terrible event.”

Halley’s comet again appeared in April, 1066, at the moment when William the Conqueror invaded England.  It was pretended that it had the greatest influence on the fate of the battle of Hastings, which delivered over the country to the Normans.

A contemporary poet, alluding probably to the English diadem with which William was crowned, had proclaimed in one place, “that the comet had been more favorable to William than nature had been to Caesar; the latter had no hair, but William had received some from the comet.”  A monk of Malmesbury apostrophized the comet in these terms:  “Here thou art again, thou cause of the tears of many mothers!  It is long since I have seen thee, but I see thee now, more terrible than ever; thou threatenest my country with complete ruin!”