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118 Philip Augustus, King of France. The records are vague and inadequate; and Cowell and Crommelin have given the preference to a comet which was seen in August and September 1222 and which passed its perihelion probably in September. The Waverley Abbey Annalist says that in the months named a fine star of the 1st magnitude, with a large tail, appeared. When first seen it was near the place where the Sun sets in December. The Chinaman Ma-tuoan-lin says that on Sept. 25 it came from η Bootis. The tail was 30 cubits long, and the comet perished in two months. The question of the identification of one of these comets with Halley's is one of the few instances in which Cowell and Crommelin have dissented from Hind's identifications by deciding in favour of the Comet of 1222 in preference to Hind's 1223.

In April and May 1145 the European and Chinese chroniclers record a comet with a tail 10° long, whose course among the stars from the end of April to the beginning of July is stated by Hind to have been perfectly in accord with the computed path of Halley's Comet, supposing the perihelion passage to have taken place about the 3rd week in April. The Chinese accounts seem to speak of the July Comet as being different from the April and May one, but whether this was so or not cannot be determined with any certainty. Hind seemed to regard the two to be one and the same.

In the April of the year 1066, the year in which the Norman Conquest took place, a remarkable comet attracted the attention of all Europe. In England it was viewed with especial alarm and the success of the Norman invasion and the death of Harold were attributed to the comet's baneful influence. Zonares, the Greek historian, in his account of the reign of the Emperor Constantirius Ducas (whose death occurred in May 1067) describes a comet which was as large as the full moon, and at first was without a tail, on the appearance of which, it (which presumably means the head) diminished in size. This transformation accords with the Chinese accounts, which describe the comet's path among the stars in Chinese fashion with great elaboration. The Chinese say that this object was visible for 67 days, after which "the star, the