Faceplant.

Research has led me to the chronicle of Battle Abbey which can be best summed up as "We the monks of Battle Abbey <3 William the Conqueror". Included in this chronicle, is a detailed description of William's conquest of England complete with his ignominious arrival on the shores of England:

"Thus the duke, with an unparalleled army and attended by divine favour, set out upon his voyage. At length  he landed safely near the town called Pevensey….the army extensively  along an area of shore….some leaping joyously….to England….it happened that as the duke was disembarking, he fell on his face; his nose was wounded and some blood fell upon the shore; he first grasped the land with hands outstretched. At this many became very frightened, muttering about the meaning of this unlucky omen. But the duke’s steward, William fitz Osbern, a man of admirable probity and very clever, was present, and he quickly raised the drooping spirits of the falterers with a bold prophecy: ‘Men’, he said, ‘do not take this as unlucky; it is really an omen of success. See, he has claimed England, taking possession of it with both hands, and he has consecrated it as the inheritance of his own lineage by marking it with his own blood. By this presage of the divine plan he has effectively been given title to it.’"

William fitz Osbern. Possibly one of the earliest spin doctors.

Notes

'The chronicle of Battle Abbey', ed. by Eleanor Searle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), p. 35