1066 – The Norman Conquest and its Impact
- England was the wealthiest state in Europe at the time
- The Norman leader, Duke William, believed he had a strong legal claim to the throne and that the Saxon king Harold Godwinson has taken it illegally
- Anglo-Saxon England was a strong kingdom with a powerful army, but in military terms, the Norman army was even stronger, making the invasion successful
- Duke William was an able leader with loyal supporters, but he was also lucky
- The weather favoured him when he invaded across the Channel
- At the same time Harold was distracted by a Viking attack in northern England
- Harold made some mistakes
- When Harold was killed, the Anglo-Saxons had no leader to rally round, so within a few months the leading nobles and bishops surrendered to William, helping them to gain control
- At first, William allowed them to keep their lands, but rebellions soon broke out that were ruthlessly crushed
- The Normans built a network of castles and William appointed loyal barons and churchmen to look after the land on his behalf; the whole country was ruled by eleven men
- The Norman conquest brought change to the top of society; virtually all Anglo-Saxon lords and things lost their land
- The Normans changed the landscape with castles and new cathedrals and churches
- They brought their own language, customs, clothing, food and culture
- The systems of law, administration and coinage remained
- Much of the population continued to speak English and carried on with their traditional farming way of life
- Anglo-Saxon kings could be challenged by any noble who could raise enough troops and support
- The Norman conquest reinforced the idea that the throne could be won by force of arms; in this period, the personalities changed but power still lay in military strength
1066 – Key Events
- Battle of Fulford, 20 September – Harald Hardrada and Tostig defeat Harold Godwinson’s supporters, Earls Edwin and Morcar
- Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September – Harold Godwinson defeated Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson
- Pevensey, 28 September – William of Normandy lands in England
- Wallingford, October – Archbishop Stigand surrenders and ends attempts to put Edward Atheling on the throne
- Battle of Hastings, 14 October – William defeats Harold who is killed
- Southwark, mid-October – William repulsed
- Berkhamsted, end-October – English leaders submit to William
- London, 25 December – William crowned king
1066 – The Norman Invasion
- When Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Harold Godwinson became king
- According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle it was a simple succession
- Edward’s great nephew, Edgar Atheling, has a better legal claim to the throne than Harold, but he was only 15 years old and few nobles preferred him as king
- The Witan wanted a strong leader who could defend and run the country, and Harold Godwinson was the richest and most powerful man in England as well as being a proven leader
- He even exiled his own brother, Tostig, in 1065, for ruling badly and upsetting the thegns
- William, Duke of Normandy claimed the throne
- England was extremely wealthy, and William wanted to invade
- He claimed that Edward the Confessor, who had strong links to Normandy and was distantly related to William, had promised him the English throne in 1051
- He also claimed that Harold Godwinson had pledged loyalty to him in 1064
- This was true, but Harold argued that this oath of loyalty was forced out of him whilst he was being held hostage by William after a shipwreck
- To boost William’s claims further, he won the support of the Pope, which allowed him to claim that God was on his side
- A war occurred in the north and in the south because the disagreement of the succession had to be decided by war rather than by legal justification, family ties or papal support
- The Witan dismissed William’s claim and supported Harold
- Throughout 1066, William built up his forces and was ready to invade England in August
- Harold prepared to fight him off, but Vikings from Norway invaded northern England to claim the throne for the Norwegian king, Harald Hardrada
- Harald descended from King Cnut and supported by Tostig, who persuaded the northern thegns to support the Viking attack
- The Vikings defeated one English army, then made camp at Stamford Bridge, near York
- Harold Godwinson marched his forces immediately there and surprised them, killing Hardrada and Tostig
- Harold had to go south to reach the south coast where William of Normandy invaded
- Harold recruited a new army of foot soldiers in London and met William near Hastings on 14 October
- The Normans triumphed, killing Harold, with many other casualties in the savage battle
1066 – The Success of the Invasion
- Some historians believe that whilst the English military system was impressive, the Norman one was even more formidable
- Anglo-Saxon forces were typically used to small-scale warfare to defend borders or retaliate against raids; they had no archers and troops were made up of housecarls and the fyrd
- Housecarls were professional foot soldiers, usually thegns loyal to Harold
- The fyrd were ordinary men called up for service; they were not fully trained or equipped like housecarls
- Norman forces were used to warfare centred on capturing castles or moving swiftly through a territory, taking control of it; they were well equipped, and troops included knights, foot soldiers and archers
- Knights were nobles who fought on horseback with swords and axes
- Foot soldiers were like the fyrd, carrying spears and swords or knives and shields
- Archers were skilled specialists, armed with bows and arrows
- Harold and his closest advisers were close; however, William’s advisers were made up of his half-brothers who were even more loyal to him
- Harold had many well-equipped soldiers; however, the Norman soldiers were even better equipped
- English troops were all on foot; however, Norman troops were on horseback as well, enabling them to change tactics swiftly
- Anglo-Saxon forces were typically used to small-scale warfare to defend borders or retaliate against raids; they had no archers and troops were made up of housecarls and the fyrd
- Norman knights and troops were more experienced because William of Normandy had been battling for his dukedom since he was a boy
- The great lords of France were constantly at war, besieging castles and fighting openly
- The duke of Normandy had to guard his territory against the king of France
- Meanwhile, England had been relatively stable, with no serious civil war or invasion since 1016
- Harold and William took significantly different approaches to the war and as leaders
- Harold was strong, as demonstrated by defeating Hardrada, however he was risking overstretching resources as he marched straight down south
- William refused to strike inland immediately, staying near the coast to secure supply lines from Normandy and resting his troops
- William waited for Harold to come to him
- Winning the Battle of Hastings did not automatically make William the king of England
- The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand tried to rally support for Edgar Atheling and William fought his way to London to deal with this challenge
- He destroyed the town of Dover, fought Anglo-Saxon forces at Canterbury and by December, set up camp just outside London
- English forces had been greatly weakened and the thegns decided to support William’s claim to the throne
- The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand tried to rally support for Edgar Atheling and William fought his way to London to deal with this challenge
- On Christmas Day of 1066, ten weeks after his victory at Hastings, William was crowned as king of England
- He still lacked control with only 10 000 Normans trying to control 2 million Anglo-Saxons, most of whom were hostile to their conquerors
- The hostility turned into rebellion, with serious revolts against Norman rule every year between 1067-75
- Welsh kings helped western rebels in the west in 1067-9
- Scottish kings helped rebels in the north in 1069
- Scandinavian kings helped rebels in the north and east
- Raids on Normandy from France existed in the early 1700s with attacks from the Count on Anjou and King of France from 1074 onwards
1066 – The Gaining of Control
- Military efficiency in conjunction with ruthless violence was one method that helped the Normans take over England
- The Anglo-Saxons did not have a leader to rally around in the same way that Alfred the Great rallied the English against the Vikings
- There was no obvious place for the rebels to join forces and make a stand
- Years of stability had left England unprepared for a fight and the Normans were able to deal with each rebellion as it occurred
- The Normans inflicted tens of thousands of casualties and carried out many atrocities against ordinary civilians
- Initially, he was merciful to the rebels and uprisings in keeping with Norman chivalry
- In Exeter the people revolted against him and he merely crushed the revolt with no punishments
- As the revolts continued, William dealt with them more harshly
- In 1069, the English earls joined forces with the King of Scotland and a Viking fleet to oppose William
- This time William drove off the rebels and sent his forces through northern England, burning homes, barns, buildings and slaughtering animals
- This became known as the Harrying of the North
- Castles also aided the Norman takeover
- Castles originated in France, where rival rulers often invaded each other’s land and there were few natural barriers to stop them
- Castles protected territories and repelled invaders
- A few dozen soldiers in a castle could control the surrounding area and slow down invaders if they were outnumbered
- The Normans established castles immediately after they invaded as they knew it would be key to control
- The border of Wales had many castles in order to control the border because it was too difficult and expensive to conquer Wales
- The English had no castles to help defend their land as well as having unwalled cities; all they had was a few fortified houses because there was no need for anything more
- If they had castles, the Normans may have been deterred by the effort and time taken and perhaps would’ve given up
- The first castles were rapidly built of timber and earth by the peasants
- They were protected by Norman knights and controlled by marcher lords
- The buildings and surveillant knights reminded people who was in charge
- As the Normans tightened their hold on different areas, they forced the inhabitants to reinforce the castles and rebuild them with stone
- Over 30 years, over 500 new castles were built; they were funded by monasteries and churches being forced to pay for military service
- A network of loyal supporters aided the takeover and William rewarded them with conquered land
- William’s inner circle was his family and closest friends who he trusted and were loyal to him
- William took land away from English thegns and gave it to his loyal Norman barons
- The barons subdivided these lands to reward their followers, and so on
- The system sometimes known as feudalism was the exchange of land for loyalty
- Comes from the Latin ‘feodum’ meaning ‘a piece of land’
- Each area of land was controlled by a baron and his knights
- Even after 1075, when William was often away fighting in France, Norman control was not threatened
- A loyal group of churchmen also aided William in administering England
- Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, effectively ran England in his absence
- William made use of legality and Anglo-Saxon administration
- The majority of thegns lost their lands in the conquest largely due to the widespread violence of the rebellions
- In the process, William emphasised that he was not seizing England, only taking up his rightful inheritance from Edward the Confessor
- The Normans made an effort to produce documents that William was acting legally
- This claim to legality helped the king in history, and to persuade officials in the royal government and sheriffs in the shires to carry out his orders, on the grounds that he was their legal master
- The English system of government was efficient, so William used the strength of this system to govern
- Overtime, English officials were replaced by Normans, or by people who worked faithfully for Norman lords, so the process of administration became faster and quicker
- A new English Church helped William control England successfully
- The Church in Anglo-Saxon England had been wealthy and influential, supporting the king and giving English people a strong sense of identity
- William got rid of the Anglos-Saxon bishops and abbots presiding over the major monasteries, and replaced them with Normans
- By 1079, only three of the country’s 15 bishops were English
- Many churches were renamed and dedicated to different saints
- Over 50 years, every English cathedral, and most of the main abbey churches, were destroyed to be rebuilt in a Norman style
- These were to thank God for their victory and chip away at English culture
1068-86 – Changes to England
- The Domesday book recorded exactly who owned what in England in 1086
- The Domesday Survey was carried out for practical reasons
- In the 20 years after the Norman invasion, the owners of some land were unknown as it had been seized, transferred, subdivided or sold off; this led to disputes about land ownership as land meant wealth and power
- William commissioned a survey to find out who owned what in 1066 and what had changed in the following two decades
- He used the efficient Anglo-Saxon networks of scribes, officials, local courts and sheriffs to carry out the survey, and every community had to answer 20 questions set by Domesday Commissioners
- The survey was an astounding achievement; completed in less than a year, it took testimonies from thousands of landowners and peasants across the country
- There is lack of clarity as to if William intended on eradicating the aristocracy
- In the months following the invasion, thegns pledged their loyalty to William and were allowed to keep their lands
- However, the situation changed when rebellions broke out and when William wanted to reward his Norman followers
- The Domesday Book explains the destruction of the English noble class
- By 1086, only four major lords survived and more than 4000 thegns had lost lands and been replaced by around 200 barons who were loyal to William
- The king and his 10 most senior knights kept a quarter of all land for themselves
- Many thegns and lords died at Hastings or in rebellions, others became tenants with Norman landlords
- Peasants’ lives likely became more difficult after the conquest
- Norman landlords were likely to have increased rent to pay for the recent battle
- New landlords imposed new conditions on their tenants
- Many became serfs (owned by the lord) rather than freemen
- In Cambridgeshire, the number of freemen decreased from 900 to 177
- All the changes gave rise to the idea of the ‘Norman yoke’ on the shoulders of English people
- Historians doubt that Norman rule was more difficult than Anglo-Saxon rule
- The Normans abolished slavery, under pressure from the Church
- This cost William financially, so it was probably done for moral reasons, and the king had abolished slavery in Normandy
- Historians doubt that Norman rule was more difficult than Anglo-Saxon rule
Describe two examples of Norman military tactics. [4]
Describe two examples of the effects of the Norman Conquest. [4]
Explain why the Normans were able to hold on to England after 1066 despite English resistance. [8]
Explain why the Norman invasion was successful in 1066. [8]
How significant was the Norman Conquest for England? [14]