Norman Conquest

I

Introduction

Norman Conquest, successful invasion and annexation of the English kingdom by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066, and probably the most famous single event in English history. William ruled as William I, King of England, until his death in 1087, being known as William the Conqueror.

II

Background

Normandy was created from territory around the lower reaches of the River Seine, which had been seized from the Frankish kingdom by Danish Vikings under Rollo in 911. The treaty by which these Normans offered allegiance to the Frankish king and accepted Christianity in return for recognition of their land holding is not unusual in itself, for the Danelaw in eastern England represented the annexation by Viking armies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia in the 9th century. These “French” Normans proved to be a remarkable people, playing a dynamic role in political and military events across Europe over several centuries. In time they adopted French as their language and French customs, but they never lost their hunger for land, wealth, and power, proving as restless and aggressive as their Scandinavian forbears. William’s conquest of England was only one manifestation of this trait. Norman adventurers had been seeking their fortunes in southern Italy and fighting the Moors in Spain since the early 11th century. The establishment of a Norman kingdom in southern Italy began with the invasion of Sicily in 1060, and it did not end there, for Norman adventurers subsequently played prominent roles in the Crusades to free access to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for Christians. The Norman version of the conquest and the events that preceded it is presented in histories written after the conquest for the victors, notably the Gesta Willelmi Ducis Normannorum et Regis Anglorum by a royal chaplain, William of Poitiers. Its visual counterpart is the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth 70 m (230 ft) long made up of eight linen strips, which appears in an inventory of 1476 and was displayed on special occasions around the inner walls of Bayeux Cathedral. It represents the work of skilled English embroiderers for a commission made by William’s half-brother Odo, who was Bishop at Bayeux, and it must have been completed before 1082 when Odo was arrested by William.

III

The Claim to the English Throne

The rules that governed who could become king of England were less than clear-cut in the 11th century. Edward the Confessor had lived in exile in Normandy during the reign of Canute II and favoured Normans at his court after he became King of England in 1042. He was the direct descendant of the West Saxon dynasty that had ruled England throughout the 10th century, until the Danish conquest that saw Canute become King in 1016. The eldest son of Ethelred II by Queen Emma, Edward was born in 1005 and died childless in January 1066. In terms of bloodline, the most obvious legitimate heir was Edgar, grandson of Edward’s elder half-brother Edmund Ironside, but Edgar was far too young to be considered in 1066. Meanwhile William, Duke of Normandy had made a formal claim to the throne based on his relationship to Queen Emma, the wife successively of both Ethelred and Canute. William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, whose grandfather was Emma’s brother, and William’s claim was supported by Pope Alexander II in Rome. To enforce that claim however, William had first to remove Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex (Harold II) who had been approved as Edward’s successor by the English royal council, the Witenagemot, and duly crowned. William claimed that on a visit to Normandy in 1064, Harold had sworn on holy relics to support William’s cause. The appearance in 1066 of Halley’s comet was portrayed in the Bayeux Tapestry as an omen of divine intervention on William’s side. Harold probably took the view that he had been tricked and coerced by William in 1064 and did not feel bound to oaths taken under duress.

IV

Conquest

William’s vigorous preparation of a military expedition to enforce his claim was not the only threat to Harold’s precarious hold on England in the summer of 1066, for the Norwegian king Harold Hårdråde (Norwegian, “hard ruler”) in alliance with Harold’s brother, Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, also mounted an invasion in 1066. Harold reacted quickly, marching north to take the Viking army by surprise at Stamford Bridge near York. Both Harold Hårdråde and Tostig were killed there on September 25, but the triumph was brief, for Harold soon heard that William had managed to avoid the English fleet in the Channel and land his army on the coast of eastern Sussex. The estates that William’s troops systematically ravaged there belonged to Harold himself. It was this personal interest that helps to explain why Harold chose to execute a forced march south to meet William in Sussex, when he might have done better to take more time and assemble an overwhelming force to crush William’s army.

Harold’s army occupied a defensive position at Senlac (now called Battle) near Hastings on October 14. The battle was hard fought, but was won by the mobility and discipline of the Normans, who used their archers to devastating effect. The death of Harold, more likely to have been caused by a sword blow than by an arrow in the eye, marked its end. William founded a monastery on the site of his great victory to give thanks, with the altar of Battle Abbey church occupying the spot where Harold died.

Despite the decisiveness of his victory, William moved cautiously, taking control of the West Saxon capital of Winchester before entering London. He was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 by Ealdred, Archbishop of York, in Westminster Abbey.