(Redirected from Norman Conquest)
The 'Norman conquest of England' initiated by the
invasion of the
Kingdom of England by
William the Conqueror (
Duke of Normandy) in
1066 and his success at the
Battle of Hastings resulted in the
Norman control of
England. The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history
[1] for a number of reasons. This conquest linked England more closely with Continental
Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening
Scandinavian influence. It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system. The conquest changed the
English language and culture, and set the stage for rivalry with
France, which would continue intermittently until the 20th century. It has an iconic role in English national identity as the last successful military conquest of England.
Origins
Normandy is a region in northwest France which in the years prior to 1066 experienced extensive
Viking settlement. In the year 911, French
Carolingian ruler
Charles the Simple had allowed a group of Vikings, under their leader
Rollo, to settle in northern France with the idea that they would provide protection along the coast against future Viking invaders. This proved successful and the Vikings in the region became known as the ''Northmen'' from which ''Normandy'' is derived. The
Normans quickly adapted to the indigenous culture, renouncing
paganism and converting to Christianity. They adopted the
langue d'oïl of their new home and added features from their own
Norse language, transforming it into the
Norman language. They further blended into the culture by intermarrying with the local population. They also used the territory granted them as a base to extend the frontiers of the
Duchy to the west, annexing territory including the
Bessin, the
Cotentin Peninsula and the
Channel Islands.
Meanwhile, in England Viking attacks resumed in the late tenth century and in 991 the King of England
Aethelred II agreed to marry
Emma, the daughter of the Duke of Normandy, to cement a blood-tie alliance for help against the raiders. When King
Edward the Confessor died in 1066 with no child, and thus no direct heir to the throne, a power vacuum arose in which several competing interests laid claim to the throne of England.
One was
Harald III of Norway, commonly known as Harald Hardrada, whose claim was based on a supposed agreement between the previous King of Norway,
Magnus I of Norway, and
Harthacanute, whereby if either died without heir, the other would inherit both England and Norway. Another claimant to the English throne was
William, Duke of Normandy because of his blood ties to
Aethelred through Aethelred's wife Emma. A third was the Earl of
Wessex Harold Godwinson who had been elected king by the
Witenagemot of England. The stage was set for a battle among the three.
[2]
Tostig and Harald
In spring 1066 Harold's estranged and exiled brother
Tostig Godwinson raided in south-eastern England with a fleet he had recruited in
Flanders, later joined by other ships from
Orkney. Threatened by Harold's fleet, Tostig moved north, raided in
East Anglia and arrived in the
Humber, from where he launched further raids in
Lincolnshire, but was driven back to his ships by the brothers
Edwin, Earl of Mercia and
Morcar, Earl of Northumbria. Deserted by most of his followers, he withdrew to Scotland, where he spent the summer recruiting fresh forces.
King Harald of Norway invaded northern England in early September, leading a fleet of over 300 ships, carrying perhaps as many as 15000 men. This was further augmented by the forces of Tostig, who threw his support behind Harald's bid for the throne. Advancing on York, the Norwegians were met on 12 September by a northern English army under Edwin and Morcar, but defeated them at the
Battle of Fulford and occupied York. Harold had spent the summer on the south coast with a large army and fleet waiting for William to invade, but on 8 September he had finally been forced by the exhaustion of his food supplies to dismiss them. He now rushed north, gathering forces as he went and took the Norwegians by surprise, defeating them in the exceptionally bloody
Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. King Harald of Norway and Tostig were killed and the Norwegians suffered such horrific losses that only 24 ships were required to carry away the survivors. The victory came at great cost, as the Anglo-Saxon army was left in a battered and weakened state.
The Norman invasion
Meanwhile William had assembled an invasion fleet of approximately 600
ships and an army of 7000 men. William had recruited soldiers not only from Normandy but from all of Northern France, the Low Countries and Germany. Many soldiers in his army were second- and third-born sons who had little or no inheritance under the laws of
primogeniture. William promised that if they brought their own horse, armour, and weapons to join him, they would be rewarded with lands and titles in the new realm. William also gathered over 2000 horses, transported across the channel in specially adapted
horse transports.
[3]
England, 1066: Events in the Norman Conquest.
William had gathered his ships at
Saint-Valery-sur-Somme. After a delay of several weeks, supposedly due to unfavourable weather, he arrived in the south of England just days after Harold's victory over the Norwegians. The delay turned out to be crucial; had he landed in August as originally planned, Harold would have been waiting with a fresh and numerically superior force. William finally landed at
Pevensey in
Sussex on 28 September and assembled a prefabricated wooden castle near Hastings as a base. The choice of landing was a direct provocation to Harold Godwinson, as this area of Sussex was Harold's own personal domain. William began immediately to lay waste to the land. It may have prompted Harold to respond immediately and in haste rather than to wait at London long enough to reassemble the full strength of the southern English ''fyrd''. Again, it was an event that favoured William. Had he marched inland, he might have outstretched his supply lines, and possibly have been surrounded by Harold's forces.
Harold rushed south at the news of William's landing and paused at London to gather more troops, then advanced to meet William. They fought at the
Battle of Hastings on 14 October. It was a close battle but in the final hours Harold was killed, along with his brothers
Earl Gyrth and
Earl Leofwine, and the English army fled.
After his victory at Hastings, William expected to receive the submission of the surviving English leaders, but instead
Edgar Atheling was acclaimed king by the
Witenagemot, with the support of Edwin and Morcar,
Stigand,
Archbishop of Canterbury and
Aldred,
Archbishop of York. William therefore advanced, marching through Kent to London, but met fierce resistance at
Southwark. He then marched west to link up with another Norman army near
Dorking,
Surrey. The combined armies then moved up the Thames valley to the major fortified Saxon town of
Wallingford,
Oxfordshire. While there, he received the submission of Stigand. William then travelled north east along the
Chiltern escarpment to the Saxon fort at
Berkhamstead,
Hertfordshire and waited there to receive the submission of London. The remaining Saxon leaders surrendered to William there, and he was acclaimed King of England around the end of October and crowned by Aldred on
December 25,
1066 in
Westminster Abbey.
English resistance
Despite this submission, local resistance continued to erupt for five years. In
1067 rebels in Kent launched an abortive attack on Dover Castle in combination with
Eustace II of Boulogne, while
Eadric the Wild attacked the Normans in Herefordshire in alliance with the Welsh of
Gwynedd and
Powys. In
1068 William besieged rebels in
Exeter, who eventually came to terms with him. Later in the year Edwin and Morcar raised a revolt in
Mercia, while
Earl Gospatric led a rising in Northumbria, which had not yet been occupied by the Normans. These rebellions rapidly collapsed as William moved against them, building castles and installing garrisons as he had already done in the south. Edwin and Morcar again submitted while Gospatric fled to Scotland, as did Edgar the Atheling and his family, who may have been involved in these revolts. Meanwhile Harold's sons, who had taken refuge in Ireland, raided
Somerset,
Devon and
Cornwall from the sea. Early in
1069 the newly installed Norman Earl of Northumbria
Robert de Comines and several hundred soldiers accompanying him were massacred at Durham, igniting a widespread Northumbrian rebellion, which was joined by Edgar, Gospatric and other rebels who had taken refuge in Scotland. The rebels besieged the Norman castles at York, but were taken by surprise by William, who had hurried with an army from the south, and were defeated in the streets of the city, bringing the revolt to an end. A subsequent local uprising was crushed by the garrison of York. Harold's sons launched a second raid from Ireland but were defeated by Norman forces in Devon under the
Breton Count Brian.
In the late summer of 1069 a large fleet sent by
Sweyn II of Denmark arrived off the Northumbrian coast, sparking a new wave of rebellions across the country. The Danes joined forces with a new Northumbrian uprising, which was also joined by Edgar, Gospatric and the other exiles from Scotland as well as
Earl Waltheof. The combined Danish and English forces defeated the Norman garrison at York, seized the castles and took control of Northumbria. Meanwhile resistance flared up again in western Mercia, where Eadric the Wild and his Welsh allies attacked the castle at
Shrewsbury, while rebellion also broke out in
Cheshire and spread to
Staffordshire. In the south-west rebels from Devon and Cornwall attacked the Norman garrison at Exeter, but were repulsed by the defenders and scattered by a Norman relief force under Count Brian, while others from Dorset and Somerset besieged
Montacute Castle but were defeated by Norman reinforcements from London,
Winchester and
Salisbury under
Geoffrey of Coutances. Meanwhile William himself advanced northwards, driving the Danish fleet, which had moored for the winter south of the Humber, back to the north bank. Reinforcing the garrison in Lincolnshire, he turned west and defeated the Mercian rebels in battle at
Stafford, while an advance by Edgar the Atheling into Lincolnshire was defeated by the Norman forces there. William advanced into Northumbria, where the Danes again fled at his approach, and occupied York. He bought off the Danes, who agreed to leave England in the spring, and through the winter of 1069-1070 his forces systematically devastated Northumbria in the
Harrying of the North, subduing all resistance. In the spring of
1070, having secured the submission of Waltheof and Gospatric, and driven Edgar and his remaining supporters back to Scotland, William returned to the south, crushing the continuing resistance in Cheshire along the way. Sweyn II of Denmark arrived in person to join his fleet and renounced the earlier agreement to withdraw, sending troops into
the Fens to join forces with English rebels led by
Hereward the Wake, who were based on the
Isle of Ely. Soon, however, Sweyn accepted a further payment of
Danegeld from William and returned home.
After the departure of the Danes the Fenland rebels remained at large, protected by the marshes, and early in
1071 there was a final outburst of rebel activity in the area. Edwin and Morcar again turned against William, and while Edwin was soon betrayed and killed, Morcar reached
Ely, where he and Hereward were joined by exiled rebels who had sailed from Scotland. William arrived with an army and a fleet to finish off this last pocket of resistance, and after some costly failures managed to build a causeway or pontoon to reach the Isle of Ely, which was stormed by his troops, marking the effective end of English resistance.
Many of the Norman sources which survive today were written in order to justify their actions, in response to Papal concern about the treatment of the native English by their Norman conquerors during this period.
[4]
Control of England
Once England had been conquered the Normans faced many challenges in maintaining control. The
Anglo-Norman speaking Normans were in very small numbers compared to the native English population. Historians estimate their number at 5,000 armoured knights.
[5] New Norman lords constructed a variety of forts and
castles (such as the
motte-and-bailey) to provide a stronghold against a popular revolt (or increasingly rare Viking attacks) and to dominate the nearby town and countryside. Any remaining English lords who refused to acknowledge William's accession to the throne or who revolted were stripped of titles and lands, which were then re-distributed to Norman favourites of William. If an English lord died without issue the Normans would always choose a successor from Normandy. In this way the Normans displaced the native aristocracy and took control of the top ranks of power. Absenteeism became common for Norman (and later Angevin) kings of England, for example William spent 130 months from 1072 onward in France rather than in England, using writs to rule England. This situation lasted until the
Capetian conquest of Normandy. This royal absenteeism created a need for additional bureaucratic structures and consolidated the English administration.
[6] Kings were not the only absentees since the Anglo-Norman barons would use the practice too.
Keeping the Norman lords together and loyal as a group was just as important, as any friction could easily give the English speaking natives a chance to divide and conquer their minority Anglo-French speaking lords. One way William accomplished this was by giving out land in a piece-meal fashion. A Norman lord typically had property spread out all over England and Normandy, and not in a single geographic block. Thus, if the lord tried to break away from the King, he could only defend a small number of his holdings at any one time. This proved an effective deterrent to rebellion and kept the Norman nobility loyal to the King.
Over the longer range the same policy greatly facilitated contacts between the nobility of different regions and encouraged the nobility to organize and act as a class, rather than on an individual or regional base which was the normal way in other feudal countries. The existence of a strong centralized monarchy encouraged the nobility to form ties with the city dwellers, which was eventually manifested in the rise of English
parliamentarianism.
Significance
The changes that took place because of the Norman Conquest were significant for both English and European development.
Language
One of the most obvious changes was the introduction of
Anglo-Norman, a northern dialect of
Old French, as the language of the ruling classes in England, displacing
Old English. French retained the status of a prestige language for nearly 400 years and has had a significant influence on the language, which is still visible in modern English.
Governmental systems
Even before the Normans arrived the Anglo-Saxons had one of the most sophisticated governmental systems in Western Europe. All of England had been divided into administrative units called
shires of roughly uniform size and shape, and was run by an official known as a "shire
reeve" or "
sheriff". The shires tended to be somewhat autonomous and lacked coordinated control. Anglo-Saxons made heavy use of written documentation which was unusual for kings in Western Europe at the time and made for more efficient governance than word of mouth.
The Anglo-Saxons also established permanent physical locations of government. Most medieval governments were always on the move, holding court wherever the weather and food or other matters were best at the moment. This practice limited the potential size and sophistication of a government body to whatever could be packed on a horse and cart, including the treasury and library. The Anglo-Saxons established a permanent treasury at
Winchester, from which a permanent government bureaucracy and document archive had begun to grow.
This sophisticated medieval form of government was handed over to the Normans and grew even stronger. The Normans centralised the autonomous shire system. The
Domesday Book exemplifies the practical codification which enabled Norman assimilation of conquered territories through central control of a
census. It was the first kingdom-wide census taken in Europe since the time of the
Romans, and enabled more efficient taxation of the Norman's new realm.
Systems of
accounting grew in sophistication. A government accounting office called the
exchequer was established by
Henry I; from 1150 onward this was located in
Westminster.
Anglo-Norman and French relations
Anglo-Norman and French political relations became very complicated and somewhat hostile after the Norman Conquest. The Normans still retained control of the holdings in Normandy and were thus still
vassals to the King of France. At the same time, they were their equals as King of England. On the one hand they owed
fealty to the King of France, and on the other hand they did not, as they were peers. In the 1150s, with the creation of the
Angevin Empire, the Plantagenets controlled half of France and all of England, dwarfing the power of the Capetians. Yet the Normans were still technically vassals to France. A crisis came in 1204 when the French king
Philip II seized all Norman and Angevin holdings in mainland France except
Gascony. This would later lead to the
Hundred Years War when Anglo-Norman English kings tried to regain their dynastic holdings in France.
During William's lifetime, his vast land gains were a source of great alarm by not only the king of France, but the counts of Anjou and Flanders. Each did his best to diminish Normandy's holdings and power, leading to years of conflict in the region.
English cultural development
One interpretation of the Conquest maintains that England became a cultural and economic backwater for almost 150 years. Few kings of England actually resided for any length of time in England, preferring to rule from cities in
Normandy such as
Rouen and concentrate on their more lucrative French holdings. Indeed, a mere four months after the Battle of Hastings, William left his brother-in-law in charge of the country while he returned to Normandy. The country remained an unimportant appendage of Norman lands and later the
Angevin fiefs of
Henry II.
Another interpretation is that the Norman duke-kings neglected their continental territories, where they in theory owed fealty to the kings of France, in favour of consolidating their power in their new sovereign realm of England. The resources poured into the construction of
cathedrals,
castles and the administration of the new realm arguably diverted energy and concentration away from the need to defend Normandy, alienating the local nobility and weakening Norman control over the borders of the territory, while simultaneously the power of the kings of France grew.
The eventual loss of control of continental Normandy divided
landed families as members chose loyalty over land or vice-versa.
A direct consequence of the invasion was the near total elimination of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, and the loss of English control over the Church in England. As William subdued rebels, he confiscated their lands and gave them to his Norman supporters. By the time of the
Domesday Book, only two English landowners of any note had survived the displacement.
[7] By 1096 no church See or Bishopric was held by any native Englishman; all were held by Normans. No other
medieval European conquest of Christians by Christians had such devastating consequences for the defeated
ruling class. Meanwhile, William's prestige among his followers increased tremendously as he was able to award them vast tracts of land at little cost to himself. His awards also had a basis in consolidating his own control; with each gift of land and titles, the newly created feudal lord would have to build a castle and subdue the natives. Thus was the conquest self-perpetuating.
Emigration to the Byzantine Empire
Thousands of Anglo-Saxon
nobles and soldiers ultimately found Norman domination unbearable, and emigrated to
Byzantium, placing themselves at the service of the
Byzantine Emperor. Anglo-Saxon emigres came to dominate an elite unit called the
Varangian Guard, which served as the Byzantine Emperor's own bodyguard and continued in existence until at least
1204.
Legacy
As early as the twelfth century the ''
Dialogue concerning the Exchequer'' attests to considerable intermarriage between native English and Norman
immigrants. Over the centuries, particularly after 1348 when the
Black Death pandemic carried off a significant number of the English nobility, the two groups largely intermarried and became barely distinguishable.
The Norman conquest was the last successful ''conquest'' of England, although some historians identify the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 as the most recent successful ''invasion''. The last full scale
invasion attempt was by the
Spanish Armada, which was defeated at sea by the
Royal Navy and the weather.
Napoleon and
Hitler both prepared invasions of Great Britain, but neither was ever launched (for Hitler's preparations see
Operation Sealion). Some minor military expeditions to Great Britain were successful within their limited scope, such as the 1595 Spanish military raid on
Cornwall, small scale raids on Cornwall by
Arab slavers in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch raid on the
Medway towns' shipyards in 1667, and the American raid on
Whitehaven during the
American Revolutionary War.
For the importance of the concept in
mass culture, note the spoof history book ''
1066 and All That'' as well as the iconic status of the
Bayeux Tapestry.
Similar conquests include the
Norman conquests of Apulia and Sicily, the
Principality of Antioch, and
Ireland.
Alan Ayckbourn wrote a series of plays entitled ''
The Norman Conquests''. Their subject matter has nothing to do with the Norman conquest of England.
See also
★
11th century
★
Companions of William the Conqueror
★
Norman conquest of southern Italy
★
Norman invasion of Ireland
Notes
1. That the Norman Conquest bulks large in the British popular conception of their history was gently spoofed in ''1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates''.
2. Other contenders later came to the fore. The first was Edgar Ætheling, Edward the Confessor's great nephew who was of direct descent from King Edmund Ironside. He was the son of Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside and after his father's return to and subsequent death in England in 1057, Edgar was nominated by Edward the Confessor as Heir Apparent, hence his epithet the aetheling (spelled Æþeling during the Anglo-Saxon period). Aetheling denoted a man of noble blood, and was used more specifically in the later Anglo-Saxon period to designate a potential heir to the throne. Unfortunately for Edgar, he was only about thirteen or fourteen at the time of Edward the Confessor's death and with little family to support him, his claim was passed over by the Witan. Another contender was Sweyn II of Denmark, who had a claim to the throne as the grandson of Sweyn Forkbeard and nephew of Cnut, but he did not make his bid for the throne until 1069. Tostig Godwinson's attacks in early 1066 may have been the beginning of a bid for the throne, but after defeat at the hands of Edwin and Morcar and the desertion of most of his followers he threw his lot in with Harald Hardrada.
3. Hyland, p 99
4. Ian W. Walker, ''Harold: The last Anglo-Saxon King'', Sutton 1997 ISBN 0-7509-3763-7
5. A. L. Rowse, ''The Story of Britain'', Artus 1979 ISBN 0-297-83311-1
6. David Carpenter ''The Struggle for Mastery. The Penguin history of Britain 1066-1284'' page 91: "In the first place, after 1072 William was largely an absentee. Of the 170 months remaining of his reign he spent around 130 in France, returning to England only on four occasions. This was no passing phase. Absentee kings continued to spend at best half their time in England until the loss of Normandy in 1204... But this absenteeism solidified rather than sapped royal government since it engendered structures both to maintain peace and extract money on the king's absence, money which was above all needed across the channel".
7. Campbell, J ''The Anglo-Saxons'' (1982) p.240
References
★ Campbell, J. ''The Anglo-Saxons'', (1982)
★ Carpenter, David. ''The Struggle for Mastery. The Penguin history of Britain 1066-1284''
★
The Medieval Warhorse: From Byzantium to the Crusades, , Ann, Hyland, Grange Books, 1994, ISBN 1-85627-990-1
Further reading
★
Debate on the Norman Conquest, , Marjorie, Chibnall, St. Martin's Press, 1999,
★
William the Conqueror: The Norman impact upon England, , David, Douglas, University of California Press, 1964,
★
The Fall of Saxon England, , Richard, Humble, Barnes & Noble, 1992, ISBN 0-88029-987-8
★
1066 The Year of the Conquest, , David, Howarth, Viking Penguin, 1981, ISBN 0-14-005850-8
★
The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans, , Peter, Rex, Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2004, ISBN 0-7524-2827-6
★
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, , Anne, Savage, CLB, 1997, ISBN 1-85833-478-0
★
Essential Norman Conquest, multimedia resources by
Osprey Publishing.
★
The Effect of 1066 on the English Language
★
Collection of source material on the Norman conquest of England
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