Norman Conquest

THE
GEOGRAPHY
IT ALL STARTED
WITH………………………
…..
William The
Confessor
DIPLOMATIC USE OF HIS
LACK OF HEIRS
Hey I don’t have heirs , You could
be future king so help
England…….why fight now?
Harold II
Tostig THE ENGLISH

CROWN Harald Hardrada
(III)
Edward from his
deathbed named
Harold his successor
on January 5, 1066,
A COMPROMISED KING
However, Harold’s position was

compromised, according to the
Bayeux Tapestry and other
Norman sources, because in
1064 he had sworn an oath, in
William’s presence, to defend
William’s right to the throne.
Tostig began raiding the southern and eastern
coasts of England in May, eventually joining
forces with Harald III.
Harold was able to keep his militia on guard throughout the
summer but dismissed it early in September, when he ran out
of supplies and his peasant soldiers needed to return to their
fields for the harvest. This left the south without defenses,
exposing it to invasion by William. Before William arrived,
however, Harald III and Tostig invaded in the north; Harold
hastened to Yorkshire, where at Stamford Bridge (September
25) he won a smashing victory in which both Harald III and
Tostig perished.
Peasant Army
Yorkshire
Meanwhile, on the Continent, William had secured support
CONQUEST for his invasion from both the Norman aristocracy and the
papacy. By August 1066 he had assembled a force of 4,000–
7,000 knights and foot soldiers, but unfavourable winds
detained his transports for eight weeks. Finally, on September
27, while Harold was occupied in the north, the winds
changed, and William crossed the Channel immediately.
Landing in Pevensey on September 28, he moved directly to
Hastings. Harold, hurrying southward with about 7,000 men,
approached Hastings on October 13. Surprised by William at
dawn on October 14, Harold drew up his army on a ridge 10
miles (16 km) to the northwest.
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066
between the Norman-French army of William,
Arrow to the eye.
Harold’s wall of highly trained infantry held
firm in the face of William’s mounted assault;
failing to breach the English lines and
panicked by the rumour of William’s death,
the Norman cavalry fled in disorder. But
William, removing his helmet to show he was
alive, rallied his troops, who turned and
killed many English soldiers. As the battle
continued, the English were gradually worn Hastings now
down; late in the afternoon, Harold was
killed (by an arrow in the eye, according to
the Bayeux Tapestry),
CONSEQUENCES
Certainly, in political
terms, William’s victory
destroyed England’s links
with Scandinavia,
bringing the country
instead into close
contact with the
Continent, especially
France.
POLITICAL
William revolutionized the upper ranks of English
society by dividing the country among about 180
Norman tenants-in-chief and innumerable mesne
(intermediate) tenants, all holding their fiefs by knight
service. The result, the almost total replacement of the
English aristocracy with a Norman one, was paralleled
by similar changes of personnel among the upper clergy
and administrative officers.
Saxon Flag Norman Flag British Flag

CHURCH
William also transformed the structure and character of
the church in England. He replaced all the Anglo-Saxon
bishops, except Wulfstan of Dorchester, with Norman
bishops. Most notably, he secured the deposition of
Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury—who held his
see irregularly and had probably been excommunicated
by Pope Leo IX—and appointed in his place Lanfranc of
CANTERBURRY Bec, a respected scholar and one of William’s close
advisers.
SAXON NORMAN MODERN

BUILT CASTLES AND FORTS
TO SUPPRESS REBELLION
He preferred the east midland dialect
over Norman French dialect in his
writing style this helped English to
resist the French Language from
completely dominating it. He is
known as the father of English
literature for this reason
William Langland
The English poet William

Langland (ca. 1330-ca. 1400)
is known as the probable
author of "Piers Plowman,"
an allegorical poem which
attacks abuses in the
government and the Church
and deplores the misery of a
people without true
leadership.
John Gower
John Gower was an English poet,
a contemporary of William
Langland and the Pearl Poet,
and a personal friend of
Geoffrey Chaucer
Confessio amantis, essentially a collection of

exemplary tales of love, whereby Venus’ priest, Genius,
instructs the poet, Amans, in the art of both courtly and
Christian love.
Erec et Enide
work by Chrétien de Troyes
His first known romance, Erec et Enide (Erec

and Enide), is a serious study of marital and
social responsibilities and contains elements
of Celtic enchantment. Cligès, a partly Greco-
Byzantine tale of young love and an
adulterous relationship, uses the motif of
feigned death best known, later, from Romeo
and Juliet. It is also the first known Arthurian
Rromance
The Proverbs of Alfred was written
somewhat earlier, in the late 12th
century; these proverbs deliver
conventional wisdom in a mixture of
rhymed couplets and alliterative lines,
and it is hardly likely that any of the
material they contain actually
originated with the king whose wisdom
they celebrate.
Middle English language, the vernacular spoken and written in
England from about 1100 to about 1500
1066 Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror, Duke of

French Normandy, defeats last Anglo-Saxon King, Harold II,
establishing the feudal system in England.
1095: Pope Urban II declares first Crusade.
1170: Archbishop of Canterbury is murdered, showing conflict
between church and monarch of England
1215: Declaration of Magna Carta, restricting power of the
monarch; first step toward constitutional government in
England
1315-17: Great Famine in Northern Europe
1320: Dante completes The Divine Comedy
1337-1453: Hundred Years’ War between England and France
1347-51: Black Death (bubonic plaque), one of the
largest pandemics in human history
1415: Henry V defeats the French at Agincourt
1439: In Germany, Gutenberg invents the printing press
with movable type: begins a revolution in book printing
and spread of information
1476: William Caxton sets up printing shop in
Westminster in England.
1485: Richard III is defeated in battle of Bosworth,
ending reign of Plantagenet family and beginning reign
of Tudor monarchs.
1485: William Caxton prints Malory’s Morte D’Arthur,
one of first books printed in England

Norman Conquest

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How did the succession of the English crown lead to conflict?

What were the major events leading up to the Battle of Hastings?

THE

Tostig THE ENGLISH

However, Harold’s position was

Saxon Flag Norman Flag British Flag

SAXON NORMAN MODERN

The English poet William

Confessio amantis, essentially a collection of

His first known romance, Erec et Enide (Erec

1066 Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror, Duke of

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