The Norman Conquest free essay sample

The Norman conquest of England was a military invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. King Harold, with his Saxon army, and Duke William fought at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed in the battle and his army left. On December 25 1066 William was crowned the new King of England. On December 25 1066 William was crowned the new King of England( The History of the Norman Conquest). We will write a custom essay sample on The Norman Conquest or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page William was a Duke who ruled Normandy, now a region in France. He invaded England after the death of King Edward the Confessor because he believed he had the most right to be King of England. Due to the invasion of England, The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history. It largely removed the native ruling class, replacing it with a foreign, French-speaking monarchy, aristocracy, and clerical hierarchy. This, in turn, brought about a transformation of the English language and the culture of England in a new era often referred to as Norman England(The History of the Norman Conquest). William decided to invade England and enforce his claim by his and only his direct orders. After gathering an army of some valiant sized men, he landed at Penvensey, England in September of 1066. The rebut over the conquest started almost as soon as the event itself. Ironically, William the conqueror was also the Duke of Normandy in France. So this put William in an awkward position of ruling one country while still serving as a vassal of another country ruler. By bringing England under the control of rulers originating in France, the Norman conquest linked the country more closely with continental Europe, lessened Scandinavian influence, and also set the stage for a rivalry with France that would continue intermittently for many centuries. It also had important consequences for the rest of the British Isles, paving the way for further Norman conquests in Wales and Ireland, and the extensive penetration of the aristocracy of Scotland by Norman and other French-speaking families, with the accompanying spread of continental institutions and cultural influences. Once England had been conquered, the Normans faced many challenges in maintaining control. The Normans were few in number compared to the native English population. Historians estimate the number of Norman settlers at around 8,000, but Norman in this instance includes not just natives of Normandy, but settlers from other parts of France. One consequence of the invasion was that Williams followers expected and received lands and titles in return for their service in the invasion. However, William claimed ultimate possession of virtually all the land in England over which his armies had given him de facto control, and asserted the right to dispose of it as he saw fit. Henceforth, all land was held from the King. The distribution of land was normally in a piecemeal fashion spread out over the entire kingdom, rather than in contiguous blocks. A Norman lord typically had properties located all throughout England and Normandy, and not in a single geographic block. To find the lands to compensate his Norman followers, William initially confiscated the lands of all the English lords who had fought and died with Harold and redistributed part of these lands. These confiscations led to revolts, which resulted in more confiscations, in a cycle that continued virtually unbroken for five years after the Battle of Hastings. To put down and prevent further rebellions the Normans constructed castles and fortifications in unprecedented numbers, initially mostly on the motte-and-bailey pattern. Historian Robert Liddiard remarks that to glance at the urban landscape of Norwich, Durham or Lincoln is to be forcibly reminded of the impact of the Norman invasion(The Norman Conquest). William and his barons also exercised tighter control over inheritance of property by widows and daughters, often forcing marriages to Normans. A measure of Williams success in taking control is that, from 1072 until the Captain conquest of Normandy in 1204, William and his successors were largely absentee rulers. For example, after 1072, William spent more than 75% of his time in France rather than in England. While he needed to be personally present in Normandy to defend the realm from foreign invasion and put down internal revolts, he set up royal administrative structures that enabled him to rule England from a distance. Following the conquest, large numbers of Anglo-Saxons, including groups of nobles, fled the country. Many fled to Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Members of King Harold Godwinsons family sought refuge in Ireland and used those bases for unsuccessful invasions of England. The largest single exodus occurred in the 1070s when a group of Anglo-Saxons in a fleet of 235 ships sailed for the Byzantine Empire. The empire became a popular destination for many English nobles and soldiers as it would have been known that the Byzantines were in need of mercenaries. The English became the predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a largely Scandinavian unit, from which the emperors bodyguard was drawn. Some of the English migrants were settled in Byzantine frontier regions on the Black Sea coast and established towns with names such as New London and New York(The Norman Conquest) The impact of the conquest on the lower levels of English society is difficult to assess. The major change was the elimination of slavery in England, which had disappeared by the middle of the 12th century (The History of the Norman Conquest). There were about 28,000 of them listed in Domesday Book in 1086, less than had been enumerated for 1066. In some places, such as Essex, the decline in slaves was as much as 20% for the 20 years. The main reasons for the decline in slaveholding appear to have been the disapproval of the Church and the cost of supporting slaves, which unlike serfs, had to be supported entirely by their owners. But the practice of slavery was never outlawed, and the Leges Henrici Primi from the reign of King Henry I continued to withstand slaveholding as legal. Many of the free slaves of Anglo-Saxon society appear to have lost status and become indistinguishable from the non-free serfs. Whether this change was due entirely to the conquest is unclear, but the invasion and its after effects likely accelerated a process already underway. Likewise, the spread of towns and increase in nucleated settlements in the countryside, rather than scattered farms, was likely accelerated by the coming of the Normans to England. But the lifestyle of the peasantry probably did not greatly change in the decades after 1066(United Kingdom). Debate over the conquest started almost as soon as the event itself. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, when discussing the death of William the Conqueror, denounced him and the conquest in verse form, but the kings obituary notice from William of Poitiers, a Frenchman, was laudatory and full of praise. Historians since then have argued over the facts of the matter and how to interpret them, with little agreement occurring throughout history. Modern historians in the 20th and 21st centuries have focused less on the rightness or wrongness of the conquest itself instead concentrating on the actual effects of the invasion. Some historians, such as Richard Southern, have seen the conquest as a critical turning point in history. Southern, himself stated that no country in Europe, between the rise of the barbarian kingdoms and the 20th century, has undergone so radical a change in so short a time as England experienced after 1066 (The History of the Norman Conquest). The debate over the impact of the conquest depends on what metrics are used to measure change after 1066. If Anglo-Saxon England was already changing before the invasion, with the introduction of feudalism or castles or the changes in society, then the conquest was important but not a radical change. But, if change is measured by the elimination of the English nobility or the loss of Old English as a literary language, then the change was radical and driven by the invasion.  Nationalistic arguments have been made on both sides of the debate, with the Normans cast as either the persecutors of the English or the rescuers of the country from a decadent Anglo-Saxon nobility.