The socioeconomic factors leading military side of the
Norman conquest of England
culminated in 1066, as the history books – and tapestries – say, but social and
political causes laid the groundwork years before. What led William the
Bastard, Duke of Normandy, to cross the Straights of Dover and claim Harold
Godwinson's kingdom? Was it a choice, or necessity? What factors caused William
to lead his army from mainland Europe to
capture the island realm, and what effect did that have on the politics and
geography of the time?
On the 5th of January, 1066 AD, Edward the
Confessor, King of England died. The very next day, before the ground covering
the old king had settled, Harold II Godwinson was crowned by Archbishops
Ealdred of York and Stigand of Canterbury, taking the throne. However, this
coronation was never officially recognized by Pope Alexander II, and was the
basis of William the Bastard's claim that Harold was a false king. William then
commissioned Lanfranc of Bec to petition Rome
to back William's claim to the English throne, through his great-grandfather
Cnut the Great. Lanfranc implored his former pupil Alexander to back the Norman
claim, and Alexander agreed to do, being sympathetic to the Norman cause. While
Lanfranc was in Rome, Harold – paranoid by the
appearance of Hailey's Comet in April – ordered his troops to assemble near the
River Dives, while his fleet began to patrol the English
Channel to deter invasion from the south. Both the army and the
navy were recalled in September to resupply and refit, and it was in this time
of vulnerability that both Tostig Godwinson, Harold's half brother, and Harald
Hardrada of Norway
attacked in the north.
William took advantage of the convenient diversion and
positioned his fleet at Saint Valéry-sur-Somme, leading some to speculate that
William consciously waited for Harold's army to move north. (Osprey Publishing,
2006) Both of the invasions by Tostig and Harald were repelled, but William's
force of 7,000 Norman fighters landed at Pevensy, symbolically burning some of
his ships and using the rest to set up camp near Hastings. Recent archaeological findings
suggest the Normans
landed at Wilting Manor, but listed Pevensy as it was the nearest well-known
port. (Ibeji, 2011) Harold rushed his army to Hastings, a defensible burg located in the
midst of a bog formed by estuaries. William chose this location because of a
tried and true Viking tactic, camping on a peninsula or island with only one
means of entry – in the case of Hastings,
an ancient road that ran between the two rivers in the north. (Osprey
Publishing, 2006)
William ordered raids in the surrounding countryside,
pillaging food and supplies, and to bait Harold south in order to retaliate. It
worked, with Harold rushing his battle-worn troops to battle William's Viking
descendents. He stopped in London for
reinforcements, but only waited six days before marching on to Hastings, camping roughly eight miles from
the city. Scouts from the Norman camp observed all of the Anglo-Saxon army's
movements, which Harold made next to no attempt to make secret. William used
this to his advantage, and before dawn on the 14th of October,
marched his forces out and caught the Anglo army off guard. The startled,
out-manned English formed a hasty shield-wall, but their determined defense was
of no avail, with Harold being shot down by Norman longbowmen. With the death
of Harold, William the Bastard became the sole survivor with claim to the
English throne, and began to secure his holdings. Over the next several years,
he killed the sons of Harold Godwinson, and put down various Anglo-Saxon
rebellions until finally, in 1072, captured the last of northern England.
The significance of the Norman invasion is multifaceted,
but also presented William with a new dilemma: being the newly crowned King of
England, yet still having a role as vassal to the King of France, from his
title of Duke of Normandy. This would eventually lead to hundreds of years of
constant warfare between England
and France,
as both ruling families attempted to take over both kingdoms. However, this
connection also forged a bond between the British Isles and mainland Europe, which would eventually lead to greater diversity
in trade, language development, and overall culture. (Lee, 2012)
It is said by some that the English identity comes not
from the Angles and Saxons, from which England
received that name, but rather from the Normans.
The mixed people with elements of Scandinavian and French cultures, when
combined and placed in England,
made for a very unique situation indeed. Speculation abounds as to why it was
so, but there are a few differing theories. One hypothesis held by the
Archbishop of Canterbury of the day said that Normans truly wanted to become Englishmen;
though this may have been unlikely and exceptional, the conscious embracing of
a foreign culture may have had an element of truth to it, at least in regards to
certain classes among the Norman invaders. (Hudson, 2011) But overall, it is agreed that
the assimilation took a far more gradual pace, starting with French and Norman titled families
intermarrying with English aristocracy. A division of lands by these families
furthered the integration, with houses splitting land between the mainland and
islands, and having separate branches of the family develop in different ways.
Finally, nearly 100 years after William the Conqueror solidified his rule, the
royal treasurer wrote that "with the English and Normans living
side-by-side and intermarrying, the peoples have become so mingled that no-one
can tell – as far as free men are concerned – who is of English and who of
Norman descent." (Hudson,
2011) This mixing of peoples forever changed the course of British history,
with the tiny separate island suddenly being thrust into the affairs of
mainland Europe, both through necessity and
blood.
Overall, the driving factor of William the Bastard, or
after 1066, William the Conqueror's invasion of England was greed, whether for
wealth or lasting glory. Tactically, it was a nigh perfect invasion, and with
the backing of the Roman Catholic Church, the Normans
captured England
with all the legitimacy one could expect of the time. It changed the outlook of
England
forever, introducing many mainland ideas and ways of doing things, and changed
the very course of British history. And not only British history, but the
history of the world, as England
would go on to grow and flourish under Norman rule, eventually blossoming into
a glorious empire just a few hundred years later.
References
Hudson, J. (2011, February 17). British History
in depth: What Did the Normans
Do for Us? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/hudson_norman_01.shtml
Ibeji, M. (2011, February 17). British History
in depth: 1066. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/normans/1066_01.shtml
Lee, R. A. (2012, October 22). The History
Guy: Norman Invasion and Conquest of England.
Retrieved from http://www.historyguy.com/norman_conquest_england.html
Osprey Publishing (2006). Essential Norman Conquest
- An interactive day-by-day retelling of the events of 1066. Retrieved from http://essentialnormanconquest.com/story/norman-conquest.htm
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