Norman England

Anglo-Saxon England was a rich, orderly, structured society where everyone knew his place, his rights and his duties.

Christianity had come to the islands with the Anglo-Saxons and flourished here, making England a centre of learning.

The Norman conquest changed all that.

It is interesting to speculate what would have happened had Harold not broken his oath to William of Normandy, had William been crowned king immediately after the death of Edward the Confessor.

He might then have introduced changes to the way England was governed more slowly, maybe even left many of the existing structures in place.

Would England have as many castles had William arrived in peace?

Would language and law have changed to the extend they did?

We cannot know for sure.


William certainly would not have come to be called William the Conqueror, a title he apparently disliked.

But as Harold forced him to arrive with an army to claim his lands, Anglo-Saxon England was doomed to destruction. A large number of Anglo-Saxon nobles and their retainers died with King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Those who remained found themselves without rights, lands, and often in danger of their lives.

The Bayeux Tapestry: eyewitness to the conquest?

Two hundred and thirty feet long and twenty inches wide, embroidered with coloured woollen threads on linen, the Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of Edward the Confessor, Harold and William of Normandy in pictures and text.

How William built his ships, how he dressed, what horses he rode, what he ate and how the battle between Normans and Anglo-Saxons played out is all depicted in vivid detail.

From the style and the sympathetic treatment of the English in the displays, it is thought that the tapestry was made in Canterbury, but we first hear of it in the 15th century, when it is listed as part of the inventory of Bayeux cathedral.

It was almost lost during the French revolution, but was rescued and survived more or less intact to the present day.

Taking possession

For several years after the conquest, William was busy dealing with home-grown rebellions and foreign incursions from the Viking empires across the sea as well as Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

He met all of these attacks head-on with swiftness and brutality until few dared to oppose him.

As was the custom in Normandy, William distributed his new kingdom amongst his followers in return for military service and taxes, exhorting them to keep the peace.

This the new landowners did vigorously by first squashing all resistance to their rule that might have remained amongst the population. They also changed the English landscape forever, by erecting mighty castles, many of which still stand today.

While the Anglo-Saxons had built mainly in wood - and their forts and burhs were designed to shelter and protect people in times of strife, the Normans used stone to build their castles, which sheltered and protected nobody but the Norman lord and his family.

William built his first castle at Hastings, shortly after landing in England. It was little more than a wooden palisade, erected on a mound and surrounded by a ditch.

These hastily erected defences were - over the years - rebuilt in stone, a true representation of the power and status of their owners. Magnificent Norman castles like the Tower of London and castles at York, Rochester, Warwick, Wentworth or Cardiff remind us of the energy (or urgent need for protection) of England's new rulers.

But while efficient and brutal in taking over their new lands, the Normans were also pious and castles were not the only stone structures erected in the years following the conquest. Abbeys - like Faversham or Reading - were endowed and religious houses sprang up all over the country.

The Domesday Survey

Desperate for money to fund his continental wars and to defend England against foreign aggressors, William the Conqueror needed to know what taxes he could extract from his realm. So everything of value in William's kingdom was counted: heads, land, forest, livestock and tools. The book lists where people lived, who owed allegiance to whom, how much income was generated by trade or craft or farming.

The royal officers were so thorough in their enquiries that there was no single hide nor a yard of land, nor indeed one ox nor one cow nor one pig which was left out.

It is our good fortune that the Domesday Book has survived the ravages of time and allows us a glimpse into a world that is sometimes as alien to us as the moon.

History books frequently only speak of the deeds of kings, but thanks to this remarkable survey, we can envision everyday life in Norman England and people's occupations, trades and beliefs.

The Norman Succession

William II, also called Rufus or William the Red, was not a popular king, neither was he literate. But he was an accomplished battle commander and managed to hold the new realm together.

When he died hunting in the new forest, his youngest brother Henry seized the opportunity and the crown of England.

Henry I was one of England's most successful kings. He was learned, just and energetic. He consolidated Norman rule in England and expanded his influence into Normandy. But his death in 1135 - his only legitimate son had drowned in 1120 - sparked a civil war that devastated England until Henry II took the throne in 1154, uniting the warring factions and founding the dynasty that would rule England for 330 years: the proud, fierce Plantagents.

• The Norman Conquest
• Norman Castles
• William the Conqueror
• King William II
• King Henry I
• King Stephen