The king and the Witan

By c1060 England was a strong, wealthy kingdom with a well-established monarchy. The king was the most powerful person, but he did not rule entirely alone.

• The Witan was a council of leading nobles and churchmen that advised the king and helped choose the next one.
• Below the king were the great earls, who ran huge regions on his behalf.
• England was divided into large earldoms — the biggest were Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria.

The House of Godwin (Earl Godwin and his sons, including Harold) had become the richest and most powerful family in England — almost rivalling the king himself.

Local government and the law

England had a sophisticated system of local government and justice long before 1066.

Wergild was a "man-price" — a fine paid to a victim or their family to make up for a crime, set by their rank. It aimed to stop blood feuds.

The king's council

Edward dies childless

On 5 January 1066, Edward the Confessor died without a son to succeed him. This triggered a succession crisis, with four men claiming the English throne:

• Harold Godwinson — the most powerful English earl; claimed Edward promised him the throne on his deathbed and was chosen by the Witan. He was crowned king at once.
• William of Normandy — claimed Edward promised him the throne in 1051, and that Harold had sworn an oath to support him in 1064.
• Harald Hardrada — King of Norway; claimed the throne through an earlier agreement.
• Edgar Aethling — Edward's young great-nephew; had the best blood claim but was seen as too young.

A disputed succession like this almost guaranteed war — several powerful men each believed they were the rightful king.

Three battles in one autumn

In the autumn of 1066 Harold Godwinson had to fight two invasions in quick succession:

• Gate Fulford — 20 Sept 1066: Harald Hardrada and Tostig (Harold's exiled brother) defeated the northern earls Edwin and Morcar.
• Stamford Bridge — 25 Sept 1066: Harold Godwinson marched north and defeated and killed Hardrada and Tostig — a great victory.
• Hastings — 14 Oct 1066: just days later, William of Normandy landed in the south. Harold rushed back and was defeated and killed.

Having to fight in Yorkshire and then race 250 miles south left Harold's army tired and depleted before Hastings — a key reason for his defeat.

Where Hardrada died

How William won at Hastings

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066. Harold's army held a strong position on a ridge behind a shield wall. Several factors led to William's victory:

• Harold's men were exhausted after Stamford Bridge and the long march south.
• William used archers and cavalry against Harold's foot soldiers.
• Feigned retreats tricked some English into breaking the shield wall to give chase — then the Normans turned and cut them down.
• Late in the day the shield wall broke, and Harold was killed (traditionally by an arrow).

William was crowned King of England on 25 December 1066 in Westminster Abbey — but he still had to make his conquest secure.

The date of Hastings

Name the battle

Castles to dominate the land

To hold down a hostile country, William built castles across England — the fastest being the motte-and-bailey design:

Castles let a small number of Normans control and intimidate the surrounding area, act as a base for soldiers, and show Norman power.

Crushing the rebellions

Between 1066 and 1071 William faced repeated revolts and put them all down:

• The submission of the earls, then rebellions by Edwin and Morcar in the north.
• Hereward the Wake led a revolt in the Fens around Ely (1070–71), before it was crushed.
• The revolt of the earls was defeated.
• The most brutal response was the Harrying of the North (1069–70) — William's army devastated northern England, destroying villages, crops and livestock and causing famine.

The Harrying of the North was deliberate terror: it broke resistance in the north for a generation, but killed huge numbers through starvation.

What castles were for

The Harrying of the North

Norman feudalism and landholding

William transformed how land was owned. He declared that all land belonged to the king, then granted it out in return for service:

• Tenants-in-chief (Norman barons) held land directly from the king in return for providing knight service (soldiers).
• Anglo-Saxon lords lost their lands through forfeiture, replaced by loyal Normans.

Top of the pyramid

The Domesday Book

In 1085–86 William ordered a huge survey of England — the Domesday Book. Royal officials recorded, county by county:

• who held each piece of land, and who held it before 1066;
• how much the land was worth, and its resources (ploughs, mills, livestock);
• how many people lived and worked there.

The main purposes were to work out how much tax could be raised and to settle disputes over who owned what — a powerful tool of Norman royal control.

When was Domesday made?

Event ↔ what it was

Tap an event on the left, then tap the correct description on the right.

Ruling and reforming England

The Normans kept some Anglo-Saxon structures but reshaped government and the Church around Norman power:

• Sheriffs (now often Normans) ran the shires for the king, collecting taxes and enforcing the law.
• Land a lord kept for his own use was his demesne.
• Lanfranc, made Archbishop of Canterbury, reformed the Church and built new Norman cathedrals.
• Odo of Bayeux, William's half-brother, became Earl of Kent and one of the most powerful men in England.

By c1088 — into the reign of William Rufus (William I's son) — Norman control of England was firmly established.

Name the council

Timeline: 1053 → 1087

Put the events in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

The year of the conquest

Sources for the period

Historians study c1060–88 using contemporary sources, and it pays to think about who made them and why:

• The Bayeux Tapestry — an embroidered account of the conquest, made for Norman patrons (probably Odo). It is vivid, but tells the story from the Norman side.
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — written by English monks; gives an English viewpoint, e.g. on the Harrying of the North.
• The Domesday Book — an unusually detailed official record of landholding and wealth in 1086.

Think about provenance: a Norman source may play up William's right to the throne, while an English source may stress Norman brutality. Comparing them is exactly what the exam rewards.

The essentials to remember

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