<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > preface</h1>
The Norman Conquest in 1066 AD was undoubtedly a major turning point in the history of England. Prior to this, England had been under the long rule of the Roman Empire and had always been infected by Roman culture. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the troops and administrative structures guarding the British Isles withdrew to Italy, and the land was abandoned by the Romans.
Castles of England
Then the Anglo-Saxons crossed the sea and came here to become the rulers of England. On January 5, 1066, Edward the Confessor, King of England, died. With no heirs, Harold Gwinson, Earl of Wessex, and Harold III of Norway, Viking King, began a fierce battle for the throne, eventually with Harold Gwinson becoming King of England.
However, William, Duke of Normandy, who also had the right to inherit, was not willing to lose the right to rule England in this way, so he raised troops from Normandy in the same year, crossed the English Channel and invaded the British Isles, defeating Harold's troops at the Battle of Hastings and becoming the new ruler of England. Since then, England has officially entered the era of Norman rule.
William the Conqueror
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > using blood to seize power</h1>
William was born in the Castle of Falais in normandy, the son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy. At the same time, William also had a very weak blood relationship with the Queen of England. However, William was not born to the Duchess of Normandy, but robert's illegitimate son with a maid, so many people at that time were not optimistic about William's future, and even often ridiculed him. The Expedition to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 mentions:
"For the first 12 years of William's reign, he was surrounded by the machinations and rebellions of the nobility. Some capricious nobles were reluctant to submit to William, and it is rumored that william said on his deathbed: 'They wanted a brave, tenacious, and charismatic man to rule Normandy, and if there was no such person, they were more inclined to rebel in search of a man of such characteristics.' '"
William's birthplace: Falaise Castle
Fortunately, when Robert was dying, he passed the title to his son, which gave him the legitimacy to inherit the title. Coupled with William's suppression of the rebellion of the Norman nobility in 1047 AD, his popularity grew, and his status as Duke of Normandy was recognized by others.
On January 5, 1066, Edward the Confessor, ruler of the Anglo-Saxon Dynasty, died, leaving the English throne uninherited. William claimed that in 1052 AD, Edward had promised to grant him the throne of England, but ultimately failed to keep his promise. William then used this as an excuse to propose to the Pope that he should inherit the throne of England. With the pope's permission, william's conquest was legitimized. When the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV learned of this, he also sided with William in order to win the favor of the Pope.
Holy Roman Emperor: Henry IV
Less than a month later, William had completed his pre-war mobilization and assembled a massive naval fleet of nearly seven hundred warships. In this battle, William not only sent out the main force in his hands, but also recruited a large number of mercenaries, which shows that William is determined to win this battle.
Harold soon learned of the imminent dispatch of the Normandy army through a network of intelligence established on the mainland. By this time he had inherited the throne of England, so he mobilized the national forces to deploy heavy troops on the coastline and waited for William's arrival.
However, Before William's army could go to sea, it encountered a major storm and had to postpone the plan to cross the sea. Harold's side was also unable to obtain information on whether William had sent troops due to the heavy storm, and to be on the safe side, Harold still ordered his soldiers to stick to the coastline. As time went on, the morale of the army began to decline, and Harold had no choice but to dismiss the army. This would be tantamount to a complete abandonment of the defensive line along the English Channel.
At this time, the ruthless Harald also joined the battle for the throne. In fact, Edward had promised to pass the throne to Harald. Edward's move should be to win more allies for England, which is isolated overseas, and at the same time to avoid England being attacked by these two forces in a short period of time.
Edward the Confessor
Harold had to regroup again to fend off Harald, who had just landed in York, and expelled him from England on 25 September. At the same time, the great storm on the English Channel had gradually ended, and William and his troops began to cross the sea, landing in The Bay of Pevensy the next day. In order to attract Harold's troops, William turned to Hastings, far from Harold's base camp, and it can be seen that William wanted to end the war as soon as possible from the beginning and win or lose the war.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > decisive battle against Hastings</h1>
In Harold's view, holding London was the first priority, and then it was possible to find a fighter plane to expel William's army. So he deployed his troops on the only way from Hastings to London, a move that would be a military taboo.
An oil painting documenting the Battle of Kurostins
Harold's army was already small, about eight thousand or so. Due to geographical relations, The army of England is mainly infantry. The small number of horses made it essentially impossible to train cavalry. And the Infantry of England was also less effective than William's army due to the backwardness of the weapons used. Many soldiers were simply peasants recruited from all over the world, able only to use simple and easily damaged spears or stone axes. Because of its lack of training, its coordination on the battlefield is also poor.
On William's side, there were more than 10,000 men, including William's own army and regular armed forces from two other countries. The three sides worked together and fought together, leaving the English army with no opportunity to take advantage of. Moreover, there were a large number of cavalry on William's side, all heavily armored, and each charge could cause serious damage to the enemy. In the case of a far difference in comprehensive strength, Harold has lengthened the battle line, which has further magnified his disadvantage.
King Harold of England
On 13 October, the two sides lined up at Senrak Hill in the Kurostins area waiting for the fighters to appear. After deploying his troops, Harold decided to raid the William's camp in the early morning of the next day, but William, who had guessed the intentions of his opponents, planned to leave his battalion to his opponents, and he led all his troops to move to a hill in the dark of night. After dawn, Harold found himself completely out of the battlefield initiative. Once William's cavalry launched an assault from the mountain, it would be difficult for him to resist.
At 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the 14th, the battle officially began, and the English unexpectedly blocked several chargees of the cavalry. As the fierce battle was in full swing, news of the death of the commander William was constantly spread in William's army, and the auxiliary forces on both wings began to gradually collapse. Seeing that the enemy was in a hurry to retreat, the English abandoned their positions and continued to follow in pursuit. When they reached a plain, they were surrounded and suppressed by cavalry.
After seven hours of fierce fighting, Harold's face arrow fell in a pool of blood, and was slashed to death by a group of soldiers, the English soldiers scattered, and the defense line was completely breached, and the Battle of Hastings ended. Although some of the English still resisted, they were eliminated by William. Before William arrived in London, the gates of the city were opened for him.
Map of the deployment of both sides in the Battle of Kurostings
From a holistic perspective, Harold is not bad at military command. On the contrary, his command ability is quite outstanding. At the time of Harald III's invasion, Harold arrived at the battlefield in only four days of rapid marching, and had just arrived in a fierce battle with the enemy. Not only did he succeed in expelling Harald's army, but he also killed Harald III in England. But the battle had just ended and William had completed the landings, which forced Harold to hurry back to the south. After two rapid marches, not only the soldiers' physical strength was insufficient, but their combat ability was also greatly reduced.
Moreover, the British Isles itself was isolated, and after the Roman Empire abandoned the land, the living standards of the islanders did not improve. Especially after the Anglo-Saxons came here, the economy did not improve at all, but instead showed a certain degree of regression. Moreover, there were many flaws in the feudal system of this period, which indirectly led to serious internal divisions in England, so that when foreign enemies invaded, the king could not gather the strength of the whole country to fight against it, which was also an important reason for Harold's failure.
Battle of Hastings
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > entered London and succeeded to the throne</h1>
William chose 25 December as his coronation day, and a series of ceremonies were held at Westminster Abbey to officially become King of England, and later generations called william I. There was also a small episode on the day of the coronation. After hearing the news of William's coronation, the people of England spontaneously came to westminster abbey to celebrate, hoping that the new king would bring hope to the backward England.
William, however, saw this as a form of hatred for him by the English, and throughout the coronation ceremony, William feared that the Assassin would jump out of a corner and make him bleed on the spot. After the ceremony, William ordered the removal of the crowds from the square, the army even launched an attack on the people, and the houses near Westminster Abbey were burned, which seriously damaged William's impression in the hearts of the English people and worsened the relationship between the monarchs and the people.
Westminster Abbey
This sprawling church has since become a world-famous building and the coronation of the kings of the Norman dynasty, with the exception of two kings. It should be mentioned that the British Isles were not completely unified when William completed the coronation ceremony. In the north of England, there were still forces opposed to William. England was not completely unified until 1070 AD, and William's goal shifted from conquest to internal affairs.
As Norman rule became more and more secure in England, many continental cultures were introduced to England and had a profound impact on it. One of the most representative is the influence of French on English. After the Norman conquest, the generals who followed William became the upper class of England, that is, the nobility. These nobles were honored by speaking French and were reluctant to learn English, because speaking English would be ridiculed by other nobles. As a result, bilingualism began to appear in England, and many French words were slowly absorbed by English. The Norman Conquest and the Development of the English Language mentions:
"In terms of food, meat is called meat in English, but meat is classified in French, chicken is chicken, beef is beef, pork is pok, lamb is mutton, and so on."
To the Norman nobility, the English vocabulary was too crude and not elegant. As the cultures of the two countries slowly merged, many of England's old aristocrats began to actively learn French. As the people of the two countries became more and more close, the culture began to converge.
Emblem of the Norman Dynasty
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
The end of the Battle of Hastings declared Harold's utter defeat, and England had become William's possession. In fact, Harold didn't have a choice either. While William was plundering the villages near Hastings, if he insisted on resting his army and postponing the expedition, he was likely to lose the support of the towns in southern England. Prior to this, the towns in northern England had refused to send troops to resist William. It can be said that the success of the Norman conquest was also due to the great storm that raged on the English Channel for eight months. It was with this storm that William was able to fight harold's army at a time when it was very tired, and finally won the victory.
The Norman Conquest was an important turning point in The history of England. William, Duke of Normandy, after conquering the British Isles, brought a rich foreign culture to it, which had a profound impact on English culture, and there are many traces of French in English today. Through the Norman conquest, the British Isles also brought the British Isles closer to the mainland.
bibliography:
1. Expedition to the Battle of Hastings in 1066
2. The Norman Conquest and the Development of the English Language
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