The Norman Conquest

1066 WAS A DATE IN HISTORY WHICH CHANGED THE WAY WE LIVED

ALTHOUGH IT WAS OVER 1000 YEARS AGO, IT CHANGED HISTORY SO MUCH THAT WE MAY NOT BE LIVING OR TALKING THE SAME TODAY IF THINGS WHICH HAPPENED IN THIS YEAR NEVER HAPPENED! LETS BEGIN WITH ENGLAND IN JANUARY 1066

THE BIG QUESTION EVERYONE WAS TALKING ABOUT WAS:
WHO WOULD BE KING!?England was a very rich country in 1066. However, all around Europe people were looking carefully at ONE MAN – the King of England:
KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. He was called this as he was very religious.He was also OLD AND he did not have any children! WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
If Edward died there was no one to INHERIT (take over) his title of King of England! This was a VERY dangerous situation as THREE powerful rivals each claimed that THEY should be the next King!

KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOREdward on his deathbed. Harold Godwinson is beside him. Is this important?

These THREE powerful men all wanted to be King and believed they had the right to take over England. Each had their own advantages and disadvantages.

JANUARY 1066: EDWARD THE CONFESSOR DIES

In January 1066 King Edward dies.
The English Witan (Parliament) meet quickly and Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.

This suits England and Harold well BUT what will the other TWO Contenders think…. and do?

King Harold knows he will be challenged for his kingdom. he has to look to the NORTH where Harald and his vikings may invade and to the SOUTH for William and his Normans… Who will invade first?

IN FACT THE INVASION CAME NOT FROM THE SOUTH AS EVERYONE EXPECTED – BUT FROM HARALD HARDRADA IN THE NORTH!!!

HAROLD GODWINSON WAS CAUGHT BY SURPRISE… BUT… HE GOT ALL HIS MEN TOGETHER AND MARCHED 200 MILES NORTH IN 4 DAYS!!!
IN FACT HE MARCHED SO FAST HE CAUGHT THE VIKINGS BY SURPRISE!!! FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT ,,,,

WHAT HAPPENED AT STAMFORD BRIDGE?

1) HAROLD CATCHES THE VIKINGS NAPPING!! Harold’s march north is SO FAST he catches the Vikings at a place called Stamford Bridge, near York, sleeping!!!

2) VIKINGS CAUGHT UNARMOUREDThe Vikings were so surprised that they had not even got their armour – It was still on their ships!

3) THE GIANT VIKINGHarold’s English Saxons had one problem – ONE HUGE VIKING was blocking the bridge – giving the Vikings time to defend themselves – He had killed 40 people on his own!!

4) A SHARP IDEAThe English then cleverly put a soldier in a barrel and sent him under the bridge where he killed the giant Viking from below – OUCH!!!!

5) ATTACK!!The English Saxons storm over the bridge and begin to fight and win

6) HARALDS ENDHarald Hardrada – ended up being killed by an arrow through his neck. Harold Godwinson’s brother Tostig was also killed.
Harold and his English Saxons were victorious!

BUT just when Harold and his men were celebrating they received shocking news – William of Normandy had invaded the south of England!!!!!

William of Normandy had beaten the English King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
On Christmas day 1066 William was crowned King of England in Westminster abbey.

HOWEVER – This was the easy part – William now had the difficult problem of CONTROLLING ENGLAND. After all there were 1.5 million English people who did not want him as King. This was a big problem which William dealt with in a number of ways.

Motte & Baileys

William found himself King of a country who were not particularly supportive of a new Norman King. The first thing William did was to build a network of castles all over the country. This would enable him to control the English quickly and also demonstrate to them Norman power was there to stay.

The first type of Norman castle was called a Motte and Bailey.

WHY WERE THEY SO GOOD?The Normans needed something that could be built and built quickly so they could establish control over the whole country.

Motte and Baileys were easy to build. (They could be built in less than a week) They could be built using local ‘help’ (usually forcing the locals to build them for the Normans.)They were easy to defend. (Remember, the Normans were an invading army) They offered a commanding height to see enemies from a distance and allow them to fire down upon them.They could easily be changed later to overcome initial weaknesses(eg. A stone tower rather than a wooden tower)
Over 70 were built during William’s reign as King of England.
They were a symbol of Norman power to the defeated Saxons

HOWEVER THERE WERE ALSO WEAKNESSES TO MOTTE AND BAILEYSMotte and Baileys could be built fast by using wood (most of England and Ireland was forest back in the 11th Century.) BUT wood ROTS Wood was also easily set on FIRE!

The Normans however wanted something strong and easy to build to begin with. They would then begin to replace these with stone castles!

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In 1066 William won control of England. But winning the battle of Hastings was one thing. Controlling the vastness of England was another! William would need help. He had one thing however he could not offer in return for support – LAND – Lots of it! There were plenty of people who wanted their share of it too! William’s system of dividing land and power was called the FEUDAL SYSTEM

WHO WANTED A SHARE OF THE LAND?

Normans who had helped him & Hastings
The Church – who had supported him
The English who waited to find out what William would do
William himself : – he needed people to help him manage the land

William divided his land in a way that would help him CONTROL England.

This division of power was called the FEUDAL SYSTEM

William was careful to divide his land up so that no one Baron would be powerful enough to rise up against him. He didn’t want them to get too close and therefore too regionally powerful.

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WHAT WAS THE DOMESDAY BOOK?

We all know how much Money we own or what we have in our bedrooms. William in 1066 now found himself owning a huge new country and he wanted to know exactly what he owned!!

In 1085 William ordered a Huge survey carried out to find out what he owned •Officials were sent to every village and interviewed:

The priest
The Steward – the most important man in the village
Six elderly people

The officials took over 1 year to visit 13,000 villages!
They travelled with Soldiers
There are over 2 million words in two books all written down by one person!! Many in England can trace their ancestors back over 1000 years using the Domesday book!

It was called the Domesday book because :

It was like Gods day of judgement
It could NOT be argued against

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Finally William was prepared to use TERROR to make sure everyone in England obeyed him!!

When groups of English people in the North of England rebelled. William sent up his soldiers. They killed thousands of people and burnt their houses and crops. It caused a famine which killed 100,000 people, This was known as the HARRYING OF THE NORTH.

MOTTE AND BAILEY PPT

LINK TO BBC BITESIZE – NORMAN CONQUESTLINK TO BBC BITESIZE FEUDALLINK TO BBC BITESIZE VIDEO

1066 WAS A DATE IN HISTORY WHICH CHANGED THE WAY WE LIVEDALTHOUGH IT WAS OVER 1000 YEARS AGO, IT CHANGED HISTORY SO MUCH THAT WE MAY NOT BE LIVING OR TALKING THE SAME TODAY IF THINGS WHICH HAPPENED IN THIS YEAR NEVER HAPPENED! LETS BEGIN WITH ENGLAND IN JANUARY 1066