THE NORMAN CONQUEST

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 2

Hastings,
13 October 1066

The day England

acquired a new royal
dynasty, a new
aristocracy, a new
Church, a new language,
a Panova-Ignjatovik,
Prof. Tatjana new … PhD 3
Development of England

 Angles, Saxons, and Vikings settled in

England
 Feudalism developed
 English rulers kept kingdom united

 The Saxon King Edward the Confessor dies

on 5 January 1066
 no heir
 Council of Nobles chose Harold

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 4

Edward the Confessor

 Father, Aethelred the Unready,

mother Emma of Normandy
 Spoke French, brought up in
Normandy
 Deeply religious
 Ruled with help of Godwin family
(married Edith Godwin)
 Nominated Harold Godwinson, his
brother-in-law, as his heir
Edward on the Bayeux Tapestry

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 5

 King Harold
 no royal blood
 but from a powerful Saxon noble
family
 Witan chose him to be the next king
of England because of his bravery
and ability

Coronation of King Harold,

6
depicted in the Bayeux tapestry 
The Normans
 The Duchy of Normandy was
nominally held from the French
king.
 Founded by the Viking, Rollo, in
911, the Normans (i.e. northmen)
captured and settled in Northern
France.
 They soon adopted French ways,
customs and language, even their
methods of fighting from
horseback.
 They also became Christian in
their religion.
7
 William of Normandy
 Illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of
Normandy. He was known as 'William
the Bastard' to his contemporaries.
 On his father's death in 1035, William was
recognised as heir, with his great uncle
serving as regent.
 William became Duke of Normandy at
the age of 8.
 Many lords in Normandy did not approve
the illegitimate son of Duke Robert ruling
them. 

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 8

William of Normandy

 Harold's right to the English throne was challenged by

Duke William of Normandy
 William claimed that his second cousin Edward the
Confessor promised him the throne of England on his
deathbed.
 However, there were no proper witnesses to this meeting. 
Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 9
 The Norman Conquest

 On 24 April, Halley’s
Comet blazed for a week in
the sky - an omen to many.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 10

Battle of Hastings
13 October 1066

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 11

 Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD

The Battle of Hastings

 Battle of Hastings in 1066

 William and knights defeat King Harold
 last successful invasion of England

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Harold killed

Dover burnt

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 13

William's lands in 1087
-the light pink areas were controlled by
William

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 14

Why is the year 1066 an important date in English
history?
 The year 1066 is one of the most pivotal dates in English history.
 In that year, William the Bastard invaded from Normandy, seized the crown
and became the first Norman king of England.
 the Norman Conquest brought lasting changes in government, culture and
language.
 The Norman Conquest was the last successful invasion of England by a
foreign claimant.
 Others have tried – such as the Spanish, the French, the Germans – and failed.
 The Norman Conquest > helping to shape the England of the present.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 15

The new king

•Duke William of
Normandy – crowned king
of England
• known as William the
Conqueror
• crowned on Christmas
Day, 1066 in Edward's
new abbey cathedral at
Westminster.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 16

Westminster Abbey

• The new king chose to be crowned in

the same location as King Harold,
• deliberately stressing the continuity
between himself and Edward's old
régime.
• Since then the coronations of all English
monarchs, except two, have been held
there up to and including Elizabeth II in
1953.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 17

Coronation of King
William I

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 18

English and Norman societies -
Similarities
 English and Norman social structures were very
similar
 For both societies, land was the defining currency.
 The Lord owned land, which he parcelled out
amongst his followers in return for service.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 19

 Homage
 Two basic principles of feudalism: every man had a lord,
and every lord had land.
 Тhe vassal was, literally, his man (homme). 
 At each level a man had to promise loyalty and service to
his lord.
 Each lord had to give land and protection to his vassals.
vassals
 This promise was usually made with the lord sitting on his
chair and his vassal kneeling before him, his hands placed
between those of his lord>

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 20

 Homage /Омаж/

 Homage – remained part of the

coronation ceremony of British monarchs
until now.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 21

 Investiture of the Prince
of Wales (homage ceremony)

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 22

Domesday Book

The great convocation took place at Old Sarum 

 The crowning glory of William's reign was Domesday Book

 DB - the great catalogue of land and ownership compiled in the
final year of his life.
 The culmination of the Norman Conquest, in which William
commissioned a great survey of all he now ruled.
 Officially presented to him at a great convocation in Old Sarum
at Salisbury, setting the final seal on the Conquest of England.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 23

THE OATH OF SARUM

 On 1 August 1086, William hosted a great gathering at Old

Sarum. According to the royal chronicler:
 His council came to him there, and all the landholding men of
any account throughout England. And they all bowed to him
and became his men, and swore oaths to him, that they would
remain faithful to him against all other men.

 This was an act of homage on a scale unseen before either in

William’s native Normandy or in England.
Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 24
How did William survey the country?

 1085, William ordered survey

 Commissioners visited 13,000 villages
 Interviewed priest, steward (a lord's chief representative
of a village, намесник) & 6 elderly villagers
 Soldiers threatened to kill liars
 Second visit to check

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 25

What did the commissioners ask?

 How many people lived there?

 Who held the land?
 What type of people worked on the land?
 How many pigs, sheep & cows did each man own?
 How many ploughs?
 How many mills & ponds?

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 26

How did the Domesday Book help William?

 Tax
 Military service
 Law & order – especially quarrels over land

A page
from the
Domesday
Book.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 27

 What does the DB look like?
 Domesday – God’s judgement
 Unpopular with the people – felt
they could not escape from its
findings > “doom”!
 It reminded them of the paintings
of the Day of Judgement on
church walls, so they called it the
“Domesday” Book.
 One Winchester monk copied up
findings
 Wrote on parchment
/пергамент/
 1000 sheep needed to make book

The Domesday
Book
Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 28
 Domesday Book
Domesday Book is a major source for the disciplines of:

 Archaeology
 Geography
 Genealogy
 Law
 Linguistics
 Onomastics
 Palaeography
 Philology
 Topography

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 29

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 30
Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 31
Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 32
Development of medieval England

12 - 13 th th

centuries

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 33

Kingship: a family business
 William controlled two large areas:
 Normandy, which he had been given by his
father
 England, which he had won in war
 After his death in 1087, he left the Duchy of
Normandy to his elder son, Robert,
 аnd England to his second son, William II.

Robert, Duke of Normandy Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD William II 34

 Development of England

 When William II died in a

hunting accident in 1100, the
Norman nobles in England
chose Henry, William and
Robert’s younger brother.
 Henry I was very ambitious>
 Henry I invaded Normandy in
1106 and captured Robert.
 Normandy and England were
reunited under one ruler.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 35

 Henry I
 He spent the rest of his life  But only a few nobles supported
fighting to keep Normandy from Matilda's claim.
other French nobles who tried to  Matilda invaded England four
take it. years later .
 But in 1120 Henry 's only son was  Her fight led to a terrible civil war
drowned at sea.  Neither side could win, and finally
 He made all the nobles promise in 1153 Matilda's son, Henry,
to accept his daughter Matilda succeeded the English throne
when he died.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 36

Development of England
 Henry II
 foundations of English Common Law
 legal system based on custom
and court rulings
 protects property
 early jury system

 married Eleanor of Aquitaine

 vast holdings in France
 His empire stretched from the
Scottish border to the
Pyrenees.

37
 Eleanor of Aquitaine,
Queen of France and
Queen of England 

> one of the most powerful

and influential figures of
the Middle Ages

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 38

Development of England and France
 Eleanor of Aquitaine
 first married to France’s King Louis VII
 joined Second Crusade
 wore armor and rode horse with other Crusaders
 she ended marriage to Louis VII

 married England’s King Henry II

 8 children
 Richard (“the Lion-Hearted”)
 John

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 39

Angevin Empire
The empire was established by Henry II of England, who
succeeded his father Geoffrey Plantagenet as Duke of
Normandy and Count of Anjou (from which the Angevins
derive their name). Inherited England from his mother
Matilda.

40
Fighting for the throne
 Henry actually controlled a greater area than the
king of France.
 However, Richard and John fought against their
father, Henry II.
 In fact, they were doing duty to the king of France,
in payment for the lands they would held from
him.
 In 1189 Henry died a broken man, disappointed
and defeated by his sons and by the French king.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 41

Richard I (Lionheart) John I

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 42

Development of England
 Richard I – one of England’s most popular kings.
 He went to the Holy Land to fight the Crusades (against
the Muslims), but on his way back he was killed in France.
 He had no son > followed by his brother John.

 King John – unpopular because he was greedy.

 He had disagreements with the nobles, and the Pope over
the nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
 Merchants and townsmen were also in revolt, because he
taxed them at a higher level than ever before.

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 43

Development of England

 Magna Carta - 1215

 King John is forced to sign the
Magna Carta by the nobles.
 1st document in English history
where monarch does not have
complete or absolute power
 created limited monarchy

 ideas still influence systems of

government in many countries
around world today

Written in Latin on parchment. Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 44

Development of England
 Magna Carta - 1215
 places King of England under law
 statement of rights for noblemen
 protects privileges of lords
 recognizes legal rights of townspeople and Church

 king agrees not to raise taxes without consulting the

Great Council:
 representative body of lords and clergy
 in 1200s, evolves into Parliament

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Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 46
 Thank

you

for

your
attention

Prof. Tatjana Panova-Ignjatovik, PhD 47