The Norman Conquest

1066 saw three kings of England, the last of whom was William, Duke of Normandy. Tradition tells us the conquest of England by the powerful Normans was inescapable, and suggests England benefited almost at once from closer links with Europe. But new discoveries have thrown doubt on these long accepted beliefs. The Battle of Hastings itself must be reassessed, its very site disputed, as must the whereabouts of the mortal remains of the defeated King Harold. As for the kings themselves; was Edward the Confessor as saintly and William as dominant as they have been portrayed, and was Harold more than just the hinge on which history turned? Nine and a half centuries later it is appropriate to look again at the course and outcomes of the Norman Conquest of England, the genocide committed in northern England, the wholesale transfer of lands to Norman lords, and the Domesday Book designed to enable every last drop of riches to be extracted from a subdued kingdom.