By the middle of the eleventh century, the Duchy of Normandy had reached full bloom. The feudal system contributed to the creation of excellent military detachments, which were supplied to the duke by his vassals, and the heavily armed knightly cavalry of Normandy gained unfading fame. In addition, the state had large incomes from all possessions. And the powerful central government, which controlled both the vassals and the church, was clearly stronger than the English one. The Norman conquest of England was thus a foregone conclusion.
Wilhelm vs. Harold
Declaring Harold II, the brutally cruel English Dane king, a usurper and perjurer and with the support of Pope Alexander II, William got ready for a campaign: he recruited volunteers outside the duchy to help his far from weak army, built many transport ships, armed and stock up on food. And soon everything was ready for the conquest of England by William of Normandy to take place.
The duchy camp was seething withan abundance of troops - the knights arrived from all adjacent areas: Brittany, Picardy, Flanders, Artois. Historians could not establish the exact number of William's troops, but he had at least seven hundred ships, which means that the troops that the country of England received on its southern shores turn out to be at least seven thousand. For the first time, so many people crossed the English Channel overnight.
Harold knew about the preparation. Ships and troops assembled in the south of England were fully armed for William's arrival. But Wilhelm was even more cunning than Harold suspected. In the north of England, William's allies from Norway and the disgraced English, Harold's opponents, suddenly landed. Harold managed to turn the troops and even defeat the attackers, but then, without a day's delay, the Norman conquest of England from the south began.
Harold's Army
The landing of the enemy forced the weakened and tired army to turn back to Hasting, along the way there were attempts to gather militia units. However, everything happened so quickly that even in London, by the time Harold arrived, the militia had not yet gathered. Unlike Wilhelm, he did not have heavily armed cavalry, the bulk of his troops were on foot and heterogeneous. There were both huskerls and peasants armed in all sorts of ways: peasants with axes and clubs, earls with huskerls had swords, shields and battle axes, but had no horses, and Harold did not have time to get archers and war cavalry.
Meeting the old with the new
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 took place on 14 October. Wilhelm brought a well-trained to fight straight from the saddle, battle-hardened knightly cavalry and squads of archers. The defeat of the Anglo-Saxons was simply a foregone conclusion. The defeat was swift and final - few escaped. Harold also died.
Wilhelm gave the army a rest in robberies and raids on peasant neighborhoods, he had nowhere to hurry. Until the Dover, Cantbury and London elites understood and comprehended what had happened, reconciled themselves and accepted William the Conqueror as having come by right strong, several days passed. But the country of England did not soon come to its senses after the Norman conquest!
After five days, William moved the army to Dover. It was a triumph! Not only the London townspeople cowardly huddled at home, fearing pogroms, but for the most part English lords, earls, sheriffs, bishops fell at the feet of William and sought to make friends with him. Southern England offered no resistance to William at all. After a very short time, the North also submitted.
Kingdom anointing
And it happened: on the Christmas holiday at the junction of 1066 and 1067, William the Conqueror arrived in Westminster for a solemn event. The situation was unpredictable. England after the Norman Conquest broke out with uprisings here and there. A false denunciation of betrayal was received, and Wilhelm's retinue reacted in a peculiar way.
All the houses around the cathedral where the anointing took place were set on fire, andvictims of the fire were beaten to death, without understanding the gender, age and religion. Everyone left the temple, except for the clergy, who continued the service, brought the sacrament to the end, and Wilhelm met the first minutes of triumph in splendid isolation. So strangely ended the Norman conquest of England at its first stage.
Kingship
Despite William's promise to be the guarantor of the observance of the good laws of King Edward, the new Normans continued violence and robbery. The population was constantly revolting, it was brutally suppressed by fire and sword. For the greater obedience of the citizens of London, the construction of the famous royal fortress - the Tower began.
The northern regions of England were so tired of William with their uprisings that in 1069 he used the scorched earth tactics against them (the Nazis in Khatyn were by no means the first). Wilhelm's punitive expedition did not leave a whole house or a living person in the entire expanse of the York Valley to Durham itself - not a single one. This desert stood until the twelfth century, when little by little it began to be inhabited. But these, of course, are not the main consequences of the Norman conquest of England.
Management organization
Considering all the Anglo-Saxons as rebels, William the Conqueror continued to call himself the rightful heir of Edward the Confessor. Immediately after the accomplishment of the "English Khatyn" all the lands of England became the property of the king. Not only rebels were subjected to confiscations, but also those who werenot loyal enough to the new government.
The huge lands belonging to the crown brought enormous income: the rent from the rent to the sheriffs, who then beat it out from the common population. So this rent, in comparison with the times of Edward the Confessor, has become more than fifty percent higher. The country agreed to this. What was the Norman conquest of England for? In short, for profit. But not only.
Of course, Wilhelm did not keep everything for himself, although his share was truly the lion's share. The feuds that his associates received were ten times larger than those they had on the territory of Normandy. Wilhelm did not offend the church for a long time, he did not take away the land.
Castles were built all over England - both those that are simpler, on simple mounds with moats and palisades, and complex engineering structures that can withstand a long siege. Huge stone citadels multiplied, like the Tower, Rochester, Headingham. These castles were not baronial. All of them belonged to the king. The conquest of England by William of Normandy continued.
Domestic Book
So called the land census of 1085, which was conducted by William in England. It was a very detailed book. The data was divided into three sections: before the conquest, the year 1066 and the year 1085. It was rewritten: the composition of the lands of each county and each hundred, the exact income, the composition and number of inhabitants, their condition. The respondents were all barons, sheriffs, elders, freemen and six serfs from each village. They all testified under oath. Thus it was rewrittenthirty-four counties out of thirty-eight.
Politics
It was a good move to see the main consequences of the Norman Conquest of England. Wilhelm, this census really gave information about possible income and suggested a way to systematize the withdrawal of "Danish money". The book turned out to be huge, detailed and reliable. William realized that it was quite possible to recoup the Norman conquest of England with extortions. It makes no sense to describe such a book briefly.
The estates that Wilhelm gave to any of the barons never coexisted with those allotments that the baron already owned. For example, Robert of Merton had about eight hundred manors, which were located in forty counties. Others have a little less, but the principle is the same.
It would seem absurd. But here is a clear calculation. No baron will be able to increase his influence in any particular county, which, of course, contributes to the strengthening of royal power. The only exceptions were the feudal border guards who guarded the approaches from the sea and land. They had great rights and even privileges. England after the Norman Conquest for the first time began to feel like a single state.
The King, as the supreme owner of all land in England, was the overlord of all land holders, no matter from whom and under what circumstances they received it. William bound all landowners with an oath of service to the king (the Salisbury oath). A purely English feature of feudal arrangement is service to the king over the head of all his others.vassals. The king gained additional support and authority. The country after the conquest strengthened as a state, despite many sorrows and sufferings. These are the main consequences of the Norman Conquest of England.
