How the French take-over changed England profoundly.

When Messrs Sellar and Yeatman produced their classic satire of the history that could be remembered from schooldays, they chose to include in their title the one date that every proverbial schoolchild knows: 1066 and all that. That year saw William the Conqueror invade Anglo-Saxon England, defeat the native forces led by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, and then establish Norman rule with brutal effectiveness. Although the significance of the Conquest, and the precise balance between continuity and change over the decades that followed have been much debated by historians, there can be little doubt that these events marked a decisive moment in English history.

The Conquest stemmed from the fact that William and Harold both claimed that the childless King Edward the Confessor had named them as his successor. William also asserted that Harold had previously accepted William’s claim, but then reneged on this after Edward the Confessor’s death in January 1066 and had himself crowned king. This prompted William’s decision to invade England. The Battle of Hastings was hard fought, but Harold’s troops were tired and depleted after an exhausting march to the north of England to defeat another claimant to the throne, the Viking Harald Hardrada. They also lacked the cavalry and the archers who were important features of the Norman army. In the end, Harold was killed and the Normans emerged victorious.