King of England in 1066. Conquest of England by William of Normandy (1066). Raids of Tostig and invasion of the Norse

United under his rule England, Denmark and Norway. The sons of Ethelred II and Emma spent almost 30 years in exile, at the court of the Duke of Normandy. It was not until 1042 that Edward the Confessor, Æthelred's eldest son, succeeded in regaining the throne of England. Brought up in Normandy, Edward throughout most of his reign tried to align himself with the Normans against the powerful Anglo-Danish nobility who dominated the country's state system. In 1051, taking advantage of Earl Godwin's exile, the childless Edward proclaimed the young Norman duke William as his heir. However, in 1052 Godwin returned to England and reasserted his control over the country's system of government. The Norman nobles were expelled from the country, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert of Jumièges. His see was given to Godwin's supporter, Stigand [sn 1]. In the late 50s of the XI century, the Godwinson family owned the largest counties of England, which included a large territory of the kingdom. When Edward the Confessor died in early January 1066, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected Godwin's son, Harold II, the leader of the national party, as king.

Harold's election was challenged by William of Normandy. Based on the will of King Edward, as well as on the oath of allegiance to Harold, probably taken during his trip to Normandy in 1064/1065, and appealing to the need to protect the English church from usurpation and tyranny, William presented his claims to the crown of England and began preparation for an armed invasion. At the same time, Harald the Severe, King of Norway, claimed the English throne, whose predecessor in 1038 concluded an agreement with the son of Canute the Great on the mutual succession of kingdoms in the event of the childlessness of one of the monarchs. The Norwegian king, having entered into an alliance with the brother of Harold II, exiled from England, Tostig Godwinson, also began to prepare for the conquest of England.

The military resources of the Anglo-Saxon state were quite large, but poorly organized. At the end of 1066, King Harold did not even have a permanent fleet at his disposal, except for a small number of ships provided by the ports of the southeast coast. Although it was possible to collect a significant number of ships through requisitions and collection according to tradition by the counties, it was impossible to organize a large fleet in a short time and keep it in a state of combat readiness. The core of the ground forces were the housecarls of the king and the earls. By the middle of the 11th century, there were about 3000 royal housecarls, the squad of a large earl consisted of 400-500 soldiers. In addition to them, Harold had detachments of the military service nobility (then) and the national militia of the peasants - the fird. At full strength, the Anglo-Saxon army was probably the largest army in Western Europe. The main problems of the armed forces of England were the difficulty of concentrating soldiers in the required place, the impossibility of maintaining the army in combat readiness for a long time, the underdevelopment of the castle system as the basic unit of the defensive structure, poor familiarity with modern methods of warfare in Europe, as well as inattention to such types of troops as cavalry and archers.

If until 1060 William was busy with internal problems and defending the borders from the French and Angevin threats, then after 1060, thanks to the infancy of the new king of France and civil strife in Anjou, the security of Normandy was ensured for some time, which opened up opportunities for external expansion. A well-developed military system and a feudal hierarchy provided the Duke of Normandy with a fairly significant, well-trained and armed military force. The main striking force of the army was the knightly cavalry. Archers were widely used. A significant part of the troops was a mercenary contingent. In Normandy there was a huge mass of small knights, over whom the dukes had no effective control before William, and whose militancy found an outlet in campaigns in Italy, where the Norman county of Aversa and the duchy of Apulia had already been formed. Wilhelm was able to gather and recruit these knights into his service. Wilhelm was well acquainted with all aspects of modern military art. He enjoyed an excellent reputation as a knight and military leader, which attracted the manpower of all Northern France to his army.

The Normans had extensive experience in military operations with small detachments of cavalry from fortress castles, which were quickly erected in the occupied territory, as strongholds, in order to further control it. The wars with the kings of France and the counts of Anjou allowed the Normans to improve their tactics against large enemy formations and establish clear interaction between the branches of the military. William's army consisted of a feudal militia of Norman barons and knights, cavalry and infantry contingents from Brittany, Picardy and other northern French regions, as well as mercenary troops. On the eve of the invasion of England, William organized a mass building of ships.

Norwegian invasion of England in 1066. Dotted lines indicate the boundaries of the possessions of the house of Godwin

In early 1066, William began preparations for an invasion of England. Although he received approval for this enterprise from the assembly of the barons of his duchy, however, the forces allocated by them were clearly not enough for such a large-scale and prolonged military operation outside Normandy. William's reputation ensured an influx of knights from Flanders, Aquitaine, Brittany, Maine and the Norman principalities of Southern Italy into his army. As a result, the Norman contingent proper comprised less than half of the troops. William also won the support of the emperor and, more importantly, of Pope Alexander II, who hoped to strengthen the position of the papacy in England and remove the apostate archbishop Stigand. The Pope not only supported the claims of the Duke of Normandy to the English throne, but also, handing over his consecrated banner, blessed the participants in the invasion. This allowed Wilhelm to give his event the character of a "holy war". Preparations were completed by August 1066, however, a head north wind for a long time did not allow the Channel crossing to begin. On September 12, Wilhelm moved his army from the mouth of the Dives River to the mouth of the Somme, to the town of Saint-Valery, where the width of the strait was significantly less. The total number of the Norman army, according to modern researchers, numbered 7-8 thousand people [SN 2], for the transport of which a fleet of 600 ships was prepared.

The English king was also preparing to repel the Norman invasion. He convened a national militia from the south-eastern regions of England and deployed troops along the south coast. A new fleet was formed at a rapid pace, headed by the king. In May, Harold managed to repel the raid of his rebellious brother Tostig on the eastern regions of the country. However, in September the Anglo-Saxon naval defense system collapsed: food shortages forced the king to disband the militia and navy. In mid-September, the army of the Norwegian king Harald the Severe landed in northeast England. Linking up with Tostig's supporters, the Norwegians defeated the northern counties militia at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September and subdued Yorkshire. The king of England was forced to leave his position on the south coast and move rapidly north. Having united his army with the remnants of the militia, on September 25, in the battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold utterly defeated the Vikings, Harald the Severe and Tostig were killed, and the remnants of the Norwegian army sailed to Scandinavia. However, the significant losses suffered by the British at the battles of Fulford and Stamford Bridge, especially among the royal housecarls, undermined the combat effectiveness of Harold's army.

Two days after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the direction of the winds in the English Channel changed. The loading of the Norman army onto ships immediately began, and late in the evening of September 27, William's fleet sailed from Saint-Valery. The crossing took all night, and there was a moment when the duke's ship, strongly separated from the main forces, was left alone, but there were no English ships in the strait, and the transportation of the army was successfully completed on the morning of September 28 in the bay near the city of Pevensey. The Norman army did not stay in Pevensey, surrounded by marshes, but moved to Hastings, a more convenient port from a strategic point of view. Here William built a castle and began to wait for the approach of the English troops, sending small detachments deep into Wessex to conduct reconnaissance and obtain provisions and fodder.

After the battle of Hastings, England was open to the conquerors. During October - November 1066, Kent and Sussex were captured by the Norman army. Queen Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold II, recognized William's claims, giving him control of the ancient capital of the Anglo-Saxon rulers - Winchester. London remained the main center of resistance, where Edgar Ætheling, the last representative of the ancient Wessex dynasty, was proclaimed the new king. But William's troops surrounded London, devastating its environs. The leaders of the national party—Archbishop Stigand, Earls Edwin and Morcar, young Edgar Ætheling himself—were forced to submit. At Wallingford and Berkhamsted they took an oath of allegiance to William and recognized him as King of England. Moreover, they insisted on the immediate coronation of the duke. Soon Norman troops entered London. On December 25, 1066, William was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

Although the coronation of William I took place in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which was supposed to convince the population of the legitimacy of the rights of the new king to the English throne, the power of the Normans relied at first exclusively on military force. Already in 1067, the construction of the Tower of London began, and then Norman castles grew throughout southern and central England. The lands of the Anglo-Saxons who participated in the Battle of Hastings were confiscated and distributed to the soldiers of the invading army. By the end of March 1067, the position of William the Conqueror had somewhat strengthened, and he was able to make a long trip to Normandy. He was accompanied by the leaders of the Anglo-Saxon party - Prince Edgar, Archbishop Stigand, Earls Morkar, Edwin and Waltheof, as well as hostages from other noble families. During the absence of the king, the government of England was carried out by his closest associates: the earl of Hereford, William Fitz-Osburn, and William's half-brother, Bishop Odo.

The situation in England was quite tense. The Norman administration controlled only the southeastern regions of the country. The rest of the kingdom was ruled only thanks to the great Anglo-Saxon magnates who expressed their loyalty to William. Immediately after his departure, a wave of riots swept, especially large - in southwestern England. The sons of Harold Godwinson, having found shelter in Ireland, began to gather their supporters. Opponents of the new government sought support at the courts of the rulers of Scandinavia, Scotland and Flanders. The situation demanded the speedy return of William to England. At the end of 1067, after spending the summer and autumn in Normandy, he returned to the conquered kingdom. The southwest of England was pacified, then an attempt by the sons of Harold to land at Bristol was repulsed. In the summer of 1068, William's wife Matilda was crowned Queen of England.

The Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the Anglo-Saxon uprisings of 1067-1070

In 1068, the situation of William the Conqueror escalated: Edgar Ætheling fled to Scotland, where he received the support of King Malcolm III, and an uprising broke out in the north of England. Wilhelm acted decisively. After building a castle at Warwick, he marched into the north English counties and occupied York without opposition. The local nobility took an oath of allegiance to the king. On the way back, castles were erected at Lincoln, Nottingham, Huntingdon and Cambridge, which allowed control of the route to northern England. However, already at the beginning of 1069, a new uprising broke out in the north, in which not only feudal lords, but also peasants took part. On January 28, 1069, Anglo-Saxon detachments broke into Durham, which destroyed the squad of the Norman Earl of Northumbria Robert de Comyn, and he himself was burned alive. Then the rebellion against the conquerors spread to Yorkshire, and York itself was captured by the supporters of Edgar Ætheling. The second campaign of William to the north made it possible to occupy York and suppress the uprising, brutally cracking down on the rebels. Until the autumn of 1069, the Normans were able to relatively easily eliminate pockets of resistance, since the rebels in different parts of England did not have common goals, a single leadership and did not coordinate actions with each other.

In the autumn of 1069 the situation changed radically. The English coast was attacked by a huge fleet (250-300 ships) under the command of the sons of the Danish king Sven II Estridsen, heir to the house of Canute the Great, who also claimed the English throne. King Malcolm of Scotland married Edgar's sister Margaret and acknowledged Edgar's claim to the English throne. Edgar himself made an alliance with Sven. At the same time, an anti-Norman uprising broke out in the County of Maine, supported by the Counts of Anjou and King Philip I of France. William's opponents entered into relations with each other, thereby forming a coalition. Taking advantage of the Danish invasion, the Anglo-Saxons again rebelled in Northumbria. A new army was formed, led by Edgar Ætheling, Gospatric and Waltheof, the last representatives of the major Anglo-Saxon nobility. Together with the Danes, they captured York, defeating its Norman garrison. The uprising swept northern and central England. The support of the rebels was expressed by the Archbishop of York. The opportunity arose to have Edgar's coronation in York, which would have cast doubt on William's legitimacy. However, the approach of the Anglo-Norman army forced the rebels to retreat from York. The king was soon forced to leave the north again, facing uprisings in western Mercia, Somerset and Dorset. Only after the suppression of these speeches was William able to take decisive action against the North English rebels.

At the end of 1069, the troops of William the Conqueror re-entered northern England. The Danish army retreated to the ships and abandoned the area. This time, the Normans engaged in the systematic destruction of the lands, the destruction of the buildings and property of the Anglo-Saxons, trying to eliminate the very possibility of a repetition of the uprising. Villages were burned en masse, and their inhabitants fled south or to Scotland. By the summer of 1070, Yorkshire had been ruthlessly ravaged. County Durham was largely depopulated as the surviving villagers fled from the burned villages. William's troops reached the Tees, where Kospatrick, Waltheof and other Anglo-Saxon leaders submitted to the king. The Normans then marched quickly across the Pennines and fell upon Cheshire, where the devastation continued. The ruin also reached Staffordshire. Further, an attempt was made to destroy what allowed the inhabitants to exist. Famine and plague gripped the north of England. By Easter 1070, the campaign, which went down in history as "The Devastation of the North" (eng. Harrying of the North), was completed. The consequences of this devastation were still vividly felt in Yorkshire, Cheshire, Shropshire and the “five burgh area” decades after the conquest [sn 3] .

In the spring of 1070, the Danish fleet, now led by King Sven himself, remained in English waters, settling on the island of Ely. The last representatives of the unconquered Anglo-Saxon nobility also flocked here. The leader of the resistance was the poor then Hereward. Among the participants in the uprising were not only the nobility, but also the peasants. Anglo-Danish bands made harassing raids along the coasts of East Anglia, destroying Norman formations and ravaging Norman possessions. However, in the summer of 1070, William managed to conclude an agreement with the Danes on their evacuation for a huge ransom. After the departure of the Danish fleet, the defense of Ili was led by Hereward, which was joined by more and more detachments from other regions of the country. So, one of the most influential Anglo-Saxon aristocrats arrived on the island of Or - Morcar, the former earl of Northumbria. It was the last stronghold of the Anglo-Saxon resistance. In the spring of 1071, William's troops surrounded the island and blocked its supply. The defenders were forced to capitulate. Hereward managed to escape, but Morcar was captured and soon died in prison.

The fall of Ely marked the end of the Norman conquest of England. Resistance to the new government has ceased. Only skirmishes continued on the border with Scotland, where Edgar Ætheling again found refuge, but in August 1072, William's army, supported by large fleet forces, invaded Scotland and reached Tay without hindrance. The Scottish king Malcolm III concluded a truce with William in Abernethy, brought him homage and pledged not to support the Anglo-Saxons. Edgar was forced to leave Scotland. The conquest of England was over.

Anglo-Norman monarchy in the city and the most important English castles. The Cheshire and Shropshire stamps are highlighted in green.

The main principle of organizing the control system of conquered England was the desire of King William to look like the rightful successor to Edward the Confessor. The constitutional basis of the Anglo-Saxon state was completely preserved: the Witenagemot was transformed into the Grand Royal Council, the prerogatives of the Anglo-Saxon kings were transferred in full to the Anglo-Norman monarchs (including the right to tax and single-handedly publish laws), the system of counties headed by royal sheriffs was preserved. The scope of landowners' rights was determined as of the time of King Edward. The very concept of the monarchy was of an Anglo-Saxon nature and contrasted sharply with the state of royal power in modern France, where the sovereign fought desperately for his recognition by the largest barons of the state. The principle of succession to the Anglo-Saxon period was especially clearly manifested in the first years after the conquest (before the uprising in Northern England in 1069), when a significant part of the Anglo-Saxon magnates retained their positions at court and influence in the regions.

However, despite all the appearance of a return to the "good times" of King Edward (after the usurpation of Harold), the power of the Normans in England relied mainly on military force. Already in December 1066, the redistribution of land began in favor of the Norman knights, which, after the "Devastation of the North" 1069-1070. has become universal. By the 1080s, the Anglo-Saxon nobility was completely destroyed as a social stratum (with a few exceptions [SN 4]) and replaced by northern French chivalry. A small group of the most noble Norman families - William's closest associates - received more than half of all land allotments, and the king himself took possession of about a fifth of the lands of England. The nature of land holdings has completely changed, which has acquired classical feudal features: land was now granted to barons under the condition of setting up a certain number of knights, if necessary, to the king. The whole country was covered with a network of royal or baronial castles [SN 5], which became military bases providing control over the district, and residences of barons or officials of the king. A number of areas of England (Herefordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Kent, Sussex) were organized as militarized territories responsible for the defense of the borders. Of particular importance in this regard were the Cheshire and Shropshire marks created by Hugh d'Avranches and Roger de Montgomery on the border with Wales.

Having captured England, William divided its territory into 60,215 land fiefs, dividing them among his vassals. The specifics of the distribution of land holdings in England after the conquest was that almost all new barons received land in separate plots scattered throughout the country, which, with rare exceptions, did not form compact territories [SN 6] . Although it is probably impossible to argue that the fragmentation of land holdings granted to the feud was a deliberate policy of King William, this feature of the organization of land ownership in Norman England did not allow the emergence of feudal principalities like French or German, which played a huge role in the subsequent history of the country, and ensured the preponderance king over barons.

The conquest created a new ruling class - knights and barons of Norman origin [SN 7] . The new nobility owed their position to the king and performed a whole range of duties in relation to the monarch. The main of these duties were military service, participation three times a year in the Grand Royal Council, as well as filling various positions in the public administration (primarily sheriffs). After the conquest and destruction of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of vast earls, the role of sheriffs sharply increased: they turned into a key element of the royal administration on the ground, and in terms of their possessions and social status they were not inferior to the Anglo-Norman earls.

The Norman influence was especially strong in church circles. All of Wilhelm's actions in the ecclesiastical sphere were carried out with the full support of the Holy See. One of the first decisions was the resumption of the annual payment to Rome of "St. Peter's mite". A few years after the conquest of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, was removed, and the closest adviser to the king, Lanfranc, became his successor. All vacant seats were given not to the Anglo-Saxons, but to foreigners, primarily immigrants from France. Already in 1087, Wulfstan of Worcester remained the only bishop of Anglo-Saxon origin. At the beginning of the 13th century, as a result of the emergence of mendicant monastic brotherhoods, consisting almost entirely of foreigners, the influence of foreigners in church circles increased even more. Many schools were opened in which, unlike on the Continent, where instruction was in Latin, instruction was in French. The influence of the church authorities increased. A separation of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction was carried out. As a result of unified integration, inter-church influence was strengthened. Wilhelm's decree, stating that all ecclesiastical proceedings should be heard by bishops and archbishops in their own courts "in accordance with the canons and episcopal laws", made it possible to further implement the adoption of canon law. The Normans transferred the diocesan thrones to those cities where they still exist. The episcopal structure of the church in England established by the Normans remained almost unchanged until the period of the Reformation.

At the same time, Wilhelm very firmly defended his sovereignty in relations with Rome. Without his knowledge, not a single feudal lord, including church lords, could correspond with the Pope. Any visit of papal legates to England was subject to agreement with the king. Decisions of church councils were possible only with his approval. In the confrontation between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII, William maintained a strict neutrality, and in 1080 he refused to offer homage to the Pope on behalf of his English kingdom. The Grand Royal Council, in which all the barons of the country took part, was the successor to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In the early Norman period, it began to meet regularly (three times a year), but lost a significant part of its influence on the development of political decisions, giving way to the royal curia (lat. Curia regis). The last institute was a collection of barons and officials closest to the king, helping the monarch with advice on the current problems of the state. The curia became the central element of the royal administration, although its meetings were often informal in Danish money "") [SN 9], and the consent of the population to levy this tax was not required. The principles of distribution of taxes by counties, hundreds and guides have also been preserved from Anglo-Saxon times. To bring traditional taxation rates in line with the current state of the economy and the new system of land holdings, in 1086 a general land assessment was carried out, the results of which were presented in the Doomsday Book.

After the Norman Conquest, which was accompanied by massive abuses and illegal seizures of land, the importance of legal proceedings increased sharply, which became an instrument of royal power in streamlining land and social relations in the country. In the reorganization of the judiciary, an important role belonged to Geoffroy, Bishop of Coutances of vassal relations and possessing judicial and administrative power over the peasant population. The semi-independent earls of the Anglo-Saxon era were replaced by the Norman barons, highly dependent on the king and obliged to him for their possessions by knighthood (by posting a certain number of armed knights). The higher clergy were also included in the feudal system. The process of enslavement of the peasantry, which began back in the Anglo-Saxon period, accelerated sharply and led to the dominance of feudal-dependent categories of the peasantry in medieval England, which led to even greater enslavement [SN 10] . Personally free peasants were also taxed, which turned the previously free community into a serf. From the peasants who had small plots of land, agricultural workers began to form - farm laborers. Villans (dependents) also had to grind grain at the lord's mill and give a measure of grain, bake bread to the lord, etc. It was also necessary to pay tithes, pay marriage, posthumous dues. At the same time, the almost complete disappearance of slavery in England [SN 11] should be noted.

The most important consequence of the Norman conquest in the social sphere was the introduction in England of classical feudal relations and a vassal-feudal system along the lines of the French model. The genesis of feudalism in England began in the 9th-10th centuries, however, the emergence of a social system based on land holding, which is determined by the fulfillment by the holder of strictly defined military duties, whose volume did not depend on the size of the plot, but on an agreement with the overlord, is an unconditional innovation of the Norman conquest [SN 12]. The pronounced military character of the landed holdings was also one of the main consequences of the Norman Conquest. In general, the social structure of society has become more strict, rigid and hierarchical.

AT organizational plan The Norman Conquest led to a sharp strengthening of royal power and the formation of one of the most stable and centralized monarchies in Europe during the High Middle Ages. The power of royal power is clearly evidenced by the conduct of a general census of land holdings, the results of which were included in the Book of the Last Judgment, an enterprise unprecedented and absolutely impossible in other modern European states. The new state system, although based on the Anglo-Saxon traditions of government, quickly acquired a high degree of specialization and the formation of functional governing bodies, such as the French Chessboard Chamber. [SN 13]

AT politically there was a reorientation to Western Europe, instead of the lost ties with the Scandinavians. A lot of Scandinavians settled before that in England and got used to a different government and independence. Many of them had to leave England, others, especially young people, had to go to Constantinople to serve the Greek emperor, who built a separate city for them - Hevetot. The Varangians, even in the centuries that followed after the 12th century, were mostly Englishmen who came from Britain. Their detachment in exile lasted until the 15th century.

England turned out to be closely included in the system of international relations of Western Europe and began to play one of the most important roles on the European political scene. Moreover, William the Conqueror, who linked the Kingdom of England with the Duchy of Normandy by personal union, became a powerful ruler of Northwestern Europe, completely changing the balance of power in this region. At the same time, the fact that Normandy was a vassal of the King of France, and that many of the new English barons and knights held lands across the Channel, made Anglo-French relations much more difficult. As dukes of Normandy, the Anglo-Norman monarchs recognized the suzerainty of the king of France, and as kings of England they had an equal social status with him. In the 12th century, with the creation of the Angevin Empire of the Plantagenets, the English king owned almost half of the territory of France, while remaining legally a vassal of the French monarch. This duality became one of the reasons for the long Anglo-French confrontation, which was one of the central moments of the European politics of the Middle Ages and reached its culmination during

NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1066

the conquest of England in 1066, the invasion of England by the Norman feudal lords, led by Duke William of Normandy. The reason was William's claims to the English throne, based on kinship with the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who died in early 1066. In addition to the Norman barons, feudal lords from other regions of France also participated in the invasion. Having crossed the English Channel on sailing ships, William's army landed on September 28 in the south of England. The decisive battle between the troops of William and the new king of the Anglo-Saxons Harold took place on October 14 near Hastings. The outcome of the battle was decided by the Norman cavalry, which destroyed most of the Anglo-Saxons who fought on foot. Harold fell in battle. On December 25, William was crowned with the crown of the Anglo-Saxons (see William I the Conqueror).

As a result of the conquest, the French military system was transferred to England. The finest and most centralized feudal hierarchical ladder in Europe was created through art. All land was recognized as the property of the crown. Feudal lords could only be holders of land from the king. The distribution of fiefs to the associates of William the Conqueror became possible thanks to the confiscation of the lands of the Anglo-Saxon nobility. At the same time, the possessions of the barons turned out to be scattered in different counties, which prevented the formation of independent territories of the principalities. The establishment of a strong royal power was also facilitated by the preservation of approximately 1/7 of the land directly in the hands of the crown. As a result of the conquest, the final subordination of the remaining free peasants to the seigneurial power took place. Most of the peasant holders were reduced to the status of serfs (villans). Thus, N. h. A. contributed to the completion of the process of feudalization, which began in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is the NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1066 in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1066
the invasion of England by the Normans, led by the Duke of Normandy William, who, after the victory at Hastings, became the king of England (see William ...
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Chronology of the Centuries: X XI XII 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 ...
CONQUEST in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
the annexation of the defeated state or part of its territory to the state that remained victorious in the war. Z. is distinguished in a narrow sense, or conquest ...
CONQUEST in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
, -i, cf. 1. see conquer. 2. What is won, achievement, acquisition. Great…
NORMAND
THE NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1066, the invasion of England by the Normans, led by the Duke of Normandy William, who, after the victory at Hastings, became ...
CONQUEST
? the annexation of the defeated state or part of its territory to the state that remained victorious in the war. Z. is distinguished in a close sense, or ...
CONQUEST in the Full accentuated paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, conquest, ...
CONQUEST in the Thesaurus of Russian business vocabulary:
CONQUEST in the Russian Thesaurus:
1. Syn: achievement, contribution, success, victory Ant: failure, failure 2. 'struggle' Syn: subjugation, captivity (book), capture Ant: ...
CONQUEST in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language:
capture, achievement, occupation, capture, colonization, victory, conquest, acquisition, ...
CONQUEST in the New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language Efremova:
cf. 1) The process of action by value. verb: conquer. 2) trans. What has been achieved is acquired at the cost of labor, effort and ...
CONQUEST
conquest, ...
CONQUEST in the Complete Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Language:
conquest...
CONQUEST in the Spelling Dictionary:
conquest, ...
CONQUEST in the Dictionary of the Russian Language Ozhegov:
<= завоевать завоевание то, что завоевано, достижение, приобретение Великие …
CONQUEST in the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language Ushakov:
conquest, cf. (book). 1. Action on verb. conquer - conquer. conquest of the Caucasus. Air conquest. 2. What is conquered, conquered territory. …
CONQUEST in the Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova:
conquest cf. 1) The process of action by value. verb: conquer. 2) trans. What has been achieved is acquired at the cost of labor, effort and ...
CONQUEST in the New Dictionary of the Russian Language Efremova:
cf. 1. the process of action according to Ch. win 2. trans. What has been achieved is acquired at the cost of labor, effort and ...
CONQUEST in the Big Modern Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language:
cf. 1. the process of action according to Ch. win I 2. The result of such an action; that which is subdued by armed force is subdued by force; conquered...
UNITED KINGDOM (STATE) in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB.
FRANCE*
HASTINGS in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Hastings) (Hastings) a city in the UK, in the county of East Sussex, on the banks of the Pas de Calais, at the foot of the chalk cliffs. Area approx. thirty …
HAROLD II in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(Harol II) (?-1066) the last Anglo-Saxon king of England (January - October 1066). The actual ruler of the country since 1053. He died in battle with ...
WILHELM I THE CONQUEROR in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(William the Conqueror) (c. 1027-87) English king from 1066; from the Norman dynasty. From 1035 Duke of Normandy. In 1066 he landed at ...
ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
conquest, conquest of Britain by the North Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians in the 5th-6th centuries. Pirate raids on Britain have changed...
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
1066, the invasion of England by the Normans, led by the Duke of Normandy William, who after the victory at Hastings became the king of England (Wilhelm ...
HAROLD in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
HAROLD II (Harold II) (?-1066), the last Anglo-Saxon. King of England (January-October 1066). Actual ruler of the country since 1053. Killed in battle ...
WILLIAM in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
WILLIAM I the Conqueror (c. 1027-87), Eng. king since 1066; from the Norman dynasty. From 1035 Duke of Normandy. AT …
FEUDALISM in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron.
GREAT BRITAIN* in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
Contents: A. Geographical outline: Position and boundaries; Surface device; Irrigation; Climate and natural works; Space and population; Emigration; Rural …
ENGLAND AND WALES: HISTORY - D. THE NORMAN CONQUEST in Collier's Dictionary:
Back to the article ENGLAND AND WALES: HISTORY Edward the Confessor died in January 1066 without an heir. The throne was taken by Harold, but the duke ...
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND in the Dictionary of the Russian Language Lopatin:
Norman conquest of `England ...
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND in the Spelling Dictionary:
Norse conquest of `England ...
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND
1066, Norman invasion of England led by Duke William of Normandy, who after the victory at Hastings became King of England ...
HASTINGS in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
(Hastings) , a city in the UK, in the county of East Sussex, on the banks of the Pas de Calais, at the foot of the chalk cliffs. Area approx. …
WILHELM I in the Modern Explanatory Dictionary, TSB:
(Wilhelm) Hohenzollern (1797-1888), Prussian king from 1861 and German emperor from 1871. The government was actually in the hands of O. ...
REFORMATION in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". This article contains incomplete markup. The Reformation, one of the largest events in world history, whose name is ...
HILARION PECHERSKY in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Hilarion of the Caves (+ 1066), schemnik, reverend. Commemorated on October 21, in the Cathedral of the Reverends ...
GAUL in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "TREE". Attention, this article is not finished yet and contains only part of the necessary information. Gaul (Gaule or Gaules, ...
EDWARD III THE CONFESSOR
King of England from the Saxon dynasty, who ruled in 1042-1066. Son of Ethelred II and Emma Zh.: from 1042 Eggita, daughter of ...
HARALD II in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
King of England, who ruled in 1066 J.: Eggita Died 14 Oct. 1066 Harald, Earl of Wessex, was the most powerful noble...
STEPHAN BLUASKY in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
King of England 1135-1154 Woman: from 1125 Matilda, daughter of Count Eustache of Boulogne (died 1151). Genus. 1096 Died ...
HASTINGS in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
Hastings is a city-county in Great Britain, on the coast of the Pas de Calais. Near Hastings, on October 14, 1066, the troops of the Duke of Normandy William inflicted ...
HASTINGS in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
Hastings is a city-county in Great Britain, on the coast of the Pas de Calais. Near Hastings on October 14, 1066, the troops of the Duke of Normandy William defeated the Anglo-Saxon ...
HEINRICH II in the Directory of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
King of England from the Plaitagenet family, who ruled from 1174 - 1189. J .: from 1152 Eleanor, daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine William ...

“Rule Britain by the seas,” proclaims the refrain of the famous English patriotic song written back in 1740, which is already perceived as the second, unofficial anthem of this country, and the title “Mistress of the Seas” seems to have forever become synonymous with the second name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. A contemporary of Nelson, the English admiral St. Vincent stated: “I do not say that the enemy cannot come here. I only say that he cannot come by sea.” The narrow strip of sea water separating the British Isles from the continent became an insurmountable barrier for the Catholic kings of Spain, Napoleon and Hitler. But it was not always so. In 43 AD the Romans came to Britain, who remained there until 409. They were replaced by the Germanic tribes, who, having pressed the indigenous population, settled entire provinces: the Angles settled in the northern and eastern territories of modern England, the Saxons in the south (the kingdoms of Wessex, Sussex and Essex), the Jutes occupied the lands around Kent. In the north, two mixed kingdoms appeared - Mercia and Northumbria. The Britons retreated west into the highlands, which the Saxons called Wales (Wales - the land of strangers) or went to Scotland. Since the end of the 8th century, these small and permanent warring kingdoms have become easy prey for new, even more terrible enemies - the Norwegian and Danish Vikings, who divided Britain into spheres of influence. The Norwegians got northern Scotland, Ireland and northwestern England, the Danes got Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia. The successes of the Danes were so great that the vast region in the east of England began to be called Denlo, or "area of Danish law." Wessex survived only thanks to the treaty concluded with the Danes by King Alfred the Great, but the price of independence was very high: for a very long time war taxes in England were called "Danish money". Alfred's wise policy, nevertheless, gave results, and his successors eventually managed to subjugate Denlo and even the Scots (it is from this precedent that England's claims to Scotland originate). Everything changed under King Ethelred the Unreasonable (978-1016), who was forced to cede the throne to the Danish king Sven Forkbeard. In 1042, the Danish dynasty was interrupted, and the last representative of the Wessex dynasty, who entered under the name Edward the Confessor, was elected to the English throne. The desire for legitimacy played a cruel joke on the British: it seems impossible to imagine a more unsuitable candidate for the post of king. In his personal qualities, Edward was similar to our Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, his reign was marked by the weakening of royal power in the country and the omnipotence of magnates, the disintegration of Anglo-Saxon society and the weakening of the state's defense capability. The founding and urgent needs of Westminster Abbey interested Edward much more than the problems of the country he suddenly inherited. He was the eldest son of King Æthelred II of England and Emma of Normandy, sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. As a child, his mother took him to Normandy, where he lived for 25 years. Edward practically did not know the country of his ancestors and at first relied on immigrants from Normandy, to whom he granted lands and church positions (including the Archbishop of Canterbury), which, naturally, caused sharp discontent among the Anglo-Saxon nobility. In 1050, Edward made the fateful decision to disband the English fleet and abolish the defense tax - "Danish money". It was this circumstance that became one of the reasons for the collapse of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy in 1066. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Wilgelm the conqueror

In the meantime, the military service nobility of Anglo-Danish origin gradually united around Earl Wessex Godwin, who was expelled from England at the beginning of Edward's reign, but returned in triumph to his homeland in 1052. The rulers of other provinces refused to give Edward troops, the "council of the wise" (witenagemot) completely justified Godwin, the Norman courtiers of the king were expelled from England, and Robert of Jumièges, Archbishop of Canterbury, was removed from his post. Since that time, King Edward has completely withdrawn from participation in politics, devoting himself to the church. After the death of Godwin (1053), the power in the country actually belonged to his son Harold, who also managed to annex East Anglia and Northumberland (transferred to his brother Tostig) to his possessions. Meanwhile, another dynastic crisis was brewing in England: Edward had no children, but there were more than enough applicants for his throne. The official heir, according to the will, was the Duke of Normandy William, whose candidacy, however, was absolutely unacceptable to the vast majority of the British. Harold and his brother Tostig claimed the throne as the queen's brothers, their rivalry ended with Tostig's expulsion from the country. It was Harold Godwinson, who proved to be a wise and just ruler and was very popular among the people, who was unanimously elected the new king of the country. On January 7, 1066, he was anointed, having received from the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury a golden crown, a scepter and a heavy battle axe. The offended Tostig went to another pretender - the Danish king Sven Estridsson, the nephew of the last English king of the Danish dynasty, but he did not show any interest in English affairs. After the failure in Denmark, Tostig turned for help to the king of Norway, Harald the Severe, the son-in-law of Yaroslav the Wise, the famous commander and famous skald. Harald quickly got his bearings in the situation: taking with him his wife, son Olaf and two daughters on 300 ships, he set off for the shores of England. He didn't seem to want to go back home. And to cede the conquered country to Tostig was hardly part of his plans. And in Normandy, meanwhile, Duke William, offended by the "treachery" of Harold Godwinson, was gathering troops. The fact is that once Harold was captured by William, who held him until he forced him to swear allegiance to himself as the legitimate heir to the English crown. The chronicles say that William ordered the relics and relics from all the monasteries and churches of Normandy to be collected together and placed them under the breviary, on which his prisoner was to swear. Upon completion of the procedure, Wilhelm tore off the cover from the box with the holy relics, and only then did Harold realize what oath he had just taken: "and many saw how gloomy he became after that." Now Harold declared that he did not recognize his bonded promise, and that he could not give up power against the will of the country. Wilhelm began to prepare for war. Wanting to give legitimacy to his claims, he secured the verdict of the Pope that England should belong to him. Thus, the campaign of conquest took on the character of a crusade, and quite a few knights of France and neighboring countries joined William's army, hoping to save their souls, glorify themselves with exploits and gain unheard-of wealth, generously promised to them by the Duke of Normandy. It is interesting that, despite the verdict of the pope, in the surrounding countries, it seems, Harold was still considered the legitimate ruler: on the famous tapestry from Bayeux (Southern England, 1066-1082), which displayed the official version of events, the title of Harold - rex, that is, the king.

The first blow to England was still delivered by Harald the Severe: the northeast wind, which drove his ships to the British Isles, prevented the Norman fleet from going to sea. Having visited the Orkney Islands along the way, where many local residents stood up under the banner of a successful king, in mid-September 1066, the Drakkars anchored on the small river Ouse, north of York and the ferocious Norwegian berserkers set foot on English soil for the last time. After the Battle of Fulford (September 20, 1066), where the Norwegians defeated the militia of the northern English counties, Northumbria recognized the authority of Harald, and part of the local thegns joined his army. Meanwhile, Harold and his army were in the south of the country, where they were waiting for the Normans to land. The invasion of the Norwegians confused all his plans and forced him to leave his positions on the coast and oppose the Scandinavians. Harald by that time had moved too far from his ships, and his army was divided into two parts. Raising the "danger on land" flag and quickly drawing up his troops, Harald entered the battle. The battle at Stamford Bridge lasted all day. The set of sagas “The Circle of the Earth” says that in that battle Harald fought like a berserker: “coming out of the ranks forward, he chopped with a sword, holding it with both hands. Neither helmets nor chainmail were a defense against him. Everyone who stood in his way, otpryad. The British were close to taking flight." But “an arrow hit King Harald, the son of Sigurd, in the throat. The wound was fatal. He fell, and with him all who went ahead with him. After that, the British offered the Norwegians to sail home, but they said that "all of them would rather die one by one." The battle was resumed two more times. Following Harald, Tostig and Eystein Teterev, who approached with help, died. “Eystein and his men dispersed from the ships so quickly that they were exhausted to the limit and hardly capable of combat; but soon they were seized with such rage that they stopped hiding behind shields while they were able to stand on their feet ... Thus, almost all the main people among the Norwegians died, ”wrote Snorri Sturlson about these events. The Norwegians were defeated, the Anglo-Saxons pursued them on the way to 20 km. In the manuscript "C" of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle of the XII century. the feat of the last hero of the Viking Age is described: “The Norwegians fled from the Angles, but a certain Norwegian stood alone against the entire English army, so that the British could not cross the bridge and win. One of the Angles fired an arrow at him, but missed. Then another climbed under the bridge and hit the Norwegian from below, where he was not covered by chain mail. Of the almost 300 Norwegian ships, 24 returned to their homeland, on one of them were Elizabeth with her children.

The victory of the British was brilliant, but it had to be paid for by the death of many soldiers and commanders. In addition, it was at this time that the wind changed and on September 28 (just three days after the bloody battle at Stamford Bridge) William was able to land his army without hindrance in Pevensey Bay, Sussex, between Pevensey Castle and Hastings. It is said that the duke slipped while stepping off the ship and fell forward on both hands. Standing up quickly, he exclaimed, “Look! By the grace of God, I grabbed England with both hands. Now she is mine, and therefore yours.

William ascended the throne at the age of 7 or 8, and by the time of the invasion of England had a reputation as a very skillful and experienced ruler and commander. Preparing for the main campaign of his life, he created a magnificent army of about 12,000 people (which, on the scale of that time, was a very formidable force), which, it must be admitted, under his leadership acted very harmoniously and in the highest degree organized. The disembarkation took place in exemplary order: Norman archers dressed in light armor conducted reconnaissance of the area and subsequently covered the unloading of horses, equipment and cargo. The carpenters who were in William's army in one day assembled a wooden castle delivered on ships (the first Norman castle in England!), Which became the base of the invasion. Two more castles were soon collected from Hastings. Mounted knights moved deep into enemy territory, ruining everything in their path. Having learned about the landing of the Normans, Harold hastily moved his troops towards the new enemy. In London, he decided to replenish the troops at the expense of the soldiers of the southern and central counties, but after six days, having learned about the atrocities perpetrated by the invaders on the coast of his country, in a rage, without waiting for the approach of all units loyal to him, he went out to meet William. Many considered this a mistake, but the victory over the Norwegians gave Harold confidence. Hopes to catch the Normans by surprise did not materialize: his army stumbled upon one of the enemy's cavalry units, which warned William about the British troops advancing on him. Therefore, Harold changed tactics, and stopped at a hill about 12 km from the Norman army. He was advised to retreat to London, devastating the lands on his way, and a number of historians consider this tactic to be the only correct one. The prepared supplies of the Normans were to run out very soon, and in London, suffering from hunger and having lost some of the horses, the invaders would have to meet with the rested and replenished with new troops army of the British. However, Harold "decided not to set fire to houses and villages and not to withdraw his troops."

Together with Harold, his brothers came to Hastings, one of whom (Girth) on the eve of the battle turned to him with the words: “My brother! You cannot deny that, albeit by force, and not by free will, you swore an oath to Duke Wilhelm on holy relics. Why risk the outcome of the battle by breaking this oath? For us, who did not take any oaths, this is a holy and just war for our country. Let us alone fight the enemy, and may the battle be won by the one on whose side the truth is." However, Harold stated that he "has no intention of watching others risk their lives for him. The soldiers will consider him a coward and will accuse him of sending his best friends where he did not dare to go himself.

Modern historians believe that the Norman and English armies were approximately equal in number, but they had very serious differences in composition and combat characteristics. William's troops were a typical feudal army, which was recruited on the basis of a military fief system and included a fairly large number of well-armed knights, both Norman and warriors from other countries who joined them. Another important feature of the Norman army was the large number of archers, who were almost absent from the ranks of the British. Most of the Anglo-Saxon army was made up of detachments of free peasant militia (fird), who were armed mainly with axes, pitchforks, and even clubs and "stones tied to sticks." The retinue of the king (the famous housecarls) and the detachments of the service nobility (then) were armed in the Scandinavian manner: heavy two-handed swords, traditional Viking battle axes, spears and chain mail. It was the “Danish axes”, which easily cut through Norman helmets and armor, that turned out to be the most terrible and effective of the British. In his memoirs, one of the chaplains of Wilhelm's army called them "deadly axes." However, these elite units had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle and were exhausted by the long marches from the south coast of England to York and back. The cavalry as a kind of troops in the English army did not exist: moving in campaigns on horseback, huscarls and thegns fought on foot. Given these circumstances, Harold chose a defensive tactic: he placed his troops on the top of a hill, in the rear of his troops there was a dense forest, which, in the event of a retreat, could serve as an obstacle to the enemy pursuing his army. Huscarls and thegns were in the forefront, followed by lightly armed infantry. In front of the formation, the British built barricades of wooden shields and logs and dug a ditch. The participants in the battle later recalled that "in no other area did so many foreign soldiers die as at the bottom of this ditch." The natives of Kent volunteered to be the first to meet the enemy and stood in the most dangerous direction. The people of London asked for the right to protect the king and his standard, and lined up around Harold. Subsequently, on the site where Harold's army stood, Battle Abbey was built, the ruins of which can be seen near the small town of the same name. The main altar was located where the royal standard was located during the battle. Now this place is marked with a memorial stone slab.

Wilhelm, apparently, was still not completely sure of the success of the upcoming battle. One way or another, it was he who on October 13 sent the monk Hugo Maigro to the English camp, who at first demanded Harold's abdication from the throne, and then, in exchange for a vassal oath, offered him the whole country above the Humber River, and his brother Girth - all the lands that belonged to Godwin. In case of refusal, Maigro had to threaten Harold and his army with excommunication, which is allegedly mentioned in the bull of the pope. The Norman chronicles state that this threat caused confusion among the ranks of the English commanders. However, after a moment of silence, one of them said: “We must fight, no matter what it threatens us ... The Norman has already divided our lands among his barons, knights and other people ... he will make them masters of our property, our wives and daughters. Everything is already divided. They came not just to defeat us, but to deprive our descendants of everything and take away the lands of our ancestors from us. And what will we do, where will we go, if we no longer have our country? After that, the British unanimously decided to fight the foreign invaders. The night before the battle, the Anglo-Saxons sang national songs, the Normans prayed in unison.

The battle that decided the fate of England began on the morning of October 14, 1066. The chronicles of that time brought us the words addressed by the leaders of the opposing sides to their armies. Duke Wilhelm urged his soldiers not to be distracted by the collection of trophies, assuring that the booty would be shared and enough for everyone. “We will not find salvation if we stop or run from the battlefield,” he said, “the English will never agree to live in peace and share power with the Normans ... Have no mercy on them, because they will not spare you. They will make no distinction between those who ran cowardly from the battlefield and those who fought bravely. Everyone will be treated the same. You can try to retreat to the sea, but there will be nowhere to run, there will be no ships, no crossing to your homeland. Sailors will not wait for you. The English will seize you on the shore and give you a shameful death. More people die in flight than in battle. And since running won't save your life, fight and you'll win." Putting on armor, he put on chain mail back to front and, noticing how dark the faces of his comrades-in-arms, said: “I never believed and do not believe in signs. I believe in God, who determines the course of events by his will. And everything that happens will be His will. I have never believed soothsayers and fortune tellers. I entrust myself to the will of the Mother of God. And don't let this mistake of mine bother you. My disguise means that we are all on the threshold of change. You yourself will be witnesses of how I will turn from a duke into a king. Harold, in turn, urged the soldiers to stand in battle, defending their land, and urged them to stick together, protecting each other in the ranks. “The Normans,” he said, “are loyal vassals and brave warriors, both on foot and on horseback. Their mounted knights have already participated in battles more than once. If they succeed in infiltrating our ranks, then everything will be lost for us. They fight with long spear and sword. But we also have spears and axes. And I don't think their weapons will hold up against ours. Hit where you can strike, do not spare your strength and weapons.

Tapestry from Bayo. Attack of the Norman knights

The battle was started by the Norman archers, who showered the ranks of the British with their arrows, but they could not inflict heavy losses on the enemy soldiers hiding behind wide shields. Having shot the ammunition, the arrows retreated behind the line of spearmen, who went on the offensive, but were driven back by the British. The cavalry attack also bogged down, and the Bretons on the left flank turned to flight. Forgetting about Harold's order to keep the line, the Anglo-Saxons, leaving the hill, rushed in pursuit of the retreating enemy and came under attack from the knightly cavalry. Historians disagree about the intentional retreat of the Bretons: some consider this maneuver a military trick, others, referring to the testimony of one of the chroniclers, explain it by the panic that seized part of the Normans at the news of the death of William. Other participants in the events report that at that moment the squires, who were in the rear of the fighting army, guarding the property of the knights, almost rushed to run, and were stopped by the brother of Duke William, Bishop Bayo Odo. Wilhelm had to take off his helmet and gallop along the ranks of his army. One way or another, part of the English army, which recklessly left the hill, was surrounded and destroyed at its foot, but others continued to stand, holding back the enemy. For several more hours, the Normans alternated between bow and crossbow attacks with foot and horse attacks. The archers changed tactics: now they fired in a cantilevered trajectory, so that the arrows fell on their opponents from above, hitting them in the face. This resulted in significant losses, but early in the evening Harold's army still held its position on the hill, although the British were so tired from constant bombardment and continuous attacks that many of them could hardly stand on their feet. It was at this point that a random arrow hit Harold in the eye. He pulled it out and broke it, but now, due to severe pain and blood flooding his face, the king could not control the course of the battle. The Anglo-Saxons, having lost command, broke the line, and the Norman cavalry crashed into their ranks. Wilhelm personally participated in the battle, and all contemporaries note the courage and outstanding military skill of the duke, under which two horses were killed. Norman chronicles report that the soldiers of Kent and Essex fought especially staunchly and bravely in the ranks of the English. The decisive attack on them was led by Duke Wilhelm: about a thousand horsemen in close formation fell on the British and scattered them. Many noble warriors on both sides died in that attack, but the Normans broke through to the royal banner, where King Harold fought to the end. During the last fight, he received so many wounds that only his wife, Edith Lebyazha Neck, could identify his body by some signs known only to her. Harold's brothers died along with him. After that, the militia units (fird) fled, but the housecarls still continued to stand around the body of the deceased king. By nightfall, the Normans had taken possession of the hill, but it was not the war that was lost, but only the battle. The tragedy of the British was that there was no one to gather the retreating troops and lead further resistance. But it was quite possible: the Normans lost at least a quarter of the army in battle, while the British, despite their losses, could hope to replenish their ranks with soldiers who did not have time to approach the beginning of the battle. In the evening of the same day, Duke Wilhelm himself almost died in the forest while pursuing the retreating Huscarls. The surviving English earl Valtov that night, having lured about a hundred Normans into an oak grove, ordered to set it on fire, none of the invaders managed to get out of the burning forest. However, after the heroic death of Harold, the British could not choose a worthy leader, and when William's troops approached London, Harold's nephew, elected king, was the first to speak about the surrender of the capital. He himself appeared in the camp of the Normans and swore allegiance to William. Meanwhile, Harold's three sons and two daughters fled to the western family domain. Only in 1068, the city of Exeter, where they took refuge, after a three-month siege, was taken by William's army, but on the eve of the decisive assault, Harold's mother (who was 70 years old!), Edith, and her children descended from the fortress wall and left England. Harold's sons went to Ireland and for another 10 years they harassed the Normans with raids. And one of Harold's daughters, Gita, ended up in Denmark, later she married Vladimir Monomakh (1074).

As the British feared, in addition to his inheritance, William divided England into 700 large and 60 small plots, which he gave to the Norman barons and ordinary soldiers, obliging them to perform military service and pay a monetary tax. The Normans treated the inhabitants of the conquered country like slaves. No one, neither a noble earl, nor a simple tiller on his land and in his house could feel safe. Resistance was suppressed exceptionally cruelly: entire villages were burned, families were annihilated. To keep the population of the country in subjection, 78 castles were built during the reign of William, including the famous Tower. Only a few generations later, the differences between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons were erased, and on the basis of the French language of the conquerors and the "northern" language of the indigenous population, modern English was formed. Gradually, the conquerors and the conquered population closely intermingled with each other, subsequently creating one of the greatest empires in the history of world civilizations. “The English combine Anglo-Saxon practicality, Celtic daydreaming, the pirate courage of the Vikings and the discipline of the Normans,” said the Austrian writer Paul Cohen-Portheim about the modern English national character.

The Norman conquest of England - the invasion of England in 1066 by the army of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and the subsequent subjugation of the country.

The conquest of England began with the victory of the Normans at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, after which Duke William became King of England. The conquest finally ended with the subordination of the local feudal nobility to the new king by 1070-1075. As a result of the conquest, the classical forms of feudalism and the military system were transferred to England, and a centralized state with strong royal power was created. The country's orientation towards continental Europe and its involvement in European politics has sharply increased, while traditional ties with Scandinavia have weakened. The conquest also had a significant impact on the development of English culture and language. As a result of the adaptation of northern French state and social institutions to the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, the system of the Anglo-Norman monarchy was formed, which lasted until the middle of the 12th century, which formed the basis of the medieval English state.

At the end of the 10th century, England faced a massive wave of Scandinavian Viking raids on its territory. The Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred II, wanting to secure support in the fight against the Vikings, in 1002 married Emma, the sister of the Duke of Normandy Richard II. However, Ethelred II did not receive help from the Normans, and in 1013 he was forced to flee with his family to Normandy.

By 1016, all of England was conquered by the Vikings, and Canute the Great became king, uniting England, Denmark and Norway under his rule. The sons of Ethelred II and Emma spent almost 30 years in exile, at the court of the Duke of Normandy. Only in 1042 did Edward the Confessor, the eldest son of Ethelred, manage to regain the throne of England. Brought up in Normandy, Edward throughout most of his reign tried to align himself with the Normans against the powerful Anglo-Danish nobility who dominated the country's state system. In 1051, taking advantage of Earl Godwin's exile, the childless Edward proclaimed the young Norman Duke William as his heir. However, in 1052 Godwin returned to England and reasserted his control over the country's system of government. The Norman nobility was expelled from the country, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert of Jumièges. His see was given to Godwin's supporter, Stigand[sn 1]. In the late 50s of the XI century, the Godwinson family owned the largest counties of England, which included a large territory of the kingdom. When Edward the Confessor died in early January 1066, the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot elected Godwin's son, Harold II, the leader of the national party, as king.

Harold's election was challenged by William of Normandy. Based on the will of King Edward, as well as on the oath of allegiance to Harold, probably taken during his trip to Normandy in 1064/1065, and appealing to the need to protect the English church from usurpation and tyranny, William put forward his claims to the crown of England and began preparation for an armed invasion. At the same time, the English throne was claimed by Harald the Severe, King of Norway, whose predecessor in 1038 concluded an agreement with the son of Canute the Great on the mutual succession of kingdoms in the event of the childlessness of one of the monarchs. The Norwegian king, having entered into an alliance with the brother of Harold II, exiled from England, Tostig Godwinson, also began to prepare for the conquest of England.

In early 1066, William began preparations for an invasion of England. Although he received approval for this enterprise from the assembly of the barons of his duchy, however, the forces allocated by them were clearly not enough for such a large-scale and prolonged military operation outside Normandy. William's reputation ensured an influx of knights from Flanders, Aquitaine, Brittany, Maine, and the Norman principalities of southern Italy into his army. As a result, the Norman contingent proper amounted to less than half of the troops. William also won the support of the emperor and, more importantly, of Pope Alexander II, who hoped to strengthen the position of the papacy in England and remove the apostate archbishop Stigand. The pope not only supported the claims of the Duke of Normandy to the English throne, but also, having presented his consecrated banner, blessed the participants in the invasion. This allowed Wilhelm to give his event the character of a "holy war". Preparations were completed by August 1066, but the head north wind for a long time did not allow the crossing of the English Channel to begin. On September 12, Wilhelm moved his army from the mouth of the Dives River to the mouth of the Somme, to the town of Saint-Valery, where the width of the strait was much smaller. The total number of the Norman army, according to modern researchers, numbered 7-8 thousand people, for the transport of which a fleet of 600 ships was prepared.

The English king was also preparing to repel the Norman invasion. He convened a national militia from the south-eastern regions of England and deployed troops along the south coast. A new fleet was formed at a rapid pace, headed by the king. In May, Harold managed to repel the raid of his rebellious brother Tostig on the eastern regions of the country. However, in September the Anglo-Saxon system of naval defense collapsed: food shortages forced the king to disband the militia and navy. In mid-September, the army of the Norwegian king Harald the Severe landed in northeast England. Joining with Tostig's supporters, the Norwegians defeated the militia of the northern counties at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September and subjugated Yorkshire. The king of England was forced to leave his position on the south coast and move rapidly north. Having united his army with the remnants of the militia, on September 25, in the battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold utterly defeated the Vikings, Harald the Severe and Tostig were killed, and the remnants of the Norwegian army sailed to Scandinavia. However, the significant losses suffered by the British at the battles of Fulford and Stamford Bridge, especially among the royal housecarls, undermined the combat effectiveness of Harold's army.

Two days after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the direction of the winds in the English Channel changed. The loading of the Norman army onto ships immediately began, and late in the evening of September 27, William's fleet sailed from Saint-Valery. The crossing took all night, and there was a moment when the duke's ship, having strongly separated from the main forces, was left alone, but there were no English ships in the strait, and the transportation of the army was successfully completed on the morning of September 28 in the bay near the city of Pevensey. The Norman army did not remain in Pevensey, surrounded by marshes, but moved to Hastings, a more convenient port from a strategic point of view. Here William built a castle and began to wait for the approach of the English troops, sending small detachments deep into Wessex to conduct reconnaissance and obtain food and fodder.

Having learned in York about the landing of the Normans, Harold II sent orders around the country to call up new militias and, without waiting for reinforcements, quickly marched south. The speed of his advance was so great that it prevented additional contingents recruited from the counties from joining the royal army. Moreover, part of the army, mainly light infantry and archers, lagged behind the main forces. In ten days Harold covered the distance from York to London, and without wasting time set out to meet the Norman army. The king's advisers, including his brother Girt, suggested waiting for the full collection of troops and only then attacking the enemy. Historians consider this his main strategic mistake: since Wilhelm was in hostile territory, cut off from his bases by the English Channel, time played into the hands of the British. Apparently, Harold sought to avoid the ruin of his personal possessions. The Anglo-Saxon troops numbered about 7,000 people, mostly participants in the Battle of Stamford Bridge and a militia from the outskirts of London. Despite the speed of the movement of the British, the effect of surprise was missed. Upon learning of Harold's approach, on October 14, 1066, the Norman troops attacked the Anglo-Saxon army.

At the battle of Hastings, despite heroic resistance, the English troops were defeated. The battle lasted a very long time - more than ten hours, which was quite rare for the Middle Ages. The victory of the Normans was due to the better combat capability of the soldiers, as well as the massive use of archers and heavy cavalry. King Harold and his two brothers were killed, and several thousand selected English warriors were left lying on the battlefield. There was no leader left in the country capable of organizing resistance to the Normans. The Battle of Hastings was a turning point in English history.

After the battle of Hastings, England was open to the conquerors. During October - November 1066 Kent and Sussex were captured by the Norman army. Queen Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold II, recognized William's claims, giving him control of the ancient capital of the Anglo-Saxon rulers - Winchester. London remained the main center of resistance, where Edgar Ætheling, the last representative of the ancient Wessex dynasty, was proclaimed the new king. But William's troops surrounded London, devastating its environs. The leaders of the national party - Archbishop Stigand, Earls Edwin and Morcar, young Edgar Ætheling himself - were forced to submit. At Wallingford and Berkhamsted they took an oath of allegiance to William and recognized him as King of England. Moreover, they insisted on the immediate coronation of the duke. Soon Norman troops entered London. On December 25, 1066, William was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

Although the coronation of William I took place in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which was supposed to convince the population of the legitimacy of the rights of the new king to the English throne, the power of the Normans relied at first exclusively on military force. Already in 1067, the construction of the Tower of London began, and then Norman castles grew throughout southern and central England. The lands of the Anglo-Saxons who participated in the Battle of Hastings were confiscated and distributed to the soldiers of the invading army. By the end of March 1067, the position of William the Conqueror had somewhat strengthened, and he was able to make a long trip to Normandy. He was accompanied by the leaders of the Anglo-Saxon party - Prince Edgar, Archbishop Stigand, Earls Morcar, Edwin and Waltheof, as well as hostages from other noble families. During the absence of the king, the government of England was carried out by his closest associates: the Earl of Hereford, William Fitz-Osbern, and William's half-brother, Bishop Odo.

The main principle of organizing the control system of conquered England was the desire of King William to look like the legitimate successor to Edward the Confessor. The constitutional basis of the Anglo-Saxon state was completely preserved: the Witenagemot was transformed into the Grand Royal Council, the prerogatives of the Anglo-Saxon kings were transferred in full to the Anglo-Norman monarchs (including the right to tax and single-handedly issue laws), the system of counties headed by royal sheriffs was preserved. The scope of landowners' rights was determined as of the time of King Edward. The very concept of the monarchy was of an Anglo-Saxon nature and contrasted sharply with the state of royal power in modern France, where the sovereign fought desperately for his recognition by the largest barons of the state. The principle of succession to the Anglo-Saxon period was especially clearly manifested in the first years after the conquest (until the uprising in Northern England in 1069), when a significant part of the Anglo-Saxon magnates retained their positions at the court and influence in the regions.

However, despite all the appearance of a return to the "good times" of King Edward (after the usurpation of Harold), the power of the Normans in England relied mainly on military force. Already in December 1066, the redistribution of land began in favor of the Norman knights, which, after the "Devastation of the North" 1069-1070. has become universal. By the 1080s, the Anglo-Saxon nobility was completely destroyed as a social stratum (with a few exceptions) and replaced by northern French chivalry. A small group of the most noble Norman families - William's closest associates - received more than half of all land allotments, and the king directly took possession of about a fifth of the lands of England. The nature of land holdings has completely changed, which has acquired classical feudal features: land was now granted to barons under the condition of setting up a certain number of knights, if necessary, to the king. The whole country was covered with a network of royal or baronial castles, which became military bases providing control over the district, and the residences of barons or officials of the king. A number of areas of England (Herefordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Kent, Sussex) were organized as militarized territories responsible for the defense of the borders. Of particular importance in this regard were the Cheshire and Shropshire stamps created by Hugues d'Avranches and Roger de Montgomery on the border with Wales.

In social terms, the Norman Conquest led to the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon military service nobility (then) and the formation of a new dominant layer of feudal chivalry, built on the principles of vassal-feudal relations and having judicial and administrative power over the peasant population. The semi-independent earls of the Anglo-Saxon era were replaced by the Norman barons, highly dependent on the king and obliged to him for their possessions by knighthood (by posting a certain number of armed knights). The higher clergy were also included in the feudal system. The process of enslavement of the peasantry, which began back in the Anglo-Saxon period, accelerated sharply and led to the dominance of feudal-dependent categories of the peasantry in medieval England, which led to even greater enslavement. At the same time, it should be noted the almost complete disappearance of slavery in England.

The most important consequence of the Norman conquest in the social sphere was the introduction in England of classical feudal relations and a vassal-feudal system along the lines of the French model. The genesis of feudalism in England began in the 9th-10th centuries, however, the emergence of a social system based on land holding, which is determined by the holder's performance of strictly defined military duties, whose volume did not depend on the size of the plot, but on an agreement with the overlord, is an unconditional innovation of the Norman Conquest . The pronounced military character of the landed holdings was also one of the main consequences of the Norman Conquest. In general, the social structure of society has become more strict, rigid and hierarchical.

In organizational terms, the Norman Conquest led to a sharp strengthening of royal power and the formation of one of the most stable and centralized monarchies in Europe during the High Middle Ages. The power of royal power is clearly evidenced by the conduct of a general census of land holdings, the results of which were included in the Book of the Last Judgment, an enterprise unprecedented and absolutely impossible in other modern European states. The new state system, although based on the Anglo-Saxon traditions of government, quickly acquired a high degree of specialization and the formation of functional government bodies, such as the Chamber of the Chessboard, the Treasury, the Chancellery and others.

Culturally, the Norman Conquest introduced a feudal culture of chivalry into England based on its French patterns. Old English was ousted from the sphere of government, and the Norman dialect of French became the language of administration and communication of the dominant social strata. For about three hundred years, the Anglo-Norman dialect dominated the country and had a great influence on the formation of modern English.

Politically, the self-isolation of the country, which was in the Anglo-Saxon era, was over. England turned out to be closely included in the system of international relations of Western Europe and began to play one of the most important roles on the European political scene. Moreover, William the Conqueror, who linked the Kingdom of England with the Duchy of Normandy by personal union, became a powerful ruler of Northwestern Europe, completely changing the balance of power in this region. At the same time, the fact that Normandy was a vassal of the King of France, and many of the new English barons and knights owned lands across the English Channel, dramatically complicated Anglo-French relations. As dukes of Normandy, the Anglo-Norman monarchs recognized the suzerainty of the king of France, and as kings of England they had an equal social status with him. In the XII century, with the creation of the Angevin Empire of the Plantagenets, the English king owned almost half of the territory of France, while remaining legally a vassal of the French monarch. This duality became one of the reasons for the long Anglo-French confrontation, which was one of the central moments of the European politics of the Middle Ages and culminated in the course of the Hundred Years War.

Anglo-Saxon period (until 1066)

In the period before the Norman conquest of England, there was no centralized legal system in the country. For several centuries, England had already been united by the Anglo-Saxon kings into a kind of amorphous state formation, which could not be called centralized. Under Alfred the Great (871-900), the statehood of the Anglo-Saxons was even documented.

However, the system of norms based on the customs and traditions of the tribes and the practice of local courts can only be called a system of law conditionally. It was a system of law, first of all, for the nobility and for the nobility. Already the most ancient Anglo-Saxon code - Ethelberg's Truth (VII century) divides people into several groups: for example, a fine of 100 shillings is provided for the murder of a free person; for the murder of summer - 80, 60 or 40 shillings, depending on which category it belongs to; for the murder of a landless hireling - 6 shillings.

However, every free man is protected by the same penalty. The matter essentially changes with the establishment of feudal orders. The lawyer of the English King Alfred, there are three fines for murder: 200 shillings, 600 and 1200. The last fine protected the life of the most noble.

The laws of King Alfred openly encourage the "finding of the Glaford", that is, the "patronage" already known to us. Compiled 50 years later, the laws of Æthelstan (about 940) already contain a categorical command: let relatives find a master for someone who does not have one; “having no master” is outlawed, “and whoever meets him can kill him like a thief.” A ten's manager is placed over every nine peasants, who is obliged to ensure that "the nine do their job." .

From the Norman Conquest to the Tudor Dynasty (1066 - 1485)

After the Norman Conquest (1066), when William I defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings and subjugated England, a characteristic feature of English feudalism was consolidated - the political unification of the country and the centralization of state power.

The Normans managed to introduce a law common to the entire territory of the conquered country. Hence the name of the English system of law - "common law" (common law). The conquerors sought to establish a system that would cover the entire country. To do this, it was necessary to introduce strictly centralized courts and make all judges accountable only to the king and no one else.

The Norman Conquest intensified the process of centralization of the country, the need for dispute resolution increased, and the role of the courts increased accordingly. Judicial institutions had several categories of judges. The most important were in charge of all affairs and were obliged to correct the mistakes made by other judges. Next came the judges of the Court of King's Bench, who took the oath. The next step in the hierarchy was occupied by visiting (traveling) judges who made decisions on civil cases or release from prisons. They did not take an oath and acted on the orders of the king. And the last category included judges specially appointed to any judicial assize (session).