By the middle of the eleventh century, the Norman Duchy had reached full prosperity. 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 earned unfading glory. In addition, the state had large revenues from all possessions. A powerful central authority, which restrained both the vassals and the church, was clearly stronger than the English. The Norman conquest of England was thus a foregone conclusion.
Wilhelm vs Harold
Declaring Harold II, the brutally cruel English Danish king, usurper and oath-breaker and enlisting the support of Pope Alexander II, Wilhelm went on a campaign: he recruited volunteers outside the duchy to help his far from weak army, built many transport ships, armed himself and stocked up on food. And soon everything was ready for the conquest of England by William of Normandy to take place.
The camp of the duchy was in full swing from the abundance of troops - the knights arrived from all the surrounding areas: Brittany, Picardy, Flanders, Artois. Historians could not establish the exact number of troops of William, but he had at least seven hundred ships, and therefore, the troops that the country of England received on its southern shores turned out to be at least seven thousand. For the first time, so many people crossed the English Channel overnight.
Harold knew about the preparation. The ships and troops assembled in the south of England were awaiting the arrival of William fully equipped. But Wilhelm was even more cunning than Harold suspected. In the north of England, William's allies from Norway and disgraced English, opponents of Harold, suddenly landed. Harold managed to turn the troops and even defeat the attackers, but then, without a day of delay, the Norman conquest of England from the south began.
Harold's army
The landing of the enemy forced us to turn the weakened and tired army back to Hasting, along the way there were attempts to assemble militia units. However, everything happened so quickly that even in London, before the arrival of Harold, the militia had not yet assembled. Unlike Wilhelm, he did not have a heavily armed cavalry, the bulk of his troops were on foot and heterogeneous. Here were the Huskerli and the peasants, armed with what they were: peasants with axes and clubs, earls with Huskerls had swords, shields and battle axes, but they did not have horses, and Harold did not manage to get archers and battle cavalry.
Meeting the old with the new
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 was accomplished on October 14. Wilhelm led a well-trained fight straight from the saddle, battle-hardened knightly cavalry and archer squads. The defeat of the Anglo-Saxons was simply a foregone conclusion. The defeat was quick and final - few survived. Harold also died.
William gave the army a break in the robberies and raids on the peasant surroundings, he had nowhere to rush. While the Dover, Canterbury and London tops understood and understood what had happened, they humbled themselves and accepted William the Conqueror as a strong comer by right, several days passed. But the country of England did not soon recover after the Norman conquest!
Five days later, William moved the army to Dover. It was a triumph! Not only the London townspeople cowardly went home, fearing pogroms, but for the most part the English lords, counts, sheriffs, bishops fell to William's legs and sought to make friends with him. South England showed no resistance to William at all. After a very short time, Northern also obeyed.
Anointing to the kingdom
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 flared uprisings here and there. A false denunciation of betrayal arrived, and William's retinue reacted in a peculiar way.
All the houses around the cathedral, where the kingdom was anointed, were set on fire, and the fire victims were beaten to death, not understanding the field, age and religion. Everyone left the church, except for the clergy who continued their service, brought the sacrament to the end, and William met the first minutes of triumph in proud solitude. So strangely ended the Norman conquest of England at its first stage.
Reign
Despite William's promise to be the guarantor of the good laws of King Edward, the new Normans continued the violence and looting. The population permanently rebelled, it was brutally suppressed by fire and sword. For the great humility 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 applied scorched earth tactics to them (the Nazis in Khatyn were by no means the first). Wilhelm’s punitive expedition did not leave the whole house, not a living person — not a single one, all over the York Valley Valley. This desert stood until the twelfth century, when little by little they began to populate it. 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 to Edward the Confessor. Immediately after the "English Khatyn" was completed, all the lands of England passed into the ownership of the king. Not only the rebels were confiscated, but also those who were not sufficiently loyal to the new government.
The huge lands belonging to the crown brought enormous income: the rent from surrendering to the sheriffs, who then knocked it out from the common population. And this rent, in comparison with the times of Edward the Confessor, has become more than fifty percent higher. The country has agreed to this. Why was the Norman conquest of England conceived? Briefly - for profit. But not only.
Of course, Wilhelm did not leave everything to himself, although his share was truly a lion. The feuds, who received his close, were ten times more than they have in Normandy. Church William did not offend for a long time, he did not take away the land.
Castles were built all over England - and those that are simpler, on simple embankments with ditches and palisades, and complex engineering structures that can withstand a long siege. Enormous stone citadels multiplied, such as the Tower, Rochester, and Headingham. These castles were not baronial. All of them belonged to the king. The conquest of England by William of Norman continued.
The Doomsday Book
This is the name of the land census of 1085, which Wilhelm conducted in England. It was a very detailed book. The data were divided into three sections: before the conquest, year 1066 and year 1085. It was rewritten: the composition of the lands of each county and every hundred, the exact income, composition and number of inhabitants, their condition. The respondents were completely all the barons, sheriffs, wardens, free people, and six serfs from each village. All of them testified under oath. Thus thirty-four counties of thirty-eight were rewritten.
Politics
It was a good move to see the main consequences of the Norman conquest of England. Wilhelm, this census directly gave information about possible income and suggested a way to systematize the seizure 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 by requisitions. Briefly describing such a book makes no sense.
The estates that William gave to any of the barons never adjoined to those allotments that the baron already owned. For example, Robert 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 absurdity. But here is just a clear calculation. Not a single baron will be able to strengthen his influence in any particular county, which, of course, helps to strengthen the royal power. The only exceptions were feudal border guards who guarded 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 the land in England, was the overlord of all land holders, from whom and under what circumstances they received it. Wilhelm bound all the landowners with an oath of service to the king (Salisbury oath). A purely English feature of the feudal arrangement is the service to the king through the head of all his other vassals. The king gained additional support and authority. After the conquest, the country strengthened as a state, despite many sorrows and sufferings. These are the main consequences of the Norman conquest of England.