Canute Legacy

On the 14th of October 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. His win could be summed up by the fact that William was a better leader. Other factors that contributed to William’s victory include: William was better prepared, the English army was severely weakened as Harold had just fought off an invasion in the North of England, and Harold made a fatal mistake of prematurely entering the Battle of Hastings.

In the middle of September, England was invaded by Harold Hardrada, King of Norway. He was accompanied by Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, Harold's unruly and discontented brother, who had earlier been banished and his earldom confiscated

Lanfranc was Regent for William the Conqueror while the king was away in Normandy. Lanfranc went stopping the rebellion anyway possible. Ralph de Guader fled to his home castle in Doc, Brittany. Ralph de Guader left his wife, Emma to stay behind and defend Norwich Castle, the siege lasted for three months. A deal was finally made between Lanfranc and Emma, and her soldiers received safe passage to Brittany. Lanfranc then placed the Castle with three-hundred of his best soldiers, and removed the rebels from the area. Waltheof was eventually caught and beheaded for his crime and the others were dismembered. The rebellion was at an end, from 1067, the Normans completely removed and destroyed around ninety-eight Saxon homes in Norwich. This was to clear a way for the castle ground work within which they would build a wooden fort, surrounded by deep, defensive trenches. They placed a barracks of soldiers to keep law and order and prevent any future rebellions from happening, under William the Conqueror who now ruled. Once the mound, had settled, William Rufus II began to build the stone Keep in about 1094. Following William’s death in 1100, his brother Henry I succeeded him, and completed the Keep by 1121. The Keep is about 21.5m tall; its walls were constructed to withstand most attacks from invaders, and are about 3 meters thick at the base and slowly narrowing as they get higher. The original doorway to the Keep is on the first floor on its eastern

By 1051, Edward had managed to appoint Normans as bishops, and eventually half were filled by Englishmen and the other half by Normans and other foreigners; Godwine and English Earls hated this. In 1050, the Archbishop of Canterbury died and instead of Godwine’s relative Aelfric being appointed, he made Robert of Jumieges Archbishop instead. The witans supported this decision, this may have been because Godwine was in such a strong position that the other Earls were jealous. So overall,Edward had not been a complete success with regards to gaining power over Godwine as he hadn’t managed to appoint all the positions to Normans and only got one up on Godwine when appointing archbishop as there was rivalry between the Earls.

William the conqueror in the battle of hastings. September 27 is when things started going William’s way, the wind shifted and started moving them right into England. Directly after reaching shore William decided to make his move and as stated in the document "William I." “William rallied the fleeing horsemen, however, and they turned and slaughtered the foot soldiers chasing them. On two subsequent occasions, William’s horsemen feigned retreat, which fooled Harold’s soldiers, who were then killed by their opponents. Harold’s brothers were also killed early in the battle. Toward nightfall the king himself fell, struck in the eye by an arrow according to Norman accounts, and the English gave up.” (par.1) this quote shows that William knew what he was doing and did the right thing and also that he wasn’t scared. William was about to become a ruler of another country.

Henry II (1133 - 1189) was the grandson of Henry I, but only became king after having invaded England in 1153 and forcing his second cousin, King Stephen to make him heir. He was only able to invade due to his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, as it made him Lord of Aquitaine and gave him more power and influence in France. His succession to the throne in 1154 made him commander of an empire which stretched from northern Scotland to south-western Europe. He made various significant changes to the empire during his rule. He controlled the power of the Church and set in place various legal reforms which became the basis for the legal system still used today. He was known for being ruthless and having a very bad temper, which were some of the

In 1272, King Henry III died and Edward was crowned as the new King of England. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 19th August, 1274.

It is at this time where early transitions and alliances started to pay off. Ancient traditions helped William maintain his ducal authority. Count William of Arques still had to pay homage to the duke. Probably the biggest reason William was able to maintain his authority was due to the Norman relationship with France. King Henry I supported William. Another break for William was the fact that King Henry didn’t take Normandy for himself. He did claim rights over Normandy and placed William under his protection. The King was exercising his rights as overlord to safeguard his kingdom. King Henry didn’t do this completely without any benefit to himself, he did take two fortresses.

A viking raid led well known vikings by names of Ragnar Lothbrok, Halfdan, and Inwaer, conquered what is today north and east England. The viking raid resulted in viking control over East Anglia and Northumbria, a very well known kingdom during the anglo-saxon period. Despite being able to take over the great kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumbria, the vikings were unable to conquer the kingdom of Alfred the Great. Although the Danish Vikings had great power in these kingdoms, Alfred the Great was eventually able to defeat them, and eventually led to the reconquest of the lands taken by the

At the time of Edward the confessor there were three claimants to the English throne. One of the claimants was Harold’s. He believed he should be on the throne because he was Edward the confessor’s brother; he was born in England and was the most powerful English earl. The next claimant was William duke of Normandy. William believed he should be king because Edward the confessor promised him the throne for his support and Harold swore an oath on holy relics that he would be king. The last claimant to the throne was Harald Hardraada; Harold believed he should be king because there had been Viking kings

After constantly being attacked he was forced to seek king henry of France who molded him and made him to the ruthless leader he was to become. After leaving Normandy for so long, William made his return back in 1047 and asserted his authority destroying all of the rebels after that making the claim as the undisputed Duke of Normandy. William of Normandy matured into a tall man with red hair. During this time The Duke of Normandy went to visit his cousin Edward the confessor, It was during this visit that he would be promised William the kingdom should he die. The true heir was Edgar Atheling who is Edwards great nephew, but he was still a child who knew very little about England, but Edward who was appointed the king in 1042 promised him in that right.

But, in 1066, King Edward died, leaving an empty throne for one of three men: William the Conqueror, Harald Hardraada, and Harold Godwineson. Firstly, Harold had the

Before Edward was king, there was a king called Harthacnut, but when he died they made Edward the new king. There were actually several other claimants though, such as Edward the son of Edmindieinside and King Magnus of Norway. The Norman descendants became a ruling class in England. In addition, the Norman conquest began in the year of 1066, and ended in the year of 1485. The Norman COnquest was simply an invasion by, William the Conqueror.

The invading Viking forces caused changes to Anglo-Saxon kingship, including the eventual formation of an ‘English Kingdom.’ The Great Army of 865 was led by Ivarr the Boneless and Halfdan, sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, and landed in East Anglia before turning north to Northumbria. Conquering York was not enough for these

There is a critical difference between the two countries that seems to have heavily contributed to the reason William won, and Harold lost. Although his troops were fighting on their home soil, they simply were not as warlike and aggressive as the Normans, and were doomed to failure.