Norman Conquest

(noun)

The 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy.

Related Terms

Examples of Norman Conquest in the following topics:

  • The Bayeux Tapestry

    • The tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 meters (230 feet) long and 50 centimeters (20 inches) tall, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
    • The tapestry can be seen as the final and best known work of Anglo-Saxon art, and though it was made after the Norman Conquest of England, historians now accept that it was created firmly in an Anglo-Saxon tradition.
    • The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly 230 feet long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.

  • Norman Architecture

    • Norman architecture is a style of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion during the 11th and 12th centuries.
    • The Normans introduced large numbers of castles and fortifications, including Norman keeps, monasteries, abbeys, churches, and cathedrals.
    • In England, Norman nobles and bishops had influence even before the Norman Conquest of 1066, and Norman influences affected late Anglo-Saxon architecture.
    • Following the Norman invasion of England, Normans rapidly constructed more motte-and-bailey castles, and in a burst of building activity, they built churches, abbeys, and more elaborate fortifications such as Norman stone keeps.
    • Pierre is a good example of Norman architecture.

  • Norman Painting

    • Norman cultural and military influence spread from France south to Italy and north into England after the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
    • Another significant Norman art form is that of stained glass.
    • Norman Romanesque embroidery is best known from the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth nearly 70 meters (230 feet) long which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
    • The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
    • Albans Psalter, Norman English, 12th century.

  • The Anglo-Saxons

    • The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period of British history between about 450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the Norman Conquest.
    • Threatened by extended Danish invasions and occupation of eastern England, this identity persevered; it dominated until after the Norman Conquest.
    • Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest and became the dominant ruler in England.
    • This was the society that would see three invasions in the 11th century, the third of which was led successfully by William of Normandy in 1066 and transferred political rule to the Normans.
    • Almost every poem from before the Norman Conquest, no matter how Christian its theme, is steeped in pagan symbolism, but the integration of pagan beliefs into the new faith goes beyond the literary sources.

  • The Norman Invasion of 1066 CE

    • The Norman conquest of England was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army of Norman, Breton, and French soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror.
    • While Harold and his forces were recovering from Stamford, William landed his invasion forces at Pevensey and established a beachhead for his conquest of the kingdom.
    • Norman cavalry then attacked and killed the pursuing troops.
    • Twice more the Normans made feigned withdrawals, tempting the English into pursuit, and allowing the Norman cavalry to attack them repeatedly.
    • The tapestry depicts the loss of the Anglo-Saxon troops to the Norman forces.

  • National Pride

    • The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly 70 metres (230 ft) long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex (later King of England) and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.

  • The Opus Anglicanum

    • England gained a reputation for needlework as early as the Anglo-Saxon period prior to the Norman conquest; however, it was the in the 13th and 14th centuries that the Opus Anglicanum really flourished.

  • Architecture

    • Due to the systematic destruction and replacement of English cathedrals and monasteries by the Normans, no major Anglo-Saxon churches survive; the largest extant example is at Brixworth
    • In the 11th century the Normans were Europe's leading exponents of Romanesque architecture, a style that had begun to influence English church building before 1066, but became the predominant mode in England with the huge wave of construction that followed the Norman Conquest.
    • The Normans destroyed a large proportion of England's churches and built Romanesque replacements, a process, which encompassed all of England's cathedrals.
    • Distinctively Norman features include decorative chevron patterns.

  • The Double Disasters

    • A number of wars between the Normans and the Byzantine Empire were fought from 1040 until 1185 when the last Norman invasion of Byzantine territory was defeated.
    • The premature death of the former and the overthrow of the latter led to further collapse as the Normans consolidated their conquest of Sicily and Italy.
    • He died before he could complete his conquests, but southern Italy would never again be ruled by the Byzantine Empire.
    • These former pastoral nomads converted to Islam and ushered in a new phase of Islamic conquests.
    • The Byzantine Empire was now vulnerable to conquest.

  • William the Conqueror's Rule

    • Other effects of the conquest included the introduction of Norman French as the language of the elites and changes in the composition of the upper classes, as William reclaimed territory to be held directly by the king and settled new Norman nobility on the land.
    • There was little alteration in the structure of government, as the new Norman administrators took over many of the forms of Anglo-Saxon government.
    • William took over an English government that was more complex than the Norman system.
    • After a great political convulsion like the Norman Conquest, and the wholesale confiscation of landed estates that followed, it was in William's interest to make sure that the rights of the crown, which he claimed to have inherited, had not suffered in the process.
    • In particular, his Norman followers were more likely to evade the liabilities of their English predecessors, and there was growing discontent at the Norman land-grab that had occurred in the years following the invasion.