Norman Conquest

Examples of Norman Conquest in the following topics:

• 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.

• 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.

• The Great Schism of 1054

  • The main purpose of the papal legation was to seek help from the Byzantine Emperor in view of the Norman conquest of southern Italy and to deal with recent attacks by Leo of Ohrid against the use of unleavened bread and other Western customs, attacks that had the support of Cerularius.
  • Historian Axel Bayer contends that the legation was sent in response to two letters, one from the Emperor seeking assistance in arranging a common military campaign by the eastern and western empires against the Normans, and the other from Cerularius.

• The Vikings

  • The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history.
  • They facilitated everyday transportation across seas and waterways, exploration of new lands, raids, conquests, and trade with neighboring cultures.

• The Magna Carta

  • His Norman lands went to his eldest son, Robert Curthose and his English lands to his second son, William Rufus.

• The Crusades

  • Christianity had spread throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in Late Antiquity, but by the early 8th century Christian rule had become limited to Europe and Anatolia after the Muslim conquests.
  • The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus the Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests.
  • The Seljuq Empire had taken over almost all of Anatolia after the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071; however, their conquests were piecemeal and led by semi-independent warlords, rather than by the sultan.
  • By the mid-1090s, the Byzantine Empire was largely confined to Balkan Europe and the northwestern fringe of Anatolia, and faced Norman enemies in the west as well as Turks in the east.

• Islamic Conquest of the Maghreb

  • Consequently, the history of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb and the history of the Muslim conquest of a greater North African region (reaching far into the Middle East) cannot be sharply distinguished.
  • The Muslim conquest of North Africa continued the century of rapid Arab Muslim military expansion following the death of Muhammad in 632 AD.
  • By 642, the Arabs controlled Mesopotamia, Egypt and Syria, had invaded Armenia, and were concluding their conquest of the Persian Empire.
  • Strife ended only in 692, which brought about a return of domestic order that allowed the caliph to resume the Islamic conquest of North Africa.
  • Discuss the effects the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb had on the area.

• Military Achievements of the Flavians

  • On the military front, the Flavian dynasty witnessed the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 and substantial conquests in Great Britain under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola between 77 and 83.
  • Substantial conquests were made in Great Britain under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola between 77 and 83, while Domitian was unable to procure a decisive victory against King Decebalus in the war against the Dacians.
  • The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia, or modern day Scotland, between 77 and 84.
  • He had given refuge to an exiled Irish king whom he hoped he might use as the excuse for conquest.
  • This conquest never happened, but some historians believe that the crossing referred to was in fact a small-scale exploratory or punitive expedition to Ireland.