The Norman Conquest of England (Battle of Hastings)
- Date
- 14 October 1066
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- England
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
The death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066 triggered a contested succession to the English throne.
Harold Godwinson was crowned but faced rival claims, defeating a Norwegian invasion under Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge before marching south to meet William, Duke of Normandy, who had landed at Pevensey. On 14 October 1066 the two armies clashed near Hastings; after a daylong battle Harold was killed and his army broke. William was crowned king in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. The conquest replaced the Anglo-Saxon ruling class with a Norman-French aristocracy, introduced continental feudal landholding, and reoriented England toward France and Latin Christendom for centuries. It reshaped the English language through a flood of French vocabulary, produced administrative landmarks such as the Domesday Book (1086), and tied the English crown into the dynastic politics of France in ways that would later spark the Hundred Years' War.
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Empires active in 14 October 1066
- Almoravid Empire1056 CE to 1147 CE
- Song Dynasty960 CE to 1279 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE to 1258 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE to 1453 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE to 1900 CE
- Chola Empire848 CE to 1279 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Manzikert Opens Anatolia to the Turks26 August 1071
- Fatimid Conquest of Egypt and Founding of Cairo969 CE
- Battle of Bach Dang ends Chinese rule over VietnamDecember 938 CE
- The First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem1095 to 1099
- Mongol sack of Baghdad ends the Abbasid Caliphate10 February 1258 CE
- Battle of Lechfeld ends Magyar raids on the West10 to 12 August 955 CE
Essential reading
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- Kilwa's Husuni Kubwa palace marks the Swahili coast's golden ageearly-mid 14th century CE
- Timbuktu emerges as a centre of Islamic learningc. 1325
Further reading
The wider story
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
Vivid, thematic popular history by a top Byzantinist.
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