548. The Road to 1066: Anglo-Saxon Apocalypse (Part 1)
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Why is the Norman Conquest so significant?
Thank you for listening to The Rest Is History. For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series, and membership of our much-loved chat community, go to therestishistory.com and join the club. That is therestishistory.com. The Norman Conquest is the great turning point in the history of the English nation. Since the first settlement of the English in Britain, the introduction of Christianity is the only event which can compare with it in importance. And there is this wide difference between the two. The introduction of Christianity was an event which would hardly fail to happen sooner or later. In accepting the gospel, the English only followed the same law which sooner or later affected all the Teutonic nations. But the Norman conquest is something which stands without a parallel in any other Teutonic land. If that conquest be only looked on in its true light, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance.
And yet, there is no event whose true nature has been more commonly and more utterly mistaken. So that was Edward Augustus Freeman, who is the Regis Professor of History at Oxford University. And this is the opening of his gargantuan six-volume history of the Norman Conquest, which was commissioned to mark its 800th anniversary, the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. And it was published. It took him 13 years to publish it between 1867 and 1879. And Tom, finally in the rest is history. we come to the greatest narrative of English history. And at its centre is the most famous year in our history. It's the astonishingly thrilling and unpredictable events of 1066.
Yes, a year, as you said, of unbelievable drama. And as Edward Augustus Freeman said, a year that is perhaps the decisive dividing line in English history. And the drama revolves, I suppose, at its most basic around three men, doesn't it? Yeah. So you have the King of England, who comes to the throne on the 5th of January, 1066, Harold Godwinson. And over the course of 1066, he fights two great battles against invaders who are aiming to topple him from his throne. And the first of these invaders, Harold Hardrada, the hard ruler, the King of Norway, he fails in his attempt. But the second invader, William the Duke of Normandy, succeeds. And Harold perishes in this great battle fought outside Hastings.
I would say the most decisive battle in not just English, but British history. He is then crowned king on Christmas Day in 1066. And he establishes Norman rule permanently over a conquered people.
So Tom, we're going to get into this story in tremendous and thrilling detail in the weeks that follow. But first of all, you said British history. So obviously this happens in England, but it's enormously significant in the long run for Wales and for Scotland, but also for Ireland too, am I right?
Absolutely, because Norman rule ends up being established over all those parts of the British Isles. And I would say that the impact of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest reverberates far beyond our islands to go all Churchillian.
Yeah, because we have a lot of overseas listeners in Australia, in the United States, whatever. And they might be saying, well, you know, who cares who rules England? Why is that a big deal for me?
I mean, the answer is given as a joke in probably the most famous comic version of English history ever written, 1066 and all that. And the title is very striking. I mean, the assumption that 1066 is what English history is all about. So it's written in 1930 when the British Empire was still very much a going concern. And the authors of that book are trying to explain why the Norman Conquest matters. And they say the Norman Conquest was a good thing As from this time onwards, England stopped being conquered and thus was able to become top nation. Which is a joke, of course, but it hints at the long-term significance of 1066 because the people, the country that is forged as a result of the Norman Conquest...
Those people in due course will go on to settle North America, to rule the largest global empire the world has ever seen, to settle entire continents. And I mean, just to focus on one obvious way in which the Norman conquest impacts not just England, but the whole world.
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