William I (‘William the Conqueror’), r1066–87

William I (c. 1028 – 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman monarch of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. He was a descendant of Rollo and was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward.

William is credited with kick-starting England into the phase known as Medieval England; William was the victor at the Battle of Hastings; he introduced modern castle building techniques into Medieval England and by his death in 1087, he had financially tied down many people with the Domesday Book.

Before he became the king of England, William I was one of the mightiest nobles in France as the duke of Normandy, but he is best remembered for leading the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, which changed the course of English history and earned him the sobriquet William the Conqueror.

2. He had reason to hate his original name. The product of an affair between Robert I, duke of Normandy, and a woman called Herleva, William was likely known to his contemporaries as William the Bastard for much of his life.

• William I (‘William the Conqueror’), r1066–87.
• Richard I (‘Richard the Lionheart’), r1189–99.
• Edward I, r1272–1307.
• Henry V, r1413–22.
• Henry VII, r1485–1509.
• Henry VIII, 1509–47.
• Elizabeth I, r1558–1603.
• Charles II, r1660–85.

Many of the Anglo-Saxon nobility had been killed at the two great battles in 1066. King William dispossessed many of those who survived and granted their lands out to his supporters as a reward for their loyalty. The majority of the 1,400 or so men listed in Domesday as tenants-in-chief came from Normandy.

However, it is hard to distinguish Vikings from the Saxons and Normans whom they fought. They were all North Germanic/Scandinavian tribes. (King Harald was descended from Danish Vikings for instance. The “Normans” were so-called by the fact of being descendants of Norsemen).

Both languages are from the same Germanic family and could be considered as distant but related dialects. The myth is that, rather like the Breton onion seller and the Welsh customer, an Anglo-Saxon could basically understand a Viking when the two met.

The name “England” is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means “land of the Angles”. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages.

The Norman dynasty established by William the Conqueror ruled England for over half a century before the period of succession crisis known as the Anarchy (1135–1154). Following the Anarchy, England came under the rule of the House of Plantagenet, a dynasty which later inherited claims to the Kingdom of France.

The city of Rome was under attack and the empire was falling apart, so the Romans had to leave to take care of matters back home. After they left, the country fell into chaos. Native tribes and foreign invaders battled each other for power.

Henry of Huntingdon

King Æthelstan

Taken over from Essex in the 8th century, including London (approx. Greater London, Hertfordshire, Surrey). After Mercia was annexed by Wessex in the early 10th century, the West Saxon rulers divided it into shires modelled after their own system, cutting across traditional Mercian divisions.

Londinium

Viking attacks London suffered attacks from Vikings, which became increasingly common from around 830 onwards. It was attacked in 842 in a raid that was described by a chronicler as “the great slaughter”. In 865, the Viking Great Heathen Army launched a large scale invasion of the small kingdom of East Anglia.