Norman

What relevance do the Norman Conquest and the events of 1066 have to contemporary British politics? Everything and nothing.

Spreading east in the 11th century, the Normans soon became a feared part of the Byzantine army, but a mercenary’s loyalty is always to his paymaster, as the empire would soon discover. 

Age matters; events are experienced differently by young and old, but how do we find those differences in history?

The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1167 sowed the seeds for centuries of tension between England and the Irish.

Victory at the Battle of Hastings did not guarantee William control of England. The rebellious North had to be brought into line, which it was, ruthlessly, in the winter of 1069. 

Two conquests of England in quick succession led to a period of shifting identities and allegiances. Courtnay Konshuh and Ryan Lavelle explore how those on the losing side of history tried to forge a place in a new world under new lords.

Contrary to the cliché, history is not only written by the victors. Katherine Weikert explains how those chronicling the 11th-century conquests in England and Scandinavia tried to rehabilitate the reputations of the vanquished.

In the popular imagination, William the Conqueror is, without doubt, the villain, yet the sources we have for his life are ambivalent. Marc Morris revisits the evidence to show the man behind the mythology: neither good nor bad, but complex and human.

The violence and gore in the hit TV series simply reflect the bloodiness of the Middle Ages, right? Not necessarily, says Marc Morris.