{"id":17472,"date":"2015-06-07T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T10:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=17472"},"modified":"2015-06-07T11:33:48","modified_gmt":"2015-06-07T10:33:48","slug":"the-importance-of-the-battle-of-hastings-and-the-norman-conquest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=17472","title":{"rendered":"The importance of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The battle took place on Saturday 14 October 1066. It was not in fact located at Hastings on the coast but at a hill some seven miles north-west of the town which was later named Battle.<\/p>\n

In those days, battles tended to last only a few hours before one side was deemed to have won. However, the Battle of Hastings started at around 9 am and went on until dusk.<\/p>\n

The English were led by King Harold II while the Normans were commanded by Duke William II. We do not know the precise number of troops invovled on either side, but the English are thought to have had around 7,000 men while the Normans are believed to have had about 10,000. It was a bloody conflict with the estimated dead being perhaps 4,000 English and 2,000 Normans.<\/p>\n

Famously the Normans won and Harold was killed, although the arrow in his eye has no more evidence than the Bayeux Tapestry which features some misrepresentations.<\/p>\n

The Norman Conquest changed England. It introduced a new political system, a new language, a new system of land holding, a new direction for Anglo-Scandinavian society and a reform programme for the church in England.<\/p>\n

The Norman Conquest also came to define what we now call the United Kingdom. The Normans were not satisfied with conquering England and, over the next few centuries, tried to conquer Ireland, Wales and Scotland. They succeeded with the first two and failed with the last despite several wars over the centuries.<\/p>\n

The seminal point about the Norman Conquest is that it was the last successful invasion of England and therefore Britain.<\/p>\n

The single most important fact in understanding the nature of the British political system is the fundamental continuity of that system. Britain has not had a revolution of the kind experienced by so many other countries and Britain has not been invaded or occupied for almost 1,000 years. Is this true of any other country in the world? I can only think of Sweden.<\/p>\n

You can learn a lot more about the Battle of Hastings on the relevant Wikipedia page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"