A Duke’s Quest to Become Monarch
Duke William hung on, and his hard and dangerous childhood turned him into a hard and dangerous man. He combined daring with prudence, and knew when to strike, and when to withdraw if he found himself at a disadvantage. By his early twenties, William was a ruthless warrior and ruler.
He finally got his turbulent barons under control by resort to exemplary brutality: he cut off the hands and feet of rebels. His greatest accomplishment came in 1066, when William, a cousin of England’s King Edward the Confessor, claimed the throne after the latter’s death without issue. His claim was contested by Harold Godwinson, whom the Anglo-Saxon lords of England had crowned as their monarch.
So William gathered an army, secured the Pope’s blessing for his cause, and sailed to England in September, 1066. On October 14th, he met and defeated the Anglo-Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings, in which King Harold was killed. After his victory, the Duke of Normandy conquered England and crowned himself King William I, with momentous consequences.
Centuries of Anglo Saxon independence ended, and were replaced by Norman rule. For generations, England had been oriented towards the Germanic world from whence the Anglo-Saxons came, and after the Viking Era began, to the North Sea and Scandinavia. William and the Normans reoriented England towards France, the Western European mainstream, and the Mediterranean world.
