Conquest and colonisation

by Brian Golding

The Norman Conquest of 1066 - often described as the last successful foreign invasion of England - is one of the most famous and significant events in English history. William the Conqueror's narrow victory at Hastings was the prelude to the settlement of an alien aristocracy and culture that ultimately affected not only England, but much of Wales and Scotland. Its impact has been a matter of heated controversy since the seventeenth century: was the Conquest merely a continuation under new leadership of established patterns of government and society, or did it result in cataclysmic change? Certainly, the close ties thus established between Normandy and England were to influence Anglo-French relations throughout the Middle Ages, while the emergence of a new dominant establishment culture was indicated not only in 'high politics' but in such areas as language and architecture. Norman colonisation was a long process, hardly complete by 1100, by which time there were already strong signs o