Norman Conquest

Talia A. on Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:57 am

On January 5th, 1066 the King of England, Edward the Cofessor, died. They didn't wait long until they chose someone else to rein so the Witan elected Harold Godwin, Edward's brother-in-law.The crown had been put on his head with no thought, and that was when King Harold's problems had started. Duke William did not agree with the voting of the Witan. William claimed that Edward had promised the crown of England to him. William was very annoyed, so he decided he was going to invade, and that was when The Norman Conquest began, September 28th, 1066. While King Harold and his men were celebrating their victory, Duke William's was landing in the south. He built a fort and camped at Hastings, waiting for the right time to invade.
Then on October 14th Duke William fired at the Saxon shield wall. The Normans keps on attaking the shiled wall, and both sides batteled with eachother. After hours of fighting the Normans wanted to retreat, but they still hadn't fgiven up, but the Saxons thought they had won and they ran after them. Later there was a rumor going around that William was found dead, but it wasn't true so he shouted out to his Normans that he was still alive. And because of the Saxons thinking they had won, they were all slaughtered when they got to the Normans.
The Normans still hadn't gone through the shield wall, but they needed to find out a way. So William sent some of his forces to do the same thing by trying to bring it down and then leave, triggering the Saxons to run after them. Their trick had worked, the Saxons fell for their trick, getting ambushed. Finally, the shiled wall was broken down. But the Saxons kept on fighting in this fierce battle. The Saxons were in trouble, the Normans were winning and all that was left was for Duke William to kill Harold.
After this battle, William was known as William the Conqueror after he won in the Battle of Hastings, where he defeated Harold II of England.

Sources:
World History Book (pg. 207)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England
http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/NormanConquest.htm
http://www.btinternet.com/~mrfield/Conquest/Hastings_end.htm