The Norman conquest of England was amilitary invasion of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. William was a Duke who ruled Normandy, now a region in France. He invaded England after the death of King Edward the Confessor because he believed he had the most right tobe King of England. But King Harold II had himself crowned king instead. KingHarold, with his Saxon army, and Duke William fought at the Battle of Hastings on October 14 1066. King Harold was killed in the battle and his army left. OnDecember 25 1066 William was crowned the new King of England.

 

The Norman conquest brought an important change in English history for a number of reasons. The conquest linked Englandmore closely with Continental Europe, and made Scandinavian influence lessimportant. It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. The conquest changed the English language and culture, and set the stage forrivalry with France, which would continue (with breaks) until the 19th century.

 

William ordered the Domesday Book to bewritten. This was a survey of the entire population, and their lands andproperty, to help in collecting taxes.

 

William gave a lot of land to the Normannobility (known as barons). These barons then owed military service to the king. The nobility gave land to others to work on as farmers. People in the village who received land had to work 2 or 3 days a week on the rich person's land or pay taxes.

This system of land holding is known asfeudalism. The French invaders became the upper-class aristocracy who ruledover the English. French was the language of the upper classes, of law andgovernment and the army. The Anglo-Saxon peasants did not speak French.

 

The Normans built many castles which helpedthem to rule the land they had conquered. They also built beautiful churches inthe shape of a cross. They build fine monasteries which became the center ofvillage life.

 

In England, the Middle Ages was a time ofwar, civil war, rebellions from time to time, and many plots among the noblesand royalty. In the reign of Henry II, the king got some power back from thebarony and the Church. Henry's successor, Richard I "the Lion Heart", took part in the Third Crusade, and defended his French territories againstPhilip II of France.

The Crusades were battles fought betweenChristians and Muslims over control of the Holy Land. The Holy Land is a placethat is very important for the three major monotheistic religions: Islam,Judaism, and Christianity. There are many important religious sites in the HolyLand. This is the land now called Israel or Palestine.

The Crusades kept all Europe in a tumultfor two centuries, and had an enormous influence on the European Middle Ages.

By the 13th century, the rulers of Englandthought of themselves as English, not French. The rulers eventually spoke Englishlike everyone else, not French. English and French had mixed over the years and evolved into what we now call Middle English. This period was a time of greatchanges in government and society.

 

Oxford and Cambridge universities started in the 13th century.

 

Also the power of a Parliament startedgrowing in this period.

 

The Black Death, an epidemic that spread over all of Europe and parts of Asia, arrived in England in 1348 and killed perhaps up to a third of the population.

 

The Hundred Years' War was fought betweenFrance and England during the late Middle Ages. It lasted 116 years from 1337to 1453. The war started because Charles IV of France died in 1328 without ason. Edward III of England then believed he had the right to become the newking of France through his mother. The Hundred Years War, caused by the English king's claim to the French throne, a search for national identity and economicrivalry changed forever the emerging nations of England and France in thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In the beginning of the conflict, theEnglish overpowered the French with better weaponry and a stronger government,but were later defeated as France gained a sense of national spirit behind its new hero, Joan of Arc.

 

The Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1487) was aseries of civil wars, fought over the throne of England, between supporters ofthe House of Lancaster and supporters of the House of York. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house.

 

In the end, the House of Lancaster won andtheir leader Henry Tudor became King Henry VII and started the rule of theHouse of Tudor. Under the Tudors, England became a national state with anefficient centralized government, and started changing from a medieval to amodern country.