What is the big deal about 1066?
1066. Everyone knows it is one of the most important years in English History, most probably even know that it is the year that William the Conqueror invaded, but what makes it so special? Early English history is really just a series of one invasion after another, in fact, only fifty years earlier, the Danish King Cnut invaded and claimed the crown of England. So why all the fuss about 1066?
Because 1066 was the last. After over a 1,000 years of wave upon wave of invaders coming to England and settling, the Normans would be the last. Only three generations removed from their marauding Viking ancestors, the Normans reshaped the face and the society of England. It is the Normans who built the giant stone castles that dot the country, and the Normans who brought the feudal system. It is their laws upon which the modern English society was constructed. After a thousand years of invasions, the Normans established a rule that has lasted nearly a millennium.
Over the next few weeks, I will be taking a look at the various aspects and people of that fateful year in English History. This week, I’d like to open by talking about Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings. It is interesting to note, that off all the kings of England it is Harold Godwinson who most rarely gets the title of King attached to his name. These days no historian would leave him off a list of English monarchs, but I guess the Norman propaganda that has dominated English history since 1066 has still left a few relics behind.
