William the Conqueror and the great person theory.
Last week, I started down the path to Hastings with a look at Harold Godwinson. This week, I'm carrying on by presenting his opponent on that day in 1066, William the Conqueror. William is a perfect example of one of the themes that I discussed in a previous blog entry, that of the Great Person theory of History. William, the Duke of Normandy, chose to invade England because he wanted to be king. He wasn't driven by any broad social trends. Nor was the population of Normandy so large that it needed to expand overseas. It was just one man's desire to wear a crown. This one man, exceptional in his ability to organize and lead other men, made a decision that would affect the course of English History, and thus the world, for the next one thousand years.
Some historians or even anthropologists, perhaps someone like Jared Diamond, might argue that William didn't change the world, only a few of the trappings of English society. This historian would be right in the sense that William's conquest didn't exterminate a species or topple a thousand year empire. Nor did the conquest bring about a huge change in the day-to-day life of the common man. But, as I talked about last week, the Norman conquest has everything to do with what England looks like today. William certainly did change the trapping of English society, and it is these trappings, things like law, culture, and religion that human beings use to define themselves. This in turn influences the decisions people make. William, the individual, caused a change in the way millions of people look at the world and at themselves. That is why I would call him a great person in history.
