Short History Of... - The Normans

Episode Date: September 8, 2024

Ask any British school child for a significant date in history, and they’ll likely offer 1066 - the year of William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion of England. But William was just one prominent Norman figure, and 1066 was a single chapter in a much larger story. Settling in northern France in the early 10th century, the Normans were a formidable, cunning, bold and ruthless force, who moulded Medieval Europe, and left a lasting legacy across the British Isles. But where else did the Normans establish their dominance? Who were William’s compatriots, and how did they re-shape Britain? And did the Normans ever truly disappear? This is a Short History Of….The Normans. A Noiser Production, written by Nicola Rayner. With thanks to Professor Levi Roach, author of Empires of the Normans. Get every episode of Short History Of a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material, and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn Ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's B-O-B at L-I-b-s-y-n dot com. It is autumn 911 A.D. in Sainte-Claire-sur-Epte, a small village in what is today northern France. Divided by the River Epte are the camps of two opposing armies.

Their tents snap in the breeze, the smoke from campfires rising in the dawn mist as the men make breakfast. But the leaders of these forces are here to make peace, not war. On the east bank, walking through his camp, is the West Frankish, or French, king known as Charles the Simple. Across the water, Charles catches glimpses of the Viking warriors, rugged men clad in fur and leather, preparing to cross the river for their meeting. The army of the chieftain Rollo, notorious for their recent raids along the River Seine, they bear the marks of battle, their eyes sharp

and watchful. The sight of them climbing aboard a boat makes Charles shiver, but he is prepared to do what it takes to protect himself and his people. He heads to the royal tent to await their arrival. Attendants approach, helping him into a mantle of rich fabric and placing his crown on top of his shoulder-length hair. Settling into his throne, he brushes the servants away and awaits his guests. At last, a stirring outside the tent and the metallic clank of weapons. The flap sweeps open and the Vikings make their entrance. At the front of his men strides Rollo, a hulking figure with a mane of wild hair. The two leaders eye each other, a heavy silence between them. Charles keeps his gaze steady, and Rollo's weathered face, framed by his thick beard, is unreadable.

As Rollo begins to speak in his guttural Norse dialect, a translator near Charles murmurs that he is asking for more land than he has been offered, the entire territory between the River Epte and the coast, a sizable chunk of northwestern France, 5% of Charles' land. All eyes are on the French king. What choice does he have? An alliance with Rollo will protect his people from further Viking attacks. This is a chance to secure his kingdom's future through diplomacy rather than bloodshed. through diplomacy rather than bloodshed. So Charles, who won the epithet, the simple, for being straightforward, not slow, now nods,

agreeing to the demand. The Vikings mutter their approval, and the tent seems to exhale with relief. It is agreed. The lands will go to Rollo, who in return will pledge his loyalty to Charles and convert to Christianity. In a ritual act of homage, Rollo places his hands in those of Charles. But in such matters, it is also customary to seal the deal with a kiss of the king's foot. The ultimate show of submission and loyalty. With a firm shake of his head, Rollo refuses.

As a scandalized murmur ripples through the tent, Rollo motions to one of his men. He will perform the gesture on his behalf. Rollo's chosen warrior steps forward, scowling defiantly. The king rises, stepping forward to receive the kiss. The Viking stoops to perform the rite, but instead of lowering himself in submission, he seizes the foot roughly and lifts it to his lips. Caught off guard, Charles loses his balance, stumbles backwards, and falls. There are gasps from the Frankish nobles, but the king clambers to his feet. His dignity is

bruised, but if the future of his kingdom is assured, it's a price he is willing to pay. The treaty at St. Clair-sur-Epte marks the beginning of Normandy, a territory in which Norse vigour and Frankish or French culture would meld. And Rollo's descendants, the Northmen or as we now know them, the Normans, will shape the future of Europe. Ask any British schoolchild for a significant date in history and they will likely offer 1066, the year of the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of England.

But William was just one prominent Norman figure, and 1066 was a single chapter in a much larger story. Settling in northern France in the early 10th century, the Normans emerged as a formidable force, cunning, bold, and ruthless. Moulding medieval Europe through their conquests and architectural achievements, they left a lasting legacy in stone across the British Isles. left a lasting legacy in stone across the British Isles. But where else did the Normans establish their dominance? Who were William's compatriots?

And how did they orchestrate a near-total replacement of the British ruling class? And did they ever truly disappear? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network. This is a short history of the Normans. It is June 8, 793. On the holy island of Lindisfarne, just off the coast of Northumbria, England, the monks' morning prayers are interrupted by the sound of distant horns. Staring out to the horizon, the brothers watch as longships approach, their prows carved like dragonheads slicing through the mist, their sails swollen with the wind. their sails swollen with the wind. Panic spreads among the monks.

Some rush to hide the precious manuscripts and relics they have painstakingly preserved, while others remain stunned on the shore. The boats close in, and the first of the invaders leap ashore. They are tall, fierce men, clutching axes. The Vikings have arrived. From the late 8th century, these Vikings, from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, begin to venture beyond their homelands, exploring new territories and raiding coastal communities in Europe. Targeting monasteries and wealthy settlements, their attacks not only win them

riches to return to Scandinavia, but also the control of large swathes of continental Europe and the British Isles. Their assaults on France's north and western coasts grow in scale and frequency. By the early 900s, Rollo's raids along the Seine are causing a headache for Charles the Simple. But despite their fearsome reputation, these Vikings aren't just after plunder. They're also interested in trade, even assimilation with the locals. So in 911, Charles offers Rollo territory in northern France, but of course, it comes at a price. Professor Levi Roach is the author of Empires of the Normans. So the very name Normans comes from the medieval Northmen. And so this is a generic designation in the 8th and 9th centuries for Scandinavian freebooters

who are coming across mainland Europe looking for cheap plunder but also often for trading opportunities and what happens is that as the Vikings become more present in Europe and start making their influence felt in more significant manners one way of dealing with Viking attacks comes to be to settle them in your own kingdom and so to typically to set a thief to catch a thief so the idea is if you have a Viking problem, get Viking allies. Give them a piece of your land, typically coastal land, so they'll have a vested interest in the future in keeping other Viking groups from attacking you.

And that's precisely what happens in the case of the group that we eventually come to know as the Normans. The region of northern France settled by these Northmen, or Normans, becomes Normandy, taking its name from its new masters. It is one of a number of duchies, or territories, in the region that are held by a ruling duke or count, largely independent of the French king. This is a period in which royal power is rapidly atrophying in France.

Kings are having real problems. That's partly why they're losing control of Normandy anyway. They're having to desperately seek allies. And so the Normans are settled just when this is happening. So they set up shop and pretty soon establish themselves as an independent principality, so i.e. nominally subservient to the French king, but autonomous in all kind of day-to-day matters.

Normandy develops an identity unique to its Scandinavian settlers, distinct from those still in the Viking homelands and from others who have settled in the British Isles. And its fierce people, the Normans, are a force to be reckoned with. In the decades after Rollo's pact with the French king, the Normans integrate with the local population. As part of their chieftain's promise, they convert to Christianity, turning their backs on their old Norse gods,

such as Odin and Thor. And they also begin to speak French. Rollo's name, we call him Rollo, that's the French version, but was Hrólfr. His son's name was William. William is not an Old Norse name. William is a good French name. So that's already signaling a desire to integrate.

William's wife, crucially, is French. She's from a local aristocracy. And thereafter, all evidence is that the Dukes of Normandy are bilingual up until about the year 1000, and thereafter, purely French speaking. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn Ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-S-Y-N dot com. While the Normans embrace the language and religion of their new home, they maintain their martial Viking traditions,

never losing their sense of adventure and appetite for conquest. Now settled on land, the horse begins to replace the ship as the key feature of Norman warfare. They breed special warhorses called destriers, strong enough to carry the knights in armor. Regular skirmishes over territory make for unsettled relationships with their neighbors.

The domain of Flanders, which had previously controlled trade along the northern French coast, is a particularly staunch enemy. In 942, Rollo's son William is brutally killed in an assassination that is likely orchestrated by the Count of Flanders, leading to a period of unrest for the Normans. Rollo's descendants have to fight to stabilize the region, fortifying Normandy's borders and forging tactical alliances. One such agreement involves the marriage of Rollo's teenage great-granddaughter, Emma. In 1002, she is sent to England to become the second wife of King Æthelred, nicknamed Æthelred the Unready, who has accused the Normans of harboring Viking enemies of England.

The marriage is strategic, but the teenager is more than a passive pawn. Known as Emma of Normandy, she is a resilient, politically astute woman who becomes the mother of a king, Edward the Confessor. Edward is half Norman by blood, but he's much more than that because crucially, when he's still relatively young, his father dies and the English kingdom is conquered by Canute and a new Anglo-Danish dynasty is set up. And so Edward goes into exile as a child in Normandy and lives over half his life in Normandy before he then becomes king of England in 1042. So when Edward becomes English monarch, he's lived more

than half his life in Normandy. He brings over Norman favorites, as you'd expect, because his friends are all Norman. The people who supported his claim to the English throne are his mother's Norman relatives. And so one of the stories of Edward the Confessor's reign is, although he has a good English, traditional Anglo-Saxon name, he is, wherever possible, placing Normans into positions of power and influence. Around now, the Normans have begun to spread out towards southern Italy. Norman conquest here is a piecemeal affair, evolving slowly and organically. Some Normans arrive as pilgrims to a particular shrine to the Archangel Michael there, others as mercenaries or in search of land.

Their reception is varied, but many welcome them. Both the Germanic Lombards and the Byzantines, with whom they are doing battle, are happy to make use of the swords for hire. Out in Sicily, the Normans take advantage of infighting among the occupying Muslim Arabs to make territorial gains for themselves. It is, in short, a land of bloody opportunity. As more Normans arrive in the region, they are able to seize land from their former employers

and establish their own territories. It's onto this stage that a Norman nobleman by the name of Robert Guiscard, or Robert the Wily, now enters, quickly distinguishing himself as a capable military leader. In the conquest of southern Italy, the definitive moment comes in the Battle of Civitate in 1053. And this is the point at which the neighbors of the Normans in southern Italy start realizing that they are the major threat and grouping together. And so we have a large army that's been raised by the emperor, so the Holy Roman Emperor as he'd later be known, and the pope, and the southern Italian Lombard princes. So all of the main political forces in Italy join together. And they come and take the battle to Robert Guiscard in 1053. Crucially, the southern Italian Normans win decisively. And again, this is what sets them on a trajectory

that would establish the Kingdom of Sicily, which would go on to have a long and distinguished history. have a long and distinguished history. News of Robert Guiscard's achievements reach a young Norman noble, destined to become William the Conqueror. When he is eight, this ambitious young man becomes Duke of Normandy when his father dies suddenly on a pilgrimage.

William of the Conqueror had a very challenging child and quite a challenging background in general. And that really conditions, I think, a lot of what we see of him later on in life. He's also known not only as William the Conqueror, but William the Bastard. And crucially, bastardy in this period doesn't mean that you're the son necessarily of an illegitimate liaison, that the parents aren't necessarily married. It can be the case that they're not married. But crucially, it's more a class-based judgment. It's a child of a mesalliance where the man is of much higher status than the woman. And so all other things being equal, you'd normally have as your successor a child to a higher-born woman.

So his mother is a lower aristocrat. She isn't a tanner. That's all later traditions and other things like that. She isn't any of those kinds of things, but it is still a value-laden term. He's had to kind of fight for everything he has against the odds with the additional shame of having a mother who is not of as high status as your average ducal bride. And so I think all of this means that he's determined to get his own way, but when he does, there's a mean streak to William the Conqueror. He's not someone you want to get on the wrong side of. He's barely over the loss of his father when two of his guardians are murdered in 1040. Then, after a brief period of

peace in the duchy in 1047, he faces another revolt by a coalition of rebel Norman barons. But with the help of King Henry I of France, William triumphs and solidifies his control over the territory. The political landscape of the time is volatile, not to mention complex. William and the Normans must tread a careful path with their neighbors, sometimes allying with or opposing the French crown and adjacent powers in their fight for survival. William's union in marriage with Matilda of Flanders forms one crucial alliance, this time with the powerful Flemish counts. Little by little, he cements Normandy's position as a pivotal player in the

regional power dynamics. He continues to subdue rebellious vassals with an iron fist. After one victory, he orders the hands and feet of 32 conquered soldiers to be publicly hacked off. But as Normandy grows stronger, it poses a growing threat to the authority of the French crown. By the early 1050s, several French nobles are concerned enough to form an alliance against him alongside King Henry I. The coalition aims to incite rebellions against William's rule in Normandy. Within two years, the conflict culminates in the Battle of Mortimer in 1054, when Duke William's forces see off their combined might.

With a triumph over the French king under his belt, William begins to think about another throne on the other side of the English Channel. After all, he is related to the king, Edward the Confessor, and, as luck would have it, the monarch is without an heir. In 1064, William has a visitor in Normandy, Harold Godwinson, the Anglo-Saxon nobleman and brother-in-law to Edward the Confessor. According to Norman sources, Harold now swears an oath of allegiance to William, acknowledging the Duke's claim to the English throne as a distant cousin of the King. as a distant cousin of the king. It's in early January 1066 that the wheels set in motion by that promise

really start to spin. Still childless, Edward the Confessor dies. But despite swearing that oath in Normandy, Harold Godwinson takes the throne, with the backing of the Council of Clergy and Nobles, the Witton. Across the Channel, William is incensed. William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William William

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But at first, fate is not on his side. Though he plans to set sail from Normandy in August, poor weather conditions force William to wait. Meanwhile, the Norwegian king Harald Hadrada has heard of the power vacuum and fancies his chances at grabbing the crown. He now lands in the north of England with a fleet of 300 longships. Within 24 hours, King Harald has gathered his army and heads north to meet Hadrada's invasion, moving with astonishing speed to reach York in just four days. He finds the Norwegians seven miles to the east of the city at Stamford Bridge.

There they descend upon the unsuspecting army. Many warriors don't even have time to get into their armor. The battle is brutal and the Norwegian invaders are decisively crushed. The death of Hardrada, known by later historians as the last of the Vikings, marks the end of the Viking Age in England. Back in Normandy, the storm clears and William can finally cross the Channel. He lands on the south coast of England in late September. When he arrives in England, he starts ravaging Kent. And this is clearly designed to draw the English into battle and may also be playing on the fact that Kent seems to be where Harold Godwinson's family originally comes from. So, torching some of the familial heartlands to

particularly get at Harold and goad him into battle. The real question historically is why Harold is willing to risk a decisive battle. The answer probably is he's just had one in the north against the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada and has won it and has caught him off guard. He arrived, he marched north, got there quicker than Harold had expected and wins a great victory. And so chances are that Harold Godwinson's actually thinking, well, I've just won this way. If I go really fast, quicker than William thinks, maybe I'll wrong foot him, and I can win a decisive victory, and then it's all done and dusted, and I don't have to have this dragging on over me. So, that's probably the logic on his part. Early in the morning, one day in October, the two armies meet to fight for the throne of England,

Early in the morning, one day in October, the two armies meet to fight for the throne of England, on a hilltop seven miles from the town of Hastings. Today the site is simply called Battle. It is the afternoon of October 14, 1066, and Senlac Hill is a scene of chaos and horror. Bodies and broken weapons are strewn everywhere, evidence of the combat that has raged for hours. But with the armies almost evenly matched, things are at a stalemate. A Norman knight, sweating under his chainmail and the padded jacket or gambeson beneath it, urges his stallion up the hill. These beasts are the one advantage they have that the Saxons don't, and it's his job to make the most of them.

On the ridge, the English king's army has maintained its imposing shield wall, a solid line of men on foot, holding their round wooden shields locked together. Each man is a vital link in the chain of defense. Dispersed through are the Hauscarls, elite Anglo-Saxon troops wielding spears and axes. It is the task of the Normans to break their line, but it is proving difficult. Even at this late hour, the Saxons have managed to hold the high ground, repelling wave after wave of assaults. The Norman troops are arrayed in three lines as they make their way up the hill. First the archers, then the infantry,

and finally the cavalry. This knight has already charged up the hill before, only to be driven back by the unyielding wall of shields. But he urges his tired horse up the slope one more time. They're not far now. But then he hears a cry. The knight next to him shouts that their leader, William of Normandy, has been killed. Close to the top of the ridge now, the knight glances round for the duke, or a sign of his papal banner, his proof of the pope's support. But William is nowhere to be seen. Panic spreads quickly. Just as the knight reaches Harold's shield wall, the man next to him turns his horse sharply and begins to gallop down the hill. C his cowardice the norman follows his lead as do others before the enemy can reach them the knights gather on the lower slopes to regroup what should they do looking

back up the hill they see that the anglo-saxons previously so disciplined have broken ranks to give chase to their retreating enemy the house Carls are shouting for them to hold the line, but it's too late. As they urgently debate their next move, the Norman knights are interrupted by a man on a huge black stallion, pushing through the group. He lifts his helmet and identifies himself as William, their leader. I live, he shouts, and with God's help I shall conquer. Touching the saint's relics he wears around his neck, said to be the very artifacts on which his oath with Godwinson was sworn, he urges his men on. The Saxons are getting close, running downhill towards them, The Saxons are getting close, running downhill towards them.

But the knights, on horseback, can easily surround them. With the last word from William, the Normans wheel around to face the enemy. Now the hunters, the mounted knights, charge back up the hill, their lances lowered, aiming for the disordered ranks of Harold's men. It is a massacre. And the trick of retreating and then surrounding the Saxons is one they can repeat. The most famous turning point of the battle is when Harold Godwinson is struck down. His death may or may not have been caused by the legendary arrow to the eye,

but after he falls, his body is so mutilated by Norman knights that his mistress must be summoned later to identify him. Certainly, one way or another, Harold dies, and that's the really crucial bit for William. Not only is it decisive victory,

but Harold is dead. And Harold himself's only barely been an English king. There's no person to immediately step into his shoes. He himself was something of a usurper. He was from a new dynasty. So there's now a power vacuum in England. And into that power vacuum, William steps. William the Conqueror is crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, in 1066, with English and Norman witnesses. As is tradition, those in attendance are asked if it's their will for William to be king. But their loud, and possibly nervous, cheer prompts the Norman guards outside to panic

and set fire to houses just beyond the abbey. The ensuing smoke drives people from the coronation. But William I, it is said, remains sitting on the throne throughout. As he is not an English ruler, he lacks local support. His people are outnumbered by the Saxons, even when the Norman nobles begin to bring their families over. To secure his position, William builds castles along the south coast of England to defend

against invasions and show the Saxons who is boss. Never forgetting his roots, he now divides his time between Normandy and England, but establishes a governance structure to maintain control in his absence. The new castles are built as motte and bailey structures, consisting of a raised earth mound, a motte, topped with a keep, surrounded by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey. At first they are constructed in wood, like those in Hastings and Dover. But the royal castle on the River Thames, the king decides, should be built of stone. The Tower of London is begun in the 1070s.

It is summer 1079. A hot day on a construction site on the north bank of the River Thames in London. It is the easternmost point of the city, by the southeast corner of the Roman walls. Hard at work, a young Saxon labourer is shifting stones with an older man under the watchful, critical eye of the Norman master builder in charge. It is hot work work and they're sweating under their tunics and woolen trousers struggling under its weight the pair get their large block into position and start hauling it to the top of the raised mound or mot overlooking the tents

halfway up they stop for a breather Halfway up they stop for a breather. Below them men are digging a deep ditch, and beyond that to the north and west others erect a timber palisade or fence. The old walls stand to the east, and in the south the river winds past, glittering in the sun. Ships sail along it, loaded with goods. Part of the reason the Norman king wants his castle here is so his officials can easily tax those using the waterways.

But its position on the water also makes this spot vulnerable to attack. In the past, Vikings have sailed up the Thames from the sea to raid the city. Which is why King William wants to add to his wooden fortifications here, creating something more enduring to protect Westminster, the center of power. Something made in stone. The two men are just squatting again to get under their block when the foreman appears and launches into an angry tirade. They don't understand what he says, but the gestures speak for themselves. Time to get back to work. As he lifts, the younger of the two is thankful for the leather gloves his wife made him,

noticing his partner's bare hands, which are red raw and bleeding. They edge their slab precariously to the top of the motte, where they can see the square outline of the building starting to take shape. One awkward step at a time, they maneuver the block to where it's needed, its final destination on its long journey from Caen in Normandy. It's not lost on the young men that though the stone may be French, it is Saxon labourers doing the work. They've only a yard or two to go when the older man's legs buckle from exhaustion. He falls to the floor and the stone lands heavily,

crushing one of his hands. As he cries out in agony, the Norman master rushes over. But he's hardly going to lift the stone off his Saxon labourer himself and barks instead at another underling to help. The labourers don't say a word. Carefully, they lift the block from the old man's hands while he is roughly hauled to his feet by norman guards and taken away god knows where then the two workmen finish the job placing the block on the

outline of the tower one of many hundreds of stones that will make up its thick square walls it looks like the normans are here to stay are here to stay. What is later called the White Tower, a blocky rectangular building, takes more than 20 years to complete. But another legacy of the Norman conquest is made not of stone, but of fabric, the Bayeux Tapestry.

Widely believed to have been commissioned by Bishop Oddo of Bayer, William the Conqueror's half-brother. It is likely made in Canterbury by Anglo-Saxon embroiderers. It should be the Bayer embroidery, but it doesn't sound nearly as catchy, so it's not taken on. But as those who actually know anything about these things, tapestry is completely woven through.

If you tried to create a tapestry like that, it would have taken years. It's stitched in, so it's an embroidery. But it is a wonderful, vivid account of the conquest, this almost comic book style that is really quite gripping storytelling. And it's clearly designed for a Norman audience, and it includes central elements of William's claim to the throne. So it

shows Harold before the events of 1066 being washed up in Normandy and swearing an oath to William that again, in later Norman narrative sources say, Harold promised he wouldn't take the English kingdom. There's good reason to doubt he did promise that, but Norman sources very much want that. So there's this big Norman propaganda effort that probably begins even before William invades England and certainly continues thereafter to justify the fact that this was basically an opportunistic land grab. Though no contemporary sources mention Harold being shot by an archer through the eye, in later years the tapestry is restored to include this detail, and it enters the folklore surrounding the event.

But William's best efforts at propaganda can't stop the uprisings in his new kingdom. There is a revolt in the West Country, a stronghold of Godwinson supporters. William spends the next few years quelling such uprisings, taking Saxon land and increasing taxation on the newly conquered people. A few years into his reign and William has had enough of his subjects' disobedience. In response to another rebellion in York, he inflicts a merciless revenge on the entire region. Villages and crops are torched, animals are destroyed, and the starving population is compelled to beg for their lives as slaves.

Known as the Harrying of the North, it causes the people there to develop a hatred of the Normans that lasts for many generations. William eventually establishes a feudal system. Confiscating the estates of disloyal aristocrats, he gives them to his own barons in exchange for loyalty, military service, and their agreement to train knights for him. The knights, in turn, receive land from the barons. Right at the bottom of the ladder are the villains, or feudal tenants. Making their living from working the land, these peasants pay taxes to their Norman masters and give them some of their crops,

as well as fines if they break the law. By the end of William's reign, we have almost no aristocrats who are of English descent. It's almost a complete changing of the guard. So over 90% of aristocratic land is in the hands of Normans or other Frenchmen who've come over with William. And so it is absolutely staggering. It's the most substantial kind of regime change, really,

England and probably Britain has ever seen, and that the ruling elite is almost completely replaced. As part of this process, William needs to know about the lands he is taking over and redistributing. In 1085, at a council held in Gloucester, he orders a survey of the entire kingdom. The resulting data is compiled into two volumes, the Little Doomsday and Great Doomsday.

Doomsday Book is the great monument to the conquest and to that process of land reallocation. If William hadn't done that, it wouldn't exist. And the irony is it's our greatest testament to actually the governmental capabilities of the pre-conquest English, of the Anglo-Saxons. Because the structures that allow this to be created, the government structures, all exist earlier.

But unless you are taking over an organization from the outside, you don't normally need to document things in that kind of manner. And so what it is, is that William's taken over this kingdom, needs to understand it, and crucially has reallocated those lands. And Doomsday Book is not the tool so much for reallocating as for recording that reallocation. too well so much for reallocating as for recording that reallocation. William rewards the Norman bishops in the same way as he has rewarded his loyal barons, with English land. Within two decades of the conquest, these clergymen have been granted a quarter of England. In return, they are expected to build monasteries and churches, including perhaps the most famous examples of Norman architecture.

So when we're thinking of Norman architecture, we're typically thinking above all, though not exclusively, of ecclesiastical architecture and what we would refer to as Romanesque architectures. What we're thinking of that as the very rounded approach to arches and things like that rather than the sharp edges. So Gothic is what like Notre Dame in Paris was. Those kinds of gargoyles, sharp edges, a jaggedness to it. Whereas the Romanesque is curved and rounded and majestic, clean lines. So if you're thinking of places that you might have visited in England, you're thinking classically of Ely Cathedral or of Durham Cathedral.

With power fully established in England, the Normans extend their influence into its neighboring territories. William's lords begin incursions into Wales in the late 11th century shortly after the conquest of England It's something that's driven by, crucially, not William the Conqueror He's happy to let his magnates do this but by local magnates, these what later become known as marcher lords so these earls, typically, of the West Midlands driving further into that and that then becomes the Norman model elsewhere

The marcher lords govern semi-autonomous regions known as the Welsh Marches along the border between Wales and England. Because the locals refuse to take their land grab lying down, this region sees the densest concentration of Norman, Mott and Bailey castle building anywhere in the British Isles. In the late 12th century, Norman knights are invited by Irish kings to assist in local conflicts and again establish their own lordships. The most significant invasion, led by the Anglo-Norman Earl of Pembroke, Richard de Clare, results in Norman-controlled territories around Dublin and Leinster, eventually forming the Anglo-Norman Lordship of Ireland. By now, their takeover of Scotland is already underway too. We also see substantial Norman settlement in Scotland, and starting in Scotland in particularly

the 1120s and 1130s, above all under David I. And this is when great families like the Balliols, who go on to found Balliol College Oxford, but also briefly be Kings of Scotland, and the DeBruises, the family of Robert DeBruce of the Flower of Scotland of modern rugby song fame, is founded there. So the future rulers of Scotland and one other family, in fact, as well, settles there in the 1030s, this insignificant family known as the Stuarts, who were going to have a rather long influence over the history of the British Isles. Back in England, towards the end of William's reign, barely 5% of the country has remained in Saxon hands. An estimated 200,000 Norman, French, and Flemish people have migrated to England,

around the same number of English who have been murdered or starved. When William dies at the age of 59 from injuries sustained in a riding accident, he is returned to his homeland of Normandy and buried in Caen. On the day of his burial, his torso ruptures, emitting a terrible stench. Some God-fearing men believe it is an ill omen, a physical sign of the conqueror's brutality in life. William leaves the Duchy of Normandy in the hands of his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and the Kingdom of England to his second, William Rufus. Although the two territories are later led by one king, the duchy remains

a separate entity from the Kingdom of England and often backs rival members of the English royal family. Now that the Normans have seemingly achieved the impossible, taking southern Italy and the English crown, they begin to eye prizes further afield. In 1095, Pope Urban II calls for Christian knights to take up arms and reclaim Jerusalem and other holy sites in the Middle East from Muslim control. Alongside various other Christian knights, the Normans respond. The call to action kickstarts a series of religious wars, the Crusades, between Christians and Muslims. One of the most famous of the Crusaders, between Christians and Muslims. One of the most famous of the Crusaders is the eldest son of Robert Guiscard, who has

been overlooked by his father in Italy in favor of his children from his second marriage. His name is Bohemond of Taranto. Actually Bohemond's his nickname. Apparently his father, Robert Guiscard, heard a story of a fairy tale giant called Bohemond and thought it was so alike to his larger-than-life son, who was apparently always a giant, that he took to calling him jokingly Bohemond, and it stuck. He's already got a track record, though, militarily. In his father's later years, he's helped Robert Giscard invade the Balkans, attack the Byzantine Empire. Ultimately, those invasions in the end fail, but Bohemond himself is highly successful

in the field in a number of junctures. So he's a highly successful military operator. And he's chomping at the bit to do something and have lands of his own and prospects of his own. So unsurprisingly, he hears of a crusade and says, sign me up. Fame, fortune, conquest, where can I go? And so Bohemond joins as well.

And Bohemond is the one who really ends up being crucial for the fate of the Crusaders at a number of early junctures. Bohemond and the Normans fight in some crucial early battles of the First Crusade on the way to Jerusalem, all in modern-day Turkey, wrestling territory from the Muslim Seljuk Turks. Seljuk Turks. Halfway between Jerusalem and Constantinople, the fortified city of Antioch in modern-day Turkey is a rich prize. But after a long siege of the city, the Crusaders are starving, resorting to eating their horses and, some say, their fallen comrades.

Bohemond devises a plan to capture the city by negotiating with an Armenian guard who controls one of Antioch's towers. So he goes to the other leaders of which he's one and says, hey, look, chaps, we're stuck. Tell you what, why don't we create a deal

that whoever can take Antioch and get us over the walls gets to keep it, knowing full well that, of course, he has a means of doing this. Now, the other leaders are no fools, and they know Bohemond by now. They almost certainly know something's up. They may well even be aware that he has plans, but they're also desperate, and they do seem to then say, yeah, sure. And so that's what he does.

He takes Antioch, but also then, ever the opportunist, he then slides up, well, thanks very much, chaps. I've had my crusading bit. Enjoy your trip to Jerusalem. I've got Antioch. Cheers. Good luck. So Bohemond is hugely successful on the first half of the crusade and then decides that's enough crusading. Antioch's nice enough. I quite like founding a kingdom here. And he does, and it goes on to be one of the crusader principalities. A crusader principality.

A feudal state established and governed by the European force in the Levant is a fine prize. And when he returns home, Beaumont is able to win in marriage the daughter of the French king. Antioch, meanwhile, becomes the most Norman of the Crusader states. Right up until its conquest by the Mamluks in 1268, its rulers are descendants of Beaumont. 1268, its rulers are descendants of Bohemond. By the early 13th century, Normandy itself is in trouble, besieged by internal conflicts and the poor leadership of the English king known as Bad King John. Spying an opportunity, the ambitious French King Philip II launches a series of campaigns to assert French

control over the region. Gradually, he captures key Norman strongholds and cities, including Rouen, the capital of Normandy, in 1204. The final blow comes with the Treaty of Paris later that year, in which King John of England, the current Duke of Normandy, formally relinquishes his claims to the Duchy to Philip II. Normandy is integrated into the French royal domain. But by this point, the Normans' skill at assimilation has started to work against them. By about 1200, we're getting to the point where there are lots of descendants of Normans, but almost none of them are thinking of themselves as Normans anymore. And this process is also accelerated by the fact that Normandy has now been reintegrated into the Kingdom of France.

So it's no longer an independent duchy. So it's not a distinctive national identity, if you will, being a Norman as being a kind of garden variety Frenchman. Despite assimilating into the cultures of the countries they conquered, the Normans retained the courage and cunning of their Viking ancestors. Their thirst for adventure and conquest reshaped England's social and political landscape and left its mark from southern Italy to the Holy Land. Their architectural legacy endures in the form of imposing castles and magnificent cathedrals

in the grand Romanesque style. And the Normans also revolutionized legal and administrative systems with the introduction of feudalism and meticulous record-keeping, exemplified by the Doomsday Book. But the Normans never really disappeared. Seamlessly integrating themselves into European power structures, even centuries after their heyday, their influence can be seen in culture, architecture, governance, language. The very fabric of European society. Somehow nowhere, and yet everywhere, at the same time.

Next time on Short History, I will bring you a short history of the Kremlin. There is a tendency to regard the Kremlin, because it's been there so long, as representing something that never changes. I have found the Kremlin to change radically between 1156 and now. There have been so many iterations of it. Russia itself has gone through many iterations. There have been many moments in which the Kremlin was neither safe

nor indeed particularly upstanding. There have been stages during which it was occupied by the government or not, when it was a liability or not. And we tend to map that story onto the story of Russia. And I would hope that we could do better than that and say, look, there are many potentials in this. The Kremlin can change. That's next time.