In one battle, William the Conqueror led the Normans in sweeping away Anglo-Saxon rule. But what effects did the Battle of Hastings have on British history?
The one date every English schoolchild knows is 1066, the Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror led the Normans in sweeping away Anglo-Saxon rule. The takeoff transpired in, literally, the blink of an eye if you believe the popular claim that King Harold II of England was mortally blinded by an arrow on that fateful October 14.
Over the next 88 years, four Norman kings bullied and bossed the country, and their rule would dramatically alter England’s social, political and physical landscape. They left in their wake brash castles, bold cathedrals and a firmly entrenched class system.
