Normans Set Sail: William's Conquest of England Begins

William, Duke of Normandy, had been waiting for weeks for the wind to change. On September 27, 1066, it finally blew from the south, and his invasion fleet of roughly 700 ships carrying 7,000 soldiers and 2,000 horses set sail from the mouth of the River Somme, launching the Norman conquest that would transform England, its language, its laws, and its ruling class forever. William's claim to the English throne rested on a tangle of promises and betrayals. Edward the Confessor, the childless English king, had allegedly promised the crown to William during a visit to Normandy around 1051. Harold Godwinson, England's most powerful earl, had supposedly sworn an oath supporting William's claim while a guest in Normandy in 1064. When Edward died on January 5, 1066, Harold took the throne for himself. William declared him an oath-breaker and began assembling an army. The invasion was an enormous logistical gamble. No army had successfully crossed the English Channel by force since the Romans. William spent months building ships, recruiting mercenaries from across France and Italy, and securing papal approval for his campaign. The fleet gathered at Dives-sur-Mer in August but was pinned down by unfavorable northerly winds for over a month. Meanwhile, Harold faced a second invasion threat from Harald Hardrada of Norway, who landed in Yorkshire with a Viking army. Harold force-marched north and destroyed the Norwegian invasion at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25. Two days later, William's fleet crossed the Channel, landing at Pevensey Bay on the Sussex coast on September 28. Harold raced south with his exhausted army. The armies met at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. Harold was killed, traditionally depicted with an arrow through his eye, though the actual manner of his death remains debated. William marched on London and was crowned king on Christmas Day. The conquest replaced the entire English ruling class with a French-speaking Norman aristocracy, introduced feudal land tenure, reshaped the legal system, and injected thousands of French words into the English language. The England that emerged from 1066 was fundamentally different from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that preceded it.