The scene of Harold's death at Hastings in the Bayeux Tapestry
The death of Harold, Bayeux Tapestry, 1070s
Marked Stamford Bridge

SubjectIn outline · lessons being written

1066 and the Norman Conquest

In one year, England faced two invasions. Harold II beat a Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge, then lost to William of Normandy at Hastings. William’s castles, the harrying of the North and Domesday Book followed.

Place
Stamford Bridge · Pevensey · Hastings · York · ElyEurope
Laid out as
A campaignA run of marches and battles, step by step across a map.
Lessons
6 planned, none written yet
Image
Photograph by Myrabella, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

The lessons we plan

Titles may change as they are written

  1. IThree claims to a crown
  2. IIStamford Bridge
  3. IIIHastings
  4. IVCastles
  5. VThe harrying of the North
  6. VIDomesday Book

Still to come

The people and objects these lessons will cover

People

  • Harold II
  • William I
  • Harald Hardrada
  • Edith Swanneck
  • Hereward

Objects

  • The Bayeux Tapestry
  • Domesday Book
  • The White Tower

Where it sits

All of human history, era by era

Early human ancestryOur species and the Old Stone AgeFarming and the New Stone AgeFirst cities and the Bronze AgeThe Iron Age and growing statesThe classical worldAfter the empiresMedieval networks and empiresOceans crossedRevolutions and the first factoriesIndustry, empire and world warThe world since 1945

1066 to 1087. Each era is drawn the same width, so the earliest are squeezed: era II alone is over 300,000 years.

Nearby in time and place

This page is an outline. The summary above is a starting point; each lesson, when it is written, will give its sources, its pictures and where historians disagree. Spotted a mistake?