0:00:09 > 0:00:13Falaise Castle, in Northern France.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18The year is 1027.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25A young girl is tormented by a strange dream.
0:00:31 > 0:00:37An enormous tree bursts out from deep within her belly.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42Its branches spread and grow until it towers over the whole of Normandy...
0:00:44 > 0:00:48..and then across the water to overshadow England too.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55The girl's name was Herleva,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58the daughter of the town's embalmer.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01And something WAS growing inside her.
0:01:01 > 0:01:06She'd just been seduced by the younger brother of the Duke of Normandy.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Herleva's dream is only a legend,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14written down 100 years after the event.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18But it contains one historical certainty -
0:01:18 > 0:01:20she HAD conceived a son that night.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24He would be known as William the Bastard.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Later, he would earn another title
0:01:26 > 0:01:32by which he would go down in history - William the Conqueror,
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Duke of Normandy and King of England.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44William's victory at the Battle of Hastings
0:01:44 > 0:01:48has given us England's most famous date - 1066.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52But this wasn't just a battle.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56It was a momentous turning point in European history.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02In the years that followed, the Normans transformed England
0:02:02 > 0:02:04and then the rest of Britain and Ireland.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08They helped forge the English language.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12They built monumental cathedrals and castles,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15including the Tower of London.
0:02:17 > 0:02:23The Conqueror's legacy would leave a permanent mark on British history.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28But the Normans didn't stop there.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33They also left a deep imprint across Europe,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35from northern France...
0:02:37 > 0:02:40..to southern Italy...
0:02:42 > 0:02:46..and on to the Middle East and Jerusalem.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52The Normans were an ambitious band of warriors,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55hungry for land, wealth and power,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59but also for spiritual inspiration and knowledge.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04They would become great patrons of European art...
0:03:05 > 0:03:06..and architecture.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14Everywhere they went, the Normans transformed the language, culture and politics
0:03:14 > 0:03:18in ways that can still be seen right across Europe to this day.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21Herleva's dream is a great Norman myth,
0:03:21 > 0:03:26designed obviously to glamorise William and add to his mystique.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29But the story contains a simple truth -
0:03:29 > 0:03:32the Norman hour was approaching.
0:03:47 > 0:03:521066 wasn't England's first encounter with the Normans.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02In the year 793, their ancestors sailed across the North Sea
0:04:02 > 0:04:05from Scandinavia.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14Monks on the tiny English island of Lindisfarne were their first victims.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23The 8th-century cleric Alcuin of York described the carnage.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26"Never before has such terror appeared in Britain.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29"Behold the church of St Cuthbert,
0:04:29 > 0:04:34"splattered with the blood of God's priests, robbed of its ornaments."
0:04:34 > 0:04:37The Vikings had struck for the first time.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47For 300 years, the Vikings burned and murdered their way across the Continent,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51sailing thousands of miles in search of wealth and power.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00With their formidable longboats and pagan gods,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04the Vikings terrorised northern and eastern England,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06sailed to the Mediterranean,
0:05:06 > 0:05:10and across the Atlantic as far as North America.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20But the place where the Viking story took its most remarkable turn
0:05:20 > 0:05:23was just across the Channel from England in northern France.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27One of the most successful Viking settlements of them all took root here.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33It even took its name from them - "Land of the Northmen", Normandy.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44The Vikings began raiding the Seine Valley in northern France in the middle of the 9th century.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51According to the 11th-century French historian, Dudo of St Quentin,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53they liked what they saw.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56"This land is rich and fertile with crops of all kinds,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59"criss-crossed with rivers full of fish,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02"and rich in game for the hunting.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07"Let us subject it to our own power and claim it as our own."
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Norman history starts here.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17The Vikings sailed up the River Seine,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22stripping and destroying the wealthy, but very poorly defended, monasteries,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24like this one at Jumieges.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28These walls are the only part of the church remaining
0:06:28 > 0:06:31from the ones that the Vikings destroyed.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34And since the monks were the ones who wrote the histories,
0:06:34 > 0:06:39it's hardly surprising that they gave the Vikings a very bad press indeed.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49But the Vikings' reputation was about to change.
0:06:52 > 0:06:56France in the 10th century was in a state of political fragmentation.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02The great empire of Charlemagne that covered most of modern France, Germany and Italy
0:07:02 > 0:07:05had disintegrated in the 9th century.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12France was now a series of warring principalities.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16The king had little authority.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21Northern France was there for the taking.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24But this band of Vikings soon realised
0:07:24 > 0:07:29that holding on to territory and power required new tactics.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35The Vikings were led by a Norwegian giant called Rollo.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39He was said to be so large that no horse could carry him,
0:07:39 > 0:07:44so he went everywhere on foot and earned the nickname "Rollo the Ganger", "Rollo the Walker".
0:07:44 > 0:07:49He was skilled with the usual Viking tools of violence and chaos.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52But he also cultivated the local nobility
0:07:52 > 0:07:55and even married the daughter of a French noble.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58This was to be the model of Norman power -
0:07:58 > 0:08:01conquest through terror and force,
0:08:01 > 0:08:07but then settlement, intermarriage, adaptation to local society.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20By the start of the 10th century, Rollo's Vikings were unstoppable.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26Charles, King of France, had no choice but to do a deal.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31In 911, tradition has it that Rollo and the king met here
0:08:31 > 0:08:34by the river at St-Clair-sur-Epte.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42Rollo realised that the route to power called for diplomacy.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48So he swore loyalty to the king,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52agreed to protect him from other Viking raiders,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and promised to convert to Christianity.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04In return, the king offered Rollo all the land between the river and the sea.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10The province of Normandy was born.
0:09:12 > 0:09:18To seal the deal, the king insisted on the ritual kissing of the foot.
0:09:18 > 0:09:25Rollo refused - "I shall never bow my knees to the knees of any other man, or kiss anyone's foot."
0:09:25 > 0:09:29So he delegated the task to one of his followers,
0:09:29 > 0:09:35who bent down, grabbed the king's foot, brought it to his mouth, and sent the king toppling backwards.
0:09:35 > 0:09:41It was an early indication that the Normans had no intention of being ruled by anyone.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49Rollo didn't simply turn Normandy into another Viking war camp.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54He took the city of Rouen as his capital,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and the Normans became part of a great act of political transformation.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08In the course of just two generations, they doubled their territory
0:10:08 > 0:10:13and turned Normandy into one of the most powerful principalities in France.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20The Viking minority ruled over their French subjects.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24But they took Rollo's lead and learned from them too.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29The Normans became French.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31They married local women.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34They became wine drinkers.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38And within a generation or two, they'd abandoned their Scandinavian language.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45These marauding warriors realised
0:10:45 > 0:10:50that to make wealth and power permanent, they had to learn how to run a state.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54And their new neighbours showed them how.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01The Normans willingly adopted the French social structure
0:11:01 > 0:11:04and administrative and legal systems.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12They mastered them with their customary ferocious energy and ambition.
0:11:16 > 0:11:22Rouen's Museum of Antiquities contains a powerful symbol of this process.
0:11:33 > 0:11:38This is a coin that dates from the middle of the 10th century,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41from the reign of Rollo's son, William Longsword.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43You can make out the letters
0:11:43 > 0:11:49W-I-L-E-L-M-U-S, Wilelmus,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51the Latin for William.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57This is the first time a French territorial prince
0:11:57 > 0:12:02had put his own name on a coin, with no reference to the King of France.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06So this tiny object is a symbol of Norman power
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and the Normans' amazing audacity.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Wealth for the Normans was no longer simply booty to be looted.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23They now presided over a settled economy.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25They were fast learners,
0:12:25 > 0:12:30turning their newly conquered land into a fully functioning medieval state...
0:12:31 > 0:12:36..based on land ownership, social hierarchy and efficient government.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43This was a culture rooted in order and permanence,
0:12:43 > 0:12:45not anarchy and terror.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51It would make the Normans even more formidable than their Viking ancestors.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58But the Normans didn't completely lose touch with their Viking past.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Any attempts to revolt against the new order were brutally repressed.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08In the last decade of the 10th century,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12the Norman peasantry attempted to oppose the aristocrats.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22The Norman historian, William of Jumieges, describes their reaction.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25"The duke sent a large number of knights
0:13:25 > 0:13:28"who seized the peasants' leaders and many others,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32"cut off their hands and feet and left them helpless."
0:13:32 > 0:13:37This peasants' revolt was quickly abandoned.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50A band of Viking pirates had become a powerful political force.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52But it didn't stop there.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Their reinvention encompassed heaven as well as Earth.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02The Normans now had a new God as well as a new politics.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17And as with everything they did, they embraced their new religion with fierce enthusiasm.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26Rollo kept his promise to the king and converted to Christianity.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29Some people doubted his commitment.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32One French historian even claimed that on his deathbed,
0:14:32 > 0:14:37Rollo had 100 men decapitated to appease the pagan gods.
0:14:37 > 0:14:44But Rollo and his successors turned to Christianity with the same energy that they had applied to conquest.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46His ancestors had burned churches.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48They built them.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53And this monastery at Mont St Michel was one of their favourite projects.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15The monastery of Mont St Michel was founded
0:15:15 > 0:15:19on an island off the coast of Normandy in the 8th century.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28It soon became one of the major Christian pilgrimage sites.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38It's dedicated to the Archangel St Michael, the warrior saint.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43So it's little surprise that the Normans came to worship here.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54By the middle of the 10th century, they were Mont St Michel's most generous sponsors.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03They built the oldest part of the monastery.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06It lies behind this door.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30This is the chapel of Notre Dame Sous Terre - Our Lady Beneath the Ground.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37It was built in the 10th century during the reign of Duke Richard I, Rollo's grandson,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40and is the earliest surviving example of Norman architecture.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47It's a simple chapel, typical of the French style of the era,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52with its plain arches, rectangular supports and small windows.
0:16:53 > 0:16:59But within 50 years, Norman ambition and vision inspired the construction
0:16:59 > 0:17:03of a magnificent church just above this modest little chapel.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23This is the great abbey church of St Michel.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32It builds on the architecture of Imperial Rome...
0:17:34 > 0:17:36..with its round arches...
0:17:37 > 0:17:40..and monumental columns.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Historians label it Romanesque.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52This was the most widespread style of architecture
0:17:52 > 0:17:54since the fall of the Roman Empire.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00This church was a statement in stone.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06The Normans were here to stay.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11In less than 150 years,
0:18:11 > 0:18:16the pagan men from the north had become master builders of Christianity.
0:18:20 > 0:18:27Places like Mont St Michel showed off the Normans' growing faith, wealth and pride.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32And in return for building the abbeys, the monks would pray for their souls.
0:18:32 > 0:18:38Like most people in the Middle Ages, the Normans believed that God would punish them for their sins
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and they might spend all eternity burning in hellfire.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The monasteries were a kind of insurance policy,
0:18:44 > 0:18:52religious castles where monks engaged in endless spiritual warfare against Satan on their behalf.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07But their piety and church building didn't mean the Normans had
0:19:07 > 0:19:10any intention of laying down their swords.
0:19:14 > 0:19:2010th-century France offered new ways to express this urge to command and conquer.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28They'd already moved from raiding to government,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31and replaced pagan shrines with churches.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36Now the Normans would exchange their longboats for horses,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39reinventing themselves...
0:19:39 > 0:19:41as knights.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48The word "knight" summons up images of chivalric warriors,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50figures in plate armour,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55aristocratic heroes devoted to their ladies, Lancelot and Perceval.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58But the reality was quite different.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01The first knights were simply armoured men on horseback,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04and could be a very rough crowd.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07Some of them were little better than brutal thugs.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23These hard warriors were given years of training.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28Cavalry warfare was a tough and highly demanding discipline.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34Training was long, arduous and cost a great deal of money,
0:20:34 > 0:20:38not least for the armour and weaponry,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42the helmets, ironmail coats, spears and swords...
0:20:43 > 0:20:46..and above all, their horses.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56People in the Middle Ages knew their horses well, intimately.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01There's a wonderful story of a man who could tell by picking up manure and sniffing it,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04whether it came from wild donkeys fed on grass
0:21:04 > 0:21:08or from war horses that had been eating oats.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12It enabled him to tell, of course, whether there were enemies in the neighbourhood.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Fighting on horseback defined a new kind of warfare.
0:21:24 > 0:21:30The shock tactics of heavy cavalry must have been physically and psychologically devastating.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40The Normans were becoming the most ferocious cavalry in Europe.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44It made them a wonderful machine for conquest.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52Horseback warfare also left a powerful social legacy.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56In most European languages, the word for "knight" -
0:21:56 > 0:22:00chevalier, caballero, Ritter - simply means "horseman".
0:22:02 > 0:22:06But it soon came to signify both honour and status.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Knights became a vital part of the new social hierarchy.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23As the Normans sharpened their military skills, they were also learning another important lesson -
0:22:23 > 0:22:27how to consolidate power.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31This too involved building.
0:22:32 > 0:22:39Wooden fortifications, known as "motte and bailey" castles, sprang up across the region.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Quick and easy to build, they were used as bases for attack
0:22:43 > 0:22:46and then for the defence of captured land.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52And here, deep in the forest of Grimbosq,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56are the remains of an early motte and bailey castle.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01Here, there's an enormous earth mound, now covered with trees,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05made by digging the soil out from a surrounding ditch.
0:23:05 > 0:23:06This is the motte.
0:23:06 > 0:23:12Here, there would have been a defensive wall made of wood, a stockade.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15And this place would have served as a lookout point
0:23:15 > 0:23:18and an emergency refuge for the lord and his men.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Below was the bailey, a level area
0:23:20 > 0:23:25also protected by a defensive wall of wood,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28used as living quarters and to house the horses.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38These fortifications were a statement of aristocratic power and domination.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Soon, like their churches, they would be rebuilt in stone,
0:23:42 > 0:23:48great monuments of aggression and permanence.
0:23:50 > 0:23:56This was the land into which the most famous of all the Normans was born in 1027 -
0:23:56 > 0:24:03a man who, more than any other, ensured that Norman power would spread far beyond Normandy.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12No wonder the conception of the new duke became the stuff of legend,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17with the strange dream of Herleva, the embalmer's daughter.
0:24:25 > 0:24:31Herleva said that she felt something begin to stir and grow in her belly.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36It came out of her body and turned into an enormous tree,
0:24:36 > 0:24:41so vast that it overshadowed Normandy and the Kingdom of England.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44She had just conceived William the Conqueror.
0:24:51 > 0:24:57First, this illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy was known as "William the Bastard".
0:24:57 > 0:25:01And he was born into a world of danger.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08When his father died in 1035...
0:25:09 > 0:25:11..William was just eight years old.
0:25:14 > 0:25:21With the Duchy in the hands of a child, the Norman aristocracy saw their chance to grab power.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32William's rivals circled.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35One night, as the young duke was sleeping,
0:25:35 > 0:25:41his steward, Osbern, sleeping in the bed beside him, had his throat cut.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48In fact, every one of William's guardians was assassinated.
0:25:48 > 0:25:54On another occasion, according to legend, William had to make a quick escape at night,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57getting away on horseback in just his underclothes,
0:25:57 > 0:26:00and fording a raging river at midnight.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06Normandy was in turmoil.
0:26:06 > 0:26:12The chronicler William of Jumieges described the chaos.
0:26:14 > 0:26:20"Plots were hatched, and rebellions, and all the duchy was ablaze with fire."
0:26:23 > 0:26:25The violence was sickening.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Rivals were abducted and mutilated.
0:26:28 > 0:26:35One Norman lord who went to a wedding feast came away without ears, eyes, or genitals.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41Amazingly, he survived and ended his days as a monk.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57The young duke hung on for 12 years.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Then, in 1047, when he was 20 years old, he faced a full-blown revolt.
0:27:04 > 0:27:11It was launched by his cousin, Guy, who had mustered the backing of "the greater part of Normandy".
0:27:13 > 0:27:17William confronted the rebels here at Val-es-Dunes.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20He'd called on the aid of the French king, Henry I.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22But William didn't need much help.
0:27:31 > 0:27:36He charged into the carnage, terrifying his enemies with brute force.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48When they fled the battlefield, it's said that he pursued them relentlessly for miles.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Many were hacked down.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58Others drowned as they tried to cross the River Orne.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08The battle of Val-es-Dunes was the making of the young duke.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Nothing could stop him now.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27William set about restoring order to the Norman state.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30He built a new capital here at Caen,
0:28:30 > 0:28:35complete with the two indispensable expressions of Norman power -
0:28:35 > 0:28:36a castle...
0:28:38 > 0:28:43..and two abbeys, the Abbaye aux Hommes, for men,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46and the Abbaye aux Dames, for women.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Next, to secure his dynasty, came marriage.
0:29:01 > 0:29:06William's bride was a distant cousin called Mathilda.
0:29:06 > 0:29:12She was the daughter of Normandy's most powerful neighbour, the Count of Flanders.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Even in marriage, the young duke never forgot politics.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22But William and Mathilda appear to have been happy together,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25despite their rather ill-assorted appearance.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27He was almost six foot,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32she apparently only four foot three inches.
0:29:32 > 0:29:37At first, the Pope prohibited their wedding on the grounds that they were too closely related.
0:29:37 > 0:29:43The church had very strict rules at this time about marriage between cousins, however distant.
0:29:43 > 0:29:50But they went ahead and got married anyway, and then did penance by building their two abbeys.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54This is Mathilda's, the great Abbaye aux Dames.
0:30:15 > 0:30:20The abbeys of Caen are a high point of Norman church building.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26This was a golden age for Normandy,
0:30:26 > 0:30:32and William was asserting his Christian piety and the magnificence of his power.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46The abbeys share the same imperial pretensions as the church of Mont St Michel,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48but they are more sophisticated.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Their arches more graceful,
0:30:55 > 0:30:57their columns more refined.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17The duke was a fervent Christian.
0:31:18 > 0:31:23But he'd been hardened by his enemies and the trials of his childhood.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28William could be devastatingly savage.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32One story that concerns his siege of the city of Alencon
0:31:32 > 0:31:36tells how the defenders hung out animal skins over the battlements
0:31:36 > 0:31:41to mock the fact that his mother was an embalmer's daughter.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46When he captured the place, William ordered the offenders' hands and feet to be cut off,
0:31:46 > 0:31:52and then their eyes to be gouged out to satisfy his desire for revenge.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05William ruthlessly restored Normandy's power, prestige and wealth.
0:32:08 > 0:32:14One Norman historian remarked that he was "ruler of his whole land,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17"something which is scarcely found anywhere else."
0:32:22 > 0:32:28By the time he was in his 30s, William was secure enough to consider expanding his territories.
0:32:28 > 0:32:31In 1063, he invaded the county of Maine,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34which lies to the south of Normandy,
0:32:34 > 0:32:37crushed the fierce resistance he encountered,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39and added it to his dominions.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43But he already had in mind a yet greater prize,
0:32:43 > 0:32:49a large and powerful kingdom that lay not far away across the sea.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59What happened next would catapult the Normans
0:32:59 > 0:33:03and their ambitious leader to the very centre of European power.
0:33:07 > 0:33:1111th-century England offered much more than just territory.
0:33:12 > 0:33:17King Edward the Confessor ruled over one of the wealthiest
0:33:17 > 0:33:19and best-governed states in Europe -
0:33:19 > 0:33:22efficient and highly centralised.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Only the king could mint money.
0:33:32 > 0:33:38And the English silver penny was famous for its purity and stability.
0:33:39 > 0:33:46Most importantly, money flowed into the royal treasury, thanks to England's sophisticated tax system.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52But England was confronting the most dangerous prospect
0:33:52 > 0:33:57that a medieval kingdom could face - the death of a king without an heir.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01King Edward the Confessor was later to be made a saint, partly because,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05it is said, he lived and died a virgin, even though married.
0:34:05 > 0:34:12But from the point of view of dynastic politics, the death of a childless ruler was a disaster.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14And disaster was looming.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21King Edward was dying,
0:34:21 > 0:34:26and the Normans had become so entwined in the dynastic networks of Europe
0:34:26 > 0:34:30that William could make a plausible claim to the English throne.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36He was Edward's cousin, and had known him since childhood.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41When Edward succeeded to the English throne in 1042,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45he'd been living in exile in Normandy for almost 25 years.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50He was a stranger in his own land, who knew his cousin, Duke William,
0:34:50 > 0:34:52far better than he knew the English aristocracy.
0:34:52 > 0:34:59William even claimed that Edward promised him the English throne after Edward's death.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04And that was a prize William was determined to get his hands on.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11In France, William was a duke, but in England he could be a king.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16And kingship in the Middle Ages was an institution blessed and approved by God.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20But William had a rival.
0:35:20 > 0:35:26Earl Harold Godwinson had no hereditary claim to the throne.
0:35:26 > 0:35:32But he was the richest man in England, a successful general and a skilful politician.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36He claimed that Edward had promised HIM the throne too.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46The Norman duke's claim to the English throne was strengthened
0:35:46 > 0:35:52when Harold made a mysterious journey to Northern France in 1064.
0:35:55 > 0:36:00The story is told at the beginning of the greatest surviving record of the Norman conquest.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16This is the Bayeux Tapestry,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20one of the most amazing objects surviving from the Middle Ages.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31It's over 900 years old,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35and it sheds a unique light on that period.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40The 11th century is a distant and in some ways a dark period,
0:36:40 > 0:36:45but then suddenly, like a searchlight cutting though that darkness,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49we have this - 70 metres of detailed visual imagery.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55It's a masterpiece of needlework.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00The colours are clear and fresh,
0:37:00 > 0:37:01and when we look in detail,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05we can see how carefully observed every scene is.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07You can tell from this who are the English
0:37:07 > 0:37:10and who are the Normans by their hairstyle.
0:37:10 > 0:37:16The English invariably have shoulder-length hair and moustaches.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19The Normans are clean shaven,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21with a savagely high razor cut at the back.
0:37:24 > 0:37:31Modern historians can enrich their story with photographs or film.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Medievalists can't do that.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37But once in a while, they have a wonderful gift of something like this,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40something like a medieval film strip
0:37:40 > 0:37:45which tells us about a remarkable event in European history.
0:37:52 > 0:37:58It's believed that the tapestry was commissioned by William's half-brother Bishop Odo.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04Its size and complexity tell us the Normans regarded this expedition
0:38:04 > 0:38:07as more than just another bout of war-making.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13It begins with Harold's journey to France.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15We don't know why he went.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21But we do know that the voyage would lead to disaster for Harold...
0:38:21 > 0:38:23and for England.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28Here we see Harold and his men getting on board ship.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30They're sailing into the Channel, across to France.
0:38:30 > 0:38:37The wind blows them, unfortunately, to enemy soil, the land of Guy of Ponthieu, who imprisons them.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Duke William of Normandy gets to hear about this,
0:38:40 > 0:38:44and he demands that Harold should be sent to him.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47And when he's there, he treats Harold as an honoured guest.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51He even invites him to go on campaign with him,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55so Harold is actually fighting in William's army.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59We see the army proceeding towards Brittany.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03They pass Mont St Michel on their way.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08Harold distinguishes himself in this warfare. He's a kind of hero.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12And in return, William actually knights him.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14He gives him arms.
0:39:14 > 0:39:19A sign of great honour, but also perhaps of subordination.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22And then, on their return to Normandy,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25we have one of the most important scenes in the whole tapestry.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30It shows Harold taking an oath, his hands on reliquaries -
0:39:30 > 0:39:36containers with saints' bones inside - swearing to Duke William.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38It doesn't say what the oath is.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41William's story is that the oath was,
0:39:41 > 0:39:46"I, Harold, will support your claim to be the next king of England."
0:39:46 > 0:39:49We'll never know exactly what happened.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52Some people think it's unlikely that Harold,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55the most powerful man in England,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59with an eye to becoming king himself, would take this oath.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02But what is clear is what William thought had happened.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05Harold had sworn before God
0:40:05 > 0:40:08to recognise him as the next King of England.
0:40:08 > 0:40:14And it was on that that he based his invasion of England in 1066.
0:40:22 > 0:40:30The death of Edward the Confessor on 5th January 1066 was like the crack of a starting gun.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38First in the field was Harold.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44He wasted no time, and had himself crowned king in Westminster Abbey
0:40:44 > 0:40:46on the same day as Edward's funeral.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53In Normandy, William was out hunting when he heard the news.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58According to one historian, "he became as a man outraged."
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Another chronicler denounced Harold as a "pseudo king".
0:41:08 > 0:41:14Worse, he had perjured himself, committing a grave sin against God.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Nature itself appeared to be disturbed by this wickedness.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30A few months after Harold's coronation, Halley's comet appeared in the sky.
0:41:33 > 0:41:39For people in the Middle Ages, the appearance of a comet was a sign from heaven.
0:41:39 > 0:41:44It meant some great change was about to occur, perhaps the downfall of a regime.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49A comet was even called "the terror of kings".
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And Harold had reason to be afraid.
0:41:54 > 0:42:00Nothing could now stop a Norman bid to remove the usurper.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05Ever the politician, William first launched a diplomatic offensive.
0:42:05 > 0:42:10He asked his barons and the rulers of other European kingdoms
0:42:10 > 0:42:12to support his claim to the English throne.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17William sought support everywhere.
0:42:17 > 0:42:22He even sent envoys to Rome to get the backing of Pope Alexander.
0:42:22 > 0:42:27They came back with a papal banner to carry into battle,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30one of the first ever issued.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34In the words of the Norman chronicler, William of Poitiers,
0:42:34 > 0:42:38"he could now attack his enemies with greater boldness and security."
0:42:38 > 0:42:41William had God on his side.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53The way was clear for a full-scale military invasion.
0:42:56 > 0:43:02William of Jumieges recounts the felling of trees to construct a fleet of 3,000 ships...
0:43:05 > 0:43:10..enough to carry a quarter of a million men to England...
0:43:13 > 0:43:16..with all their horses, weapons and armour.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25William of Jumieges was exaggerating.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29He was, after all, the official historian of the Normans.
0:43:29 > 0:43:35We now think that maybe 700 ships carrying 7,000 men would be nearer the mark.
0:43:35 > 0:43:41Whatever the numbers, this was a vast, efficient, well-organised operation.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46William recruited troops from all over northern France, well beyond his own duchy,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49promising them the rewards of the adventure -
0:43:49 > 0:43:52wealth and power in England.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06King Harold had deployed his troops on the south coast of England
0:44:06 > 0:44:09and was waiting for William to attack.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15But William didn't come.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20His ships were grounded in France by unfavourable winds.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27The weeks went by, and there was still no sign of the great Norman fleet.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39As summer turned into autumn, Harold thought that William would not now risk the crossing.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43The winds were too strong, the sea too rough.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Besides, Harold's own provisions were now running low.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48He sent his men home.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51England was now open to attack.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Just a few days later, the attack came.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57But not from William.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05The invasion came from the north, from Scandinavia.
0:45:17 > 0:45:23The king of Norway, Harald Hardrada, "Hard Ruler", was a ruthless warrior,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26and he too had his claims on the English throne.
0:45:26 > 0:45:31Hardrada landed in the north of England with a vast army of Viking warriors.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36They captured York and defeated the local earls.
0:45:37 > 0:45:44Harold marched north and took the Norwegian army by surprise on 25th September 1066.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56At the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the invaders were completely defeated.
0:46:03 > 0:46:09It's said that of the 300 Norwegian ships that had originally landed,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12only 20 were needed to carry the survivors home.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Harald Hardrada was amongst the many dead.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19The Viking age was coming to an end.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Harold Godwinson was triumphant.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39But on the other side of the Channel,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41William was still waiting.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46Waiting didn't come easily to William.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49You can imagine him staring at the weathervane of the local church,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52praying for the wind to change.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Eventually, he turned to the supernatural.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59He had the body of the local saint, Saint Valery, taken from its tomb
0:46:59 > 0:47:03and carried in solemn procession through the town.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06And William's prayers were finally answered.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13On the night of 28th September 1066,
0:47:13 > 0:47:18the winds changed, and William's fleet sailed the 70 miles to Sussex.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26A forest of masts, lit up with burning torches,
0:47:26 > 0:47:28slipped across the Channel.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38The ships looked startlingly like the Viking warships
0:47:38 > 0:47:42that had brought William's ancestors to Normandy 150 years earlier.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48But this was no band of pagan pirates on a raid.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54It was a well-trained, disciplined army of knights...
0:47:54 > 0:47:56coming to take a kingdom.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Legend has it that as William jumped ashore, he stumbled and fell.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07At first, the Normans regarded this as a bad omen.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10But William immediately leapt up and cried out,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14"See, I have grasped the land with both hands!"
0:48:23 > 0:48:27The Normans began as they meant to continue.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31They built two wooden motte and bailey castles within a fortnight,
0:48:31 > 0:48:36one at Hastings and one here, at Pevensey.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40They laid waste to the surrounding countryside,
0:48:40 > 0:48:45wiping out the locals, burning their houses
0:48:45 > 0:48:47and killing their animals.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53Exhausted from doing battle in the north,
0:48:53 > 0:48:58Harold marched the 200 miles from York to London in just five days.
0:49:02 > 0:49:07The story goes that Harold's mother begged him to postpone his showdown with William.
0:49:07 > 0:49:09After all, Harold had the upper hand.
0:49:09 > 0:49:14He could trap William in Hastings, starve him out, and raise new forces.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19But Harold refused to listen and charged headlong into his next battle.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21William was just as eager.
0:49:21 > 0:49:27It's said that he was in such a rush to confront Harold that he put his mailcoat on back to front.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Another bad omen?
0:49:29 > 0:49:31Not for William.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33"I trust in God.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37"Today you will see a duke changed into a king."
0:49:59 > 0:50:05On this hillside, on Saturday, 14th October 1066,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08a single battle between a few thousand men
0:50:08 > 0:50:14permanently changed the course of history in England and beyond.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21It was said to have taken place "at the grey apple tree".
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Nowadays, the site is known simply as Battle.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31The English occupied this ridge,
0:50:31 > 0:50:36standing shoulder to shoulder, many armed with huge axes.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41To protect themselves, they overlapped their shields, forming the shield wall.
0:50:47 > 0:50:49This was the traditional way of fighting,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52tried and tested over the centuries.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57Confronting them was something startlingly new in English warfare.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00The Normans were drawn up in three lines -
0:51:00 > 0:51:05first the archers, then the infantry, then the mounted knights.
0:51:17 > 0:51:24It's said that William hung around his neck the very saints' relics on which Harold had sworn his oath.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27With the papal banner fluttering in the breeze,
0:51:27 > 0:51:32he must have been confident that God and the saints were backing HIM.
0:51:44 > 0:51:50Harold's army was battle weary and exhausted from the long march south.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01Fighting began about nine o'clock in the morning.
0:52:20 > 0:52:22The Normans charged uphill.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25The war cries on both sides were soon drowned out
0:52:25 > 0:52:27by the clash of arms
0:52:27 > 0:52:31and the shrieks and groans of the wounded and the dying.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42Harold's men were packed so densely behind their solid shield wall
0:52:42 > 0:52:45that the dead were unable to fall.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50The Normans couldn't break the English line.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59A rumour spread amongst the Normans that William had been killed.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02The men on the left flank panicked and began to rush down the hill.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10The English above broke ranks and followed them.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16But William had not been killed.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20He pushed back his helmet to reveal his face and called out,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24"I live, and with God's help will conquer yet!"
0:53:24 > 0:53:30The Normans immediately rallied, turned on the English who were pursuing them, and cut them down.
0:53:38 > 0:53:40The English line was broken...
0:53:41 > 0:53:43..and the Normans charged in.
0:53:54 > 0:53:59The Bayeux Tapestry shows all the confusion and desperation of the battle.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05In the 11th century, it was customary
0:54:05 > 0:54:10for the bishops to join in, though they were forbidden to shed blood.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14Here's Bishop Odo, William's half-brother.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16He's carrying a huge club.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23That way, he could break a few arms or heads without any bloodshed.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Bodies fall in a heap of twisted and broken limbs.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39The hillside must have been saturated with blood.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Then came the decisive moment - the death of King Harold.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57Two early accounts of the battle say that an arrow struck the king in the eye.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06The king was dead.
0:55:09 > 0:55:12And a world was coming to an end.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22Harold's body was so mutilated that it couldn't even be found.
0:55:22 > 0:55:28It was recognised eventually, legend has it, by his mistress, Edith "the Swan necked",
0:55:28 > 0:55:34who identified it by "certain, secret marks" known only to her.
0:55:34 > 0:55:39And along with Harold, Anglo-Saxon England died on this battlefield.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42One of William's chaplains describes the scene.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46"The flower of English youth, the flower of English nobility
0:55:46 > 0:55:50"covered the ground far and wide, filthy with their own blood."
0:55:55 > 0:56:00It's said that William refused to bury the English dead.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03They lay rotting for days.
0:56:06 > 0:56:12He would later relent and build an abbey here as penance for the carnage of the battle.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19Its altar is said to have been built on the spot where Harold fell.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29But in the immediate aftermath of the battle, William felt no remorse.
0:56:29 > 0:56:36A week after his victory, this bastard descendant of Viking pirates set off on the march to London.
0:56:36 > 0:56:42He was now William the Conqueror, soon to be William, King of England.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45The future belonged to the Normans.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03In the next episode,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05Anglo-Saxon rebellion...
0:57:07 > 0:57:11..the Normans transform English politics and culture...
0:57:13 > 0:57:16..and a new order in Scotland...
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Wales...
0:57:19 > 0:57:21and Ireland.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25And if you'd like to walk in the steps of the Normans,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29you can download maps of Norman walks all over the UK
0:57:29 > 0:57:34at bbc.co.uk/history.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:57:51 > 0:57:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk