The Epic Adventure William the Conqueror

[legokid555]

I am related to him

[minionas]

WILLIAM THE BASTARD! HE WILL ROT IN HELL

[kg062007]

They couldnt hire a cuter girl?

[Saxonsoldiers]

@kg062007 They do not have any of them in France!

[stretch4859]

@iamsamshope your absolutely right Normandy is in France. Anyone that doubts that should look it up on Wikipedia and learn their history, I have been fond of World History since back in the 70's when I was a teenager

[stretch4859]

It is interesting to note that the scorched earth method has been going on since the BC's, and a quite a few years or I should say alot of years back I thought that maybe the Russians had invented this method of destroying supplies like they did when Napoleon and Hitler had invaded their country.

[paragate]

I do not care for so called kings and absolute rulers. In my mind there were just blood seeking pirates and lusting for power. Although they shaped history, but not for the better of mankind. And still they are trying to uphold there status as if it is there god given right.

[iamsamshope]

Harold is an idiot and that it what got him killed. He would have lived and England probably would have done better, less causalities, had Harold not stabbed William in the back. They left that out in this bit of the documentary. King Edward told William that he would have the crown, then when Edward died Harold says, though there was no documentation of it, that Edwards gave HIM the crown. William was infuriated. He also had a blood right to the crown of England.

[fir454]

@iamsamshope Complete nonsense. Harold was the lected King, and the nobles agred. Th Saxons were completely within their right to figh the Normans. William had mercenaries. He needed to pay them with english lands. Th saxon nobles HAD to figh.

[fir454]

@iamsamshope WRONG> Wiliam was interested in land. H wantd england. Harold was elected by the saxon nobles.

[EnglishHuscarl]

@iamsamshope How do you know that Edward offered the crown to William? Edward is massively to blame for not producing any heirs, and also because of this, after Edwards death, it was down to the Witan to choose the next King, and they chose an Englishman. William had no right to the throne, and obviously nobody in England believed he had, this is why Englishman decided to side with William. William also owes his victory to the Harald Hardrada, who invaded first and weakened the English army.

[EnglishHuscarl]

@EnglishHuscarl I meant to say no Englishman joined William.

[lge8710094]

I am a descendent of William & Matilda.. may peace be upon their souls!

[jonnyfontain24]

he is a viking not french.

[iamsamshope]

@jonnyfontain24 You're a moron! He is Norman, French. He was the Duke of Normandy, which was located in Northern France, hence why he spoke French. Der!

[espoire1757]

Thus, in two generations the Scandinavian element is diluted in the vast French genetics. Vikings there remained the name of Norman. The Normans were now in the blood by french language and culture. Succeeded the Norman house another French dynasty, that of Plantegenets of the House of Anjou. So until the 14 th century french language became official language of the kingdom of England

[espoire1757]

Either you're ignorant or you are in bad faith because you're ashamed that the Normans are french! Look on a map and you will see that the Normandy is in France. While some of their ancestors were pirates Vikings who had settled in France but their numbers were tiny compared to the local population, the Vikings also got married to local women and their children are also married to locals and so on!

[legomyeggo713]

@espoire1757 Normans are not french well not my ancestor at least he came to Normandy with Rollo who later became the first duke of Normandy

[espoire1757]

@legomyeggo713 The Vikings who settled in Normandy in France from 911 French were certainly not because they did not speak French, their cultures were not French, and even after their conversion to Christianity they were not French! But it is their children who will be French because their mothers were local women and their children in turn to marry local women so they become French in language, culture and blood

[Saxonsoldiers]

@espoire1757 Actually you are wrong!Scandinavian settlement across Europe went to the same pattern everywhere! Small scale raiding, large scale raiding then full blown land seizure invasions. When the land was won the women were sent for then trading begun. It happened in Ireland, Scotland England, Russia the Faroes, Everywhere the Vikings went. If it did'nt Scandinavia would be a desolate place,unpeopled because there be no men to produce with! The raids started so they could provide 4 families

[espoire1757]

@legomyeggo713 The fact is that this is not a Scandinavian language that was imposed by the Normans in England but it is the French language that had become the official language of the kingdom of England until the end of 14th century . The Normans also introduced feudalism Gothic architecture and much else that was not the uses and customs of the Scandinavian kingdoms but those of the kingdom of France from which the Duchy of Normandy

[Saxonsoldiers]

@espoire1757 Errrrr you need to study the term Gothic i think! The Goths were Scandinavians, from Sweden. Also known as the Geats. And a Norman French speaker of the 11th century would find it easier talking to a Dane or Norseman than he would a Frenchman. The Normans that went to England still bore Scandinavian names. They sent their offspring to Scandinavia because they knew who were the best to teach their children how to master the seas.1/2

[Saxonsoldiers]

@espoire1757 Military terms of today stem from the Plantagenet's, Frenchman. Naval terms of today still bear their Scandinavian/English roots.

[Saxonsoldiers]

@espoire1757 As iv said above, Scandinavian settlement went to the same pattern everywhere. Small scale raids, leading to bigger ones. Then full scale land grab invasions. When the land was won the women were sent for. All across the viking world the same pattern was observed. Lets not forget that the raids begun in the first place to support families back home. What you think they just left those families behind ? lol. No, this is a case of the french trying to claim their only victory England!

[Eloaene]

@medievalgirl002 [continued] which may be one reason why so many would be invaders ended up choosing to lose their native language, culture, dress etc and choosing to become Scoti/ Celtic and fostering their children under the Clans. It was an equal opportunity, equal almost everything and very Just society by nature. Feudalism was not.

[Eloaene]

@medievalgirl002 [continued] As for Clan inter-warring, the only reason it stopped lol was because the feudal peoples who murdered, hanged, tortured, burned etc those who wouldn't conform [i.e. the Scoti] caused the Clans to have a common enemy and therefore a nationalistic unity occurred. But still goes back to the fact that the Clans still never found pride in pillaging and plundering land that wasn't theirs to expand territory and forcibly conform peoples of other lands..which is [continued]

[Eloaene]

@medievalgirl002 [continued] Ireland was also a very very very wealthy place to be through the medieval ages and THE place of education. All peoples of europe and mediteranian regions sent scholars there to do their learning and the Occupants of Ireland sent many teachers out to the world. But their life was made difficult by those who took over the land of England and the waves invaders there who out-bred the blood of Englands original tribes made life hell for those who didn't comply. [cont]

[Eloaene]

@medievalgirl002 [continued] spreading an evolved form of feudalism, but ultimately it were a combination of these peoples in a new occupation of England who would bring feudalism to the Celts/Ireland/Scotland/Picts. That is not to say that I don't recognize many mormans, picts, danes, finish, etc chose to live eat breathe sleep the Celtic way of life of those original tribes there. [I'm very aware of the migration of different tribes in the islands all the way back to Noah]. [continued]

[Eloaene]

@medievalgirl002 Thanks for responding. Hmm, not saying you're wrong here, I understand that there were many invasions of different cultures along Britains shores and that at some point in the far past, those in England were not Feudalistic, however even before the Normans, the Angles and Saxons brought an Early version of Feudalism to England and they are amoung the first to begin displacing the original populations there.Normans took a part several hundred years later in spreading [continued]

[columhcille]

[continued] and put a stop to a lotof the inter-clan warring. It was only after England used her under-handed methods and dirty false-truths to coerce the Celts that they were able to garner any control and enforce their feudalistic ways upon them.

[medievalgirl002]

@columhcille You dound like one of the Eleventh/Twelfth Century Norman Historians, or propaghandists as some choose to call them. One question, if the Normans did England so much good, why before 1066 was England the wealthiest Kingdom in Northern Europe, but one of the poorest by the Fourteenth Century? Also, I think you will fing that Henry II who took over Ireland was cuturally, linguistically and ancestrally more French than English, and that said Conquest was ordered by the Pope.

[medievalgirl002]

@columhcille You sound like one of the Eleventh/Twelfth Century Norman Historians, or propaghandists as some choose to call them. One question, if the Normans did England so much good, why before 1066 was England the wealthiest Kingdom in Northern Europe, but one of the poorest by the Fourteenth Century? Also, I think you will fing that Henry II who took over Ireland was cuturally, linguistically and ancestrally more French than English, and that said Conquest was ordered by the Pope.

[medievalgirl002]

@columhcille Edward I was also more French than English, as were most of his Nobles. You may also be unaware of the fact That St Margaret, the eleventh Centiry Queen of Scotland, who is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish Queens, and is credited by some Historians as having laid the foundations of Scottish resistance to Feudalism, was an Anglo-Saxon by birth. She was the grandaughter of Edmund Ironside, a son of King Ethelred by his first marriage (before Emma of Normandy).

[medievalgirl002]

@columhcille She came to Scotland to escape the Norman onslaught and was married (some say by force) to the King of Scotland. Please note also that through her, Robert the Bruce was descended from Alfred the Great, as were the Plantagenet Kings. Feudlism was forcibly imposed upon England by foriegn Conquerers, who almost entirely dispossesed , exiled or killed the English aristocracy and landowners, so it was not in fact, the 'English' who imposed feudalism on the Celtic peoples of Britain.

[columhcille]

[continued] in determining what they cant scoop up and take for their own. ;P haha. oddly, the Scoti [Irish/Scottish Celts] were about the only peoples of the time in the region of the world that didn't find necessity in this feudalistic drive to do whatever necissary to undermine and eventually expand your own territory. Their culture never harboured that intention..however it was then this same feudalism that gave rise to the celtic nationalism in Ireland and Alba and put [continued]

[columhcille]

I think what some people forget is that this "warmongering" that happened throughout Europe was a product of ther "occupation".. pillaging, plundering, taking over more domains for their own, this was how they made their money and supported their kingdoms. Of course there are many wars they made for themselves that did not end up being profitable, but in the end, ...war-making.. was their job. This is how they went to work every day so to speak. Politics plays a part in determining [continued]

[springbokk4life]

@disturb0234 who cares? doesn't make you a better person, get over it.

[Saxonsoldiers]

@disturb0234 Yh ok, coming for the crown of England then next are ya lol lol lol. Take your tablets mate

[lumagrowl123]

i am related to william

[EnglishHuscarl]

William was lucky, his victory was more down to the Viking invasion in the north. If William had had to face a larger fresher English army, rather than the depleted exhausted force which had ran almost the length of England twice, do you think he would of won? Or if the Normans had to fight the Vikings first then face Harold? William is one of the luckiest Generals in history, and he owes his victory to Harald Hardrada.

[Anquetil79]

@EnglishHuscarl William defeated the Frankish king and his army two times even being vastly outnumbered in the battles of Varaville and Mortemer. Harold Godwinson, who was half Danish as his father had wed with the Danish invaders who took control over the Saxons, had attacked the Norwegians when they where not ready. William was much more of a general than Harold.

[Saxonsoldiers]

@Anquetil79 You need to study history properly! Harold was a better general than William, Harold Conquered all Wales in a year, he was feared by the Welsh who actually beheaded their own king because they heard Harold was coming (and Harold was not even king then!). Where as it took the Normans 50 years to beat the primitive Welsh. The Welsh were in fear of the English, who did not have to hide behind castles like cowards to exert their will on the Welsh like the Normans did!

[sgillespie13]

"la fabuleuse epopee" don't make me chunder

[farmerne]

In the movie "Becket", Richard Burton (as Becket) remarks the that the Normans "burned our Saxon houses, killed our Saxon fathers, and raped our Saxon sisters". Historian Norman F. Cantor, in his book "The Middle Ages" describes the Normans as "the Nazis of the 11th century" who displayed "an unmitigated contempt for Saxon culture", destroying many works of Saxon art in the decades after the Conquest. William and his Boys were NOT very nice people.

[sugarraygras]

@farmerne They also created the Doomsday tax document as well as establishing monarchy is automatically passed down in his family. Harold was the better man according to the sources but to win to massive battles in 3 weeks proved too much even for the 'fighting man'.

[ImperialGuard9001]

@farmerne Funny thing tough if Becket said that was very ood since he was a Norman. And if Normans were "Nazis of 11th century" then the actions of William would be strange since he was first king of England to grant entry of jews into England the fact is Normans were no different from other peoples in Middle Ages and that inclues the Saxons that centuries before slaugther themselfs into Britania and then ake it as their own from the local Britons that were slauthered and persecuted by saxons

[freefallproductions3]

i think i am also related to him, i am related to a lot of english and scottish and a little scandinavian and french and german but mainly english and scottish and french

btw william was a jackass too he died a horrible slow painful death by his sattle horn and rotted slowly from the inside out and it was painful! but he aslo did some good stuff and was an amazing fighter and built many awesome castles but was brutal and burt churches

[shanepaulcoward]

And we've all been enslaved ever since.

[sugarraygras]

@shanepaulcoward The occupation continues, you are right. However I know someone who hails from the Godwinson lineage and trust me it wont be Harolds desendants who leads us to freedom.

[BJHBNE]

Sicily was conquered before Britain was.

[CDanielzSpecialist]

classic underdog story. the stuff of disney movies.

[sammysaywhat49]

I found out I'm a descendant of William's. It's fascinating to hear his story.

[sugarraygras]

@sammysaywhat49 He was a shithead mate.

[gameplaya117]

William, Napoleon, Alexander, Ceasar, and Erwin Rommel are my top 5.

[zeppelin543211]

greatest general of all-time-he changed the western world more than any other

[DAILEYericCaryUSA]

...

History is cool.

[killer402402]

i am related to william the conqueror he is my great great great great great cusen

[rockkcor10]

We Nourmand took most of the Europe - so...

I have to disappoint all Gaul, French, English, German, Swiss, Sicilian, Russ, Hungarian, Polish et c...



[MacLeamh]

What's with the good-guy/bad-guy interpretation of history. We're talking about human populations, not football teams. And for goddesses sake, the history of Britain (or anyplace, for that matter) should not be approached as if its a Hollywood western. History is not set out in cable-ready packages for easy digestion -- even if glimpsed via YouTube. It's frustratingly complex, and fraught with uncertainty.

[StellandBlood]

@MacLeamh

The ethnic core of all peoples from western Iberia, till eastern Germania and Italy, remained celto/italic,despite the indo irannic culture is the most relevant "ancestor" of the germanic culture,due to the expansion south of the indo arianized scandinavians(predominantly native europeans) from 750 BC until the 1st century of this era,assimilating celtic germania,while Gaul and iberia were assimilated by the romans(italics/northern anatolians/native caucasians)

[RideMyBMW]

No Bill the Conqueror, no UK , no US and no space program to get us off this rock.

[wardog1967]

@RideMyBMW "Bill the Conqueror."...LOL....love it...so casual, so chummy....

[wardog1967]

@RideMyBMW Love it...now why would this be flagged as spam?

[yougonasorry]

i dont see anything fabulous about taht period, i would rather call it the period of hatred, mistrust, betrayal, massacres, and war for retarded reasons...

[MacLeamh]

@yougonasorry -- So what historical period(s) do you deem "fabulous?" You've implied periods or peoples untouched by the staples of human misery -- massacres and wars (retarded reasons or not). I'll take you at your word -- you don't see anything fabulous. But history demands that you look. Granted, it's difficult to see through the fog of time and the gut-wrenching, nearly ubiquitous squalor. Beyond the obscurations, beauty and wisdom reside and are deserving of our attention.

[mongoose100989]

i never heard of this guy ever once before in my life.

although im sure its always been there in history circles and other people have talked about it.

[Jagbrothers2]

So this guy is a ancestor of the William the Conqueor?! If so, I must meet him :D

[EarlLeofwine]

Interesting video. Although it does fail to mention the bits about William the Bastard and his henchmen being despised by the English. That he and his cohorts slaughtered thousands of innocent people after he developed a scorched earth policy burning vegetation, houses, crops, and livestock while he looted the churches, tortured opponents and imposed a French speaking aristocracy.

[gipcambero]

but EarlLeofwine this is nothing compared to what the Saxons did to the celts

[TemplarX2]

@gipcambero It's karma. Contrary to whta most believe the Norman's core was Gallic; Gaul were Celts too and nearly 20% of the army were Breton (people of britanny), who are actually not Gallic Celts but British Isle Celts, Briton in another words! The Norman did mess up the Anglo-Saxon and Danes pretty bad, killing nearly a third of the population. The Norman though of them of nothing but semi-savages considering they couldn't build of stone like people in France.

[MacLeamh]

@TemplarX2 -- 1. The people of Gaul were not Celts and there was no Gaul in 1066. 2. The population of England was mostly "native" British who had had long ago adopted Anglo-Saxon language and culture. 3. The Norman invasion was also that of a male elite who amounted to about 1-2 percent of the English 4.The Normans did not kill a "third of the population" -- they certainly disinherited much of the English rulers, but it's not good policy to kill the people who put food on your table.

[TemplarX2]

@MacLeamh The Gauls were mainly Celt although the Belgae Gaul were a mixed of Celts and Germanics. Although by 1066, Gaul didn't exist, the core race of France was still Celtic. The Normans and other French amounted to more than you think as the migration continued from all France up to the destruction of the Angevin empire. Had the French king lost against the Angevin king of England, England would have been French today. Norman decimated about 1/3 of the English population through famine.

[MacLeamh]

@TemplarX2 -- But what's in a Celt? Were the people of the Hallstadt culture Celtic?

They were purveyors of a culture that spread to people of various origins. Or are the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlers of Britain "Celtic?" Or did they adopt Celtic culture? By 1066, the "core race" of today's central France was Frankish -- a Germanic people who spoke a Germanic language and whose ancestors came by way of the Cent. Euro. ice-age refugia.

[StellandBlood]

@MacLeamh

The Hallstatt culture is considered alpine celt.

[StellandBlood]

@MacLeamh

The proto germanic culture emerged in the middle bronze age,by the mix of the

Tumulus culture(proto celto/italic)and the corded ware culture(indo irannic

speakers)a reunion of what was divided +5,000 ears ago,in the late

neolithic,in southern russia/caucasus.

[Kingofsomething87]

gipcambero is absolutely correct. I am so sick of English people bitching about how cruel the Normans. They think that the saxons were better. The saxons did much worse to the britons.

[frantic1971]

The history books always present the Norman Conquest as doing all sorts of positive things for the English. That it "made England a country, etc.". But didn't it also lead to years of oppression, the subjugation of the English people and the dispossesion of their lands and destruction of their culture under the proud foot of a conquerer? Even after Hastings, William spent five years facing one uprising after another from the English. So it's not like he was welcomed with open arms.

[wardog1967]

@frantic1971 Then perhaps the Saxons should have looked at dealing with traitors such as the Earls Edwin & Morcar, PRIOR to the battle of Hastings; they screwed Harold by not coming to Hastings, still pissed at him because he gave Northumbria to Tostig. Then what did they do? They tried to get chummy with William to get Northumbria back and ended up dead, minus their integrity. Loyalty meant nothing to these two drop kicks.

[ccrich100]

@EarlLeofwine He did what he felt would permanently put down any rebellion. It worked.

[iamsamshope]

@EarlLeofwine Everyone knows all of that, but you are forgetting all of the amazing things that William did for England. He literally brought England out of the Dark Ages into the Medieval Ages. He created policies that were beyond what other countries, at the time, were doing. All of the English hated William, but he did something great for England and in retrospect, many English should be grateful to him.

[Saxonsoldiers]

@iamsamshope No we should not be grateful. The laws William "supposedly" implemented were re writes of Alfred the Greats laws. He who also introduced learning, ecclesiastical education, military fortifications (long before the Norman motte and bailies, indeed if Harold was in an Old English burgh and william outside it, even with the Battle of Stamford Bridge, William would have lost! No fortified burgh was ever lost to invaders). 1/2

[Saxonsoldiers]

@iamsamshope 2/2 As somebody else here has already remarked, England pre Norman was the richest nation in Europe, by the 14th century it was the poorest! William had no right to England. He was related by marriage to Edward the Confessor.....Not blood! His kingship (and English word that should not even be used next to the name William) was illegal and went ahead for monetary reasons, making me wonder if he was related to the very same Jews he let in!

[1973Johnny2bad]

thanks