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ENGLAND UNDER THE NORMANS
AND ANGEVINS

CHAPTER I
THE NORMAN CONQUNT (1066-1072)
THE Norman Conquest of England was the outcome of a
struggle, short and spasmodic in its character, between a
handful of adventurers and a decadent nation lying on the outer
fringe of European politics; and although it nearly affected the
interests of several powers it occasioned no general disturbance of
international relations. In fact if the importance of an event were
to be measured by the commotion which it makes among con-
temporaries the Norman Conquest might be regarded as of little
moment for European history. None the less it is one of those
events which stand as a boundary mark between two stages of
civilisation; and there is something more than accident in the
rapidity with which, after the victory of Senlac, Europe emerges
from the Dark Age into that splendid twilight which a large
proportion of civilised humanity still prize more highly than the
morning light of the Renaissance or the mingled storm and sun-
shine of the Reformation. Senlac was a symptom, to some extent
a cause, of changes affecting every field of European activity. At
the first glance Duke William and his Normans fall into the same
category with the Goths of Alaric, the Franks of Clovis, the Vikings
of Cnut and Harold Hardrada; the Conquest of England seems
but another example of those predatory migrations which made
and unmade so many barbarous kingdoms between the close of
the fourth and the beginning of the twelfth century of our era.
And even from this point of view the year 1066 constitutes a turn-
ing point in history, since the Conquest of England settled the
broad outlines of European political geography for some time to

Important-
ance of
the Con-
quest

-1-

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Publication Information: Book Title: England under the Normans and Angevins, 1066-1272. Contributors: H. W. C. Davis - author. Publisher: Methuen. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1905. Page Number: 1.
    
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