NORMAN REVISION GUIDE
,How to use this guide
• Work through the tasks regularly
• Use the notes as the basis, if you want to
change the task to suit your revision style,
go ahead!
• Have a go at the exam questions as extra
revision
,Part 1 – Conquest and control
, Before the Normans: The Anglo Saxons
• Before 1066, England was a sophisticated and civilised society with around two million inhabitants.
• Religion was an important feature of society: everyone followed Catholic Christianity and accepted wha
Church said as absolute fact.
• King Edward the Confessor had ruled since 1042 and his reign had been stable and largely peaceful.
• Prior to this, England had been ruled by Edward’s half-brother, Harthacnut, whose father was Danish.
Danish Vikings had been invading England for many years, and the ‘English’ kings were often Danish
themselves.
• England was split into Earldoms - An ‘earl’ was a man of great influence who ran his own area of the cou
or ‘earldom’. Arguably the most important earl was Godwin, Earl of Wessex
• Godwin had a unsteady relationship with King Edward for years and Godwin even lost his earldom at on
point
• Godwin eventually made his peace with his king and died in King Edward’s bedchamber in 1053.
• His son, Harold, was given Wessex as his earldom and was the most important region in England becaus
was the only one that was not invaded by the Vikings during their invasions. Winchester, the most impo
city in the country, was in Wessex.
,How to use this guide
• Work through the tasks regularly
• Use the notes as the basis, if you want to
change the task to suit your revision style,
go ahead!
• Have a go at the exam questions as extra
revision
,Part 1 – Conquest and control
, Before the Normans: The Anglo Saxons
• Before 1066, England was a sophisticated and civilised society with around two million inhabitants.
• Religion was an important feature of society: everyone followed Catholic Christianity and accepted wha
Church said as absolute fact.
• King Edward the Confessor had ruled since 1042 and his reign had been stable and largely peaceful.
• Prior to this, England had been ruled by Edward’s half-brother, Harthacnut, whose father was Danish.
Danish Vikings had been invading England for many years, and the ‘English’ kings were often Danish
themselves.
• England was split into Earldoms - An ‘earl’ was a man of great influence who ran his own area of the cou
or ‘earldom’. Arguably the most important earl was Godwin, Earl of Wessex
• Godwin had a unsteady relationship with King Edward for years and Godwin even lost his earldom at on
point
• Godwin eventually made his peace with his king and died in King Edward’s bedchamber in 1053.
• His son, Harold, was given Wessex as his earldom and was the most important region in England becaus
was the only one that was not invaded by the Vikings during their invasions. Winchester, the most impo
city in the country, was in Wessex.
