Line #40 UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/410px_arms.png]]
2
3	->''"I’m William the Conqueror. My enemies stood no chance. They call me the first English king. Although I come from France."''
4	-->-- '''Series/HorribleHistories''', ''The Monarchs' Song''.
5
6	Normandy (French: ''Normandie'') is a [[UsefulNotes/DepartementalIssues region]] of north-west UsefulNotes/{{France}}, given by the French King in the 9th century to a group of [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Viking]] raiders to settle in. It takes its name from these settlers ("North Men" -> "Norman" -> Normandy). The first Duke of Normandy was a man named Rollo (''Hrólfr'' in his native tongue, Old Norse), a Norse[[note]]Nobody's quite sure where exactly in Scandinavia Rollo was from. A common hypothesis is that he was from UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}}, which would make some sense, as there is little question that the bulk of his companions came from Denmark. However, there is some evidence he might have been [[UsefulNotes/{{Norway}} Norwegian]]. What's clear is that when they arrived in France, the Normans were speaking East Old Norse--root of the same branch of the North Germanic tree as Danish and Swedish, as opposed to the West Old Norse that gave rise to modern Norwegian and Icelandic. So even if he might not have been from Denmark, he was almost certainly a leader of Danes.[[/note]] chieftain who had fought numerous campaigns against the French before finally being decisively defeated in battle in 911. Rollo agreed to be baptized and become a vassal to the French king, and in exchange received the lands that would become the Duchy of Normandy as a fiefdom. Although subordinate to France and its king, by the 11th century it was for all intents a powerful and autonomous state of its own, with the Duke of Normandy being a respected statesman. Throughout 11th century, the Dukes of Normandy would develop trade, military, and kinship ties with one of their nearest neighbors: the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of England.
7
8	In January 1066, Harold Godwinson was elected King of England by the Witan (a council of high ranking nobles and religious leaders), following the death of King Edward the Confessor of UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex, who begot no children. The election result failed to meet with the approval of one William, Duke of Normandy, who claimed that Edward, [[ThickerThanWater his first cousin once-removed]] [[note]] William was a cousin of Edward’s through Edward’s mother Emma, who was William’s great-aunt[[/note]], had promised the throne to him several years earlier. In October of that same year, the then-Duke William added the Throne of England to his territories in what came to be known as the Norman Conquest, ending the era of [[UsefulNotes/AngloSaxons Anglo-Saxon]] dominance in that country and beginning a two hundred year period where England was ruled by Frenchmen. 1066 typically marks the Year Zero of 'modern' England: what is now the common starting place in history lessons to start learning about the monarchy, and the point where cultural customs, politics, economics, and the nation's language itself all changed swiftly and dramatically. The Norman dynasty lasted until 1154, where the King more closely identified himself as an Angevin "[[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Plantagenet]]" monarch.
9
10	William and his heirs, however, still held French land and therefore owed fealty to the French king. This would cause endless problems in the years to come.
11
12	Note that the regnal numbers given below are anachronistic. Norman kings were known by their first name and a sobriquet, either a nickname or their place of birth. Regnal numbers were assigned by law clerks only in the time of Edward III. Each king's most common sobriquet is listed here after his Consort.
13
14	!!'''William I of England, Duke of Normandy'''
15	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c132ee1c_8003_4d93_971f_3bb65f898239.jpeg]]
16	->'''Lived''': c. 1028 – 9 September 1087
17	->'''Reigned''': 1066 — 1087
18	->'''Parents''': Robert I, ''Duke of Normandy'' and Herleva of Falaise
19	->'''Consort''': Matilda of Flanders
20	->'''Nickname''': ''The Conqueror'', ''The Bastard''[[note]]Though never to his face[[/note]]
21	----
22
23	->''"It is I, William! I live and with God's help, I will conquer!"''
24
25	Called ''Guillaume'' in his own Norman French tongue, he was a bastard in both magnificent and literal terms: the illegitimate son of Robert I of Normandy and a tanner's daughter (at one siege, his foes hung tanned hides from the battlements to mock him – not very wisely in the long run, since he chopped off both hands and both feet of every member of the garrison once he captured the place). His father died when he was eight, and he would spend the next twenty years involved in the battles between various French vassal states, as well as fighting Norman nobles who thought "Duke" sounded pretty good in front of their own names.
26
27	He married Matilda of Flanders, at least in part to secure his northeastern border and shore up his English credentials (she counted top Anglo-Saxon king UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat as an ancestor); she spurned the bastard duke at first, leading to [[WouldHitAGirl William allegedly throwing her off her horse by her hair and pimp-slapping her]]. [[WhatDoesSheSeeInHim She agreed to marry him immediately afterwards]], defying a papal ban to do so. Their marriage was not only a political success but also a personal one. They truly loved each other unlike most other royal couples throughout history and she became a dutiful and reliable partner to him. She bore him four sons which shored up his reign and was entrusted to rule in his stead for him while he was away. Despite his descendants’ reputation for licentiousness, it would seem he remained faithful to her throughout the roughly thirty years they were married. There is no record of him having a single mistress or bastard child. (His own status as a bastard [[BastardAngst might also have contributed to this]].) Her death four years before his own is said to have devastated him.
28
29	[[AC:The Build-Up To Hastings]]\
30	According to [[UnreliableNarrator William's chroniclers]], in 1051, King Edward the Confessor of England visited William, who was his first cousin once-removed. Edward had actually grown up in Normandy, exiled from England after the Throne was seized by the Danish King Canute (Cnut), and had been a bodyguard/regent for William until Canute's death opened a power vacuum and tempted him across the English Channel.
31
32	Edward had a problem, called [[TreacherousAdvisor Godwin, Earl of Wessex]]. He had grown quite powerful under Canute, and during the struggle for the throne had Edward's older brother murdered. Despite this crime, Godwin was too powerful to remove, and Edward had to give him free rein, including accepting Godwin's daughter in marriage. Edward's chance came in 1051, where a dispute between Godwin and another noble allowed Edward to banish Godwin.
33
34	It's during this period that William says Edward visited him, and gave him a verbal assurance that William would receive the throne of England after his death. Given Edward's clear desire to keep the throne away from Godwin's family and William being by far the most powerful of Edward's own relatives, it's quite plausible that this promise could've really happened. Shortly after this Godwin came back with new supporters, regained his old power and ensured Edward was now under his thumb. Not that he got to enjoy it for long, because he died of a stroke in 1053.
35
36	This didn't let Edward off the hook though. Godwin's title went to his son Harold, and the Godwinson family was generally considered the most powerful family in England. However, Edward had his own card to play: Godwin had made him marry his daughter so there would eventually be a Godwinson on the throne, so Edward [[ChasteHero decided not to consummate the marriage]]. This naturally raised a question of succession: while father-to-son inheritance was not ironclad, it was the usual way things were done. To a casual observer, the answer was obvious: Harold Godwinson was handsome, popular, rich, had a cadre of loyal family members, and was already quite powerful.
37
38	Then, for reasons unknown to modern historians, Harold went to Normandy. His ship was apparently blown off course, and he was arrested in a vassal land of William. The Duke graciously showed leniency, invited Harold to take part in a campaign against another French vassal state and made him a knight of William's court. This involved Harold swearing an oath, which was SeriousBusiness indeed. The contents of the oath are unclear, although William claimed it was to support William's claim to the throne when Edward died. To make the oath even more binding, William persuaded (tricked?) Harold into making it over a reliquary of a saint.
39
40	The reason much detail from this period is unclear is that, from Harold's visit to William right up to the end of the Battle of Hastings, our sole primary historical source is Art/TheBayeuxTapestry: a giant 230ft (70m) embroidered strip of cloth found in Bayeux Cathedral, Normandy, probably commissioned (like the cathedral itself) in the immediate post-Conquest years by William's half-brother Bishop Odo. It should be noted that the tapestry features a comet, which appeared in the spring of 1066 and (as was commonplace at the time) was considered an ill omen for King Harold's reign. This comet, it would be discovered centuries later, was none other than Halley's Comet.
41
42	[[AC:The Year of Three Kings – a.k.a. 1066 And All That]]\
43	On January 5th, 1066, Edward died. The nobles of England had no trouble proclaiming Harold as the new King – especially after he did them such a nice favour, which shall be explained later.
44
45	William was not happy with this. Despite this, his nobles were not overly keen on a foreign invasion. This changed when William took his cause to UsefulNotes/ThePope, citing the broken oath, combined with [[BlatantLies stories about how Harold was defiling churches]]. It worked beautifully, and the Pope blessed his endeavours – and with spiritual rewards now added to the potential of land and riches, many flocked to William's (and the Pope's) banner. He raised an army, built a fleet and prepared to set sail for England. Harold wasn't sitting on his hands either. He too raised an army, equal in strength to William's, and waited.
46
47	And waited.
48
49	God didn't seem to want the fight to happen just yet, because the winds wouldn't allow William to set out across the English Channel. Two months passed, the maximum time under law that Harold could call up his conscripted farmers to fight. With the harvest due, Harold sent these men home.
50
51	He was right to feel uneasy about this, and to explain why we now need to explore why he was so strongly supported as king. He had the support from the powerful nobles of Northumbria, after getting rid of a pest in 1065. The pest was Tostig Godwinson, Harold's own brother, who during his ten-year reign as Earl of Northumbria had basically antagonised everyone in his lands with his taxes, murders of dissenting families, usage of Danish mercenaries as enforcers, frequent [[SacredHospitality violations of the terms of the peace banner]], and general bad qualities. Knowing their support would be useful when the time came to claim the throne, and fearing civil war if he backed his brother, Harold supported the nobles, and Tostig was exiled, but now, a few weeks after Harold demobilized his army, Tostig had returned, bringing in tow a thousand Scottish and Flemish mercenaries (he fled with a large fortune to Flanders, and the Scottish king was a personal friend) as well as three hundred longships carrying an army of ten thousand HornyVikings, with the terrifying King of Norway Harald Hardrada coming to claim the throne through the line of Canute. The initially unenthusiastic Hardrada had been swayed by Tostig's pitch, and took England by surprise, butchering the outnumbered forces of Northumbria and Mercia mustered to meet him at the Battle of Fulford. Harold wasted no time, however. In a truly impressive feat of logistics, he force-marched from London to York, gathered his army as he marched and completely annihilated Tostig and Harald's forces at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, effectively ending the age of Viking raids on England.[[note]]There were some raids in the immediate aftermath of William's conquest, including an invasion in 1075 to support a claim by a nephew of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex Cnut the Great]]. But with both sides of the English Channel under Norman control, Viking raids were history by the end of William I's reign.[[/note]]
52
53	Which, of course, combined with the forces of Mercia and Northumbria being cut to pieces at Fulford, depleted his forces and them completely winded when it came for William's own subsequent invasion – which as luck (or divine providence) would have it, followed almost instantly on the heels of Stamford Bridge, as the winds in the Channel finally turned and swept his fleet across to the south coast of England. Harold, probably not believing his ears, promptly cobbled his army back into shape, swung them around and marched them right back down the country again: 241 miles (388 km) in a mere five days. Heroically, they managed to engage the Norman army almost straight off the boats, at the Battle of Hastings – and, astonishingly, almost ''won''. Famously, at the crucial moment of greatest English initiative, William was driven back and feared lost – until, in a classic ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated moment, he raised the visor of his helmet to show his face and rally his troops.
54
55	Still the English fought on throughout the day; in an era when most military engagements were done and dusted in a couple of hours, the two sides battled nearly to a standstill for ''nine''. As sunset approached, a halt would have been called for the night; with Harold able to call on reinforcements by morning, a remarkable second straight defensive victory would have been all but assured the next day. Knowing this, the Normans made one last cavalry charge supported by their archers, and Harold possibly/probably (the Tapestry is ambiguous) took an arrow through the eye, and was hacked down and killed. William was crowned, most land and titles ended up in the hands of William's Norman barons, and a rebellion in northern England led to it getting the [[UsefulNotes/WilliamTecumsehSherman Sherman]] treatment. William organized England into a strong centralized (at least for the time) state; the Domesday Book was written during his reign to determine his tax income.
56
57	William was still warring as an old man, remaining strong though undeniably very podgy, as he had in his latter years developed quite a generous appetite for good wine and banquets, eventually dying from internal injuries from hitting the high pommel of his saddle while falling off his horse.
58
59	Fun fact: Every [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates American President]] is provably descended from William the Conqueror--[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer yes, even]] UsefulNotes/BarackObama (as well as 33% of people in the world with British ancestry).[[note]]Obama's descent from William is less surprising given that his mother was thoroughly WASP; indeed, her ancestry was mostly English. The real surprise is that UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren--a Dutch-American with no recent ancestry from the British Isles--was descended from the Conqueror. (Significantly, Van Buren and UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower are the only presidents whose descent from William the Conqueror is not traced through UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland.)[[/note]]
60
61	!!'''William II of England'''
62	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5dfa28a3_c103_49a5_8ff4_d1151165bd95.jpeg]]
63	->'''Lived''': c. 1056 – 1100
64	->'''Reigned''': 1087 — 1100
65	->'''Parents''': ''King'' William I and Matilda of Flanders
66	->'''Consort''': None
67	->'''Nickname''': ''Rufus''
68	----
69
70	Notably not the eldest son of the Conqueror, but Robert Curthose (who had rebelled against his father before, [[DisproportionateRetribution due to his brothers dumping a chamber pot on his head]]) was made Duke of Normandy instead and agreed to be heir presumptive to his younger brother. Will Jr. was an effective fighter and ruthless ruler (you had to be ruthless to be a strong king back then) but not beloved by his nobles.
71
72	He was named Rufus for his red-faced and maybe red-haired appearance (probably matching his [[FieryRedhead temperament]]), and notoriously was killed in a hunting '[[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch accident]]' in the New Forest. With a crossbow bolt in his lung. He is rumoured to have been pagan and/or gay.
73
74	It may be worth noting that his brother Henry was also part of that particular hunting party. And that William’s fellow hunters abandoned his body there - it was later retrieved for burial by the local people.
75
76	Contemporaries of William raised concerns about a court dominated by homosexuality and effeminacy, and while during his reign William himself was never openly accused of homosexuality, in the decades after his death numerous medieval writers spoke of this and a few began to describe him as a "sodomite". Whilst it's not possible to state with certainty whether William was gay or not, he never took a wife or a mistress or fathered any children. For that reason, the throne necessarily had to go to one of his brothers. The one who ultimately claimed it was...
77
78	!!'''Henry I of England'''
79	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/efd41615_a731_4cfd_86e6_ffe4504893cd.jpeg]]
80	->'''Lived''': c. 1068 – 1 December 1135
81	->'''Reigned''': 1100 — 1135
82	->'''Parents''': ''King'' William I and Matilda of Flanders
83	->'''Consorts''': (1) Matilda of Scotland (1100 — 1118); (2) Adeliza of Louvain (1121 — 1135)
84	->'''Nickname''': ''Beauclerc'' [[note]]meaning “good-scholar” — a reference to his good education and love of learning.[[/note]]
85	----
86
87	The youngest son of William the Conqueror. William apparently recognized Henry's commanding tendencies from the beginning, and bequeathed him cash rather than land holdings, acknowledging that Henry would soon end up with everything anyway. Henry moved quickly to secure the treasury after his brother's death and was aided by Robert being far away, returning from a crusade. Among his arguments in favor of his accession to the English throne over Robert was "porphyrgeniture"--he argued that his claim was strongest since he was "born in the purple", i.e. born to William I ''while he was King of England''. (If this sounds weird, note that it was well known in his time; in particular, UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire was known for preferring ''porphyrogennetoi'' to take the throne ahead of their older brothers, and Byzantine princesses "born in the purple" were prized over their older sisters as marriage prospects for princes across Europe.)
88
89	He granted a charter which would form the basis for future documents such as the Magna Carta, and undertook extensive legal and financial reforms during his reign.
90
91	Initially, Robert recognized Henry's rule in exchange for a yearly tribute. But an exiled English noble, Robert of Bellême, tried to stir up further dissent. This led to Henry invading Normandy, and beating his brother at the Battle of Tinchebray in 1106. Duke Robert was captured, and imprisoned in England until his death in 1134. Bellême would again try to forment rebellion with Duke Robert's son, William Clito, but was captured in England in 1112 and would also spend the rest of his life in prison, supposedly dying before Duke Robert did.
92
93	It should be noted that it was during Henry I's reign that he instituted the Exchequer, a table with a checkered cloth that was used to keep track of the royal finances. The earliest known use was during his reign, with continuous records existing from during Henry II's reign. It is the source of the Finance Minister of the United Kingdom[[note]]If you're American, that's essentially the Secretary of the Treasury[[/note]] being known as the "[[ArtifactTitle Chancellor of the Exchequer]]".
94
95	Married Edith (aka Matilda) of Scotland, thus linking his descendants to the pre-conquest [[UsefulNotes/{{TheHouseOfWessex}} House of Wessex]] royal line, as Edith was a granddaughter of Edward the Exile. Famous for having the largest number of bastards of any English King (at over 20, possibly as many as 25, still nothing on [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Walder Frey]]).[[note]]The first runner up is UsefulNotes/CharlesII at about 20, followed by UsefulNotes/JamesII at 13 and [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover William IV]] at 11.[[/note]] Only two legitimate children lived to adulthood, his son and heir dying in the White Ship disaster, whereupon he made his barons swear to serve his daughter, Matilda (Maude).
96
97	!!'''Stephen of England (''de facto'' monarch)'''
98	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7517eea3_fd5b_48e3_b734_054a2fc749c1.jpeg]]
99	->'''Lived''': 1092/6 – 25 October 1154
100	->'''Reigned''': 1135 — 1154
101	->'''Parents''': Stephen, ''Count of Blois'' and Adela of Normandy
102	->'''Consort''': Maud of Boulogne
103	->'''Nickname''': ''Stephen of Blois''
104	----
105
106	Count of Boulogne, nephew of Henry and grandson of William I, he had an elder brother who luckily did not want to be a contender to the throne, which made Stephen (''Etienne'') the closest male candidate. He was nearly killed in the sinking of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ship the White Ship]], which claimed Henry's only legitimate son, but left the ship before it sailed because--according to the chronicler Oderic Vitalis--he had [[PottyEmergency a sudden bout of diarrhoea]]. Proclaimed himself king upon Henry's death, claiming the latter had changed his mind about his intended heir, and was given the support of most of the barons in a peaceful start to the reign.
107
108	Was not a very effective ruler though and within a few years Matilda had gained enough support to contest her claim. His rule was marred by The Anarchy, a civil war running from 1139-1153 which severely diminished royal power. It ended when Matilda's son was named as heir instead of Stephen's. Though Stephen was of the House of Blois through his father, he is commonly included with the House of Normandy in lists.[[note]]His father, incidentally, was a senior leader of [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades the First Crusade]] and is an important figure in the historiography of that war, for two reasons. The first is that he wrote several letters to his wife Adela (King Stephen's mother) while on campaign; these letters were preserved and are a useful primary source for modern historians. The second is that he [[DirtyCoward fled from the front during the siege of Antioch]] and on his way home gave the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos bad information that may have cost the Byzantines their chance to take and hold that city.[[/note]]
109
110	!!'''Empress Matilda of the Holy Roman Empire (''de jure'' monarch)'''
111	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fa04da94_8011_4884_8b07_915e664b2cbb.png]]
112	->'''Lived''': c. 7 February 1102 – 10 September 1167
113	->'''Reigned''': 7 April 1141 — 1 November 1141 (209 days)
114	->'''Parents''': ''King'' Henry I and Matilda of Scotland
115	->'''Consorts''': (1) Henry V, ''Holy Roman Emperor''; (2) Geoffrey Plantagenet, ''Count of Anjou''
116	->'''Nickname''': ''The Empress''
117	----
118
119	Daughter of Henry I and his chosen heir — hence de jure (“by law”). Known as Empress Matilda from her previous marriage to [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor]] her name is also sometimes given as Maud or Maude, since at the time Maud and Matilda were considered the same name. She was an unpopular choice for ruler not only because of her [[HeirClubForMen sex]], but because her second husband Geoffrey of Anjou was from a powerful French house who were the traditional enemies and rivals of the Dukes of Normandy. Was aided in her fight by her half brother (and past claimant), the illegitimate Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the eldest of Henry's bastards and a powerful captain and nobleman. Such was his importance to her fight that after her forces captured Stephen she later had to trade her rival back in return for Robert when he too was captured.
120
121	Ultimately Matilda's quest to establish herself as the first ruling queen of England ended in failure (and the country would have to wait another 400 years for one), but she had the last laugh in the long run: her son, Henry Curtmantle,[[note]]Sometimes referred to as [=FitzEmpress=] due to his mother. In modern times, the last name "Plantagenet" is sometimes connected to him, but like his father there's no evidence he ever used it during his lifetime.[[/note]] was made heir in 1153, ending the direct rule of the House of Normandy and ushering in UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet.
122
123	----
124	!!Depictions in fiction
125
126	* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII: The Conqueror'' has the Battle of Hastings as a Historical Battle, where you play as William the Conqueror in his conquest to claim the English throne.
127	* ''Film/{{The War Lord\|1965}}'' takes place in the late 11th century and follows a Norman knight taking his place as the feudal lord of a village at the time of William the Conqueror and doing his best to fight Frisian raids off.
128	* ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' spans the Anarchy and ends during [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheSecond Henry II]]'s reign.
129	* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' takes place during the Anarchy, and contains a lot of believable representations of the politics and personalities of the time.
130	* ''Literature/TheWildHuntTrilogy'' span two generations of a feudal family during the reign of The House of Normandy.
131	* ''The Stones of Green Knowe'', the sixth and final book of Literature/TheGreenKnoweChronicles, is set during the reign of Henry I.
132	* Creator/RosemarySutcliff's novels ''[[Literature/TheDolphinRing The Shield Ring]]'', ''Literature/KnightsFee'', and ''The Witch's Brat'' take place during the reigns of William Rufus and Henry Beauclerc.
133	* The House of Normandy is playable in ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII''. William's ancestor Rollo exists as a landless courtier in Norway in 867 AD (as Hrolfr de Normandie, marshal to a Norse chief), and the two 1066 bookmarks bracket William's campaign for England. All three sides of the war are playable and there are achievements for succeeding as either Harald or William (as well as the little-known King Sweyn II of Denmark, who also had a claim but wasn't involved in the historical war).
134	* Videogame/CrusaderKingsIII also features the House of Normandy, with the Fate of England bookmark focusing in particular on the Norman Conquest.
135	* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' portrays the Targaryens as a combine of both The House of Normandy and [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet The House of Plantagenets]], with Aegon the Conqueror being the analogue of William the Conqueror and the Dance of the Dragons a SuccessionCrisis between siblings Aegon II and Rhaenyra I like the Anarchy between Empress Mathilda and Stephen of Blois. Rhaenyra's son Aegon III eventually inherits the throne like Henry II Plantagenet.
136	** The television adaptation of this storyline, ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'', follows suit in adapting the backbone of this conflict (i.e. stand-ins for Matilda [the Princess Rhaenyra] against Stephen [Prince Aegon II])--albeit [[CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel the aesthetics of the period is more akin]] to UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance, to highlight how the [[EndOfAnEra apex of Targaryen rule would be broken]] and lead to the MedievalStasis we see in the original show, ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
137	* ''WebAnimation/OverSimplified'' did a Mini-Wars episode about the Battle of Hastings.
138	* The main campaign of ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'' begins in 1080 with the Kingdom of England led initially by William the Conqueror with Rufus as faction heir. As is standard for the series, [[AlternateHistory it is up to the player to decide what happens from there]]. The game's tutorial also uses the Battle of Hastings.
139	* The opening of ''Film/LesVisiteurs'' has Henry I Beauclerc chasing after French King Louis VI the Fat and French knight Godefroy de Montmirail, with Louis having a [[OldTimeyAnkleTaboo quite chaste]] affair with Henry's niece. Henry punches the niece with his metal gauntlet on and kills the niece's maid with a crosswbow in rage when he learns of it.
140	* A young William appears in ''Fanfic/AThingOfVikings'', where he becomes Hiccup's friend [[spoiler:and later adopted brother]] and is given sanctuary on Berk from assassination attempts.
141	----
142
143	< Prior to these guys and the Norman Conquest was the [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWessex Wessex Dynasty]]\

Context UsefulNotes / TheHouseOfNormandy