The Norman Conquest

Abstract

Though with the passing of October 14 the major junketings are perhaps over, the year is still 1966, the nine-hundredth anniversary of the Norman Conquest of England, and such an occasion, I trust, is a sufficient excuse for reading a paper to you on the subject. There are many more qualified than I to undertake the task, but at least I can claim to have been working—though scarcely alone—on a book about the Conquest over the last few years, and the vastly enjoyable experience has prompted certain thoughts which become increasingly strongly held as I progress. Some of those thoughts I should like now to put together into what I hope may be a coherent pattern.