How Vikings Became Brutal Normal Kings

History Hit (2025)

Film Review

This intriguing documentary has two chapters: the first describes the Norman (Viking) conquest of northeastern France, the second the Norman conquest of England.

Beginning in the 8th century AD, Normans from Denmark raided northeastern France every summer. From 790 on, they traveled down the Seine every year, sacking the Rouen in 840. In 845, they threatened to sack Paris but the Carolingian king of West Francia (Charles the Bald paid them to withdraw). In 851, the Normans overwintered in France for the first time.

In 852, they sacked the Fontanelle Abbey and burnt it to the ground. Led by Rollo, in 876 the Vikings sacked Rouen. In 911 Rollo laid siege to Chartres and only withdrew under when Charles III promised him his daughter in marriage (provided he converted to Christianity). With the Treaty of Saint Clair sur Epte, Rollo became a vassal (Duke of Normandy) of Charles III. He and 100 retainers were baptized in Rouen cathedral in 912.

• His son William Longsword succeeded him in 927. Longsword expanded the duchy of Normandy slightly to the West and was assassinated by the Count of Flanders in 942.
• William was succeed by his illegitimate son Richard I. The latter is best known for the English/Irish slave market he operated (contrary to Christian teachings).
• Richard II succeeded his father In 996 and married his sister to the king of England.
• His son Richard III succeeded him in 1026, only to be poisoned by his brother Robert a year later.
• Robert was Duke of Normandy from 1027-1043, when his son William the Bastard (born of a concubine) succeeded him. The latter’s generation would be the last to speak Norse.

In 1066 when the childless king of England Edward the Confessor died, William (his cousin once removed via the sister of Richard II) was one of the main contenders for the English throne. The other contenders were Edward’s 14- year old nephew; Edward’s brother-in-law Harold Godwinson; and Harold the Viking, a distant relative of the Viking king Cnute, who ruled England from 1016 to 1035

Harold Godwinson was crowned king on January 6, 1066. In September 1066, Harold the Viking invaded with 200 long boats and marched to York, where he confronted Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. After Godwinson killed Harold the Viking, William the Bastard loaded his cavalry onto dozens of ships and crossed the English channel. In the October 14, 1066 Battle of Hastings, 8,000 horseless Anglo-Saxon troops confronted William’s massive cavalry and nearly 8,000 Norman, French, Breton and Flemish troops. After a nine hour battle, the Normans killed King Harold, and by  By Christmas day, had conquered most of southeastern England. Will would be the first to be crowned king in Westminster Abbey.  

It would take William six years to consolidate power:

• 1067 was a year of numerous small rebellions
• 1068 saw major rebellions in the West Country and the Midlands
• 1069 saw two rebellions in the north, supported by a Danish invasion. William ended the rebellions by laying waste to northern England. Known as the Harrying of the North, this resulted in a severe famine that killed 100,000 people and forced many northerners to sell themselves into slavery to survive.

William further consolidated power by removing all Anglo Saxon landholders and rewarding his military leaders with their lands. The Anglo-Saxon peasants who worked these lands became virtual serfs (slaves), causing William to be credited with establishing feudalism in Europe.

The documentary explores the the role of the Bayeux tapestry and William’s Domesday Book in recording this history. In the latter, William required every estate in every English town to be recorded, along with (for purposes of taxation) the number of plows, mills and slaves they owned.

William returned to France in 1087 to wage war against the French king Phillip I (who was usurping Norman land. He died of a wound the same year and is buried at Caen. He bequeathed the Norman dukedom to his older son Robert and the throne of England to his younger son William Rufus.