The Norman Conquest of Yorkshire

Dr. Paul Dalton

The Norman conquest of England is often associated with the year 1066, and with the battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October that year, in which the army of William, duke of Normandy, defeated and killed Harold Godwineson, king of the English. In fact, the Norman conquest took many years to achieve. There was much violent resistance to the rule of William the Conqueror after 1066, especially in northern England. This talk will discuss the nature of this resistance in Yorkshire and the brutal measures William used to overcome it, including his infamous ‘harrying of the North’. It will also explore the dramatic, and in some respects catastrophic, impact of the Norman conquest on the aristocratic society, landholding, government, wealth, and landscape of power in Yorkshire between 1066 and 1087.

Dr Paul Dalton is a Principal Lecturer in Medieval History at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has published widely on Anglo-Norman history, including a book entitled Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship: Yorkshire 1066-1154, published by Cambridge University Press.

Methodist Church, Market Street, Hebden Bridge at 7.30pm