Lesson video

Bonjour, and the reason I'm saying that is not because this is a French lesson, this is obviously a history lesson, but its because we're returning and really focusing on the Normans today, and they spoke French, not English.

So bonjour, the hello in French.

So, what we're going to be doing is we're on our third lesson of an inquiry question which is, how did a Norman become king of England.

And today, we're going to be looking at William's claim to the to throne, and we're also going to be looking at his invasion plan.

Please make sure you've got a pen and paper, or something to write on, and also that you're free of distractions.

If you need a moment just to make sure you're all set, then please pause the video now, and then press play when you're ready to go.

Now you're all ready to start, and we've got all our things together.

What I thought would be great is if we look at this timeline to give us a recap of what we've done so far.

So we've looked in the first lesson at Normandy, and who was a Norman, and who was the leader, we know that was William.

And also, where Normandy was, we know that today is a part of France.

So William is Duke of Normandy, and he became Duke in 1035 which is the 11th Century.

Now last lesson, what we've looked at was England, and we looked at Edward the Confessor, this deeply religious king, who died without any children, leaving a succession crisis.

We know that Edward had married Edith Godwin, a member of the Godwin family, a very powerful family in England, and that was in 1045.

And that's how Harold, is distantly related but not by blood, to Edward the Confessor.

So once Edward the Confessor died, in January of 1066, Howard Godwinson is then crowned king.

He claims that Edward has actually said, he should become king on his deathbed, and also he has been accepted, by the Witan as well, this group powerful group, of English nobles and church people, and they've said, "yep Harold Godwinson, as an Englishman you are going to be our next king".

Now what we'll be looking at this lesson, is William, focusing on Normandy, and firstly we're going to look at his claim to the throne, so the reason why he should really be king of England.

So what we have here is an image, I want you just to have a look at it, have a think about who these people are in the image, and maybe you recognise the image.

So just take a couple of seconds, you can pause it if you want, if not I'll just leave a little pause here and then, we will go through it.

So what this is, this is something called the Bayeux Tapestry.

Now I have actually been to see the Bayeux Tapestry, when I was younger, although I was actually so young I'm not quite sure I actually realised what was going on.

But, was I was amazed at when I went to see it was the size, because this is a piece of cloth, which has illustrations on it, its been embroidered, and it is 70 metres long, 70 metres is an exceptionally long piece of cloth.

This isn't just a tea towel, this is something that's quite special.

And also, its 50 centimetres high.

So its very easy to see, this isn't a small piece of fabric, this is a massive piece of fabric.

This was created by the Normans a few years after, they won the battle of Hastings, and William was killed.

And so, people around the Normans had decided to make this, to celebrate to the events of 1066 which we'll be going on to look at this lesson and the next.

It's often said history is written by the victors, and this account of 1066, is obviously very biassed, because its from the Norman point of view.

They're not going to want to make William seem like he was this scoundrel, that was really horrible, or someone who was a weak king.

They're going to want to make him seem like he's best king ever.

And with Harold, who remember was William's rival for the throne of England, they want to make him maybe seem a little bit weaker than what maybe he actually was.

So it should always be taken with a little bit of a pinch of salt, some of these historical sources, particularly if they've been written by a certain side in history.

So as I've said, this Bayeux Tapestry is made by the Normans, after 1066, and it shows the real history or account of what went on in this famous year.

So in the left in green, we've got circled, William, so Duke William of Normandy, he was at the time.

And this is before 1066.

In yellow interestingly, we've got Harold Godwinson.

Now its a little bit odd, maybe that these two people were in the same place at once, and the story goes, and remember this is according to the Normans, that in 1064, Harold Godwinson, is said to have ended up in Normandy, and historians are not exactly sure why this was the case, but possibly Harold was there to free a nephew who was prisoner in Normandy.

In this image in the Bayeux Tapestry, we can see Harold swearing an oath, and this is what William claimed he did, and he's swearing this oath, over holy relics, both Harold and William were Catholic Christians, and they were fairly religious people.

And in those days, the world, or certainly France and England, than maybe it is today.

And if you were to swear an oath, a promise on holy relics, it would be something to be taken very, very, very seriously indeed.

And if you broke this oath because you've sworn it on holy relics, there's a very real chance that you might not get into heaven.

Everyone in the 11th Century wanted to get into heaven, at this point.

So Harold is swearing an oath to William here, and the oath is actually, that William will become king of England, once Edward dies.

So what William's claims is that Harold is swearing this promise that yes, William you will become king of England after Edward dies.

And this is a big thing, and it was certainly a big thing for William, because what annoyed him so greatly in 1066 was that the day after Edward died, Harold Godwinson became king of England.

And this shows, that actually Harold was an oath breaker, according to William.

He has broken his promise to say that William should become king and actually he's become king, himself.

So here we have some reasons for why William thinks he should become king of England, these are his claims to the throne of England.

So the first one we've just discussed, and it was just sitting in that Bayeux Tapestry excerpt, where we've just seen that picture of Harold swearing an oath to William to say that yes, after Edward dies, William you will become king I accept that.

Obviously Harold denied this and claimed that actually he was just forced to make that oath, because he actually was a prisoner effectively, he made that oath so that he could get out or get away.

The second bullet point on that is that, William of Normandy argued that Harold's claim was weak.

Last lesson we looked at the family tree we know that actually Harold is only related to Edward the Confessor, because he is his brother-in-law.

So yes William is perhaps right on that front.

And another claim to the throne of England for William, is that actually William was distantly related to Edward the Confessor, in a second I'm going to just show that on the timeline.

And lastly, as the last bullet point, this is particularly interesting and important information, perhaps the strongest claim to the throne that William has.

So William claimed that Edward promised him the throne around 1051 when Harold rebelled against Edward, we know that Harold and Edward had quite a mixed relationship, it was a little bit up and down.

And in 1051, Harold Godwinson rebelled against Edward.

And Edward went to William whether he could help him out, whether he could maybe send some soldiers from Normandy to England, so that Edward could put down Harold's rebellion.

And that's exactly what William did, and apparently, according to William, Edward then promised him the throne to England once Edward himself died.

So once again William has been promised the throne and this time from the actual king of England.

So that is an example of one of William's claims to the throne.

If you look at this timeline, I mentioned how he was distantly related to Edward the Confessor, we can see that his great-aunt, Emma of Normandy, she is the mother of Edward the Confessor.

So there is some link with William and Edward the Confessor, there is some link to the throne that William has, even if it is perhaps a little bit distant, just like Harold's.

What we've looked at so far, is William's claim to the throne and its up to you to decide whether, really that's a particularly strong claim to the throne, you think yes it really should be his throne, England's crown on his head, or whether you think actually its still a fairly weak claim, that maybe relies on promises, given to him by Edward and Harold.

But if we just take a very quick step away or maybe to the side of that, we need to look back at the inquiry question, which is how did a Norman become king of England? So we also need to take into account not just his claim to the throne, but also the comparison between England and Normandy, the countries or territories.

So, on the left, you've seen this before, it is England in the 11th Century, and on the right, we've got Normandy in the 11th Century.

And you can see they look at the population and the size of the country and the army size, and how rich the country might be.

What I want you to do, I want you to have a look at the question just down below, in bold.

So, it says from what you know about the two countries, which country looks more powerful and why? And then there's a sentence starter there so you could say, I think that either England or Normandy looks more powerful and why you think that.

So what I want you to do is look at these fact farms, and just pause the video and then play it after you've completed these sentences of work you're going to do.

Really well done guys, fantastic work just then.

So, what we're going to do now is we're going to do a bit of reading, and then you are going to answer some questions.

So there are five question, as usual and there's also a challenge question where maybe you can stretch yourself a little bit, and write a little bit of a longer answer.

So what you need to do, you need to read through the text, so you need to click on to the next part of this lesson on the website, and read through the text and then answer the five questions at the end.

There's also a glossary to help you.

The challenge question as well if you can do.

Okay so if you pause now, then press play and come back to this video after you're done.

Cracking work guys, you're all absolute legends for completing it, well done.

So, we're going to go through the answers to this.

Now, remember that your answers might look a little bit different to mine, and that's absolutely fine, everyone's different, variety is the spice of life, do not worry.

If you want to add anything extra to the answer, then just have a look particularly at the good answer, that is modelled on the screen, and just add a little bit extra in if you want, or maybe change any spellings that you might need to.

As usual, there will be an acceptable answer and a good answer.

Okay, so the first question was, what was William's mood when he heard that Harold Godwinson was made King? Now an acceptable answer would be, William was very angry.

Now, a good answer will expand a little bit on that, so yes we know William was very angry, he was outraged, according to all accounts.

So, William's mood was very angry when he heard that Harold had been made King.

He was outraged and felt that Harold did not have a legitimate claim to the throne.

So, he did not think Harold had a rightful claim to the throne.

We could even add something in, or maybe you have, in that he was particularly angry that Harold had broken the Oath to him that William claimed Harold made to him, in 1064, where Harold said that actually, William you should be king after Edward dies.

Okay, so that's question one.

The second question is why did William think he should be king of England? Now, this is a big question, there could be a variety of answers, so an acceptable answer would be that William thought he should be king because Harold swore an oath that said that William would be the next king.

But that maybe doesn't tell the whole story, we really want to boost our marks, or boost our writing ability, then sometimes in history there isn't just one answer, there's often multiple answers, lots of answers, so its good to put more than one sometimes.

So a really good answer would be, and this is a really good first sentence you can choose if you've got lots of different answers to put afterwards, or lots of different reasons.

A good answer would be William thought, he should be king for a number of reasons.

One was because he had family links with Edward the Confessor.

A second reason was because Harold swore an oath to say he should be the next king.

The third reason is that Edward promised William that he would be king after Edward died.

So those are the three reasons that we've summed up really nicely for an extended answer, its absolutely fine if you just put one thing, because I didn't ask for lots and lots that you could of maybe put any one of these things on there.

How did Matilda Help William with his plan to invade England? So, an acceptable answer would be, this.

Matilda helped William because she said she would rule Normandy whilst he was away fighting.

A good answer, is going to be, Matilda helped William because she said that she would rule Normandy whilst he was away fighting in England.

She gave him support and also got Flanders to send some troops to help invade.

We must remember that Matilda was very respected, and she came from a very powerful family, and so Flanders, this place in France, and also her house, her family, they would people who would also fight for William if she asked them.

So, she's shown herself to be an exceptionally good wife and supporter, they're really part of a team, William and Matilda.

And William can go away fighting in England, because he knows that he's got no problems in Normandy, because Matilda is gong to run things perfectly for him, while he's away.

Fourth question, how big is William's army and what kind of troops are in it? So, an acceptable answer would be, Williams army had 8000 men.

Now, remember William is a name, so you need to include a capital, and also anything at the start of a sentence must have a capital letter at the start.

A good answer, so one which adds a little bit of extra information is, Williams army had around 8000 men.

He had cavalry, archers and ordinary soldiers.

So, cavalry are those on horseback, archers they have bows and ordinary soldiers will be fighting often with swords or pikes which are long sticks with a pointy end.

Now, it should be noted that historians are a little bit up in the air, they're not quite fully decided on exactly how many men were in the army of William and also Harold.

So, 8000 men is a rough, rough estimate, but there could be a couple thousand more and there could be a thousand or two thousand less, but roughly, were going to say that William's army had around 8000 men.

And, question five, why was William stopped from sailing to England? So, the acceptable answer is, he was stopped by wind.

A good answer would be adding a little bit extra where it says William was stopped from sailing to England in August 1066 because the wind direction was going the wrong way.

In those days, it was very, very difficult to sail.

All boats were sailing boats, so they relied on wind direction, and there were a lot more ships that got shipwrecked back then than there are today.

And that's partly down because, wind is nature, you can't stop it, you don't have as much control over it.

It must be remembered, that this is 950 years ago, and at this time, that there were no motorboats, the industrial revolution had not happened, so they didn't have engines that boats maybe have today.

They were relying on the weather, and if the weather was bad, William could not cross the channel to attack England.

The last answer that's on here is from a challenge question.

So the challenge question is, did William or Harold have the stronger claim to the throne of England.

And really, this is something that historians debate still to this day.

And it's something where there isn't a clear yes or no answer.

So, what a good answer, quite often, is putting a mixture of both answers.

So, I've put a good answer here, and its fine if you just decided, actually I really think its William, I really think its Harold, and justified why, so long as you've got justification.

But here's the good answer that I've put, both William and Harold did not have the strongest claim to the throne of England.

It could be argued that Harold had the stronger claim to the throne as he was English and was distantly related to Edward.

On the other hand, William was also distantly related to Edward.

If William's story is true, then he should have the throne because both Edward and Harold promised him it.

So there we have both sides of the story of who had the strongest claim, included in that answer.

Really well done guys, I think that's awesome work, there's some really difficult questions in there, you've done excellently.

So now we're on to the last thing we're going to do today, apart from the exit quiz, and this is going to be comparing William and Harold.

We've done a lesson, or at least one lesson on William and we've introduced Harold last lesson, and we've mentioned him a couple of times also today and in the reading.

So, these two, big men are going to be fighting for the throne of England at some point.

So, my question is, who had the advantage in war? Who maybe had the advantage on each other in battle? So, I've put here, pause point here, so in a moment you will pause it, I'll tell you when.

By winter 1066, the Normans were ready to invade England.

Who was in the better position out of William and Harold? And what I want you to do is make two spider diagrams. So one for William, and one for Harold.

Who's in the better position were these two to fight? So, there are some clues as well, think about the backgrounds of the two men, who maybe supported them? Their claims and how strong they were, their wealth and also their countries wealth, their army and their personalities and their families.

As a challenge, can you think of any disadvantages for William or Harold? So things that would maybe hold them back in battle, or hold them back in preparing for battle.

So, the first spider diagram is on the left, and I've already put one point there for you, so what are Harold's advantages? So, one advantage I think Harold has is that Harold had the support of the English behind him, so he had been chosen hadn't he, to be the king of England, and therefore the English support him.

He's kind of their man, if you will.

On the other spider diagram on the right, I've got William's advantages, and the one I've put there is that William had a good wife in Matilda to take care of Normandy whilst he invaded England.

So the fact that William had someone who'd be able to look after his first territory, Normandy, that was a nice weight off William's back, I think.

He could go into England and be prepared to fight, knowing that Matilda had his back and was going to take good care of Normandy.

So that's an advantage that William has.

Now what I want you to do is just think what other advantages William had, what other advantages did Harold have, and then after that we are going to come back and I'll go through some possible answers you could have put.

So pause the video now, and complete your spider diagrams. Really well done today guys, so well done for completing the spider diagrams, on a tough question which is who had the advantage in war? Was it either William or was it Harold? So, what we've got are two spider diagrams, and maybe I could've put more, but I sort of ran out of space.

And so you may have put some things different to what I've put, and that's absolutely fine, maybe you've thought outside the box, in something that my little brain, couldn't possibly fathom, so do not worry if you don't see one of your answers here.

So lets start on the left, and we're going to look at Harold's advantages.

We already said, that box there which has a border around it, Harold had the support of the English behind him.

So, the other advantages Harold had were these, so Harold knew of the invasion, and had time to prepare defences, so this was crucial, Harold had been made king in January and he knew that he was going to be attacked probably by William some point that year.

So he's had time to maybe prepare defences, prepare his allies, make sure he's got enough troops, and so he knows Williams is coming, this won't be a surprise attack.

That's an advantage maybe Harold has.

If we go, round anti-clockwise, to the left, so England was a richer and bigger country, it had more resources, and that's absolutely true as well, they could probably raise a bigger army, and they also had 1.

5 to 2 million people in the country, that's far more than Normandy, which only had a hundred and fifty thousand people in its population.

William may have to ask Matilda and other people in France for extra troops.

So Harold had been chosen by the Witan so powerful people supported him, that was a clear positive for Harold.

And lastly, we've got Harold had fought before in Wales, so he was an experienced battle commander, he was someone who knew what he was doing.

Now if we go onto William, William's advantages, and we'll start from the box which we can has a border around it.

So, I've already mentioned that one and that was how Matilda was going to take care of Normandy whilst he was invading England, which was great, it was a good partnership going on.

If we go above that, we can see that William had the support of the Pope.

So William claimed and Norman sources tell us that, the Pope who was a particularly important person being Gods messenger on Earth, to the Catholic Christian faith, William had the support, and so if you were a Christian, you probably wanted to do what the Pope was doing, and therefore you were pretty pleased, or you were more likely to support William, because he had the Pope's backing.

If we go up again, William had fought in battles before, that's definitely something that is important remember the viking blood that is in the Normans veins, because vikings have lived in Normandy for a long time.

If we go right, William claimed that Edward had promised him the throne, so these owes and the accusations to Harold by calling him and oath breaker, this may have made more people support William's cause, it may have convinced people that yes, William is the rightful person, and I won't support Harold who is an oath breaker.

So William's claim to the throne and also the fact Edward maybe promised him the throne, these are things that are positive, about William, that maybe give him the advantage in war.

Lastly, we've got William had 8000 men, cavalry and archers, and that clearly is going to be very useful, if you're actually going to take a country by force, the fact is cavalry and archers, this is actually something that Harold's army doesn't have, but we'll look at that next lesson.

If you were thinking about any disadvantages, if you're on a challenge, you could include something like, how William had to cross the channel, he had to brave the seas, on sailing boats, that's a massive task and something that was very difficult in the 11th century.

And I'm sure you could come up with plenty of other disadvantages for either Harold and William.

And that's a wrap, that's the end of the lesson, really well done today to all of you who've completed it.

Just remember to complete the end of the lesson quiz.

So what we've done today is we've looked again at William of Normandy and his claim to the throne, and also we've looked at his plans to invade.

So its set up nicely to look at the battles 1066 in the next lesson.

So as I've said, just complete the end of the lesson quiz, maybe look through your notes and think about 2 or 3 things maybe stood out to you, and try to remember them for the next lesson.

Also, if you want to do this you don't have to, but if you'd like to you need to ask your parent or carer just to share your work with us, so obviously I can see it, we can see it, and show off your fantastic work.

Really, really well done today and hope to see you next lesson, bye-bye.