Hello, and thanks for joining me today for another Oak Academy history lesson.

My name is Mrs. Knox, and today I'll be helping to guide you through all of the resources and materials associated with this lesson.

So let's get started now.

Our lesson today is part of a unit of work on the Norman Conquest, where we're asking how do we know about the impact of the Norman Conquest on England? However, in our lesson today, we'll be focusing on the year 1066 and the claims to the throne.

By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to describe the succession crisis of 1066, and you'll be able to explain how William of Poitiers' writing can be used by historians to investigate claims to the throne.

Now, our lesson today will use some key words, so let's take a look at those now.

The first term we'll use in today's lesson is the term succession crisis, which is a period when there is no clear heir to a position.

We'll also use the term heir, which is a person who expects to inherit the property or the position of another person when that person dies.

And finally, we'll use the term papal, which is something related to the Pope.

Now, our lesson today is in two sections, so we'll get started now on section one, which will cover the 1066 succession crisis.

To start our lesson today, we're going to look at an important contemporary source called the Bayeux Tapestry, which we'll learn more about later in this unit.

Have a look at the image on the screen.

Can you see the coffin being carried? It's right there, isn't it, in the middle of the excerpt.

It depicts the funeral of King Edward the Confessor, who died on the 5th of January, 1066.

But as Edward had died without an heir, his death led to a terrible succession crisis.

You can see Edward's coffin being carried here into Westminster Abbey, where he was laid to rest.

King Edward the Confessor is also depicted here in this other excerpt from the Bayeux Tapestry.

He's pictured seated on his throne within one of his royal palaces.

And above him, you can see the words Edward Rex, Edward King.

So we know it's him, and he's wearing a crown just to help us out as well.

Edward was regarded as a wise and pious king who took his duty towards the church and his own religion very seriously.

I mentioned a moment ago that he was buried at Westminster Abbey, and that's because he had founded the abbey with his own donation.

Although Edward took his duties towards the church very seriously, the end of his reign was not a happy one.

This is because he and his wife, Edith, did not have any children.

And as such, Edward had failed to produce an heir, and it meant that it was far from clear who the next king should be.

When he died at the beginning of 1066, England therefore experienced a succession crisis, with different people claiming to have the strongest link to inhabit the English throne.

Perhaps the two most important of those claimants to the throne are pictured on the screen now, in separate excerpts also taken from the Bayeux Tapestry.

On the left is Harold Godwinson, and on the right is William of Normandy.

Harold Godwinson was an English earl, perhaps the most powerful English earl in England.

This meant that not only was he a great landholder and a very wealthy individual, but also that he was a military commander and an experienced member of the English political elite.

He had plenty of experience helping Edward in governing the realm.

And as such, Harold felt that he was the best choice to be the next king.

He had the support too of the other English earls, and he knew how English government worked.

He understood its systems for passing laws, for punishing people who'd broken the laws, for raising taxation, and for raising an army when necessary.

He felt he was in fact the natural successor.

Some of the sources from the time also claim that Harold had been promised the throne by Edward himself, as Edward lay dying.

On the other hand, however, we also have William of Normandy.

Now, William of Normandy's claim to the throne was slightly different.

He claimed that when Edward the Confessor was a young man, that he had promised him that one day, he would be king of England.

Similarly, William also claimed that Harold himself had travelled to Normandy, and had promised that when Edward died, that he would support William's claim to the throne.

Furthermore, William also claimed to be related to Edward the Confessor, and he claimed that his blood relationship was another reason why he should inhabit the English throne.

So William really had three strands to his claim in 1066, whereas Harold's claim was perhaps slightly simpler, and more to do with his background and his knowledge.

As these two individuals could not agree, there was a succession crisis.

The English government was split, and it wasn't clear at all who the next king of England was going to be.

All right, it's time to have a check now of your understanding so far.

I'd like you to answer this question.

Why did Edward the Confessor have to decide upon an heir? Was it because A, he was not likely to have any children, B, he was estranged from his children, or C, he wanted to disinherit his children? Press pause and then press play when you're ready for the correct answer.

Well done if you said the correct answer was A.

The reason why Edward the Confessor had to decide upon an heir is he was not likely to have any children of his own.

Here's another question now.

Which two of the following were claimants to the throne in 1066? A, Edward the Confessor, B, Harold Godwinson, C, William of Normandy, or D, Earl Godwin? Press pause again and then press play when you're ready to hear the answer.

You should have said that the first claimant was Harold Godwinson and the second claimant was William of Normandy.

Well done if you got both correct.

Let's move on now to see what happened next.

So there were two claimants and they couldn't come to a peaceful agreement and a lot of this was going to depend upon who could win the support of the existing English elite and upon who could move the fastest.

Well, it was Harold Godwinson who did make the first move.

He went to the Witan, which was a group of advisors who supported the King of England in his decisions and managed to get their approval to having himself crowned.

On the screen now, you can see a depiction of Harold's coronation from the bio-tapestry.

He's sitting in the middle of the excerpt and is being enthroned.

In his right hand, you can see that he's holding the sceptre, which is the kingly sign of power.

And in his left hand, he's holding the orb with the cross on top of it, which was supposed to remind Christian rulers that the whole world was subject to the Christian church and to the power of Jesus.

On his head, you can see he's wearing the crown of England and the inscription above his head reads Harold Rex, meaning Harold the King.

On the right of Harold, we can see the archbishop whose job would have been to place the crown upon Harold's head.

And outside the religious building, we can see a great crowd of onlookers looking in on the right-hand side of the excerpt.

So Harold Godwinson took the throne.

He'd been crowned King of England by the archbishop, but that wasn't the end of the story.

Just imagine how William would have reacted when he heard the news of Harold's coronation.

William was absolutely furious that Harold had taken the throne.

Remember that one of the central aspects of William's claim to the throne was that Harold himself had promised to help him get it after Edward's death.

William described Harold as a perjurer, somebody who lies under oath.

He said he'd gone back on his promise, not just a promise, but a holy promise made on holy relics.

And therefore, Harold should not only be kicked off the throne, but he should be kicked out of the church.

However, William knew that he wouldn't be able to launch an invasion of England on his own.

He would need the support, not only from the people within his own Duchy of Normandy in Northern France, but also perhaps from other crowned heads of Europe.

So first he turned to the Pope.

He received the support of the Pope for an invasion of England and for the removal of Harold Godwinson as King.

The papal support was incredibly important for William's claim to the throne, because it meant that he was able to legitimise what he was doing.

In other words, he could say that by invading England and kicking Harold Godwinson off the throne and conquering the country, he was doing what God wanted to happen because he had the support of the Pope to back him up.

So William got together an army, crossed the English Channel, and prepared to engage Harold Godwinson in battle in order to take what he believed was rightfully his, the crown and the throne of England.

Here's another check now of your understanding.

True or false? Harold Godwinson claimed that he had been promised the throne when Edward was young.

Is that true or false? Press pause now and then press play to hear the correct answer.

You should have said the correct answer is false.

I'd like to pause the video again now, and write an explanation of why the answer is false.

You could have said in your answer that Harold Godwinson claimed the throne because he had the support of the English earls and the church men.

Here's a chance now to put everything you've learnt in this section into practise.

I'd like you to sort the following events into chronological order.

That means starting with the earliest first.

Try numbering them one to five with one as the earliest event.

Press pause now to complete the task, and then press play to see the correct order.

Welcome back, let's see how you got on.

You should have said that the first event was that Edward the Confessor realised he was unlikely to have any children.

Secondly, Edward promised the throne to two people.

Thirdly, Edward the Confessor died.

Fourthly, Harold Godwinson was crowned king.

And fifthly, William received papal support for an invasion of England.

We're now ready to move on to the second half of our lesson today.

In this section, we'll be covering William of Poitiers' Gesta Guillelmi.

Historians rely upon sources to help them complete their work.

Sources include written documents, images, and artefacts, objects produced in the past.

These sources help to inform historians about the periods that they are studying.

When historians use sources, they have to think carefully about them.

Historians not only need to consider what sources may suggest about the periods that they are studying, it is also necessary to consider why sources may have been produced, and how reliable or trustworthy the information they provide seems to be.

In the second half of our lesson today, we're going to think about one of the most important sources for the study of the Norman Conquest, and in particular for the study of the claims advanced by the two claimants to the throne that we've just learned about, Harold and William.

The source that we're going to use is known as the Gesta Guillelmi, or the Deeds of William, and it was written by a man known as William of Poitiers, because he was educated at a place called Poitiers.

William of Poitiers served as a private chaplain to William the Conqueror, or William of Normandy, as we've known him up till now.

And so his source gives us a unique insight into the claim which William of Normandy sought to advance.

William of Poitiers was uniquely well-placed to understand why William believed that he should become the next king of England.

So over the next few slides, we're going to look at some extracts from William of Poitiers' "The Deeds of William," and we'll consider how they helped to support William's claim to the throne on one hand, but how they also served to undermine Harold's claim to the throne on the other.

So let's look at the first extract together.

The first extract, extract A, reads, "While Edward was considering the favours bestowed upon him by William, as well as the close bloodline connection, which existed between them, he decided to establish William as the rightful heir to the English crown." So this extract is describing Edward the Confessor's decision-making before he died, and it's telling the reader why Edward decided to nominate William as his heir.

Poitiers makes the claim in this extract that Edward chose William as his heir early in his reign.

He also mentions this bloodline connection.

This bloodline connection was established by Edward's mother, Emma of Normandy, who was herself a Norman and related to William of Normandy.

Poitiers suggests that William's claim is not just based on Edward's promise, it's also based on the sense of shared blood, shared ancestry and relation, and therefore that William's claim might be stronger than anybody else's.

Here's another extract now in which William of Poitiers seeks to discredit Harold's claim to the throne.

"Harold pledged fealty to William in a sacred rite.

He swore that he would ensure the English monarchy would be confirmed in William's hands after Edward's death." So this is the moment that we discussed earlier in the lesson in which Harold allegedly travelled to Normandy, placed his hands on holy relics, and swore in a holy rite or a sacred rite, and this is something very, very serious to people in the 11th century, that he would help William to become the next King of England.

And this is why William and the Normans claimed that Harold was a perjurer.

They claim that he broke his promise.

Let's look at some of the key areas of this extract.

Harold is presented throughout the work as treacherous.

It strengthens William's claim because it makes us as readers less likely to trust Harold and less likely to support him.

The breaking of the holy or the sacred promise further depicts Harold as dishonest, and it serves to strengthen William's claim further.

It's time now for a check of your understanding.

I'd like you to answer this question about the Gesta Guillelmi.

What does the Gesta Guillelmi claim? A, both Edward and Harold had promised the English throne to William.

B, only Edward had promised the English throne to William.

Or C, only Harold had promised the English throne to William.

Press pause now and then press play for the correct answer.

You should have said that the correct answer is A.

The Gesta Guillelmi suggests that both Edward and Harold had promised the English throne to William.

Here's another question now.

True or false? Historians can say with certainty that Edward promised William the throne.

Press pause and then press play to hear the answer.

You should have said that the correct answer is false.

I'd like you to press pause again now and write an explanation about why the answer is false.

You could have said as your explanation that historians have to treat claims in Norman sources like Poitiers' Gesta Guillelmi carefully as they were often made to flatter William.

Here's a final check of your understanding now.

Why did William of Poitiers describe Harold's oath to William? Was it A, because he wanted to portray Harold as an honourable man? B, he wanted to damage Harold's claim to the throne? Or C, he wanted to discredit William's claim to the throne? Press pause and then press play when you're ready for the answer.

That's right, you should have said the correct answer was B, William of Poitiers wanted to damage Harold's claim to the throne.

Finally, in this section, I'd like you to put everything you've learned now into practise.

I'd like you to list three ways in which the Gesta Guillelmi seeks to justify or to strengthen William's claim to the throne.

Press pause now and then when you've got your answer ready, press play to see what you could have said.

Welcome back, let's see how you got on.

You could have said that one way in which the Gesta Guillelmi seeks to justify or strengthen William's claim is it states that Edward the Confessor promised William the throne.

It also states that Harold promised to support William's claim and it states that Harold was a treacherous liar who broke his promises.

As a follow-up, I'd like you now to answer the following question in two or three sentences.

When using the Gesta Guillelmi, why do historians need to keep in mind that Poitiers wrote it in order to promote William's claim? When using the Gesta Guillelmi, why do historians need to keep in mind that Poitiers wrote it in order to promote William's claim? You could consider the following in your answer, Poitiers' role and Poitiers' motive.

Press pause to complete your answer and then press play.

As part of your answer, you could have included the following.

Historians need to keep in mind that Poitiers was writing in order to promote William's claim because this would have influenced his work.

Poitiers was a member of William's household and served as William's priest and therefore he had a motive to flatter and to praise William rather than remaining bound by the truth.

Subsequently, his claims that William had been promised the throne and that Harold was a liar need to be approached with caution by historians.

We've now reached the end of our lesson today, so it's time for a summary.

When Edward the Confessor died, there was no heir to the throne.

Both William of Normandy and Harold Godwinson claimed the throne.

William of Poitiers' Gesta Guillelmi is an important source which supported William's claim to the throne by claiming that Harold had promised to support William and uphold the Norman's own claim.

The Gesta Guillelmi has to be read with caution by historians because William of Poitiers may have been motivated to report some events inaccurately.

Many thanks for all of your hard work in our lesson today.

I hope that you feel confident that you've met your learning objective for the lesson.

And I hope that you'll join me for a future Oak Academy history lesson.