June 8, 2026 • 11 mins
In the year 1066, the illigitimate son of a Norman duke conquered England and became its king, changing English history (and language!) forever. Learn how William the Conquerer rose and ruled in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/william-conqueror.htm
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Vogelbaum here. Like other larger than life figures from world history,
William the Conqueror was a man of paradoxes. While personally
pious and deeply faithful to his church and his wife,
(00:23):
he was also a ruthless political aggressor, capable of brutal
acts of violence to preserve his power, whether or not
he was a good man. The French born William left
an indelible mark on the English speaking world by spearheading
the Norman conquest of England in ten sixty six. William's
(00:43):
victory at the Battle of Hastings ended six centuries of
Anglo Saxon rule in England and imposed French and Latin
words into Old English, creating the quirkily blended language we
speak today. Every English monarch since William is considered a
descendant of him. But how exactly did this illegitimate son
(01:04):
of a Norman duke rise to become the King of
England and one of the most fearsome figures of the
eleventh century. William was born around ten twenty seven in
the Normandy region of what's now France. His parents were
Duke Robert, the first of Normandy, and the daughter of
a Tanner, a woman whose name has been recorded as
(01:24):
Arlev or Arlette. Robert and Arlette weren't married, but they
weren't exactly illicit lovers either. Arlette was Robert's longtime partner,
a relationship that wasn't uncommon at the time. For the
article of this episode is based on how Stuffwork spoke
with David Bates, the author of the Yale University Press
(01:46):
biography William the Conqueror. Bates explained what constituted a Christian
marriage wasn't actually made clear in canon law until the
early thirteenth century. Their relationship was a bit unusual, but
not dramatically so. What is clear is that Robert, who
(02:07):
didn't have any other children, saw William as his legitimate heir,
an unusual step at the time, and when Robert died
during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, eight year old William became
Duke of Normandy. The young Duke's enemies, who tried unsuccessfully
to steal his land and title, insultingly called him William
(02:28):
the Bastard. By the time William was in his early twenties,
he had quashed several internal rebellions and even captured neighboring territories.
A formidable fighter and political leader, he had a reputation
as no one to mess with, so much so that
he had no trouble recruiting thousands of men from Normandy
and other territories to sail with him on an incredibly
(02:50):
risky venture, the ten sixty six invasion of England to
claim its throne for the Normans. But okay, who were
the Normans? A Norman means men from the north, and
that's exactly who they were. Viking invaders who settled in
what's now northern France in the nine hundred CE. Over time,
(03:13):
they converted to Christianity and started speaking French, but they
thought of themselves as a distinct group. What's now known
as England, meanwhile, had been ruled by Anglo Saxon kings
since the first Germanic tribes had conquered the area in
the four hundreds and five hundred CE. The Anglo Saxons
spoke what we now call Old English and lived in
(03:35):
shires ruled by aristocratic lords loyal to the king. William
attested that he was hand picked to become the next
King of England by Edward the Confessor, who died without
an heir in ten sixty six. But William was not
the only pretender to the throne. Various distant relatives claimed
that they were the rightful heirs, including Harold Godwinson, a
(03:59):
member of a Power family, who said that Edward had
chosen him as successor on the late king's deathbed. Bates
said it would have made for a good soap opera.
Since Edward was childless, everyone knew some terrible crisis was
going to come. They had an awful long time to prepare,
without knowing exactly what form it was going to take.
(04:22):
Harold was crowned king on January sixth of ten sixty six,
but his reign would last just nine months and end
with his death by Norman's sword. The Norman invasion of
England wasn't some rash whim. William took seven months to
plan his campaign, eventually transporting some seven thousand men and
three thousand horses across the English Channel on six hundred
(04:46):
Viking style longboats. His timing, it turned out, was perfect.
His adversary, and now dubbed King Harold the Second, was
distracted by a Norwegian invasion of northern England, allowing the
Normans to land unchallenged in southern England. After Harold fought
off the Norwegians, he marched his weary soldiers straight to
(05:07):
the aforementioned Hastings for battle against William's veteran cavalry and archers.
The English, who had the upper ground, formed a shield
line and repelled countless uphill attacks by the Norman cavalry.
William himself had three horses killed under him. When a
rumor spread that William was dead, he famously took off
(05:29):
his helmet and rode through the ranks to rally his troops,
a scene that was captured in the historic Bayeux Tapestry,
a massive embroideries that some two hundred and thirty feet long,
which is seventy meters. Then, in a brilliant move, the
Normans feigned retreat, which tricked some of the less experienced
English soldiers in two, breaking ranks and exposing holes in
(05:51):
their defense. Hastuffworks also spoke with Hugh Thomas, a history
professor at the University of Miami. He said, it's not
very bright chasing on foot people who are on horseback.
The Normans circled back and broke through the English line,
killing Harold and his two brothers. The then kingless English
(06:15):
scattered in a panic, and the grueling day long Battle
of Hastings went to William, who was crowned King of
England on Christmas Day of ten sixty six. As expected,
Harold's supporters didn't roll over and accept William the Conqueror
as their king. During the first years of William's reign,
his enemies mounted numerous rebellions and uprisings, but none so
(06:38):
sustained as those in northern England, centered around the Shire
of York. To put an end to the fighting, William
resorted to a scorched earth tactic known as harrying, that
was not uncommon in medieval times, but perhaps never executed
with such severity. To harry is to burn and destroy
(06:58):
the land and its real versus so completely that nothing
is left to sustain a rebellion. According to one chronicle
from the eleven hundreds, as many as one hundred thousand
peasants died from the famine that followed William's destruction of
the North. Bates said this episode shows William being capable
of extreme violence to achieve his ends. It's his ruthlessness
(07:21):
taken to extremes. When William took the throne, he left
much of the Anglo Saxon government in place, since it
already had a sophisticated bureaucracy that included coinage and taxation,
but he eventually took the dramatic step of dispossessing most
of the Anglo Saxon nobles and handing their lands over
(07:42):
to loyal Norman elites. Latin became the official language of
English government because it was a language that both English
and Norman bureaucrats could understand. A while the lower social
classes continued to speak Old English, the English elites and
their hangars on started speaking French, and that remained the
(08:02):
language of the upper classes well into the twelve hundreds
as a result of the Norman invasion. Modern English contains
roughly ten thousand French words, and estimated fifty eight percent
of English words are derived from French or Latin. Interestingly,
Williams spoke no English and was illiterate, like many noblemen
(08:23):
of the day. Once William installed loyal Normans as feudal lords,
he wanted to determine exactly how many resources were under
his control, so he ordered a nationwide survey of every shire, farm,
shop and household, down to the number of sheep in
a yard and bushels of grain in a storehouse. Thomas said,
(08:47):
it's this massive undertaking by the standards of the time.
The local people compared it to the Last Judgment, when
every single sin and good deed would be counted. Later,
when this huge collection of demographic and economic information was published,
it was dubbed the Doomsday Book. Thomas said, there's nothing
(09:08):
else before or after that survives like that. It's this
incredible snapshot of England's economy. Despite having installed himself as
the King of England, William mostly ruled from Normandy, where
he was also besieged by rebellions. In ten eighty seven,
(09:29):
a year after the completion of The Doomsday Book, William
fell from a horse while leading an attack and died
from his injuries. He was buried in what's now known
as the Abbey of Saint Etienne in Coln, Normandy, a
building that William constructed in ten seventy seven as a
favor of sorts to the church. Pope Leo the ninth
(09:50):
had opposed William's marriage to his close cousin Matilda in
ten fifty so William promised to build a pair of
abbeys Inkln if the Pope agreed to bless the union,
which he did. A simple stone laid in the abbey
is etched with this epitaph. Here lies the invincible William
the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England. William
(10:15):
and Matilda had ten children, including William the Second, who
succeeded his father as King of England. The current royal
family of the United Kingdom is related to William by
way of a complicated and twisting pedigree. There have been
four English kings named William so far, and there will
be a fifth if the heir apparent, Prince William, assumes
(10:37):
the throne as expected. Generally speaking, you can thank the
Normans for popularizing some of the most common names in
the English language, including William, Robert, Henry, and Alice. Before
the Norman invasion, babies were given good Anglo Saxon names
like Ethelred, Eadric and Leophran. Today's episode is based on
(11:04):
the article from William the Bastard to William the Conqueror,
the King who transformed England on HowStuffWorks dot Com written
by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler
klang A. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Vogelbaum here. Like other larger than life figures from world history,
William the Conqueror was a man of paradoxes. While personally
pious and deeply faithful to his church and his wife,
(00:23):
he was also a ruthless political aggressor, capable of brutal
acts of violence to preserve his power, whether or not
he was a good man. The French born William left
an indelible mark on the English speaking world by spearheading
the Norman conquest of England in ten sixty six. William's
(00:43):
victory at the Battle of Hastings ended six centuries of
Anglo Saxon rule in England and imposed French and Latin
words into Old English, creating the quirkily blended language we
speak today. Every English monarch since William is considered a
descendant of him. But how exactly did this illegitimate son
(01:04):
of a Norman duke rise to become the King of
England and one of the most fearsome figures of the
eleventh century. William was born around ten twenty seven in
the Normandy region of what's now France. His parents were
Duke Robert, the first of Normandy, and the daughter of
a Tanner, a woman whose name has been recorded as
(01:24):
Arlev or Arlette. Robert and Arlette weren't married, but they
weren't exactly illicit lovers either. Arlette was Robert's longtime partner,
a relationship that wasn't uncommon at the time. For the
article of this episode is based on how Stuffwork spoke
with David Bates, the author of the Yale University Press
(01:46):
biography William the Conqueror. Bates explained what constituted a Christian
marriage wasn't actually made clear in canon law until the
early thirteenth century. Their relationship was a bit unusual, but
not dramatically so. What is clear is that Robert, who
(02:07):
didn't have any other children, saw William as his legitimate heir,
an unusual step at the time, and when Robert died
during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, eight year old William became
Duke of Normandy. The young Duke's enemies, who tried unsuccessfully
to steal his land and title, insultingly called him William
(02:28):
the Bastard. By the time William was in his early twenties,
he had quashed several internal rebellions and even captured neighboring territories.
A formidable fighter and political leader, he had a reputation
as no one to mess with, so much so that
he had no trouble recruiting thousands of men from Normandy
and other territories to sail with him on an incredibly
(02:50):
risky venture, the ten sixty six invasion of England to
claim its throne for the Normans. But okay, who were
the Normans? A Norman means men from the north, and
that's exactly who they were. Viking invaders who settled in
what's now northern France in the nine hundred CE. Over time,
(03:13):
they converted to Christianity and started speaking French, but they
thought of themselves as a distinct group. What's now known
as England, meanwhile, had been ruled by Anglo Saxon kings
since the first Germanic tribes had conquered the area in
the four hundreds and five hundred CE. The Anglo Saxons
spoke what we now call Old English and lived in
(03:35):
shires ruled by aristocratic lords loyal to the king. William
attested that he was hand picked to become the next
King of England by Edward the Confessor, who died without
an heir in ten sixty six. But William was not
the only pretender to the throne. Various distant relatives claimed
that they were the rightful heirs, including Harold Godwinson, a
(03:59):
member of a Power family, who said that Edward had
chosen him as successor on the late king's deathbed. Bates
said it would have made for a good soap opera.
Since Edward was childless, everyone knew some terrible crisis was
going to come. They had an awful long time to prepare,
without knowing exactly what form it was going to take.
(04:22):
Harold was crowned king on January sixth of ten sixty six,
but his reign would last just nine months and end
with his death by Norman's sword. The Norman invasion of
England wasn't some rash whim. William took seven months to
plan his campaign, eventually transporting some seven thousand men and
three thousand horses across the English Channel on six hundred
(04:46):
Viking style longboats. His timing, it turned out, was perfect.
His adversary, and now dubbed King Harold the Second, was
distracted by a Norwegian invasion of northern England, allowing the
Normans to land unchallenged in southern England. After Harold fought
off the Norwegians, he marched his weary soldiers straight to
(05:07):
the aforementioned Hastings for battle against William's veteran cavalry and archers.
The English, who had the upper ground, formed a shield
line and repelled countless uphill attacks by the Norman cavalry.
William himself had three horses killed under him. When a
rumor spread that William was dead, he famously took off
(05:29):
his helmet and rode through the ranks to rally his troops,
a scene that was captured in the historic Bayeux Tapestry,
a massive embroideries that some two hundred and thirty feet long,
which is seventy meters. Then, in a brilliant move, the
Normans feigned retreat, which tricked some of the less experienced
English soldiers in two, breaking ranks and exposing holes in
(05:51):
their defense. Hastuffworks also spoke with Hugh Thomas, a history
professor at the University of Miami. He said, it's not
very bright chasing on foot people who are on horseback.
The Normans circled back and broke through the English line,
killing Harold and his two brothers. The then kingless English
(06:15):
scattered in a panic, and the grueling day long Battle
of Hastings went to William, who was crowned King of
England on Christmas Day of ten sixty six. As expected,
Harold's supporters didn't roll over and accept William the Conqueror
as their king. During the first years of William's reign,
his enemies mounted numerous rebellions and uprisings, but none so
(06:38):
sustained as those in northern England, centered around the Shire
of York. To put an end to the fighting, William
resorted to a scorched earth tactic known as harrying, that
was not uncommon in medieval times, but perhaps never executed
with such severity. To harry is to burn and destroy
(06:58):
the land and its real versus so completely that nothing
is left to sustain a rebellion. According to one chronicle
from the eleven hundreds, as many as one hundred thousand
peasants died from the famine that followed William's destruction of
the North. Bates said this episode shows William being capable
of extreme violence to achieve his ends. It's his ruthlessness
(07:21):
taken to extremes. When William took the throne, he left
much of the Anglo Saxon government in place, since it
already had a sophisticated bureaucracy that included coinage and taxation,
but he eventually took the dramatic step of dispossessing most
of the Anglo Saxon nobles and handing their lands over
(07:42):
to loyal Norman elites. Latin became the official language of
English government because it was a language that both English
and Norman bureaucrats could understand. A while the lower social
classes continued to speak Old English, the English elites and
their hangars on started speaking French, and that remained the
(08:02):
language of the upper classes well into the twelve hundreds
as a result of the Norman invasion. Modern English contains
roughly ten thousand French words, and estimated fifty eight percent
of English words are derived from French or Latin. Interestingly,
Williams spoke no English and was illiterate, like many noblemen
(08:23):
of the day. Once William installed loyal Normans as feudal lords,
he wanted to determine exactly how many resources were under
his control, so he ordered a nationwide survey of every shire, farm,
shop and household, down to the number of sheep in
a yard and bushels of grain in a storehouse. Thomas said,
(08:47):
it's this massive undertaking by the standards of the time.
The local people compared it to the Last Judgment, when
every single sin and good deed would be counted. Later,
when this huge collection of demographic and economic information was published,
it was dubbed the Doomsday Book. Thomas said, there's nothing
(09:08):
else before or after that survives like that. It's this
incredible snapshot of England's economy. Despite having installed himself as
the King of England, William mostly ruled from Normandy, where
he was also besieged by rebellions. In ten eighty seven,
(09:29):
a year after the completion of The Doomsday Book, William
fell from a horse while leading an attack and died
from his injuries. He was buried in what's now known
as the Abbey of Saint Etienne in Coln, Normandy, a
building that William constructed in ten seventy seven as a
favor of sorts to the church. Pope Leo the ninth
(09:50):
had opposed William's marriage to his close cousin Matilda in
ten fifty so William promised to build a pair of
abbeys Inkln if the Pope agreed to bless the union,
which he did. A simple stone laid in the abbey
is etched with this epitaph. Here lies the invincible William
the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England. William
(10:15):
and Matilda had ten children, including William the Second, who
succeeded his father as King of England. The current royal
family of the United Kingdom is related to William by
way of a complicated and twisting pedigree. There have been
four English kings named William so far, and there will
be a fifth if the heir apparent, Prince William, assumes
(10:37):
the throne as expected. Generally speaking, you can thank the
Normans for popularizing some of the most common names in
the English language, including William, Robert, Henry, and Alice. Before
the Norman invasion, babies were given good Anglo Saxon names
like Ethelred, Eadric and Leophran. Today's episode is based on
(11:04):
the article from William the Bastard to William the Conqueror,
the King who transformed England on HowStuffWorks dot Com written
by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler
klang A. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
BrainStuff News
Host
Lauren Vogelbaum
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