The Norman Conquest is the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy, subsequently King William I. The conquest was effectively completed by William's victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and this is regarded as an important landmark, the start of English history as we know it.

One of the reasons the Normans were able to take over so easily was because the Viking invasion of Harald III of Norway in September 1066 left England unable to gather enough of an army to fend off the new enemy.

It may be noted that the conquest of Wales by the Normans was completed piecemeal and not finalised until 1282, during the reign of King Edward I. The same king, though he subdued Scotland, cannot be said to have truly conquered it, as it remained an independent kingdom until 1603.

The Norman conquerors introduced French as the language of the ruling classes in England, displacing English, a status it held for nearly 300 years.

At first the conquerors remained ethnically distinct from the native population of England but, over the centuries, the two racial groups merged and are no longer distinguishable.

See also

• British military history
• UK topics

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There is a series of plays by Alan Ayckbourn entitled The Norman Conquests. The subject matter has nothing to do with the Norman conquest of England.