Was the 1066 colonization a good thing for Britain?

The Flemish were also vassals of the king of France, doesn't make them French

If only the fucking Norwegians didn't invade the Saxons would have btfo the Normans

1688 Dutch Invade and conquer England
Nobody wants to admit it

holy shit , are all french as stupid as you?

The Englishmen welcomed it to get rid of their C*tholic king, it was more of a liberation than an invasion

That's possible (given the prowesses of the huskarl), but not sure. The Norman army was a tough bunch, especially the cavalry.

>hey guys can you come and remove our king, we won't resist

The Normans essentially co-opted much of the late Anglo-Saxon administrative structure - things like shires, hundreds, tithings and coinage system - because of how sophisticated the late Anglo-Saxon state was.

Generally the common Anglo-Saxon peasant or city-dweller was left unaffected by the Norman Conquest. It was the Ang-Sax nobility and gentry (thegns) that were obliterated, after demonstrating their rebellious nature in the immediate years after 1066 (Exeter rebelled in 1067, further rebellions in the north by the remaining Anglo Saxon magnates.)

Additionally the English church was Normanized apart from a few clerics. Lanfranc brought in as Archbishop of Canterbury.

I disagree with some of the earlier comments that the Normans made England materially more wealthy, but repressed the entire population - Anglo-Saxon and Norman culture and society combined to create an Anglo-Norman state that was quite different from France and indeed Normandy.

So it's hard to say whether it was 'good' because it affected so many different sections of society in so many ways.

It was probably the most important event in English history. The Normans introduced many important aspects of English culture and architecture, as well as laws, social systems and language. Also many modern English are descended from Normans so they're literally our ancestors. The only people that suffered from the invasion was the nobility so to peasants it was just another ruler. Within 100 years the Normans had become English and were instrumental in many of England's wars as Englishmen of Norman descent made excellent warriors. It's not really French colonisation (although they were French) as that implies it was the effort of the country and not of one powerful and mostly independent duke, William.

No, not really. It introduced a whole mess of problems, for instance almost everything bad about Ireland can be traced back to 1066.

>Normans
>Vassals of the king of France.
Nominally.

But Normans acted like they ran their own independent country. As the expedition to England showed.

In addition, all those independent Norman groups who fucked off Normandy to make a name for themselves all over Europe and the Mediterranean.

>Just accept it, filthy angl*s you our rapebabies. With love, France.
I rather enjoy your babies, Pierre, and so do all my friends, every day.

t. Ahmed

Yeah, the bongs have always been cucks, inviting in their conquerors... 1688, 1940, today.

The Flemish didn't speak French or have over 80% of French admixture like the 1066 Normans did

The Normans didn't speak French, they spoke Norman

>admixture
kek you give yourself away every time you frog faggot

"Norman" was a dialect of Old French ("langue d'oil"), not a distinct language

It was basically Old French with a few varying spelling on some words (kinda like for American English)

No, destroyed the Wittan, destroyed the native noble class, lead to the hundreds years war by combining England with French-speaking territory and nobility, also harrowing of the north never forget

>Guillaume l'Anglo-slayer
>not French

Pick one

It was devastating, it sent England back centuries. The rights and freedoms Norman nobles spent the middle ages fighting one another for where weaker than the rights and freedoms the English had enjoyed before the Norman invasion, and of course the Normans only fought for those rights for themselves, while the English Common Law treated every freeman the same. Literally the only thing the Normans contributed was (French) military technology, everything else was a plague upon the island of Britain, and one that is still to this day in place: Most of Britain is still owned by the same Anglo-Norman aristocrats who stole the country 1,000 years ago, it's one reason British cities are so unnaturally densely compacted and cramped, the nobles who own the countryside won't allow new towns to be built.

the British Isles are just the genetic dumping ground of Europe
they were lucky to be enriched by Germanic blood, so that they could build their Empire

It’s a meme you dip

...

>harrowing of the north
>harrowing
What did they do, dress up as vikings and go "ooga booga"

The Normans abolished slavery and only displaced the Anglo-Saxon nobles, the peasants weren't negatively affected by that. To them it doesn't matter who rules as it's all the same. Also the Normans interbred with the Anglo-Saxons until within 100 years they were indistinguishable

There were no peasants under the Anglo-Saxons. Above slaves you just have Freemen.

Normans brought Feudalcuckoldry with them to England.

They robbed it of all its valuable property then they razed the farms and caused a famine so the people of the north became depopulated and starved into submission.

Tolkien had a hate boner for the Normans, which is why he made the setting for Middle Earth a sort of anglo-saxon, fantasy dark age theme. It's interesting to think about what would have happened in the invasion never happened, but at least England got some dank castles out of it.
Fill me in on this slavery? I mean sure they had peasants but I've never heard of anglo saxon slavery.

Yeah, Tolkien hated the the Norman Invasion (and more generally the French) for having "ruined" English language

He tried hard to use the least French words as possible in his book but still ended up using several of them in almost every sentence because English language is just too Frenchified

*harrying

>tfw English history is the most relevant in the world

always thought the various types of orc represented vikings/normans/etc

The Latin influence in English didn't become overbearing until well into the development of the early modern language in the 15th to 16th centuries. The effect of the Norman conquest is overstated; English writers were unwilling to maintain a purity standard and that's why it eventually gave way to the constant use of inkhorn terms.

>The effect of the Norman conquest is overstated

True, most of the Frenchification of English language occured during the Angevin domination of England (1154-1485) rather than during the Norman one (1066-1154)

>Domesday Survey
>most renowned theologians in Europe came to England to be Archbishop of Canterbury
>Common Law under Henry II
>Magna Carta
>Establishment of parliamentary tradition.
>Statues of Westminster

but yeah it totally sent us back centuries.

The Norman invasion was terrible

Hordes of French barbarians were bursting into our country

Leaving behind Domesday Survey, Magna Carta, Common Law...

*norman barbarians

Then why did they refer to themselves as French and why did the English refer to them as French?

This. The Normans hadn't integrated themselves into English society until the 1150s when Henry II became king. It wasn't until then that they saw themselves English. In fact Angevins were the first kings to actually be born in England since Edward the Confessor

don't know if trolling. around 8000 Normans settled in England, and the majority of these were of noble birth, who proceeded to intermarry with Anglo-Saxons and assimilate into the new Anglo-Norman society.

>majority of noble birth
Wtf are you saying? The majority of the Norman forces were nobles?

The majority of Norman forces went back home to tend their fields.

No those who settled after the Conquest had been completed militarily

Being French can indeed be considered as being of noble birth.

> he says in English
France is dead.

I'd argue about the destruction of the Thegns, at least some of the lesser gentry survived...Look at Bernard the kings scribe in the reign of Henry I. He came from a thegns family who has several manors

Yeah I'm sure a few were able to survive but, by and large, Normans displaced the gentry, which is reflected in the predominance of the word 'knight' as opposed to thegn in the period after the Conquest.

Sure, but France will forever live through English language (1/3rd of the vocab is French), the language of the current global superpower (which exists due to Britain losing a war to France in 1783)

WE WUZ ENGLIZ LANGUAGE N SHIEEET

You mean Anglo-Saxon Cnicht