Talk:William the Conqueror

It's actually not true that William the Conqueror was the most recent invasion of England.

Henry Tudor invaded from France in 1485, and James II was essentially deposed when 14 000 of William of Orange's troops landed to kick off the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688.

I also think some armies landed during Stephen and Matilda's civil war, but those two will do for a start :)

Anton de Stoc Politokopolis

Good point. My immediate response would be that both of the exmples you cited were part of a civil war (or popular uprising). Upon consideration the same could be said for William the concreter. It's a bit of an argument about nomenclature here I suspect. I've changed the wording slightly but you may still disagree with it. Feel free to change it if that's the case.

Oh, and register as a wiki user too. It's good to have you aboard Anton. Anyone with your enormous background knowledge is highly valued.

Anton note (28/10/03) : I amended 'last' to 'most' ... in one of his discussions on Phillip II, Geoffrey Parker (Academic God of 16th Century warfare) outlines the various invasions of England. I dont have the precise reference, but I think it's in 'The Spanish Armada' by Parker and Martin.

William/Edward/Harold

Speaking as a Brit, I beg leave to doubt the "received" opinion. Edward had next to no-one else to whom it was safe to leave the kingdom: if he had declared an English heir, Edward would have been killed within hours, either by that heir, or by enemies keen also to kill the heir, and take over. William may not have been a *nice* man, but he was capable of controlling the nobles once he got there.
As to Harold, given almost his entire family were supposedly outlaw and exile, my impression is that he would have sworn anything to anyone (with no intent whatsoever of keeping his oath unless it was convenient to him) if he thought it would get him back to his lands (and family wealth) without being topped.
I may be wrong, but I am not sure that the witan vote (if it ever took place) was other than at Harold's insistence and because (in what was to become an English tradition) Harold was the first man to get to the capital and stake his claim.
--Simoncursitor 17:54, 7 Oct 2004 (EST)