William the conqueror believed he had the right to the throne seeing as he had been promised it.
This all started with Edward the Confessor. Edward became Saxon king of England from 1042 – 1066. Seeing as Edward had no natural heir to his throne, when he died in 1066, Harold Godwineson, a strong Saxon noble leader succeeded him as king.
This angered William, duke of Normandy (conqueror) seeing as he had been promised the throne by both Edward and then Harold, yet he had been cheated. This is why William the conqueror believed he had the right to the throne.
Why is William the Conqueror such an important figure in history?
William the conqueror is such an important figure in history seeing as he introduced a new order in England. He had also ended the conflict between the Danes and Saxons by establishing himself as king.
William was a conquering leader so because of this he was able to execute his own form of rule and order over his new kingdom, in this case England. Seeing as he spent little time in England, William had to organise an order or system of government that would still allow him to govern England without anyone getting powerful enough to challenge the role of an absentee king. From this came the system of Feudalism.
Before William had conquered and set up the Feudal arrangement in England, they had no proper established government. Because of this they were constantly being attacked by Vikings and other ‘barbarians’ plus they didn’t work in harmony with each other as it was. So, this system of Feudalism was very significant to England and William.
Feudalism was a system of loyalty and trust. It worked like this:
Monarchs were loyal to lords and vice versa.
Lords were loyal to knights and vice versa.
Knights were loyal to both lords and peasants.
Lords were also loyal to peasants.
Peasants were loyal to lords and knights.
When we think about it, all these loyalty and