welcome back to these videos on the norman conquest in this second set of videos we're going to look at the second mini unit and that looks at invasion and there's going to be four videos in this section so the first one which is this one is looking at normandy and send 65. in the next video we'll look at clayminster throne in the third video we'll look at the battles of fulford and stamford bridge and in the last one we'll look at the battle of hastings let's start with normandy in 1065. in this lesson i'd like to look at how strong normandy was before the invasion because i think it's really important we think about how prepared the normans were to invade england what were the strengths in normandy that enabled them to invade with such ease first off let's start with a map let's see if we can understand where normandy is so normandy is that region of northern france you can see here and william of normandy or william the conqueror by the end of 1066 was controlling all of these lands in pink but it's the normandy bit that i want you to focus on because the normans are called that because they are named after that region of france normandy so let's look at the normans in a little bit more depth and let's think about what features there were of normandy in 1065 so we're talking about the french bit the french region of normandy what was it like there what were the features of normandy before they invaded england first off important to realize that the normans were in essence vikings so normandy was founded by the vikings in the 10th century and they used very brutal force to crush rebellions but over time they become much more french and they picked up french language and french culture normandy was technically part of france so the king of the franks had much less central control than in england where they controlled all of the regions so normandy was an independent fiefdom but it still was technically part of this greater country france and that fiefdom was run using something called the feudal system and the feudal system is a hierarchy and the hierarchy was similar to england but was a little bit different and in essence this is all about promises and the feudal system works because of promises so land the king technically owned all the land he then gave land to the dukes who were underneath him and in return they promised him an army the dukes then all had their own private armies that very very quickly could be gathered so there was huge strength in the norman army and the dukes in return could lend land to the knights and they could then raise taxes on the land the next thing you need to know is that the normans as you can see in this picture here from the bayer tapestry were very very professional soldiers they had great technology for the 11th century they had chain mail which you can see these soldiers here wearing they had swords and their shields and they were a really frightening force the most frightening element of their norman army though was the fact that they rode on horseback and the normans invented the stirrup which is the thing that you put your foot into when you ride a horse and that stirrup enabled them to master the art of fighting on horseback in a way that nobody else in europe could that gave them a huge advantage and the norman knights or the chevalier as they are known in front protected their lands fiercely and the norman knights built castles and they became very well known for building castles now those castles are not like the castles that we probably know today like the castle that's nearest to us at chepstow they're very different they weren't made with stone they were made with wood and the most common form of that castle was a motton bailey castle a mott being a high hill and a bailey being a fenced area below it and those modern bailey castles were genius because they allowed the normans to build them at great speed and because the castles could be built at great speed they were used very defensively so once they invaded an area they would build castles across it and those castles would be assigned to the people who'd just been invaded that this is now norman land this is something you should fear we own this land the normans were also incredibly devout christians and unlike the english their their christianity was very very normal and conformed to those european ideas at the time they followed the ideas of the pope and the roman catholic church strictly the normans built huge numbers of monasteries throughout normandy and the pope loved that norman churches were huge and were built in a style called romanesque style which means they were built in this style to mimic ancient rome and those churches were much bigger much more popular and much more really importantly not corrupt like the english now the normans in 1065 were run by somebody called william duke of normandy let's focus on him for a minute william was just eight when his father died in 1065 sorry 10 35 and he inherited normandy and almost immediately because we've got an eight-year-old king rebellions emerge and rebellions from his dukes trying to challenge his authority and steal his throne many of williams senior advisers were killed and william had a childhood filled with conflict but by 1047 william who's a little bit older at this point takes a much more active role in restoring control he makes alliances with key people like the king of france the king of the franks and he mercilessly crushes those rebellions very cleverly and really earns his spurs he understands about how what warfare looks like he uses soldiers in a brilliant way and another example of an ally is that william marries somebody called matilda of flanders so flanders is a powerful county that borders normandy to the north and william knew that alliances were his way of controlling and keeping power and william really is very clever tactician he's a clever tactician because he forms these great alliances and he uses his army in skillful ways so when we are thinking about normandy in 1065 the key thing you need to think about is what were the features of normandy in 1065 that made those normans so ready to invade england a year later in 1066 what were the features of normandy that allowed them to be ready and prepared for that battle that was to come