The Normans - Episode guide
BBC Two's The Normans is a three-part series, aiiring as part of a season focusing on the Normans.
Professor Robert Bartlett journeys from Great Britain to Jerusalem, via the Kingdom of Sicily, in this major series examining the extraordinary expansion and unchecked ambition of the Normans. He draws on Anglo-Saxon chronicles, medieval manuscripts and some of the most powerful examples of Norman architecture in an epic sweep of the period of Norman supremacy. And he reveals how their impact is still felt in today's culture and politics.
> Find out 30 facts about the Normans.
Episode 1: Men From The North
Wednesday 4th August 2010
In the first episode, Bartlett explores where the Normans came from and how they developed into the formidable force that conquered England in 1066. He tells how, under the leadership of a Scandinavian giant called Rollo, these descendants of the Vikings first established themselves in northern France and became an unstoppable force of Christian knights and warriors. They also established themselves as master-builders of Christianity, with the construction of extraordinary cathedrals across Normandy.
With the birth of Duke William "the Bastard", the Normans' time had arrived. Having conquered the provinces around Normandy, this ruthless but skilled warrior and politician turned his attention to England. He claimed to have been promised the throne by Edward the Confessor – a claim supported by the Bayeux Tapestry, one of the most extraordinary records of the medieval world.
However, when Edward the Confessor died in 1066, William's arch-rival, Harold Godwinson, took the English crown for himself. William raised a mighty invasion force and sailed across the Channel. On the morning of 14 October, the English army, under King Harold, met the Norman army just north of Hastings. By the end of the day, the Anglo-Saxon world had come to an end. The future belonged to the Normans.
Episode 2: Conquest
Wednesday 11th August 2010
Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Norman Conquest of Britain and Ireland in this second episode. He shows how William the Conqueror savagely cut down any opposition and built scores of castles and cathedrals to intimidate and control. He imposed a new aristocracy and commissioned the Domesday Book, the greatest survey of England that had ever been attempted. This gave him an efficient instrument of control and a useful means of raising revenue.
England adapted to her new masters. Intermarriage between the Normans and the English was common, giving rise to a transformation of the language and culture of the land. Bartlett argues that the political and cultural landscapes of Scotland, Wales and Ireland were also forged by the Normans. In Scotland, the Normans were invited in, while they faced opposition in Wales and never managed to take the whole country. In Ireland, Bartlett shows how the Normans created a division between the English and the Irish that still exists to this day, laying the blueprint for colonialism in the modern world.
Episode 3: Normans Of The South
Wednesday 18th August 2010
In the final episode, Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Normans on southern Europe and the Middle East, far from the Norman kingdoms of Normandy and England. In the 11th century, the Normans spread south, fighting for control of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. There they created their most prosperous kingdom, in which different cultures lived alongside one another in relative harmony. Christianity and Islam existed in mutual tolerance and the Norman kingdom of Sicily became a great centre of international culture and learning. Scholars from East and West flocked there, encouraging an exchange of ideas that would change the world.
Events in the Middle East provoked the more aggressive side of the Norman character. In 1095, the Pope called for Holy War against Islam. The Normans enthusiastically took up the challenge and headed east as part of the First Crusade. They passed through Constantinople, besieged and won the city of Antioch, and finally attacked the Holy City, winning Jerusalem back from the Muslims. Norman warriors rushed to liberate the Holy Sepulchre from Muslim hands. This bloody conquest left a deep rift between Christianity and Islam which is still being felt to this day.
