Great Commanders

[Steel God]

Am I being really mean & horrible by pointing out that Will the Conk was Norse (the Normans were Viking, Rollo I think it was claimed Normandy for them), so really nothing changed :P

Mean? No. Slightly disingenuous perhaps? The Normans were of Viking decent, but were decidedly French in word and deed. Rollo came to France in 911, sot he Normans were as Viking as I am Sicilian. I honor the heritage, but I've never been to Sicily.

William was great for no other reason than he put a little continental civilization into that daub and waddle mud hole of an island Err? Cultural attaché for all things French eh, apart from slumming it, it's something of a demotion from one of the worlds 'Great commanders' ain't it :whis:

There are those who would argue that putting the Fleur de Lis in the English Coat of Arms is a pearl beyond price. But regardless, we're talking about the last successful invader of England. In almost 1000 years it's not been repeated. Surely a little credit is due the man....or is that precisely when there's no respect given? And don't give me any of that tripe about 1688 either. ;)

Actually Paul we did have a few centuries of Culture behind us before William turned up; folk like The Venerable Bede (673–735), some of his scientific theories and studies (tides & phases of the Moon) stood for 1,000 years and laid the basis for Isaac Newtons work, Alcuin of York (c.735 - 804) adviser to Charlemagne, the illustrated Lindisfarne Gospels, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Beowulf an Old English heroic poem plus some other bits & bobs.

Oddly enough nothing really springs to mind for the Norman/Plantagenet period till Geoffrey Chaucer, ... but maybe we as a people should be glad of that else we would be eating snails and stuff now

Of course England had culture (albeit not continental culture :rolleyes: ) prior to 1066. Why else would the Danes have used you like an Ikea Store for a few 100 years? (although they left out the cash part of cash and carry).

And the Normans had a few skills to add to the mix: Domesday, creation of the office of the Exchequer, castle designs of unparalleled strength, not to mention the previously alluded to fact that he took this conquered nation and made it a model of what a Fuedal State should be...so much so, he ruled from Normandy from about 1070 (give or take) on, spending most of his time in France. Y'all must have thought fairly highly of him too, at least at the time