About the book: 2014 / There are few dates in the history of England that could compare in the intensity of events and their consequences with 1066, when the very course of political development changed British Isles and Northern Europe. After the death of the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, three people declared their claims to the throne of England: the Anglo-Saxon earl Harold, the Norwegian king Harald the Severe and the Norman Duke William the Conqueror. In a bloody struggle, Harold and Harald died, and the victory was won by the Norman William, who received the nickname the Conqueror. Over the next twenty years, William changed the political and social complexion of his new kingdom, introducing laws and institutions along continental lines. It is to these events, which are commonly called the “Norman Conquest”, that the English historian Peter Rex dedicated his book.