If the Anglo-Saxons had won at Hastings...

[Ayahuasca]

Following on from the British Empire thread.

If the Norman archer had aimed slightly differently, and the Anglo-Saxons hadn’t gone charging down the hill, they may well have won.

So if the Norman conquest never happened, how would our islands be today?

[KEITHOA]

living in Hastings there are lots of references to it

Edited by KEITHOA on Wednesday 8th January 17:21

[Bright Halo]

I don’t think much would be too different in the long run. Fewer castles maybe?
Their language and culture didn’t really stay afaik

[TEKNOPUG]

Bright Halo said:

I don’t think much would be too different in the long run. Fewer castles maybe?
Their language and culture didn’t really stay afaik

I think you'd struggle to be more wrong. The Norman conquest had a profound and all consuming impact on these Isles which is still felt in every area of society today.

[Bright Halo]

TEKNOPUG said:

Bright Halo said:

I don’t think much would be too different in the long run. Fewer castles maybe?
Their language and culture didn’t really stay afaik

I think you'd struggle to be more wrong. The Norman conquest had a profound and all consuming impact on these Isles which is still felt in every area of society today.

Enlighten me If you will please?

[Dr Jekyll]

I did read an argument years ago that if Harold had won Britain would have become (remained?) essentially part of Scandinavia. Even that the Danes, having left Greenland and North American territories would have moved south to find substitute territories.

The royal family would have been different not only in terms of personnel but more importantly in terms of power. The Anglo Saxon Witan was a form of parliament with far more power than it's Norman successor, it even elected the King. Hardly democracy of course, but a lot closer to it than the Norman system.

Certainly the language would have been different. Norman French was used by the powerful for centuries until they got tired of the French making fun of their accent. By which time English was a hybrid of Norman French and Old English.
So as well as giving us London tourist attractions and the channel Islands, the Normans also gave us the 'pretentious moi' joke.

[Ayahuasca]

I saw an argument that Wales, and perhaps Scotland, would not exist today. By 1066 the Anglo-Saxons had not yet completed the task of occupying the whole island, but they probably would have done in time, and displaced or merged with the celts. The Normans, being few in number, had not the resources to invade Wales and Scotland until much later and even when they invaded, they simply ruled but did not displace.

[Newc]

Bright Halo said:

Enlighten me If you will please?

The posts above have pointed to it. It's not really a bullet list of specific things ('drive on the right', 'speak french'). It's the consequence of the orbit of the country moving away from being a Saxon / Germanic / Scandi one, which was - very broadly - expeditionary, pagan, really a bit backward, and recovered less from the fall of the Romans.

The Normans took England towards the French / Spanish / Italian sphere - lots of intertwined dynasties, rule of the church, deeper rooted civic systems - which continued all the way through till Hexit in the 1530's. Those 500 years overwrote most of the culture which had been emerging from the 600's through to 1066. Post-Tudor history built on that Norman foundation, it didn't replace it.

[Mr Dendrite]

Some of Our food would have different names. In most countries the name of the animal and the name of the meat are the same but here a lot of the animal names still drive from Anglo Saxon: Cow, Sheep, Pig because the peasants looked after them so that’s what stayed in use. The meat is called after the Norman cuisine of nobles used for cooking: beef (Boeuf), mutton (Mouton), pork (Porc). However some are much older from Latin like Venison so it always simple. It’s a generalisation but it’s an example of how language changes and grow.