How did William the Conqueror gain control over England?
Effectively he gained control by blind luck. The battle of hastings was pretty much evenly matched and it was a fluke that King Harold was killed. Due to the nature of Saxon society your loyalty was to your lord and your king. You were obliged to fight to the death, but once the King died, your lords obligation to fight on finished. King Harold had a better tactical position on the slope of Senlac hill and had arranged a shield wall along the hillside (meaning the norman infantry had to fight uphill). At one point the rumour went through the lines that William had been killed and it looked as though his army may well have to retreat- William had to ride up and down the line with his helmet off to show his troops he was still alive. The Norman’s main tactics were to be more reliant cavalry and to use fortresses (either mottes or ringworks) to dominate the landscape and operate from in safety. Mottes were an artificial mound of earth (sometimes only a metre high), with a timber palisade
