The film outlines the historical context beginning with the Norman Conquest in 1066, where William the Conqueror established a powerful centralized government and a new feudal system.

Narrator: England in the 11th century was one of the best governed and wealthiest states in all Europe. There were plenty of silver coins in circulation and food was generally plentiful.

For the common folk of England, life in the eleventh century was often “poor, nasty, brutish and short,” as armies of Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Vikings, and Normans marched across the land, raping, ...