#english_history 

## Prelude
[[Vikings and the Saxons#^14909a|Alfred the Great]] brought about the unification of the English under the rule of Wessex. Although he did not control all the [[Saxon Invaders|Saxon Kingdoms]], his progenies soon claimed the title "King of The English", ending the Heptarchy.
The first king of England was AEthelstan, who ruled in 927-939. Edmund I followed him, ruling from 939 to 946. Then went Eadred, 946-955, and Eadwig, 955-959. Then was the stable rule of Edgar the Peaceful in 959-975. He was followed by **Edward the Martyr**, who ruled from **975** until his murder in **978**.
By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again, but the Vikings restarted their raids soon after. The Saxon king, **Ethelred the Unready** (Ethelred the Poor-Advised) (978-1016), introduced a [[Tax|tax]] system (**one of the first in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire**), called **danegeld** (or **gafol**), to pay the Vikings to stay away.

## North Sea Empire
When Ethelred died, after a brief period of rule by Edmund Ironside (1016), **Cnut** (**Canute**) (1016-1035), the leader of the Danish Vikings, controlled much of England, Norway and Denmark as the **North Sea Empire** for the simple reason that [[Government and society of the Saxons#^7fd111|the Witan]] feared disorder. 
When Cnut died in **1035** and his son (*Harold I*) died in **1040**, and after a brief rule by Harthacnut **(1040-1042)**, the Witan chose Edward, a son of Ethelred, to be king.

## Fight for power
Edward, known as "the Confessor" (1042-1066), was more interested in the Church than in kingship, encouraging Church building. The [[Westminster Abbey]] was his achievement and suppposed to be a king's church, which was a Norman, not Saxon, building, as Edward was a descendant of the Normans who settled in [[Normandy]] and became Christians.
He died without an obvious heir, and had brought many Normans to his English court from France. These Normans were not liked by Saxon nobility, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, **the Godwinsons**. The Witan then chose Harold Godwinson, Harold II, to be the king of England. He had no royal blood, but had already shown his magnanimous nature and a stout spirit. 
His right to the throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy, who had two claims to the throne: 1) that the Edward the Confessor had promised it to him; 2) that Harold Godwinson had promised it to him, to which Harold replied that he had been forced to promise so, and thus his claim was illegitimate. 
Harold, however, also had another challenger to the throne: the Danish king **Harald Hardrada**. ^b021a7

## Battles
After defeating the Danes in Yorkshire, Harold learnt that William had landed in England with an army, and led his exhausted army south. He decided not to wait for the whole Saxon army, the fyrd, to gather because William's army was small, although much better equipped, which was his fatal mistake. He was killed by an arrow to the eye in the **Battle of Hastings**. 
William marched to London and was crowned the King of England in the Westminster Abbey on the Christmas Day of 1066. He reigned from 1066 to 1087. ^c6b3ec