The arrival and conquest of William radically altered the course of English history.

The King was crowned at Westminster Abby on Christmas Day, 1066. Thus England entered the new era of feudalism.

English bishops were replaced to Norman ones. William built many castles to control the English people; he gave power and land to Norman aristocracy - 'vassals' (nobles, knights, freemen, who became the new governing class).

By 1086 William decided to calculate the size of his land and the tax value of other land in the country. To know this he conducted a survey and made a written record of his property which was later called the 'Domesday Book'. William wanted to find out how much land there was, who owned which piece of land, how much it was worth, how many ploughs and sheep each family had and so on. It reminded people of the Day of Judgement, or 'doom'. The 'Domesday Book' still exists and is of great historical importance because it actually contains the first precious survey of British people's life in the 11th and 12th centuries.

The manuscript is held at the National Archives in Kew, London.

William couldn't speak a word of English: he and his barons, who kept coming over to England during the following 200 years, spoke Norman - French, not pure French because the Normans were simply the same Danes with a French polish. As a result their Norman French was imposed on the country's original Anglo - Saxon language. However, the Normans could not suppress the English language, communication went on in three languages:

Latin was the language of church and monasteries;

Norman - French was the language of the ruling class spoken at court and official institutions;

Common people held obstinately to their own mother tongue.