William the Conqueror
Biography
Illegitimate Duke William claimed the English throne and took it at Hastings, transforming England. The Domesday Book surveyed every manor for taxation. Norman French fused with Anglo Saxon into English. Feudalism, castles, cathedrals followed. Every English monarch descends from him, and the English crown entanglement with France flowed from his dual realm, seeding the Hundred Years War.
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