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Historical person

William the Conqueror

1028–1087

William the Conqueror was duke of Normandy before invading England and defeating Harold II at Hastings in 1066. He secured the kingdom through further warfare, castle building, redistribution of land and the suppression of revolts, including the devastating Harrying of the North.

William replaced much of the English aristocracy with Norman and other continental followers and tied landholding more closely to military and royal service. His government also reorganised the English church and used castles to secure newly conquered regions. The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded land, resources and obligations on an extraordinary scale shortly before William's death in 1087.

Jean Plaidy’s The Bastard King follows William from an insecure childhood and disputed legitimacy to the disciplined ruler capable of mounting the invasion of England in 1066. David Pilling’s The Fate of a King approaches him from Harold Godwinson’s side, making William’s cross-Channel claim one of the two invasions Harold must answer in a single campaigning season. James Aitcheson’s Knights of the Hawk moves to 1071 and the siege of Ely, showing William as a conqueror still forced to crush organised English resistance years after Hastings. Alan Fenton’s The Exile depicts the harsher post-conquest order of castles, dispossession and defeated English nobles leaving the kingdom, while David C. Douglas’ William the Conqueror provides the historical account of the Norman duke who transformed English landholding, government and aristocratic power after victory.

Periods

Periods linked to William the Conqueror

Harrying of the North1069–1070 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring William the Conqueror (18 series)

Norman Genesis in Order

by Griff Hosker 11 books 4.5(18,102)

Norman Genesis follows the Scandinavian roots of Normandy, beginning with Hrolf/Rollo and the Viking world that produced the first Norman rulers. The series shows raiding, Frankish politics, settlement and the gradual transformation of a war band into a ducal dynasty. It acts as a prehistory to later Norman…

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Wolves of Odin in Order

by Simon Turney 6 books 4.5(8,148)

The Wolves of Odin series follows Halfdan and the crew of the Sea Wolf from eleventh-century Scandinavia into the interconnected world of Byzantium, Italy, Normandy, England and Norway. Their blood feud begins amid Christianisation but soon becomes a wider search for wealth, honour and belonging among rulers who…

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Conquest in Order

by Griff Hosker 4 books 4.6(4,479)

Conquest follows England after the Norman victory of 1066. The books use Hastings, rebellion, occupation and the consolidation of William the Conqueror’s rule to show how conquest continues long after a single battle is won. The series is strongest as a post-Conquest saga about dispossession, resistance, new lordship…

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Road to Hastings in Order

by K. M. Ashman 3 books 4.5(1,382)

Road to Hastings traces the political rise of the Godwin family and the decisions that produced the English succession crisis of 1066. Beginning with Edith of Wessex's marriage to Edward the Confessor, the trilogy follows Earl Godwin and Harold Godwinson through exile, restoration, diplomacy and the growing influence…

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Domesday in Order

by Edward Marston 11 books 4.3(18,149)

The Domesday mysteries are set in 1086, when William the Conqueror’s commissioners travel through England to investigate disputed landholding and verify evidence gathered for the royal survey. Norman soldier Ralph Delchard and lawyer Gervase Bret form the central partnership, assisted by the clerks, officials and local witnesses needed…

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Aelfraed in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4(3,789)

The Aelfraed trilogy follows Saxon survivors through the violent aftermath of 1066. Beginning before the Battle of Hastings and continuing through resistance, outlawry and exile, the series uses the collapse of Harold Godwinson’s England to follow housecarls and rebels forced to decide whether to keep fighting, submit to…

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Historical Romances in Order

by Georgette Heyer 9 books 4.3(16,123)

This collection brings together Georgette Heyer’s historical novels set outside her main Regency-romance sequence. The settings range from medieval England and France to the Norman Conquest, Elizabethan maritime conflict, the escape of Charles II and the Peninsular War. The list follows the ordering supplied by the Fantastic Fiction…

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The Bloody Hand Saga in Order

by David Pilling 9 books 4.3(4,249)

The Bloody Hand Saga follows Thorkell Skaldsson from the English resistance to Norman rule into exile and service in the Byzantine world. Beginning with rebellion in the Danelaw and the Harrying of the North, the series expands into the wars of Emperor Alexios I, the Norman invasion of…

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The Wolf of Kings in Order

by Richard Cullen 3 books 4.3(3,762)

The Wolf of Kings follows Styrkar the Dane, a surviving housecarl of Harold Godwinson, through the resistance to William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings. Oath Bound begins on Senlac Hill in 1066 and turns Styrkar’s loyalty to his dead king into a campaign of personal vengeance…

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Huscarl Chronicles in Order

by Paul Bernardi 3 books 4.3(2,279)

The Huscarl Chronicles, also marketed by Paul Bernardi as the Conquest trilogy, follow the young English warrior Thurkill through the crisis of 1066 and the first year of Norman rule. Thurkill’s Revenge carries him from Edward the Confessor’s death through Stamford Bridge and Hastings; Thurkill’s Battle follows the…

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Wild Hunt in Order

by Elizabeth Chadwick 2 books 4.2(8,212)

The Wild Hunt sequence follows interconnected families living in the militarised Welsh Marches after the Norman Conquest. Arranged marriages, disputed lordships and shifting royal favour force its characters to build trust while defending estates exposed to both local rivalry and wider political upheaval. The Coming of the Wolf…

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The Conquest in Order

by James Aitcheson 3 books 4.2(2,635)

The Conquest follows Tancred a Dinant, a fictional Norman knight, through the final years of William the Conqueror’s struggle to secure England. Beginning with the northern rising of 1069, the trilogy moves through renewed English and Danish resistance, warfare on the Welsh Marches and the last major rebel…

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The Norman Series: in Order

by Jean Plaidy 3 books 4.3(933)

The Norman trilogy follows William the Conqueror and his heirs as they seize and consolidate the English crown. The sequence moves from the Norman Conquest through the reign of Henry I to the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, showing how conquest, inheritance and baronial loyalty reshaped England.

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The Medieval Saga in Order

by David Field 7 books 4.3(8,628)

The Medieval Saga follows interlinked fictional families through two centuries of English dynastic conflict, beginning with the invasions of 1066 and ending with Simon de Montfort’s challenge to Henry III. The sequence places ordinary soldiers, household officers and landed families beside the rulers whose wars repeatedly reshape their…

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The Daughters of Hastings Trilogy in Order

by Carol McGrath 3 books 4.1(11,613)

Carol McGrath’s Daughters of Hastings Trilogy follows the women of Harold Godwinson’s family as the Norman Conquest destroys one political world and forces them to build lives in another. The Handfasted Wife centres on Edith Swanneck after Hastings and during resistance to William the Conqueror; The Swan-Daughter follows…

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Rebellion in Order

by Paul Bernardi 3 books 4.4(92)

The Rebellion trilogy follows Oslac, a Northumbrian thegn whose private feud with Gundulf is repeatedly overtaken by the struggle against Norman rule. Blood Feud begins in 1067 with the conflict between William the Conqueror’s appointed earl Copsi and the local ruler Osulf; Uprising carries Oslac deeper into the…

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Celtic World in Order

by Morgan Llywelyn 8 books 4.1(10,785)

The Celtic World is a thematic sequence of novels moving from the migrations and sacred traditions of ancient Celtic peoples into the heroic cycles and medieval history of Ireland and Britain. Its subjects include the legendary origins of Ireland, the warriors of the Ulster and Fenian cycles, Saint…

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The Norman Series in Order

by Henry Treece 2 books 4.0(56)

The Norman Series presents the conquest of England from the perspective of men committed to the defeated English order. Hounds of the King follows a Mercian boy into Harold Godwinson’s housecarls and the final stand at Hastings. Man with a Sword moves to the Fenlands, where Hereward continues…

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Standalone books

Standalone books featuring William the Conqueror (8 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring William the Conqueror (14 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.