The battle of Hastings was one of the "few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially varied the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes." THE NORMAN LINE. WILLIAM I., surnamed THE CONQUEROR. =D.= He was the son of Robert, duke of Normandy. =B.= at Falaise, 1027. =M.= Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders. =Dd.= at Rouen, Sept. 9, 1087. =R.= 21 years (1066 to 1087).[1] [1] =D.=, descent; =B.=, born; =M.=, married; =Dd.=, died; =R.= reigned. 1067. William visited Normandy, and during his absence the tyranny of his regents goaded some of the people into insurrection. 1068. The king marched to Exeter, and captured it after a short siege. Later in the year he carried his arms to York. 1069. An armament, commanded by Harold and Canute, sons of Sweyn, king of Denmark, arrived in the Humber. The invaders were joined by Edgar Atheling (the grandson of Edmund Ironside, and heir to the throne on the death of Edward the Confessor), Waltheof (the son of Siward), and other Saxon nobles. William is said to have bought off the hostility of the Danes. He captured York, which had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, and ordered the whole district, from the Humber to the Tees, to be laid waste,--an order most effectually and cruelly carried out. 1070. Waltheof was made earl of Huntingdon, and received the hand of William's niece, Judith, in marriage. 1071. The Saxons, who, under Hereward, had been holding out against the king for some time in the Isle of Ely, surrendered. CONQUEST OF ENGLAND COMPLETED. 1072. William invaded Scotland, and compelled Malcolm to acknowledge himself a vassal of the English crown. 1074. The earls of Hereford and Norfolk, and Waltheof, conspired against the king. Waltheof revealed the plot, and sought the king's pardon, but was executed the next year at Winchester. 1079. The king besieged the castle of GERBEROI, held by his son Robert, who had rebelled against him. Robert, not recognizing his father, wounded and unhorsed him. About this time the New Forest was formed. 1085. _FEUDAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED IN ENGLAND._