From the point of view both of immediate achievement and of ultimate results, the conquest of England was the crowning act of Norman history. Something doubtless was due to good fortune,--to the absence of an English fleet, to the favorable opportunity in French politics, to the mistakes of the English. But the fundamental facts, without which these would have meant nothing, were the strength and discipline of Normandy and the personality of her leader. Diplomat, warrior, leader of men, William was preëminently a statesman, and it was his organizing genius which “turned the defeat of English arms into the making of the English nation.” This talent for political organization was, however, no isolated endowment of the Norman duke, but was shared in large measure by the Norman barons, as is abundantly shown by the history of Norman rule in Italy and Sicily. For William and for his followers the conquest of England only gave a wider field for qualities of state-building which had already shown themselves in Normandy. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE A detailed narrative of the relations between Normandy and England in the eleventh century is given by E. A. Freeman in his _History of the Norman Conquest_ (Oxford, 1870–79), but large portions of this work need to be rewritten in the light of later studies, especially those of Round. There is a brief biography of William the Conqueror by Freeman in the series of “Twelve English Statesmen” (London, 1888), and a fuller one by F. M. Stenton in the “Heroes of the Nations” (1908). For the institutions of Normandy see my articles on “Knight Service in Normandy in the Eleventh Century,” in _English Historical Review_, XXII, pp. 636–49; “The Norman ‘Consuetudines et Iusticie’ of William the Conqueror,” _ibid._ XXIII, pp. 502–08; and “Normandy under William the Conqueror,” in _American Historical Review_, XIV, pp. 453–76 (1909); also L. Valin, _Le duc de Normandie et sa cour, 912–1204_ (Paris, 1910). For church and state, see H. Böhmer, _Kirche und Staat in England und in der Normandie_ (Leipzig, 1899). The dealings of the Norman dukes with their continental neighbors are narrated by A. Fliche, _Le règne de Philippe I^{er} roi de France_ (Paris, 1912); L. Halphen, _Le comté d’Anjou au XI^{e} siècle_ (Paris, 1906); R. Latouche, _Histoire du comté du Maine pendant le X^{e} et le XI^{e} siècle_ (Paris, 1910); F. Lot, _Fidèles ou vassaux_ (Paris, 1904), ch. 6 (on the feudal relations of the Norman dukes and the French kings). There is a good sketch of France in the eleventh century by Luchaire in the _Histoire de France_ of Lavisse, II, part 2; a fuller work on this period is expected from Maurice Prou. For the literature of the battle of Hastings, see Gross, _Sources and Literature_, nos. 707a, 2812, 2998–3000; the most important works are those of Round, Spatz, and