the century after Edward the Confessor returned from exile in Normandy to be crowned king of England in 1042 might be called the century of the Norman Conquest, which led to the formation of a short-lived Anglo-Norman realm. Already foreshadowed by personal dynastic ties, it became a visible reality when William the Conqueror, having restored the ducal authority and the military power of the duchy, united Normandy with the kingdom of England in 1066. Under his sons William Rufus and Henry some further conquest and consolidation continued, accompanied by a measure of social and administrative cross-fertilization; though closer union continued to seem a possibility it had not been achieved by the time King Stephen lost his grip on the duchy. Union of a different kind was restored only for a time in the wider complex known as the Angevin empire.

Edward the Confessor, the son of King Æthelred II and Emma of Normandy, returned to a kingdom that had recently undergone a major territorial upheaval as a result of the Scandinavian conquest. Most of the older nobility had been replaced either by Scandinavian followers of the Danish rulers or by newly enriched members of obscure Saxon families; pre-eminent among the new earls were Earl Godwine and his sons. The earls at this time were in the position of provincial governors, with particular responsibilities for defence. Initially their power and wealth posed no immediate threat to the king; the monarchy was strong, the underlying structure of local communities stable and the kingdom wealthy. Variations in local law and custom, particularly noticeable in the eastern counties of the Danelaw where Danish settlement had left its mark, did not destroy the unity achieved by the West-Saxon kings and reinforced under Cnut.