I never read the famous book that trashed British history as it was taught in the 1930’s, merely being aware that it was one part of the basis for the absurdist humour of Monty Python.
But although it’s had influence since its publication serious historians have pointed out just how much of an impact the small number of Normans had on England: they basically smashed the old England to bits:
All across England, William built at least 90 castles, dominating areas of potential revolt. Engines of terror that helped William control over two million Saxons with just 25,000 Normans.
Some historians will tell you that, for most of the people of England, Hastings didn’t matter that much, with Norman knights replacing Saxon lords. The peasants still ploughed their fields, paid taxes to the king, prayed to avoid poverty and disease and watched the seasons roll round.
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The governing class of the English had been dispossessed. Their men, land and animals taken from them and given as spoils to the victorious foreigners. You could survive and still be English, but now you belonged to an inferior race – the conquered. You lived in England, but it was no longer your country.
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Of course, not everything changed. To look at a list of governing institutions you might suppose that nothing had changed, that one class of governors had kicked out another class. Big deal!But I rather think it was a big deal. Imagine the county gentry of England – priests, squires, judges – all wiped out overnight – half of them dead, the rest humiliated, broken, replaced by an alien class. They speak differently, they look different, they take what they want when they want and then rubber-stamp the decision in YOUR court. They also build differently.
Keep that in mind as you read the following about today’s Britain:
Today there are over 3,000 mosques in England. There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 Sharia Councils. 78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation. 63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing. State-supported Muslim families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation. Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam. Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?
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The Mayor of London is a Muslim. The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim. The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim. Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim. The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim. The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim. The mayor of Luton is a Muslim. The mayor of Oldham is Muslim. The mayor of Rochdale is Muslim. All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England.
That’s 6% of the native population compared to the Normans’ 1%.
And in this case, as with the Normans, it’s not just the “governing class” who feel the results but ordinary people:
The native authorities, meanwhile, are cowed and submissive, afraid of offending their new masters. JNS added that “Deputy Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for tackling honor-based abuse, told a House of Commons committee in January 2023 that police ‘shy away’ from such cases because ‘they fear being labeled racists.’” This was reminiscent of how the same British authorities dealt with Muslim rape gangs who victimized thousands of non-Muslim girls for years, and still operate with relative impunity.
In the race between Islamic supremacy and assimilation the former is winning, mainly because the natives are too frightened of their own ideas to even ask for the latter.
No Minister 
Interesting
In 1066 one identical culture took over the elites of the other, and they were all probably related genetically, going back to the Vikings.
Jumping forward 800 years to an insignificant little island in the South Pacific with no name, the warrior elites conquered other tribes of similar genetic material, roots and culture. For the vast bulk of the peasants that made up that society nothing changed. Their masters were just new, the day to day jobs were the same, the weak were killed off, others enslaved and others had their heads cut off and sold to a growing trade.
Around 1840 these people , 1 step up from stone age with a culture that had yet to invent much of anything, but that did have some promise, met with the worlds greatest power.
That power offered them a clear and simple solution to become part of that empire. Queen Victoria was of course not interested in sharing power with such a simple and backward people who were militarily weak. These locals had the sense to sign what was offered, joining a super power with advanced civilization, that offered peace, wealth, a law and order structure, and an end to their barabaric way of life.
Equality of rights to that power structure was not offered, for obvious reasons , the power imbalance was so absurd to not even be a consideration.
As time went by the barbarians were assimilated and enjoyed the wealth and cultural from the aliens.
Skip to the present day, and like the Muslims, the elites of the conquered tribes think they can steal that power back by quiet and underhand methods.
The locals of the more genetic and cultural lines dont understand and have quietly abrogated their rights to a dangerous minority.
History fascinating. !!
And in the 1066 country, like the 1840 country those sleeping locals have awakened and the fight back has begun against the errant stupidity of the elites of their own culture.
The DNA analysis probably can’t be done now after a thousand years of mixing but my read on the Viking blood angle is that it would not have affected more than the coastal populations of the Celtic-Anglo-Saxon population of Britain at the time, since it had been about coastal raids, starting in the late 790’s. They didn’t stay and breed, although plenty of slave woman were taken back home.
By contrast the Normans were basically direct descendants of Vikings because they’d managed to actually takeover the whole of Normandy and stay there.
From the short history I just read they settled in the UK over about 250 years, but not always called Vikings, eg Danes, Norseman etc.
The number of countries they settled in , included America, and Greenland, of course.
Originally pirates they became settlers, taking over places like East Anglia, the orkneys, Isle of Man , etc, etc
So I would say the point about genetics would stand 🙂
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They were large settlements in Northern England of Norse. Jorvik was a centre of Norse power for a few hundred years.
I would be surprised if Northern England didnt carry a reasonable echo of Norse bloodlines.. Ditto Western Scotland and Ireland around Dublin where other significant Norse settlement occurred
Over at the Samizdata blogsite a post on the “outrage” over the Israeli rescue operation generated some blunt comments about Islam by an atheist, “Kirk”. Here’s just one, extending from this earlier comment: