William crossed the Channel with roughly 700 ships and several thousand knights and infantry, landing virtually unopposed because King Harold's forces were still returning from defeating a Norwegian invasion in the north. The unopposed landing gave William two crucial weeks to fortify his position before the decisive Battle of Hastings on October 14, a delay that would reshape the English language, aristocracy, and legal system for centuries.
William had waited all summer for favorable winds, his invasion fleet pinned down while King Harold Godwinson kept a large army watching the Channel coast. When the wind finally turned, it turned against Harold's interests twice over: it let William sail, and it came just as Harold had marched his exhausted army north to crush a Norwegian invasion led by Harald Hardrada at Stamford Bridge.
William landed at Pevensey Bay unopposed, and by tradition stumbled as he stepped onto the beach, provoking laughter until he cleverly declared he had seized England with both hands. His forces built a rudimentary castle at Hastings within days, an early example of the motte-and-bailey fortifications the Normans would spread across England. Harold, learning of the landing, force-marched his battered army 241 miles south in under three weeks, arriving exhausted for the fight that would end his reign and his life on October 14, 1066 - the last time England was successfully invaded by a foreign power.
Key people: William the Conqueror