ABSTRACT
The brutality of the reaction to the increasingly severe viking raids is graphically shown by the recent discoveries of two sites where the victims of massacres were disposed of in totally unchristian manners. A change of dynasty from an English to a Danish king probably eradicated most of the leading English families, but the new rulers were able to maintain a well-ordered society, exploiting the peasantry but not disrupting the urban and coinage systems. The Church was not so much affected. Yet another violent change of dynasty followed after 1066; landownership again changed, and power was exercised through castles. The effect of the Norman conquest on the lives of the English generally remains in discussion but certainly did not ease their taxation and service burdens.
