The results of the Norman Conquest may be thus summed up:
1. The Conquest was not the subjugation of the English by a different
race, but rather a victory won for their advantage by a branch of
their own race.[1]
2. It found England a divided country (S71); it made it a united
kingdom. It also united England and Normandy (SS108, 191), and
brought the new English kingdom into closer contact with the higher
civilization of the Continent. This introduced fresh intellectual
stimulus, and gave to the Anglo-Saxon a more progressive spirit.
3. It modified the English language by the influence of the
Norman-French element, thus giving it greater flexibility, refinement,
and elegance of expression.
4. It substituted for the fragile and decaying structures of wood
generally built by the Saxons, Norman castles, abbeys, and cathedrals
of stone.
5. It hastened influences, which were already at work, for the
consolidation of the nation. It developed and completed the feudal
form of land tenure, but it made that tenure strictly subordinate to
the Crown, and so freed it, in great measure, from the evils of
Continental feudalism (SS86, 150).
6. It reorganized the English Church and defined the relation of the
Crown to that Church and to the Pope (S118).
7. It abolished the four great earldoms (S64), which had been a
constant source of weakness, danger, and division; it put an end to
the Danish invasions; it brought the whole of England under a strong
monarchical government, to which not only all the great nobles, but
also their vassals or tenants, were compelled to swear allegiance
(SS121, 122).
8. It made no radical changes in the English laws, but enforced
impartial obedience to them among all classes.[2]
[1] It has already been shown that Norman, Saxon, and Dane were
originally branches of the Teutonic or German race. (SS36, 62).
[2] Professor E. A. Freeman, who is the highest authority on this
subject (see especially his "Short History of the Norman Conquest"),
holds the view that the coming of William was, on the whole, the
greatest advantage to England. Nearly all leading historians agree
with him; for a different view consult Professor C. Oman's "England
before the Norman Conquest," pp. 648-651.