1050-1069 Rome & Constantinople Split, Norman Conquest

This twenty year period covers the reign of King Edward the Confessor who, along with his successor -- his brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson, son of the Earl of Wessex -- was killed in the 1066 Norman Conquest of England led by William the Conqueror.

In 1054 the Arabs had conquered West Africa -- enslaving the Africans in the same manner as the Normans later enslaved the English; and in 1054, too, the final schism took place between the Roman and Constantinople churches.

At the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 -- the defining event of the Norman conquest of England -- thousands of good people lost their lives defending their land and country.

Had the Normans been barbarians the English might have understood their cruelty and greed, but they were Christians, ostensibly under the spiritual guidance of the Pope in Rome, just like the English were.

So much for Christian fellowship and ‘western’ civilization!

And yet, looking at the bigger picture – particularly the Spanish Reconquista and the Holy Land Crusades which happen with regular frequency from now on – what the final schism between the Roman and Constantinople churches in 1054 could represent is a fight-back against theological bickering and luxury living that had caused the Eastern Empire to collapse to the Moslems in the first place.

1054 may represent the Western Christian church leaders saying, in effect, we are not going to allow the Moslems to invade our western lands in the manner they invaded our eastern lands, and if that means we need to put theology aside in order to fortify our position by putting strong kings into vulnerable lands then so be it.

That so many Popes were now German, rather than Roman – as a result of cleaning up the corruption that previously existed in the Papacy – no doubt accounts for this new focus.

The British Isles were obviously vulnerable to invasion – having been invaded so many times by so many peoples over the centuries – so perhaps the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 was a tactical move which spared the English from a Moslem invasion?

In other words, rather than remaining tied to Constantinople and concentrating on theology while the Moslems advanced further into formerly Christian lands, the break with Constantinople and the sanctioning of the Norman Conquest of England presaged the start of a strong, new, revitalised and militarised western civilization based upon fortification and repelling the Moslems whose aim was to rule the world.