ON THE MORNING OF 9 October 2010, the day of that year's re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings, my friend and I visited a coffee house prior to the day's proceedings. At the table next to us were a couple of re-enactors whom we took to be Saxon foot soldiers, but as we drank our coffee they began conversing in French. Strolling among the rows of white tents of the medieval village located next to the battlefield, we also heard both English and French languages being spoken. I was surprised at this participation of French nationals, which signalled recognition of the importance of certain events and people of the past on both sides of the Channel. Later on the re-enactment commentator announced that in fact re-enactors had come to participate in the day from a number of different countries. Whatever the animosities played out on the battlefield, it was clear that the multi-cultural re-enactors in their heavy coats of mail and the large crowd of spectators hungry for both hotdogs and history were united in their respect for the centuries-old memory and myths of the Norman Conquest.

But it is worth studying potentially divergent national memories of the Conquest. In this book I have concentrated on British memory of the Norman Conquest, a topic which proved to be rich and varied. In a future companion volume I intend to complement the present work by investigating comparative memory through adopting a bi-cultural perspective in a study of contemporary novels written by British authors and by French authors, which were inspired by the Conquest and its protagonists.