The church in which Conquest Man was buried was owned by one of William the Conqueror’s knights, a person who had participated in the 1066 invasion and been rewarded with English land.

Understanding who these knights were adds dimension to the context of Conquest Man’s burial.

William’s army at Hastings consisted of Normans from his duchy of Normandy, and also of Bretons from Brittany and Flemish soldiers from Flanders.

The Norman knights who accompanied him were the members of his military aristocracy: men who had sworn service to William as their duke and who expected, if the invasion succeeded, to be rewarded with English estates.

The distribution of English land to these men after the Conquest was systematic and large-scale.