The 11^th Century was a period of great turmoil for England. The Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard invaded and took the English throne in 1013 only to die in 1016 and was succeeded by his son Cnut the Great who ruled until his death in 1035 a turbulent sort of interregnum ensued with Harald Harefoot in power until the accession of Edward the Confessor to the English throne in 1042, ruling until his death on 5 January 1066. Edward’s brother-in-law Harold Godwinson was crowned Harold II in Westminster the same day. During this period there was a struggle of spheres of influence between the line of succession of the Wessex kings, the Danish invaders and the Dukes of the Duchy of Normandy. Normandy entered the picture thanks to Emma of Normandy, second wife of King Aethelred the Unready and mother to Edward the Confessor.

1066, 14 October: The Battle of Hastings
William Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne (by dint of the line of Emma into the Dukes of Normandy), taking it by force at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 where England’s king, Harold II died in action.

1066, 25 December: William I crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.
The Norman Invasion had a massive impact on England in every way imaginable and would be felt hugely in Hambledon. In an effort to continue his rule of Normandy, William tried to work with Saxon lords as well as appointing Normans to ranking positions. Predictably, William’s frequent absence in Normandy led to jockeying for power and rebellion so he set about dismantling the governing layer of the Saxon kings and with the building of castles throughout England and granting of landed property to his trusted Norman aristocrats a French-speaking ruling class was established throughout England at the top of the mediaeval feudal system.

1068: The Domesday Book
This was a survey of England commissioned by William I to assess the assets and wealth of the land. The detail was extraordinary and as well as current value it assessed the values historically during the reign of King Edward. Sheriffs and Lords of the Manor were obliged to swear to the accuracy of the survey.

Hambledon, part of the Hundred of Meonstoke is named twice in the survey: concerning land granted to William de Perci who…

‘holds Ambledune. He received it with his wife. Alwin held it from King Edward. Then as now it was assessed at one hide. The land is three ploughlands. In demesne is one; and six villeins and six borderers with two ploughlands. There are two slaves and a mill worth twelve pence. Wood for four pigs. In the time of King Edward and now it is worth £4 when received £3.’

The second assessment is a hide held by a man called Edward.  The two assessments do not add up to Hambledon’s Parish total of around 9,000 acres so it seems the bulk of the entries may have been under the larger Manor of East Meon which was held by the Bishop of Winchester.
Under the rule of Saxon Kings, land ownership was shuffled by secular and ecclesiastical authorities. The crown appointed the key bishoprics that held huge tracts of land and buildings.

1070: William received the spiritual crown of England
He was granted by authority of three legates from the Pope and by this means became the supreme head of England’s Norman church; he then set about restructuring the church leadership, with new Archbishop appointments to the leading dioceses of Canterbury and York. However it is significant that Winchester was where the councils took place that enacted these changes. It also meant that all ecclesiastical property including the monasteries became fiefdoms of the Crown. The same Papal legates aided William in the deposition of Stigand, Bishop of Winchester who was also Archbishop of Canterbury – a forbidden practice known as pluralism, when the two Sees were the wealthiest in England. Stigand was imprisoned in Winchester and William took ownership of all of his property which included the manorial lands of which Hambledon was part; Stigand died in prison in 1072.

Hambledon was now part of a large royal manor, as was East Meon and was managed by the King’s estate. The Domesday record of the charter held by William de Perci leads historians to believe that de Percys continued to hold a high manorial position in Hambledon thanks to the Baronetcy given by William following the Conquest.