The year 1066 is perhaps the most famous date in English history. For contemporaries, however, the new year heralded an uncertain future. The old king, Edward, known as the Confessor, lay dying and had no children to succeed him. Matters were made more serious by the fact that Edward was predisposed towards the Norman duchy across the English Channel, and was likely to leave his kingdom to William of Normandy. England contained a mixed population. The Romano-Celts had been overlaid gradually with Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes who themselves subsequently faced pressure from the Viking threat in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Celts were now most numerous in Wales and Scotland. Scandinavians, largely Danish in origin, had settled in an area east of a line running roughly from the Wash to the Mersey that came to be known as the Danelaw. The Normans were also descendants of Viking adventurers who, under their leader Rollo, had settled in northern France in the 10th century.
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