Answer: Edward the Confessor

1066 was a turbulent year for England. King Edward the Confessor died on 5 January, leaving no direct heirs, and the country was threatened with invasion by two rival claimants, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and William, Duke of Normandy. Edward entrusted the English throne to Earl Harold of Wessex, who was his brother-in-law and the commander of the royal army. Harold was consecrated king in Westminster Abbey, London, on 6 January, the day after Edward’s death.

Answer: The weather conditions weren't right

On about 12 August William's fleet assembled off the River Dives, north-east of Caen, but was windbound there for a month. Then, on 12 September, a storm drove it east to St Valéry at the mouth of the Somme, where it was stuck for another fortnight while William anxiously watched the church weathercock for a south wind. It blew at last on 27 September, and his fleet crossed the Channel during that night.

Answer: The Mora

In summer 1066, William amassed a fleet of between 700 and 1,000 ships. Some were similar to the Viking warships used by the Normans' ancestors. William's own flagship, the Mora, was a present from his wife Matilda.

Answer: Pevensey Castle

Pevensey Castle’s impressive ruins stand on what was once a peninsula projecting from the Sussex coast. This naturally defensible site, first fortified by the Romans, was most famously the place where the Norman Conquest of England began, when William landed there on 28 September 1066. He built temporary defences at Pevensey, probably within the Roman fort, and later a great medieval castle developed inside its walls.

Answer: A 5,000–7,000

Following news of Harald Hardrada’s Norwegian army landing near York in mid-September, King Harold moved swiftly north, decisively defeating the allied forces of Harald Hardrada and Tostig at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. A few days later the king heard that Duke William had landed at Pevensey in Sussex. In a series of forced rides, the English army returned south, pausing briefly in London to gather fresh troops before arriving opposite William’s forces at what is now Battle on the evening of 13 October. By contemporary standards the opposing armies were substantial – modern scholars suggest that each had between 5,000 and 7,000 men.

Answer: King Harold's private army

At the Battle of Hastings, the most fearsome Anglo-Saxon warriors were King Harold's 'housecarls' – his private army of highly trained professional fighters and bodyguards. These were among the finest soldiers in Europe. Their favourite weapon was a mighty long-handed battle-axe, also called a 'Danish axe' because it had originated with the Vikings. Swung with two hands, the battle-axe was capable of cutting off the head of a man or horse. But it was also light and well-balanced enough to be used with one hand, while the other held a shield.

Answer: B 7 miles

In the early morning of 14 October 1066, two great armies prepared to fight for the throne of England. On a hilltop seven miles from Hastings – at the place now known simply as Battle – were the forces of Harold, who had been crowned king nine months earlier. Facing them on the far side of the valley below were the troops of Duke William of Normandy, who believed he was the rightful king. By the end of the day, thousands lay dead on the battlefield, and the victorious William was one step nearer to seizing the throne.

Answer: Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet was the first comet whose return was predicted, by the English astronomer Edmond Halley in 1705. The Bayeux Tapestry shows the audience witnessing Harold’s coronation watching Halley's Comet, which is depicted in the sky as an omen of Harold's fate. The comet was last visible from Earth in 1986 and will next appear in 2061.

Answer: Minstrel

Ivo Taillefer, whose name means 'hewer of iron', was William's minstrel. Despite his more usual musical role, he killed the first Saxon of the battle. The 'Carmen de Hastingae Proelio' ('Song of the Battle of Hastings' ) says that a Saxon soldier broke ranks, and Taillefer killed him, while later sources say that Taillefer charged into the enemy shield-wall, where he killed several Saxons before he was overwhelmed.

Answer: It is situated on the spot where King Harold died

The Benedictine abbey of Battle was founded and largely endowed by King William in about 1071. Dedicated to the Trinity, the Virgin and St Martin of Tours, it was established as a memorial to the dead of the battle and as atonement for the bloodshed of the Conquest. It was also a highly visible symbol of the piety, power and authority of the Norman rulers. Despite the unsuitable location on top of a narrow, waterless ridge and objections from the first monks, William insisted that the high altar of the abbey church be placed to mark where Harold had been killed.

Answer: Waltham Abbey in Essex

The gatehouse and bridge at Waltham Abbey are among the remnants of one of the great monastic foundations of the Middle Ages. The abbey is the traditional resting place of King Harold II. His father, Harold Godwin, Earl of Wessex, is said to have been cured miraculously of paralysis by praying before the Holy Rood (or Cross) at Waltham, and in gratitude refounded the church there in 1030. It was again rebuilt in the early 12th century and the nave of this third building remains in use today.

Answer: C 70 metres

The Bayeux Tapestry measures nearly 70 metres long and is 50 centimetres tall. A narrative travels across the centre of the panels, telling the story of the Norman Conquest, with side narratives and decoration in the borders above and below. The main narrative is supported by text, which helps to identify the characters and scenes. The tapestry would have originally been longer, as the last panels are missing.

Answer: 25 December 1066

After his victory, William marched on London, and he was crowned king of England on Christmas day 1066. A generation later, the Normans had fundamentally transformed the country they had conquered – from how it was organised and governed to its language, laws and customs, and perhaps most visibly today, its architecture. Soon after the Conquest a wave of castle building began across England, in order to secure the Normans’ hold on power.

Answer: Odo, Bishop of Bayeux

The half-brother of William the Conqueror, Odo – who is thought to have commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry – held substantial power in England after the Norman Conquest and was made earl of Kent. However, William imprisoned him in 1082 on a charge of raising troops without royal permission. He was released in 1087 and went on to play a significant role in organising the First Crusade.

Answer: Rochester Castle

Built to command an important river crossing, the castle built in stone by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, in the 1080s was one of the earliest such buildings in England. In 1127 Henry I entrusted it to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who began to build the great keep – a masterpiece of medieval architecture, and the tallest such building to survive in Europe. The castle endured three sieges, including an assault by King John in 1215, when one corner of the keep was destroyed.

Answer: Richmond Castle

Towering above the river Swale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, Richmond Castle has been an imposing sight since its foundation in the 1070s. The castle is one of the finest and most complete 11th-century fortresses in the country. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, painters were stirred by its romantic ruins and its position high over the River Swale. In the late 18th century the renowned painter JMW Turner came north and recreated its ruined towers and battlements by sunrise in luminous watercolours, a painting now housed at Tate Britain in London.

Answer: C - Dirt

After 1066, Norman French became the language of the court, government and the upper class – and stayed that way for almost 300 years. Other Norman words that we still use today include beef, pork, noble and purchase. The word 'dirt' was introduced by the Vikings.

Answer: Old Sarum in Wiltshire

In 1086, William I summoned all the powerful men of the realm to Old Sarum, the royal castle he had built within the massive Iron Age hillfort there. It was to be the stage for a grand ceremony that underlined his position as the source of tenure of all land across England – a striking assertion of royal power.

Answer: His son, William II

William II was William the Conqueror's son and was king of England until 1100. He made generous gifts to Battle Abbey but earned a reputation as a brutal and corrupt tyrant. He was shot in the back with an arrow and killed while hunting in the New Forest.

Answer: St Mary's Church, Kempley

This simple Norman church in Gloucestershire, remote from the village it once served, has the oldest timber roof of any building in England. Its greatest glory, however, comes from having some of the best preserved medieval wall paintings in Britain. Those in the chancel are particularly rare, dating from the early 12th century, and are the most complete set of Romanesque frescos in northern Europe.