They maintained their supremacy in arms against the efforts of the kings of France.

They had long cultivated intimate relations with England, and their dukes had long hankered for its possession.

William, the natural son of Duke Robert--known to history and musical romance as Robert le Diable--was a man of strong mind, tenacious purpose, and powerful hand.

He had obtained, by promise of Edward the Confessor, the reversion of the crown upon the death of that monarch; and when the issue came, he availed himself of that reversion and the Pope's sanction, and also of the disputed succession between Harold, the son of Godwin, and the true Saxon heir, Edgar Atheling, to make good his claim by force of arms.
Under him the Normans were united, while divisions existed in the Saxon ranks.

Tostig, the brother of Harold, and Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway, combined against Harold, and, just before the landing of Duke William at Pevensey, on the coast of Sussex, Harold was obliged to march rapidly northward to Stanford bridge, to defeat Tostig and the Norwegians, and then to return with a tired army of uncertain _morale_, to encounter the invading Normans.