Did our leaders acquiesce to foreign rule in 1066?

1066 has become topical again recently with MP Boris Johnson drawing parallels between the Norman Conquest and the Prime Minister’s Brexit proposals.

The ex-foreign secretary claimed that, under Mrs May’s Chequers Proposal on Brexit, “for the first time since 1066, our leaders were deliberately acquiescing in foreign rule”.

English leaders submitted to Duke William at Berkhamsted in 1066. But did they ‘deliberately acquiesce’ or where they left with no choice? George Garnett, professor of medieval history at Oxford University, gives his views in this interesting article.