Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, and Henry of Huntingdon condemned the New Forest project as cruel because of its destruction of thirty-six villages and churches to make a personal hunting preserve. 

William the Conqueror created a new feudal system. What made it new? It was far more centralized, militarized, and bureaucratic than the existing continental system.

By 1070, William began a significant Norman reform of the Church. He replaced Anglo-Saxon bishops and abbots with Normans. They became feudal lords over church property.

William the Conqueror could also be called William the Disruptor, as he reordered women’s rights, the Church, social structure, the treasury, and forestry.

The Harrying of the North, a scorched-earth campaign upon Northumbria, caused vast destruction, a decade of famine, and took centuries to recover.