Sir William Darell

Sir William Darell was invested as a Knight in 1069 at York, Yorkshire, England, for helping King William I to put down the Northern rebellion. He was granted lands at Brodsworth, Yorkshire, previously held by one Etheldred, a Saxon.

The name Dorrell arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. They were originally from Airel, in La Manche, Normandy, France and it is from the local form of this name, D'Airel, meaning "from Airel," that their name derives. Spelling variations include: Darrell, Dorrell, Dayrell, Darrel, Darell, Darel and others. esource: http://www.borlin-family.com/shields-family9.html

from Ask.com: Darrell is a boy's name of French origin and it means 'from Airel'. It's a form of Darell and falls into the Surname, William was one of the members from Normandy who invaded England. It is not known by me at the tie of this posting what part he took.

--

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II, during the Norman conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) north-west of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.

The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne. Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward's death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada (Harold III of Norway). Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, and were in turn defeated by Harold at the Battle of Stamford Bridge five days later. The deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford left William as Harold's only serious opponent. While Harold and his forces were recovering from Stamford, William landed his invasion forces in the south of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066 and established a beachhead for his conquest of the kingdom. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went.

The exact numbers present at the battle are unknown; estimates are around 10,000 for William and about 7000 for Harold. The composition of the forces is clearer; the English army was composed almost entirely of infantry and had few archers, whereas only about half of the invading force was infantry, the rest split equally between cavalry and archers. Harold appears to have tried to surprise William, but scouts found his army and reported its arrival to William, who marched from Hastings to the battlefield to confront Harold. The battle lasted from about 9 am to dusk. Early efforts of the invaders to break the English battle lines had little effect; therefore, the Normans adopted the tactic of pretending to flee in panic and then turning on their pursuers. Harold's death, probably near the end of the battle, led to the retreat and defeat of most of his army. After further marching and some skirmishes, William was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066.

Although there continued to be rebellions and resistance to William's rule, Hastings effectively marked the culmination of William's conquest of England. Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some historians estimate that 2000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen. William founded a monastery at the site of the battle, the high altar of the abbey church supposedly placed at the spot where Harold died.

--

Book on the Norman people

https://archive.org/details/normanpeopleand01unkngoog

The Norman People and their existing descendants in the British dominions and in the United States of America (1874) publisher London, H.S. King and Co. old enough not to be in copyright status University of Michigan has the book/ it is in English.