The Battle of Hastings was the result of William's naked ambitions. This is a sort of historic events that I think most individuals realized about in class...type of like the American Revolution, however presumably with bigger consequences. Very few place names changed, though a number of had Frankish 'monikers' added, like 'Theydon Bois' in north-western Essex, 'Acaster Malbis' near York and 'The Duchy of...