I feel like a billion have already figured this out, but I realized tonight while reading the Chamber of Secrets to my kid that Salazar Slytherin came over with the Normans during the Battle of Hastings and Hogwarts was part of William the Conqueror’s vast infrastructure overhaul

I mean, I already knew that all the Slytherins (and otherwise evil characters) have French-derived last names, and obviously Godric/Rowena/Helga are Saxon/Welsh/Viking(???) respectively, but then when they said Hogwarts had been founded “over 1,000 years ago” it clicked

The slytherins are the descedants of the invading Norman ruling class and the Gryffindors are the descendants of the Saxon nobility and it’s all just a commentary on the overlapping invasions of Great Britain and how that still plays out today thank you for coming to my ted talk

Ok yes you have to fudge the date Professor Binns gave a little bit. He said over 1,000 years ago and Hastings was slightly less than 1,000 years ago but the date is very vague and the rest of it fits if you assume the unknown date could be off by a few decades

And the Slytherins are made out to have very traditionally French names/stereotypical French attributes (underhanded, proud, rude, cliquey, messy drama queens)

And honestly it also makes because the Normans were so invested in a huge, modernizing overhaul of Britain (building castles, creating the domesday book, shoring up failing infrastructure, etc). So of course a Norman wizard would be like “let’s build a school for magic”

And, in the style of William the Conqueror, said Norman wizard would recruit leaders in the local population to try to legitimize and popularize his enterprises. And then throw a tantrum (and build a secret evil chamber) when he didn’t get full control.

I have put too much thought into this