Beginning and ending of Norman conquest (7)
I believe the answer is:
nascent
'beginning' is the definition.
(something nascent is just beginning or starting)
'ending of norman conquest' is the wordplay.
'ending of' suggests the final letters.
'conquest' becomes 'ascent' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The last letter of 'norman' is 'n'.
'n'+'ascent'='NASCENT'
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nascent that I've seen before include "Just setting out" , "Coming into being, beginning to develop" , "Freshly generated" , "being coined" , "Starting to develop" .)