Norman Conquest: Resistance and response

When was William coronated?

• Christmas day 1066

• Norman Lords said an early coronation would increase his authority

What happened when Archbishop Ealdread asked the English congregation of William’s coronation if they would accept him as King?

• The crowd gladly shouted

• The Normans misunderstood this as an act of rebellion

• The Normans set fire to some nearby buildings

• The English did not trust the Normans again as they thought they had betrayed them

What did William do between January and March 1067 to establish his authority?

• Edgar, Edwin and Morcar and other English leaders formally submitted to him

• William claimed all English land as his own but allowed thegns and earls to buy them back

• He gave the lands of those who had died at Hastings as rewards for those who fought with him in battle

What did William do when he went back to Normandy at the end of March 1067?

• He took Edgar Aelthing, Earls Edwin and Morcar, and several church leaders

  • They were held as hostages to discourage any English uprising while William was gone

• William also brought treasures from monasteries

What were ceorls and and thralls forced to do by the Normans?

By the Spring of 1067, they were forced to build motte and bailey castles

When and where did the first uprising in England happen and who was it led by?

• August 1067 around Hereford in the west of the region of Mercia

• Led by a man called Edric the Wild, a man who used to be a very powerful thegn

Why did Edric the Wild rise against William?

He had been very wealthy but lost much of his land outside Shropshire to Norman Knights

What did Edric the Wild do to rebel against the Normans?

He joined forces with Welsh princes and raided Norman-held land in Herefordshire, and devastating Hereford itself

How did Edric the Wild get his name?

He lived in the Wild open hills as an outlaw

How effective was Edric the Wild’s resistance to the Normans?

The rising of August 1067 never threatened to get out of of hand

What is the ‘green man’ and how is it a form of silent resistance?

• It was a carved head that showed plants growing uncontrollably from it’s mouth

• English stonemasons decorated the pillars and arches of Norman churches with this

• This tradition pre-dates the Norman Conquest

What did William hope for after the Battle of Hastings from English Lords and what really happened?

• William had hoped English Lords might arrive and surrender the whole Kingdom to him- none came

• Instead the Witan elected Edgar Aelthing to be their new King

How did William take control of England after the Battle of Hastings in October 1066?

• He marched his army through Kent, building castles in key positions

  • Sometimes he was met with gifts from frightened townspeople, other times he used force to get the supplies his army needed

• William also sent an advance party of knights to see if they would submit to him, but they resisted

  • The Normans easily crushed them but couldn’t take the city- instead they torched all the houses outside the walls

What did William do in 1066 to intimidate London into surrender?

He marched his men in a wide arc around the city

What did the newly elected King, Edgar Aelthing do in early December of 1066?

• He rode out to Berkhamsted where William had set up camp

• He surrendered the Kingdom to William

What did William receive information about while he was in Normandy in December 1067?

• William’s very effective spy network told him serious trouble was brewing

• He left Normandy and was back in London by Christmas

How did William treat the English after hearing rumours of trouble in January 1086?

• When William met senior English Lords, he chose not to accuse or threaten them

• He believed this would be more likely to keep their loyalty

Who had been starting trouble in Exeter while William was away in Normandy?

• A woman named Gytha

• She was the mother to Harold Godwinson and Earls Leofwine and Gyrth- all of these men had died in the Battle of Hastings

What were citizens in Exeter doing to try and resist the Normans while William was away in Normandy?

It’s citizens had been calling people from the surrounding area to stand up against the Normans and come to their city

What was Gytha plotting in Exeter to rebel against the Normans?

• Gytha and her daughter fled to Exeter after the Battle of Hastings as they had extensive lands in the area and her local status allowed her to call many to her aid

• Exeter repaired and strengthened it’s defensive walls

• Gytha plotted with Irish Lords where they gathered an invasion force to drive out the Normans

• She had also been in touch with the Danish King and hoped that the Danes may invade from the east at the same time

How did William try to negotiate with the people of Exeter to crush their rebellion?

• William tried to win Gytha and the citizens over by sending a message for them to swear an oath of loyalty to him

• They refused to oath and told him that they would not pay a penny more in taxes than they had under their English Lords

• William did not accept this and gathered an army

What happened when William confronted Exeter in the winter of 1068?

• Even though it was winter, William had come in person

• As he neared Exeter, a group of leading citizens came to meet him

  • They had decided that William could enter the city and his commands would be obeyed

  • They left some hostages as a guarantee they would keep their word

What did the citizens of Exeter do when they heard the deal William had offered them and how did William respond?

• They were outraged and William and his army found that the gates were still shut, despite the deal that had been made

• William responded by bringing forth one of the hostages and gouging their eyes out for the people of Exeter to see

• This just strengthened their resistance- one person went so far as to bare their bottom and fart at William

How did William force the city of Exeter to surrender?

• William’s army laid siege to the city

• After 18 days of holding out, the hungry and thirsty citizens of Exeter surrendered

What did the people of Exeter do after surrendering to William?

• They sent another delegation to meet the King

• They feared the worst so they brought William gifts of precious ornaments, holy books and begged for William’s mercy

How did William respond to the surrender and submission of the people of Exeter?

He did not respond with anger but pardoned them. In return for vows of loyalty he promised that:

• He would not plunder the city

• He would not punish it’s people

• He would not demand extra tax from Exeter

• He would dispossess Gytha and her daughter of their lands and give them to Frenchmen who helped in his invasion

William swore an oath on a holy book that he would keep these promises

What reasons did people have to rebel against William?

• Revenge

• Pride

• Dispossession (loss of land)

• Disrespect for the new lords - Norman Lords did not follow English ways and were not respected

• Taxation

• Loss of status

• Distance- People of the fringes of society were not aware of the Norman takeover but responded with anger when they found out

• Numbers- the English far outnumbered the Normans

What did the people from Northern England declare to King William and how did William respond?

• They said they would fight back if William ever stepped foot on their land

• The North-east had always felt independent from the rest of England but William knew he could not let this happen and gathered an army, marching north

What powerful people from the North of England decided to stand up to William and why?

• Earls Edwin and Morcar, Edgar Aelthing and various lords in the north and on borders with Wales

• They had many motives but their main one was that William had promised to give his daughter to Earl Edwin as a wife but by spring 1068, it was obvious this would not happen

How did William establish his power through building castles in the north of England in response to Edwin and Morcar’s resistance and what was it’s effect?

• William marched into Earl Edwin’s lands in Mercia

  • At Warwick, he immediately set about building a motte and bailey castle

  • On reaching Nottingham, William built another castle

• Edwin and Morcar heard the King was using his power to great effect and they surrendered

After Edwin and Morcar surrendered, how did William deal with them?

• He showed them mercy

• He allowed them to keep their titles but their power shrank even further

Why did William feel as if England was stabilised when he ‘defeated’ Harold Godwinson’s sons?

• Harold’s sons sailed with a considerable force from Ireland to Britsol

• They urged the people of Bristol to let them set up base there, but the people of Bristol fought them off

• This showed the English were willing to drive away the sons of their former King to keep William in charge

Who became the new Earl of northern Northumbria after the rising of 1068?

Robert of Comines

What happened at the end of January 1069 in Durham?

• The new earl of Northern Northumbria, Robert of Comines, led a heavy-handed assault against rebels at Durham- his army forced their way into the town and began looting and killing

• The people of Durham fought back, cutting down soldiers in the streets and burning the house where Robert and his men and taken refuges- they all died

What did the fighting and death of Earl Robert of Comines at Durham cause?

• It caused a general uprising in the north

• Edgar Aelthing and other rebel leaders reappeared from Scotland attacked York

How did William respond to the uprising in the North by Edgar Aelthing in 1069?

• William did not stop to build castles like he had done with Edwin and Morcar

• His massive army caught the rebels by surprise and it a bloody battle they regained the city of York

• Edgar Aelthing and the other leaders escaped to Scotland again

What did William do in Durham after the uprising of 1069?

He built a motte and bailey castle there and left the city in the hands of his most trusted friend and capable soldier, FitzOsbern

What happened in the invasion in Devon in June 1069?

• Harold Godwinson’s sons sailed again from Ireland with a fleet of 60 ships and a large army

• Brian of Brittainy (William’s commander in the south-west) marched an army to Devon and fought the invaders

• About 1700 men died in battle but Harold’s sons were again driven off

What happened between Gytha, mother of Harold Godwinson, and the Danes in September 1069?

• A fleet of 250 ships gathered off the coast of Yorkshire- the Danes had returned

• Gytha, mother of King Harold, went to the King of Denmark, Svein II, to persuade him to win the English crown

• King Svein sent his brother Asbjorn across the sea with an enormous army and met up with the rebel force led once again by Edgar Aelthing- they headed directly for York

What did the people of York do to hold off the joint force of English rebels and Danish invaders?

• They citizens feared they may use the timbers from houses near the castles to bridge the moat

• Their solution was to set fire to them but the fire got out of control and destroyed the city

• The rebels and the Danes plundered what they could and withdrew into the Marches of Lincolnshire

Why did William have trouble dealing with the joint force of the English rebels and the Danes at first?

The joint force was avoiding any pitched battle with William by spreading around the marshlands

What were the consequences of the invasion of the Danes in other parts of England?

• Edric the Wild took this as an opportunity. He besieged Shrewsbury and burnt it to the ground

• Men from Cornwall and Devon attacked Exeter- the people of Exeter held out against the rebels

• William had to order another Norman army to go from Lincolnshire to Stafford where another rebellion had broken out- it was put down but it was bloody

What was William’s plan to subdue all rebellions caused by the opportunity presented by the invasion of the Danes and English rebels?

1. Pay the Danes a huge sum of money to leave- the Danes accepted the bribe

2. Send for his coronation crown- William knew wearing the crown would remind his subjects he was God’s chosen King

3. Destroy the land in the north so no enemy could live there

What was the Harrying of the North?

• The complete and indiscriminate destruction of northern England

• William burnt many villages and their crops as well as ploughing salt into the Earth so no crop could grow

• William tracked down rebels in the area

How did Orderic Vitalis describe the Harrying of the North?

“I have frequently praised William, but for this cat that condemned the innocent and guilty alike by slow starvation, I cannot”

What does the Domesday survey landholding of 1085 show us about population in the north?

Large areas of the north were still depopulated due to the ‘Harrying of the North’

What did William do as penance for the unknown amount of people he had killed?

• The Catholic Church taught that killing in war was sinful, and to get to Heaven more speedily, doing penance would get a soldier to Heaven faster

• William would have to do penance a day a week because he had killed an unknown number of people

Why did William reform the Church?

• William worked with the Pope’s cardinals to make important changes

• William was only using them to tighten his political control and end resistance

How did William reform the Church?

1. Stigand was replaced as Archbishop of Canterbury as he was a corrupt and unhelpful reminder of the days before the conquest- he was replace with Lanfranc

2. Other senior Church leaders were replaced with Norman priests and monks- most of those who lost their posts showed sympathy for the rebels. William imprisoned some for life.

3. William ordered all monasteries to provide men to serve the King as knights- William was moving away from his earlier promise to respect English traditions

What did William do to offset the cost of expenses caused by uprisings?

• William ordered monasteries to provide for soldiers

• William discovered many wealthy Englishmen were hiding their wealth in monasteries

• This upset Church leaders but it meant William had funds for his army

How was the town and abbey of Ely taken over by the Danes?

• Absjorn and his army who had promised to leave England at Christmas had not

• King Svein himself came in May to England and struck deep into the Fens, taking the town and abbey of Ely with no resistance

• The English cheered them on, and believed the Danes had come to remove William

How did Hereward the Wake and the Danes in Ely form an alliance?

• Hereward, an English thegn, carried out a raid on an abbey in Petersborough as he heard that the town was to get a new Norman abbot

• Hereward plundered the town and stole the valuables of the monastery

• Hereward presented the treasure to the Danes to thank them for fighting the Normans

• They created a strong, well-protected base on the island of Ely, where they could defy the power of the Normans in and around the Fens

Why did the Danes leave England a few weeks after forming an alliance with Hereward?

• Upon hearing the Danes had taken Ely, William acted quickly and arranged to meet King Svein

• They agreed that he and is Danish army would leave England

  • This worked because the ‘Harrying of the North’ meant meant Svein’s men had struggled to feed themselves, making them weak

• Hereward was left to fend for himself against the Normans

After the Danes left, William sailed back to Normandy to deal with some matters there. How did Hereward the Wake strengthen his position in the time William was gone?

• The abbot of Ely gave his support to Hereward using the island as a base

• An English bishop joined Hereward’s force and brought rebels who escaped from the north

• Edwin and Morcar left William’s court and joined forces with him- some sources say Edwin died on the way to Ely

• Warriors from across England made their way to Ely when it became known another rising was happening

Why was Ely difficult to attack?

• It was on an island surrounded my marshland.

• William’s army was not aware of how to navigate around the marshland unlike the people of Ely who did

How did William cut off access to and attack the island of Ely?

• William knew he could not rely on brute force- he sent ships to block supplies and access to and from the east of the Fens

• William’s soldier build a causeway that more or less floated on the water to get to the island of Ely

• Hereward and his men managed to defend their base for some time

How did William defeat the rebels in Ely and what happened to them after?

• They either marched across the causeway or some monks from the abbey told William’s army of a secret path to win his favour

• The English surrendered- some rebels hade their eyes gouged out or their hands cut off

• Morcar and other leaders were imprisoned but Hereward escaped

• This was the last widespread and serious uprising William had to face