• young King Edgar Aelthing rode out to Berkhamsted with leading nobles and clergy and surrendered the kingdom to William

• William set up a camp in Berkhamsted and stopped laying waste to cities such as Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, Middlesex, Berkshire

• William was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 at Westminster Abbey → an early coronation increased his authority

First Steps

William worked from January to March of 1067 to establish his authority:

• English leaders (e.g. Edwin, Morcar, Edgar) submitted to him

• earls and thegns were allowed to buy their lands back from William

• he built castles e.g. at Norwich where William FitzOsbern was in charge

• Odo was put in charge of the south-east where there was a base in Dover Castle

William’s return

• William felt that he had settled England enough to return to Normandy

• Edwin, Morcar, Edgar were taken as hostages to discourage English rebellions while he was gone

• spring of 1067- ceorls and thralls were forced to build motte and bailey castles for the Norman knights

• William of Poiters insisted that Odo, FitzOsbern build castles in attempts to make good relations with the English

• William stayed in Normandy with no serious news for him to be involved in

Wild man of Mercia

• August 1067- first English uprisings in Hereford, Dover and Exeter

• Mercia leader- Edric the Wild

• he joined forces with the Welsh to raid Norman-held land in Herefordshire

• he gained his name from living in the wild open hills as an outlaw → Norman name= forest dweller / silvatici

• the memory of Edric and others who resisted is kept alive through carvings e.g ‘green man’

• English stonemasons decorated the pillars and arches with strange heads → power of nature and new life

• The English built these heads on Norman churches as a sign of silent resistance

• e.g. carved head at Kilpeck Church in Herefordshire c.1140

Trouble from Gytha

• December 1067- William’s spy network told him that trouble was brewing → back in England before Christmas

• January 1068- William met up with senior English lords and bishops

• leader of the Exeter resistance was Gytha- mother of Harold Godwinson, Leofwine and Gyrth

Conspiracy and rebellion in Exeter

• Gytha and her daughter had fled to Exeter after William’s victory in 1066

• 1068- they wanted to repair and strengthen the burh’s defensive walls

• she had been plotting with the Irish lords- Harold’s 3 sons from his mistress Edith the Fair / Edith Swan-neck → they gathered an army to drive out the Normans

Negotiation

• William sent them a message urging them to swear an oath of loyalty to him but they refused

• they didn’t pay more taxes than what had been under the rule of the English kings → William gathered an army

Confrontation

• February 1068- William marched his army to Exeter

• his promised to be let in had been disobeyed so he got one of the hostages and gouged their eye out → strengthened their resistance

City surrenders

• William’s engineers dug out tunnels to undermine the city’s walls → citizens surrendered after 18 days

• they took precious ornaments and holy books as offering to William:

  • he wouldn’t plunder the city

  • punish the people

  • not demand extra tax

  • dispossess Gytha and her daughter of all family land

• he chose the highest point in the city and began building a large motte and fortress → made from red volcanic stone (Rougemont)

• March 1068- Norman language and power established

South-west: castles built at key points e.g. Barnstaple, Totnes, Okehampton, Launceston