Historical Notes on the Eleventh CenturyHistorical Notes on the Eleventh CenturyOverview
English Society
English Rulers
Normandy
William, Duke of
Normandy
King Harold and
Duke William
Events
leading up to the Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings
The Aftermath
Credits
There are no Cloptons or Pecches mentioned in this narrative, but the events of 1066 were undoubtedly monumental in the fortunes of the early families, not to mention the whole of England. The paramount event in England of the eleventh century was the Norman invasion led by William, Duke of Normandy. A line of kings leading to Edward the Confessor and, for the first part of 1066, King Harold, had ruled a relatively stable English society in spite of Viking invasions. William brought a conquering army that was to plunder the country and displace much of the established social structure.
England at the last turn of the millenium had a society centered on farming and the ownership of land. While land could be owned by individuals, ownership brought responsibilities. More powerful individuals provided protection from threats, such as Viking raids, and tenants provided labor in return for fair representation and protection. By 1066 the system was elaborate and stable. The social structure consisted of:
The organization of the Church was in parallel to this structure, ranging from village priests to archbishops. Because of the need for protection, no individual could claim unencumbered ownership of the land. Each "held their land of" the one higher, and the King held it all of God's grace. Each owed duties to the one above and those below. No one was, in theory, above the system. For example, in 1065 Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, had been rejected by his thanes who thought he had failed in his duty to them, and King Harold, his brother, had sent him into exile.
Decisions at the village level were made at the moot ("village meeting"), and if needed at higher moots (hundred moot, shire moot, witena gemot). The King was usually able to rule autocratically but was often advised by the last of these, a gemot ("meeting") of witan ("wise men") or witenas gemot. These witenas gemot generally included some or most of the powerful men in the country. The most critical role of the witenas gemot was confirming or even designating the King's successor.
English talent in arts and crafts (manuscript transcription, embroidery, gold and silver work, and verse and poetry) were known all over Europe. The English had an astonishing number of feasts. They brewed lots of beer and drank it. As Howarth quotes in his 1066: The Year of the Conquest concerning one village, "One of the principal pleasures ........, after recovering from one festival, must have been looking forward to the next."
The succession of English kings during this era gives some indication of England's concerns and the complexity of relationships that permeated the ruling families:
At the beginning of 1066 Edward was very ill, probably from a series of cerebral hemorages that had begun in November of 1065 and recurred on Christmas eve. He had no children, and there were at least 6 possible successors:
Godwin was advisor and earl during Edward's reign. Within three years of Edward's succession, Godwin's sons Harold and Svein were earls and his nephew another. Four of the six earldoms were thus in the Godwin family. Edward had to have Godwin's help to rule, but the two men were very different and probably didn't like each other. They almost came to civil war in 1048 due to an altercation between one of Edward's Norman visitors and some villagers in Dover, one of Godwin's villages. Their armies faced each other across the Thames. Edward gave Godwin five days to leave England and deprived him and his sons of their earldoms. This was resolved in a few years when Godwin returned and asked forgiveness. The gemot called to deal with the problem declared that Edward's Norman friends had caused the whole thing - the people didn't like foreign influence, so it was a popular decision. Godwin died in 1053, but his family remained powerful - Edith remained Queen, Harold was promoted to his father's earldom and became the King's right hand, and three of the four remaining sons were created earl as earldoms became vacant: Tostig, Gyrth, and Leofwine. The only remaining son, Wulfnoth, had been given to Duke William of Normandy, presumably as a hostage, by Edward, and remained imprisoned for over 30 years until the Duke died in 1087. While Godwin was in exile, and the French had influence at court, Duke William came on a state visit and had long and private conversations with Edward.
During the last decade of Edward's reign England was fairly tranquil. Harold was, in practice, the ruler of the country because Edward took increasingly less interest in governing. The earls raided the Welsh and Scots (this was the time of Macbeth), but overall the country was at peace largely due to Harold who remained loyal to Edward.
Tostig was exiled in 1065 because his thanes rebelled. While a favorite of Edward, Tostig had instituted onerous taxes, had dispoiled churches, and murdered his enemies. Edward tried to oppose the rebellion, but his orders to raise an army were simply disobeyed. Harold sided with the other earls and the people. The King was very angry, and it was during a period of rage that he had the first of his seizures. The witan met in the later part of 1065 to determine who was to succeed to the throne. The King died, probably on the night of 4 January 1066, but not before giving a deathbed speech. Unfortunately the speech did not clearly indicate his preference for a successor. Although the witan formally chose the king, they wanted to have an indication of the King's desire to support their choice. The speech seemed to indicate that Harold was to succeed, and the witan took it as such and confirmed him the next day, 5 January. Within 10 days a threatening message came from the Duke of Normandy.
Normandy was a small country partly peopled by Norwegian Vikings (England had been invaded primarily by Danish Vikings). It was surrounded by other countries: Brittany, Anjou, Maine, Flanders, Ponthieu, Burgundy, Aquitaine. These were ruled by fiercely independent dukes and counts with variable allegiance to the French king. The social order was much like England's. Fighting was perhaps more in agreement with the temperment of the French - they seemed to love fighting of necessity - autocracy promoted intrigue and persistent raids on neighbors. Many castles dotted the landscape, and siege was a common event. Young men chose to join the church or to be a chevalier (later to be called a knight) when they were only seven or eight. If they choose to be a chevalier they were first a page, waiting on their master at table and hunt and on their mistress in her bower. At 16 they became squires and learned to ride in armor, handle a lance and sword, and attend a knight in whatever battles were going on. In their early twenties they were admitted to knighthood.
Chivalry at this time distinguished the societies of France and England. In England the armies were drawn largely from the societal hierarchy. The King, through the earls and their thanes, would raise men to fight, but the major role of the populace was peaceful, primarily agricultural. There were few civil wars in England because people tended to have other things on their mind. In contrast, young men in France, if they did not enter the church, were trained in the arts of love by the ladies, how to hunt by the master's huntsmen, the fear of God by the chaplain, and how to fight by the knights. It promoted a class of young men who lived to fight, whose only interest in life was violence and glory, who had little appreciation of learning or peaceful pursuits and viewed anyone who was not a knight as inferior and to be treated with disdain and cruelty. Normandy was ravaged by wars during this time, and the class of knights, simply by its existence, was a large part of the cause.
The church did its best to suppress violence, and introduced the concept of the Truce of God into Normandy in 1042 - wars were forbidden in Lent and on certain saints' days and every week from Wednesday evening to Monday morning. People took cover from Monday through Wednesdays but were able to tend their crops with some semblance of safety the rest of the week.
William was born in 1027 or 1028. His father, the Duke of Normandy, was known as Richard the Devil. His mother was probably the daughter of a tanner, and William was sometimes referred to as William the Bastard. William became the Duke of Normandy at age 7 when his father died on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The country immediately fell into defacto rebellion and subsequent division into independent baronies as every leader with any power set up his own domain. William was in great danger, and his guardians were poisoned, stabbed, or thrown into dungeons, but over the years he was hidden and protected by his mother's family. And as he matured, he demonstrated a genius for politics and for the violence that often accompanied it. He was knighted at age 16. When he was 18 it was apparent that he was gaining power, and the barons of Normandy, still nominally loyal to him, went into full revolt. Since he was still a liege of the King of France, he asked for his protection, and in 1047, near the city of Caen, William and the King defeated the rebels. It was a battle fought almost entirely by mounted knights using lances, shields, and swords. At 19 William was victorious, collecting the allegiance of all the Norman barons in addition to taxes, hostages, and the other spoils of victory.
Over the next decade William stabilized Normandy, and eventually diverted the energy of his knights to foreign wars. In 1066 William had a lifetime of war behind him. He was not especially educated or literate in matters in general, but he was very clever and able to grasp and weld power. Those who were loyal were well treated, but he was rigid and cruel with those who opposed him.
When Edward died, William believed that he had been promised the crown of England. An historical misunderstanding was to underlie the Norman invasion of England. William believed that Edward had promised the crown, probably due to their discussions in 1051 when he visited England during Godwin's exile. This was probably due to Edward's vague and impulsive behavior at the largely Norman feasts at that time with William, a handsome 23-year old prodigy of a ruler.
It was also possibly due to an early visit to Normandy by Harold in 1064. According to the Norman version, and since they were the victors this was the predominant one, Edward sent Harold to France to confirm that William should be king when he died. Harold's motivation for going may have been personal. He did have two brothers being held hostage by William and may have tried to have them released - he apparently returned with one according to some accounts. In any event, in crossing the channel Harold is said to have been driven ashore by a storm not in Normandy but on a neighboring shore ruled by the Count of Ponthieu, a vassal of William's. The count put Harold in prison, but William had him released as soon as he heard of it. Harold then joined William and accompanied him as they tended to the resolution of some local conflicts which resulted in Harold's being knighted by William and swearing allegiance to him.
It was at this time that Harold supposedly promised to support William's ascent to the English throne. There are a number of variations on this story, but central to all lies the oath Harold was said to have taken. Either Harold pledged allegiance with no intent of fulfilling it, or he truly took a liking to William (they were about the same age) and felt that England, with him as defacto ruler and William as nominal ruler, would be better off than with Edward. In either case, the legend is that William had relics of Norman saints placed beneath the table where the oath was taken, without telling Harold. Two years later, in the early winter of 1066, William may have had good reason to be upset that Harold was made king. Many in Normandy knew that their duke expected to become the English king, and this apparent treachery by Harold was hard for William to ignore without a great loss of respect. He immediately sent a message to Harold - the contents are not known, but the reply was adamant. There are stories about marriages promised (one being Harold offering to marry Agatha, William's daughter), and so on, but Harold was not going to give up the throne, and evidently he was not able to satisfy William's disappointment in not gaining it by promising any other conciliation. The outcome was that the Normans began to paint Harold as a scheming liar, and William had to answer the insult.
Harold knew he must defend his throne. He had about 2000 house earls, professional soldiers who fought on foot with swords and two-handed axes. Most of his army was the fyrd, parttime and amateur, numbering not over 50,000 in all of England. But since no major battles had been fought in half a century, the fyrd was in no way a professional force. Naval forces were even less formidable, only about 14 ships belonged to the king with an additional 57 ships of Viking cargo designs from ports pledged to provide them in time of war. Harold gathered his forces by Easter. In the week after Easter Halley's comet was seen, and its appearance interpreted as an omen of doom. Harold marshaled his forces at the Isle of Wight on the eastern end of the channel so that they could use the prevailing winds to sail to any point of invasion. Throughout the summer of 1066 they waited for William's invasion.
Duke William decided to take a force to England in the early spring and called a meeting of the barons of Normandy. The planned expedition was unique in that no one had taken a mounted force of knights on a seafaring expedition. The Vikings who used ships extensively did not use horses, and the Greeks of the Byzantine empire transported troops in much larger, better designed ships than those available to William. The fleet of William would have no capacity to sail to windward and could not be rowed. Besides a day or two to embark, 24 hours of a gentle, southerly breeze was needed to cross the Channel, an unusual forecast. William and his advisors felt, and it was clearly the case, that God would have to smile on this venture in order for it to have any chance of success.
His close allies were his two half-brothers Robert, Count of Mortain, and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, along with Roger of Beaumont, Walter Gifford, Hugh of Montfort, Roger of Montgomery, William of Warren, and the house steward, William FitzOsbern. At a meeting of all the Norman barons William recounted three "crimes" attributable to Harold, two ancient ones and, of course, that he had lied about supporting William for the English crown. The barons were primarily interested in the right of conquest - was it worth the effort to invade England in terms of plunder and treasure? They concluded that it was not worth the effort and the danger of a channel crossing. The meeting broke up with William shocked and dismayed at their lack of servility and his misjudgment of the situation. He was, however, committed and could not back down without a serious challenge to his power having gone unanswered. He called each baron in individually and spoke with him. In the face of William's determination each promised knights and foot soldiers. William received approval but not wholehearted support. Count Conan of Brittany, in fact, was hostile. He died a few days later when someone smeared poison on his bridle, gloves, and hunting horn.
William sent envoys to Denmark and Germany, and to Rome to seek approval of the Pope. The latter was probably the idea of Lanfranc, later to be Archbishop of Canterbury, who at the beginning of 1066 was prior of the monastic college of Bec. Lanfranc was Italian, had been in Normandy for thirty years, and earlier had persuaded the Pope to bless William's marriage to Matilda. Lanfranc conceived that William's invasion should be not just a secular conquest but a holy war to reform the English church. The English church had been remarkably loyal to Rome for 200 years. It had collected and sent Peter's Pence, and Englishmen had made the pilgrimage. But it was different - much of its work was in English, not Latin. Lanfranc and William proposed to the Pope to make it a holy war even though there was little logic behind the idea. The Church itself was corrupt. In 1046 there had been 3 rival popes who were appointed by the Roman nobility and later by the German emperor. In 1059 the appointment of the Pope had been taken away from secular politics and transferred to the College of Cardinals, and Alexander II, the first to be elected by the College, was in office in 1066. Hildebrand, to be the next pope elected, had engineered all of this and believed not only that popes should not be elected by kings but that kings should be elected, or at least approved, by the papacy. Lanfranc was a friend of Hildebrand, and Alexander II had been one of his students at Bec. The papal court debated the request and approved it. William was to get a papal banner and a ring to carry into battle, and he was to rule England as a vassal of the Pope.
William did not overtly agree to this but accepted the blessings of the church, and as it turned out, these were the most important weapons he took into battle. The alliance with the Church gave him something else to offer in addtion to booty and landed estates in England - salvation. About two-thirds of his force turned out to be foreign mercenaries who did not owe primary allegiance to William. They were out for wealth, and now he could offer them absolution if they died in battle. However, since he promised land to the victors, he had lost the possibility of ruling a friendly people. His contest for the crown was to be a hostile one since the land had been given up for spoils to attract his army.
Events leading up to the Battle of Hastings
Harold's brother Tostig disappeared to the North in May of 1066 and eventually sailed to Oslofjord in Norway and met Harald (nicknamed Hardrada), the Norwegian King. Harald was 50 in 1066 and had been fighting since he was 15. He had raided as far south as North Africa and Sicily and was known as a cunning, cruel warrior. Norsemen (or Vikings) could promote farming and good government, but they also had a great capacity for bloodshed. The word "berserk" comes from the old Norseman's language - men gone berserk were "battle-mad" and killed without mercy until all were dead or they were killed. These were the heroes of the Norsemen, and Harald was the greatest of these, but in 1066 he had been trying to conquer Denmark for 15 years without success when Tostig arrived. Tostig had been to a lot of places seeking help in invading England with growing rumors that he was insane. He appears to have told Harald that he could be king if he helped invade England. It was August, boats and warriors were available, and when a wind from the northeast arrived on 12 August they sailed for the Shetland Islands off England to prepare an invasion.
About the first of August, Duke William's ships were ready in France and sailing into the river Dives. The larger of the ships was probably 45-55 feet with masts and sails. All of the larger ships would hold horses, armor, wine barrels, and shields along the side. The number of ships is uncertain, but the most realistic estimates are 350 to 600. It is estimated that Harald Hardrada's fleet had 200 with other supporting ships, a very large fleet for the time. The number of Williams' troops is uncertain, most likely it was about 10,000 men with 3000 horses. With this force collected in the rivers' mouth, William had to wait for a southerly wind, and in August it continued to blow from the north. In England Harold's forces viewed the wind with pleasure: no invader had ever arrived after the equinox in the middle of September. On the 12th of September, the wind changed in northern France. Williams' fleet set sail for England, but soon afterwards, the wind shifted to westward, a gale developed by the 13th, and the fleet was forced back to land at St. Valery, the mouth of the Somme.
It is hard to believe, but in the middle of that September, there were two fleets, only about 300 miles apart and gathered independently, both ready to invade England. What transpired in the next month was to determine the future of England, and a day or two's difference in the sequence of events would have meant great changes in the course of history. Harold's forces on the south coast of England began to disperse around the 8th of September due to decreasing food supplies and the approaching end of good weather for an invading force. He had raised the largest English force in history and kept them for three months, but it was time to go home because no invader had appeared. Harold rode back to London from the coast, and on the 19th a message arrived that Harald Hardrada had landed in Northumbria and burned the town of Scarborough to the ground.
King Harold called the house earls together, and they marched for Northumbria on the 20th. Hardrada and Tostig had proceeded toward York, about 25 miles inland from Scarborough. York was the capital of Tostig's old earldom, and the most important city in the north of England. The Vikings took their fleet up the rivers to within a few miles of York, and then they approached on foot. Edwin of Mercia and Morkere of Northumbria had collected an army, and a battle ensued on the 20th of September. The Vikings were victorious, and Harald and Tostig entered York later in the day. It was then agreed that the local people would bring hostages to Stamford Bridge on Monday, the 25th, where they would formally surrender.
On the 25th, Harald Hardrada and Tostig left one-third of the army with the boats, and the rest marched to Stamford Bridge. Since it was a nice day, they left much of their armor. As they approached the appointed place they saw the approaching army of King Harold instead of the surrendering peoples of York. He had come almost 200 miles in 4 days, and as the two forces faced each other across the River Derwent, Harold rode forward, and his brother Tostig rode out to meet him. Clad in armor, Harold's identity was largely hidden from the Norsemen, although his brother recognized him. Harold said "Your brother sends you greetings. He offers you peace and all of Northumbria." He went on to, in essence, attempt to avoid battle by giving his brother a third of his kingdom. Tostig replied "If I accept, what will my brother offer King Harald Hardrada for his work?" Harold's offer was "six feet of English earth - or a bit more as he is such a big man." Tostig, if nothing else, was loyal to the Norse king, and the armies began what was to be the bloodiest battle in English history to that date. It was fought largely on foot with battle-axes, spears, and swords, and by the end of the day, most of the foreign force had been destroyed; Tostig and Hardrada were dead. Seven years later, there were still bones bleaching on the battlefield. Harold magnanimously let a few survivors return to Norway - only 24 ships out of well over 200 were needed by those who reached home. They were aided in their sail home by a southerly wind, a following wind for ships voyaging from Normandy to the English coast. William's force set sail from France.
A week after the battle, on about the first or second of October, after working out problems and disorder left over from the battle, Harold and his army had a feast to celebrate their victory. At the feast, a message arrived from the south: Duke William of Normandy had landed near Hastings on the southern coast of England, and almost 250 miles from York. Word had been taken to Harold by riders or beacons in only 3 or 4 days. The second invasion of England had begun.
William had been incredibly lucky, or blessed as one might choose. The battle of Stamford Bridge was on the 25th; the favorable wind, denied him for 6 weeks, began on the night of the 26th; he sailed on the 27th and landed on the 28th; and the army which had awaited his arrival throughout the summer was as far from his landing as it could have been and still be in England. The Normans far outnumbered the local population and were only about 60 miles from London.
By the 5th of October, Harold had repeated his march and was back in London. Messages were exchanged between William and Harold through the means of monks. It was at this time that Harold probably learned of the Church's role in William's plans - that Harold and his followers would be excommunicated if they opposed William in claiming the kingdom. Harold was reported to be stunned when he heard this, but he decided that God must decide the matter on the battlefield. His brother, Gyrth, offered to go to battle with William, and this plan had a number of advantages, but Harold decided otherwise. He ordered a march to the coast to do battle with William. He rode out of London in the morning of 12 October with the house earls and the fyrd that had gathered in the short time available. The order was for a convergence of his forces at an ancient apple tree near Hastings. He arrived at the meeting place the next day, Friday the 13th. There is some indication that the rumor about the papal judgment began to spread through the English forces at about this time.
All of the accounts of the Battle of Hastings are one-sided since history is written by the victors. On the day of battle William was undoubtedly feeling very lucky and blessed. The expedition had been forced on his will alone, the church had been swayed to his side, and an incredible string of lucky events had put him on English soil facing Harold at disadvantage in forces and moral certitude. Harold must have felt like he was going against God's will, and the only way to have the matter decided was in battle.
The English defended a barren ridge about five miles from Hastings. It strattled the main track to Hastings, and it is generally agreed that it was a logical choice for the battle. The sun rose at about 6:30 on 14 October, 1066. William ordered his forces to march from Hastings the five miles to the ridge. The consensus, based on the size of the battlefield at Hastings, is that William had seven to eight thousand men: 3000 horsemen, 1000 archers, and the rest infantry. Harold had very slightly more. It must have been a crowed battlefield at these numbers - Harold probably had men 8 deep, and William had severe congestion problems with his cavalry.
The night before the battle, it is reported that the English spent their time drinking and singing and that the Normans spent their time in prayer. This may be true, but given the battle's outcome and the source of the source of the reports, it is uncertain. Much of the history was written by men of the church, most of it decades afterwards, so theirs may have been a biased report. The individual reasons that William's men had for fighting were undoubtedly varied: personal loyalty to William, a holy cause - to punish sinner, the joy of fighting (the knights), and the booty - land, riches, and power that William had promised. In contrast, the Englishmen were defending their homes.
William's forces were arrayed into three major divisions. In the center were Normans, and William was in more or less direct command of this group. To the left were mainly forces from Brittany (Bretons), Maine, and Anjou commanded by a Breton count, Alan Fergant. The right division was French and Flemish commanded by Count Eustace of Boulogne. It also had a group of Normans under Robert of Beaumont. Overall, William's Normans were in the center with mercenaries on either flank. In each contingent were groupings from individual baronies, each with its own knights and their individual leaders. Three classes of arms were used: unarmored archers were in the front with both short bows and some crossbows, armored foot soldiers carrying swords and pikes, and mounted, armored knights with swords, spears or lances, and iron maces.
The English army, on the other hand, was on of the last relatively homogeneous armies. They fought with battle axes, swords, and spears. Some were to be thrown: javelins and smaller axes. Some individuals were better armed than others; some of the poorer men probably had only stones tied to sticks, although these could do a lot of damage when thrown. They used shields to ward off arrows and other missiles in the first charges of the Normans.
The English had never met a mounted force. The Norman knights had never encountered such fierce opposition, especially the use of the battle axe. William's left division was routed, and the knights retreated through their foot forces into a marshy area. The English right advanced to attack them. William, seeing that the rest of the English line had not followed this flank, rallied his mounted forces and rode into the breach, isolating and then destroying them. Harold could have taken advantage of the initial advance if he had only ordered a general charge, but here, and throughout the day, it appeared that no general orders were given by Harold. Howarth suggests that Harold's state of mind may have been such that he felt helpless in affecting the battle's outcome and that the size of the battle may have outgrown the English command structure. Whereas William was mounted and could receive reports and send orders thorough an orderly command structure, Harold was on foot, armored, and with no quick way to promulgate orders or receive information about the battle. Gyrth and Leofwine, Harold's brothers, probably commanded parts of the line, but from Harold's fixed position (he seems to have stayed at the same spot throughout the battle), it was well nigh impossible to effectively direct a line of men 800 yards long and 8 men deep. Either Harold failed to see his chances, or his orders failed to reach his men effectively.
After the first part of the battle and a pause to regroup, William's forces attacked again. The right side of the line retreated this time (some say it as a tactical retreat), and the English left broke ranks and followed, only to be slaughtered. It is possible that Harold's brothers commanded the two ends of the English line. In any event, both were killed early in the battle. William is said to have had two or three horses killed from under him. The battle continued throughout the day.
The circumstances of Harold's death are somewhat uncertain, but most likely he was initially hit in the eye by an arrow fired by one of William's archers. This, in effect, blinded him, and he may have even died of that wound before any enemy reached him. Soon afterwards, a group of knights which may have included William, broke through the line and hacked him to pieces. The story is that William, Eustace, Hugo of Ponthieu, and a knight with the name Giffard reached him and did the deed. One stabbed him in the chest, another cut off his head, and another disemboweled him. The last knight cut off Harold's leg and carried it away. William considered this to be in bad taste and kicked him out of the army.
It was a bad day for Harold. He lived long enough to conclude that God had judged him unworthy to hold the crown. It is likely, however, that Harold had already made that judgment, and the battle was just the culmination of his beliefs. Howarth interpreted Harold to have been a well liked monarch and an inspiring leader until the last few days of his life. If belief and luck had not conspired against him, Harold would have likely won at Hastings or at least in the campaign that followed.
William spent the night on the ridge. A number of stories have been told about Harold's body. One is that, after being identified by Edith Svanneshals (his lover and mother of his 3 teenage sons), his body or what was left of it, was buried on a hill near Hastings at William's order. The epitaph was:
"By the command of the Duke, you rest here a King, O Harold,
That you may be guardian still of the shore and sea."
Other stories even have him surviving the battle and living in hiding in other lands and in England until old age.
After the battle William probably only had about 5000 men. It was a very weak force against what remained in England. He went first to Dover, and then to Cantebury over the next month or so as winter began. As he approached London by a very circuitous route, his army pillaged and raped the countryside. He could not stop them given his commitments. Although he was to use destruction as a planned policy later in his reign, this was just a postmark to victory as he circled London, perhaps in a wary search for traps. In London the English earls called a witena gemot, and Edgar, the only remaining claimant to the throne, was elected King. He was, however, not coronated. The earls and others promised to fight for him, but among the English churchmen there remained some doubt. Had the papal decision been directed at Harold, and was his death adequate to resolve his sin's impact on the country, or had the decision been made against the nation and for William against all claimants? This indecision was decisive - William, having left garrisons around the city, finally entered London with a tiny force, and after making promises to the English to allay their fears, was crowned King.
The country was divided up and given to William's army. England was spoils. Over the next 20 years it is estimated that 200,000 Normans and Frenchmen settled in England, and at least 300,000 Englishmen, one-fifth of the native population, died due to William's ravages or starvation resulting from loss of their land and stock. By 1086 when the Domesday book was being compiled at William's order, more than 4000 thanes had lost their land and been replaced by 200 barons. Whereas in 1066 a third of the land in areas of England were owned by individuals with non-English names, by 1207 the proportion had risen to over 80 per cent with French names like William, Richard, and Robert being commonplace. Through taxes, the seizure of land, the building of castles throughout the countryside, and the imprisonment and torture of prominent Englishmen, William gained the hatred of England.
Politically and socially England became an extension of Normandy and surrounding baronies in France. William I, known as "The Conqueror," died in 1087, the first a succession of the Norman and Plantagenet kings who ruled England until 1327. William's son William II reigned for the rest of the century (1087-1100), and another son, Henry I, reigned well into the next (1100-1135). His third son, Robert, became the Duke of Normandy.
Reference:
Howarth, David (1977) 1066:
The Year of the Conquest. Dorset Press
(published 1978 by Viking Press).
A highly readable account of the events of 1066 and the main
source for this summary.
Morgan, K.O. (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford University Press, 1984.
Holmes. G. (ed.) The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Contributed by :
Ben M. Clopton
clopton@seanet.com