1066: A New History of the Norman Conquest by Rex Peter

Author:Rex, Peter [Rex, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: History
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2012-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

10

The Harrying of the North:

February to December 1070

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, in ‘The Prince’, that ‘in order to maintain the State, a prince will often be compelled to work against what is merciful, loyal, humane, upright and scrupulous’. Of no action of William the Bastard is this more true than of the way in which he now ‘pacified’ Northumbria. Even the Norman chroniclers were scandalized when he and his lieutenants spent almost a year ravaging the north of England, turning almost 1000 square miles into a wilderness. He is described as succumbing to the vice of cruelty, making no attempt to restrain his men, allowing them to cut down many in vengeance, harry the land and turn homes to ashes. Crops, herds, chattels and food of every kind were brought together and burned. So he stripped the area north of the Humber of all means of sustenance. Orderic puts the death toll at 100,000. Even William of Poitiers seems to have been unable to bring himself to chronicle the events of 1070 and brought his ‘Gesta Guillelmi’ to a premature conclusion.[119]

Late in January 1070 or more likely during February, the King, contrary to all the expectations of the Danes and the Northumbrians, launched a midwinter campaign of devastating ferocity and barbarism, which extended as far north as the Tyne. The Earls, Waltheof and Cospatric, submitted once more. Waltheof was actually bound closer to the King by being married to Judith, daughter of King William’s sister Adelaide, wife of Enguerrand of Ponthieu. Earl Cospatric had retreated to Lindisfarne via Bethlington and a place called ‘Tughala’, taking three days and three nights to do so including one at St Paul’s at ‘Girvum’, that is Jarrow. Then he went to Bamburgh, and there submitted to King William by proxy, not daring to face the King in person.

The King himself set out on campaign to the far north, into St Cuthbert’s land, penetrating as far as Jarrow and Wearmouth on the Tyne, destroying Jarrow Church by fire. He remained by the river for some fifteen days until the two Earls had submitted. He had learned that his enemies had hidden in a narrow neck of land, sheltered by sea and marshes. This has been identified, as one suggestion has it, as Tod Point near Coatham on the southern shore of the mouth of the Tees. Others have suggested that it was further north again, at Bamburgh. No certain identification can be made as there are many possibilities. The enemy hiding place was attainable only along a narrow causeway some twenty feet wide. King William’s approach so terrified the rebels that they fled despite the defensive strength of their position. In all the King spent fifteen days on the Tees. Elsewhere his forces were sent to hunt down every Englishman they could find. In the process he spread his camps widely, covering a one hundred mile area. Nowhere else in the country did he display such cruelty as in the North and made no effort to restrain his fury.

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