William the Conqueror: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of British Royalty Book 13) by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2018-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

English Resistance

“They [the Normans] built castles far and wide throughout the land, oppressing the unhappy people, and things went ever from bad to worse.”

—Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1067

Modern historians sometimes act as though William the Conqueror’s defeat of King Harold II completed the Norman conquest of England. The true story of the months and years after the Battle of Hastings is that the Normans knew no peace from their English subjects.

Instead of marching directly to London, William took a circular route, burning a ring around the city as a defensive and oppressive strategy. He met significant resistance as he traveled around the city. After learning of Harold II’s death at Hastings, the Witan had proclaimed the last male member of the royal house of Wessex, Edgar Atheling, as king. Born in Hungary to his father, Edward the Exile, the young Edgar had returned to England in roughly 1057. Although Edward the Confessor was clearly aware of his grand-nephew at that stage of events, he made no effort to push Edgar into the role of heir to the throne. The boy was too young to be a military leader, especially with men like Harold Godwinson and the Duke of Normandy eyeing the throne. The most powerful members of the old order supported Edgar, but historians doubt that the resistance against William was particularly strong at this point. Most of Harold’s army had been destroyed, and William’s battles in Kent and the other districts surrounding London had made organized resistance in 1066 difficult.

But London itself was completely uninterested in surrendering to William. He had thought to march into the city over London Bridge but found the city barred to him. So William marched through Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire, burning the lands as he went. It wasn’t until the close of the year that London relented and allowed William into the city.

Thus ended the official resistance to William of Normandy. The most powerful men in London—Earl Edwin of Mercia, Earl Morcar of Northumbria, Archbishop Ealdred of York, and Edgar Atheling—offered hostages and swore oaths of fealty to William. And on December 25, 1066, William was crowned King of England.

The Norman conquest of England made permanent changes to England’s landscape. After his coronation, William laid claim to all of the land in England, then stated that a fifth of the land would be retained for his own use, while a quarter of it was granted to the church. The rest of the land that made up England at the time was divided between the 170 “tenants-in-chief”—later called barons—who fought with William at the Battle of Hastings. The barons were then responsible for providing knights for William’s army; the number of knights provided was calculated based on the amount of land each baron had been granted.

When a man was made baron, he knelt before the king and said, “I become your man.” He promised to remain faithful for the rest of his life, placing his hand on the Bible as he did so. The barons then conducted a similar ritual with the men they chose as knights.

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