William I: The Norman Conqueror
The year 1066 was a very important one in history of British. In that year two English kings died and
an invader captured the throne.
`By the splendour of God I have taken possession of my realm; the earth of England is in my two hands.'
With those words William leapt ashore as he invaded Anglo Saxon England in
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September 1066. His forces
met the English army led by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings.
After a gruelling fight, King Harold was killed and William
became the first Norman King Of England. Harold had been king for only ten months. What right
had William, who did not even speak English, to be England's king? He was ambitious and being a king
was more important than being a duke. He claimed that the previous English king,
Edward the Confessor (r.1042-66), who had grown up in Normandy, had promised that
William would be the next king. But, when Edward died in January 1066, it was
Earl Harold of Wessex, a powerful and popular Anglo Saxon noble, who was crowned as the new king.
So William invaded England and settled the matter by force.
Conquering the land
Following his coronation on Christmas Day 1066, at Westminster Abbey, William sent his Norman
soldiers to every part of the kingdom. Their task was to establish strongholds by building castles
and dealing with anyone who would not accept William as king. At first, William tried to rule
with the cooperation of the Anglo Saxons, but the greed of his Norman nobles for land soon caused bitter resistance. Although William was a religious man and fair to his friends, he was brutal towards his enemies. When English rebels burnt down a Norman castle at York in 1069, William was furious. He ordered his soldiers to destroy every village, to burn the crops and to kill all the animals over a wide area. This was called the 'harrying of the north' and led to a terrible famine in which many people died from starvation. This is how a monk, Simeon of Durham, described the event:
'It was horrific to see human bodies rotting in the houses and the roads, and there was a terrible smell and a great silence
fell over the land.'
Feudalism and homage
William rewarded his Norman supporters by giving them land that he had seized from the English.
This helped ensure that they stayed loyal. They shared out some of their land to other Norman soldiers
in a system known as feudalism. In return for this land everyone had to promise loyalty and service to
the king. This was called homage.
The Conqueror dies
Even as one of the England Kings, William still gave a great deal of attention to his lands in France. In 1087 he attacked a French town whose soldiers had raided his land. He ordered his men to burn down the entire town.
As he rode through the burning ruins a hot cinder made his horse stumble. William was thrown off and seriously hurt. He knew he was dying. As he remembered his many cruel deeds, we are told, he became frightened of facing God. On his death bed he is supposed to have said:
‘ I persecuted the native inhabitants of England beyond all reason, I am stained with the rivers of
blood that I have shed.'
Extract from “Medieval Britain, Medieval Monarchs”, written by Nigel Smith. East Sussex:
Wayland Ltd, 1996.
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