Study guide 5: How did William I deal with

opposition to his rule?

William I’s suppression of rebellions, his military

qualities, castle building and the new Norman elite,
the harrying of the North.
Introduction
William had won a decisive victory at Hastings, but he had not gained full control of
the kingdom yet. Archbishop Stigand immediately put Edgar Aelthing , Edward the
Confessor’s great nephew, forward as the new king. However, William’s brutal march
through Kent, Berkshire and Winchester in October and November isolated London and
the remaining figures of Harold’s regime: Edwin , Morcar, Edgar Aethling and his sister,
Edith, all surrendered to William, who was duly crowned on Christmas Day 1066 with
all the full coronation rites of an Anglo Saxon king.

William felt confident enough to return in triumph to Normandy early 1067 with the
leading Anglo Saxons in his train, and booty plundered from the churches and halls of
England. But from 1067 to 1071 a series of revolts across England posed a great
threat to his fragile government. He put them down with great brutality; any pretence
he had to being the legitimate heir of Edward the Confessor was ended in this period.
To underpin his occupation he built hundreds of castles across the kingdom, garrisoned
by armed, mounted troops. Only after 1075, after a rebellion by his own earls , was
the first phase of the conquest complete, and by this time England was under virtual
military law.

How did William deal with rebellion?

In 1067 William left England under the care of two of his most trusted lords: his cousin
William fitzOsbern and his half brother, Odo, Bishop od Bayeux. The period of peace
was short lived. Rebellions broke out all across England: William subdued them with
brutal , forceful and decisive action.

The Welsh border 1067

Later in the year, Edric ‘the Wild’ raised a revolt in Herefordshire along the Welsh
border , encouraging Welsh princes to join him. The failed to take control of the border
and retired to Wales with much booty.

The south west( 1068)

William returned to England late 1067 to face more serious threats in the south west.
In 1068, the city of Exeter refused to accept William’s rule but eventually did so after
an 18 day siege. William built a castle and made a Norman, Baldwin, the guardian of
the castle in Exeter. William also installed his other half brother , Robert of Mortain, an
earl of Cornwall, and submitted Bristol and Gloucester to his rule on the way back.
During the summer of 1068 the sons of Harold Godwinsson landed on the Somerset
coast but were repelled by the English troops. William celebrated Easter at
Winchester, and soon afterwards his wife Matilda was crowned queen at Westminster ,
where the king held a great court. William ended the year 1068 with a series of
lightening rides through Warwick, Nottingham , York, Lincoln, Huntingdon and
Cambridge to show his presence as the new king.
The north ( 1069-1070)
Despite the efforts of William, the remaining Anglos Saxon leaders, earls Edwin and Morcar
and Edgar Atheling defected from William's court and sought support from the north in
1068. The north was still semi independent of the south. Northern earls had not interfered
to save Godwin in 1051 or help Edward in 1052 and had thrown out Tostig in 1065. Their
political and ethnic separatism was potentially very dangerous to William’s fragile hold on
power at this stage. William marched north to deal with this threat, establishing castles on
his way, in particular a castle at Warwick (in Mercia) seemed to have cut Edwin and Morcar
off from the north and compelled them to resubmit to William. When William reached York
the rebels fled, including their leaders Edgar the Aetheling and Gospatric earl of
Northumbria who went to Scotland.
In January 1069 rebels burned to death the new Norman Earl of Northumbria Robert of
Commines in the bishop's house in Durham. The insurrection spread to York , where the
Norman garrison came under attack. Gospatric and Edgar the Aetheling quickly joined the
rebellion in York. William stormed north and relieved the garrison, the rebels melted away
once more, rather than face pitched battle.
In 1069, at the request of Edgar the Aetheling a Viking army of 240 ships , led by the
brother and sons of Danish King Swegn Estrithsson, landed at the Humber and marched on
York. Swegn was the nephew of Canute and Earl Godwin and had been king of Denmark
since 1047. After their landing , Swegn’s sons found much support amongst the native
Anglo Scandinavians in the east of England as well as the English including Edgar Atheling.
They seized York and their success probably encouraged revolts in Dorset, Somerset,
Staffordshire and Cheshire. Furthermore, the king of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore, raided
into Northern England, further adding to the mounting crisis facing William. William now
faced the possibility of a Scandinavian kingdom in northern England or a separated
kingdom created for Edgar, the last prince of the royal house of Wessex.

The ‘Harrying of the North’

William reacted with characteristic vigour, skill and utter brutality. He marched north with
seasoned troops from Nottingham to York, devastating the countryside as he went and
slaughtering all male adults. He burned York and after Christmas , set about a systematic
destruction of Yorkshire. What his troops inflicted on the people was so terrible that
chroniclers remembered it over 50 years later. Corpses rotted on the roads, refugees fled
in terror , disease and famine inevitably ensued. The Domesday book, the record of
taxation and landownership made in 1086 simply records ‘ waste’ ( uncultivated and
depopulated lands and villages) for much of the land that William devastated. Over 80% of
the wasteland recorded in Doomsday was in Yorkshire. Swathes of land were depopulated ,
villages were deserted , farms empty, and this was 15 years later. Yorkshire must have
been a desert in 1070.
From Yorkshire , William pushed his troops across the Tees in the middle of winter and
south west across the Pennines into Cheshire. He took Chester, subdued a rebellion in
Stafford and was back in Winchester before Easter 1070. The Vikings , seeing their English
allies defeated, accepted a bribe and left the Humber.

Key evidence: The Anglo Saxon Chronicle for 1069 : “ And there came to meet them Prince
Edgar and Earl Waltheof and Maerleswegen and Gospatric with the Northumbrians and all
the people riding and marching with an immense army rejoycing exceedingly and so they
all went resolutely to York an stormed and razed the castle and captured an incalculable
treasure in it and killed many hundreds Frenchmen and took many with them to the
ships .. When the king found out about this he went northwards with all his army that could
be collected, and utterly ravaged and laid waste that shire.”
Key evidence: William the Conqueror’s deathbed confession from Orderic Vitalis, ‘
The Ecclesiastical History ‘ written 1123-41
“ I fell on the English of the northern shires like a ravening lion. I commanded their
houses and corn, with all their implements and chattels, to be burnt without
distinction, and large herds of cattle and beasts of burden to be butchered wherever
they were found… and by doing so – alas! I became the barbarous murderer of many
thousands, both young and old, of that fine race of people.”

East Anglia ( 1070-71

If William had broken English resistance , he had not quite dealt with the Vikings. In
the summer, King Swegn of Denmark himself appeared and entered East Anglia,
occupying the Isle of Ely. He was joined by a Lincolnshire thegn named Hereward ( the
Wake) and the earls Edwin and Morcar. Together, they looted and burned
Peterborough Abbey. William reacted with political skill, negotiating with the Danes,
who departed the coast with much booty, probably believing that they would not be
able to defeat the Normans., This left the English rebels to fend for themselves. When
William advanced to Ely, Morcar surrendered, Edwin fled north and was murdered by
his own followers, and, after The Siege of Ely, Hereward disappeared and William took
the island.

Hereward the Wake

Scotland
Williams devastation of the north had created a vacuum of political authority into
which Malcolm of Scotland rode, devastating Durham and Cleveland. William spent
the summer of 1072 carefully preparing another army. In the autumn he took them
through Durham all the way to Perth, into the heart of Malcolm's kingdom. His fleet
sailed into the Tay estuary and met the army. It was a hazardous expedition , but it
worked. Malcolm met William at Abernethy and recognised him as king of England. To
show good faith, Malcolm expelled Edgar Atheling from his court and probably gave
his son as hostage.

The revolt of the Norman Earls

Edgar Atheling's part in the Anglo Norman history was not yet over. Having gone to
Flanders after leaving Scotland, he returned to the Scottish court with honour in
1074. In order to discomfort his enemy William further, King Philip I of France offered
Edgar a strategically threatening castle at Montreuil- sur- Mer, where Edgar could
establish a base to oppose William. William took this seriously enough to offer the
Atheling a place in court in England. Edgar from this point faded as a threat to
William; he befriended William's eldest son, Robert, later Duke of Normandy , and
appeared in Southern Italy in the 1080s and on the Frist Crusade to the Holy Land in
the 1090s.

A potentially far greater threat to William emerged in 1075 from his own Norman
lords, including the son of his most trusted earl. This rebellion was led by Ralph de
Gael, a Breton whose father had held position at the court of Edward the Confessor
and had gone on to assist William in his conquest of England. Ralph recruited Roger
de Breteuil , Earl of Hereford , son of William fitzOsbern, the Earl of Hereford, who had
been killed in battle in Flanders, 1071. Waltheof, son of the old English earl of
Northumbria Siward, also joined the plot.
The plot seems to have been hatched at the feast that was held for Ralph's wedding
to Roger's sister in Norfolk. Ralph , as a Breton, was encouraged by Bretons and Philip
of France , always eager to bring down his arch rival the king of England and the duke
of Normandy. For good measure, Ralph appealed to Denmark for help.

The revolt was stifled from the outset. Lanfranc, now Archbishop of Canterbury, was
acting as William's regent during his absence in Normandy. Waltheof panicked and
confessed the plot to Lanfranc. Earl Roger was bottled up in Herefordshire by loyal
Norman troops under the command of the Abbot of Evesham, and Odo of Bayeux and
others forced Ralph to retreat to Norwich, where he left his wife in command whilst he
fled to Brittany. Another great Danish fleet arrived, led by Cnut, son of Swegn
Estrithsson, but it was too late. In time honoured fashion, the Vikings sailed up the
east coast , looting and pillaging before departing for home. William returned to
England at Christmas 1075. The Breton rebels were blinded and murdered and Roger
de Breteuil, perhaps on account of his father's loyalty was banished from
Heredfordshire and imprisoned. Ralph was stripped of his English lands but carried on
the struggle from his lands in France and Waltheof was beheaded.

Key word
Regent : a person who rules in the kings name in his absence. The title was not formally
used at this time, although Harold Godwinsson was described as 'subregulus' or ' under
king'. Lanfranc , William fitzOsbern and Odo of Bayeux all acted as regents for William
Did the rebellions change Williams policy towards the Earls?
The widespread rebellions against William and the brutality with which he dealt
with them had a great impact on the nature of his kingship and conquest of
England. William clearly made efforts to be conciliatory (fair and just towards the
English) in the very early years of his reign. Edwin and Morcar kept their earldom
s until thy fled Williams court in 1068. William made Gospatric, a Saxon, earl of
Northumbria , but Gospatric joined the general uprising in the summer of that
year. A further concession to the north after the terrible devastation of the winter
of 1070, William created Waltheof , earl of Northumbria. Waltheof was the son of
the previous earl of Northumbrian earl, Siward , who had been succeeded by
Tostig Godwinsson in 1057 as Waltheof had been too young at the time. Waltheof
repaid Williams trust in him by joining or at least having knowledge of , the 1075
revolt by Ralph de Gael and Roger de Breteuil. After a period of imprisonment ,
Waltheof , the last Anglo Saxon earl was beheaded in 1076.

How different were the Anglo Norman Earldoms?

The old Anglo Saxon Earldoms of Wessex , Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria
were either divided up very soon after Williams coronation , or allowed to lapse,
during , or as the result of the rebellions . Harold, king of England and earl of
Wessex was not replaced. Instead, Odo, bishop of Bayeux and Williams half
brother was made earl of Kent. William fitzOsbern , a cousin and lifelong
companion to William, as made earl of Hereford and The Lord of the Isle of
Wight, two crucial defensive ports of the new kingdom , both carved out of
Harold's territories. These posts were granted very soon after the Battle of
Hastings l for it was Odo and William fitzOsbern who were governors of England
in the kings triumphant return to Normandy early in 1067.

Although William made some concessionary moves, it was clear from the
severity of the rebellions that he would have to act drastically. The earldom of
Mercia lapsed after the murder of Edwin in the wake of the 1071 rebellion . After
William’s concessionary policy of appointing first Gospatric and then Waltheof to
Northumbria, that earldom also lapsed. Following Ralph de Gael's treachery in
1075, the earldom of East Anglia was not filled in the Conqueror's reign . Thus
the great Anglo Saxon Earldoms passed out of existence well within a decade of
the new Norman government. The rebellions also led to the creation of the
smaller Earldoms of Cheshire and Shropshire some time after 1077, again as
defensive measures.

William did not therefore have the problems faced by Harefoot, Harthacnut,
Edward and Harold in that he did not have to please 3 powerful earls in order to
rule. There were still powerful earls/barons with large tracts of land but they all
owed thanks to William for the land. William had lots of earls/barons that were
quite rich and powerful but extinguished the hugely powerful old English
earldoms.
Why were castles so important?

In addition to having to reorganise the Anglo Saxon earldoms as a result of the

rebellions, William consolidated Norman power in his newly conquered kingdom by
building castles. Castle building were erected from the very beginning of his
campaign , even before the battle at Hastings, and were virtually unheard of in
England. England had only ever seen the large , public fortress built by the Romans
and the walled towns( burghs) under Alfred the Great. Castles were small , and private
fortifications. The only castles seen in England before 1066 were the motte and baileys
built in Herefordshire by Edward the Confessors Norman nephew , Ralf of Mantes , in
the 1050s. William built hundreds of castles all across England. Castles were an
integral part of his conquest of England and also for de part of the fabric of Anglo
Norman society. Castles were a new phenomenon that altered the geopolitical
landscape of Britain forever.

Key term: geo political: the way power was exercised with a physical presence at
strategic places in the countryside.

Motte and bailey castles

These early castles were not the great stone castles of the later medieval era,
complete with gatehouses, towers and damsels in distress, instead , they looked rather
like small wooden stockades. A timber tower was placed on top of a large earth ,und,
the motte. Next to the motte was the bailey, an outer compound , with a timber fence.
The bailey accommodated stables, a chapel, a forge , living space and a small garrison
of mounted soldiers could retire to the tower on the motte in times of danger. The
genius of the motte and bailey fortress was that they could be erected quickly and
simply . William brought with him ' kit castles' which his carpenters put together after
landing at Pevensey, within the walls of the old Roman fortress.

Motte and bailey castles were a common sight in north west Europe . William had
spent his life engaged in warfare to consolidate his power in Normandy , but the battle
of Hastings was only the second battle he had fought ( he fought three in total) . Set
piece battles were Rae , medieval warfare was conducted through skirmishes, raiding,
ambushes and sieges. Control over territory meant the building and manning of
castles. Williams rise to power in Normandy is the story of his domination of the
countryside by the use of castles.

Traditionally seen as a defensive structure, castles were used as a form of offense

during the Norman conquest. They were symbolic and proved to be fundamental
strongholds in England for the maintenance of the Norman grip on power. There was
no technology at this period to overcome sieges without massive loss of life.
Securing the realm
William began a comprehensive programme of castle building in England before the
rebellions began and built more following the rebellions. With his right hand man,
William fitzOsbern , earl of Hereford and Lord of the Isle of Wight, built a stone keep at
Chepstow , dominating the river Wye and the Severn estuary. This was one of the very
few stone castles in England.

William himself began the mighty stone keep at the Tower of London ( the white
tower).
After Williams brutal submission of the West Country and the north during the
rebellions of 1067-71 he built castles in Exeter, Warwick, Nottingham , York, Lincoln,
Huntington and Cambridge.

These castles were deliberately sited in English towns , hundreds of homes were
demolished to make way for them in town centres. Castles were at this stage, a device
of war, a means of containing the surrounding area and deploying troops quickly. They
were a visible and psychological symbol of conquest.

Outside the towns, castles were situated to control the surrounding countryside ,
either at river crossings or on the hills. On the welsh borders, very much bandit
country, a chain of castles was built to watch over the mountain passes.

Tower of London-
building commenced
under William I

Castles were built for defence,

intimidation and prestige, they were
successful in protecting against Welsh
invasion.
In an alien land with so few Normans , castles were fundamental to the survival of
Williams kingship. They gave a sense of permanence and reminded the Anglo
Saxons of the terror inflicted on the north by William’s troops during the winter of
1069. Even though the motte and bailey forts could be erected quickly and simply
, some of them were very substantial and incorporated not only a military
garrison but also the seat of local government. Royal control over the castles was
essential , and the men pointed to manage the castles were men of
unquestionable loyalty. During the 1075 revolt, Lafranc wrote to Earl Roger de
Breteuil, urging him not to let castles of Herefordshire fall not the wrong hands .
In the end , it was the lack of support and the maintenance of the castles in royal
hands that led to the failure of the rebellion.

Case study

William FitzOsbern , earl of Hereford

An examination of the life and career of one of the most powerful men in the
early years of Anglo Norman England throws considerable light on how William
actually effected his conquest. This was essentially through a network of kinship
and loyalty , backed up with courage and audacity.

A childhood friendship
William fitzOsbern was the son of Osbern Herfastsson, who had been William the
Conquerors steward ( duke William had a household , which was a large group of
followers , servant and soldiers. In the household were servants with specific
tasks . The steward role was very important , he ran the household and was the
dukes deputy. Most dukes , kings and princes had similar households). As a boy,
William had witnessed the brutal murder of his own father in his own bedchamber
and had grown up in the ducal household. The household became his family .
Another friend of Williams was Roger of Montgomery , who later became the earl
of Shrewsbury. FitzOsbern participated in much of the dukes struggles to gain
control over his duchy during the wars for the 1040s and 1050s.

Schooled in the art of warfare from an early age and witness to William’s brutal
triumph over his enemies in Normandy, fitzOsbern was the duke’s steward at the
time of the conquest. It was fitzOsbern who persuaded the sceptical Norman
barons to invade England, it was he who when the duke fell on his face when thy
landed at Pevensey shouted at the troops ( who saw it as a bad omen), ' do not
take this ass unlucky , he has claimed England , taking possession of it with both
hands'. It was fitzOsbern who was with the duke on a patrol after the landings as
they laughed and joked along a coastal path.
Earl of Heredfordhsire and Lord of the Isle of Wight
After Hastings , where fitzOsbern fought in the thick of the battle with the duke, he was
richly rewarded , as befitted a cousin , lifelong friend and ally. FitzOsbern was granted
the earldom of Hereford, extensive lands in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire,
Oxfordshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Hampshire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight. These
lands were much the same lands that Swegn Godwinsson had held twenty years
earlier, followed by Ralf of Mantes ( king Edward's nephew) , than Harold and now
fitzOsbern . Keeping the estates together under different owners reflected the new
kings initial policy of conciliation towards the Anglo Saxon ruling class. Although
fitzOsbern was a Norman, the lands he held were the same territories held by his
Anglo Saxon predecessors.

If fitzOsbern's lands were based on past titles , then the power he wielded was unique.
Vice-regent with the king’s half brother , Odo, fitzOsbern immediately set about the
invasion of Wales from his base in Herefordshire . Within a couple of years, the
Normans had advanced deep into South Wales , possibly as far as Swansea. FitzOsbern
was also castellan ( the offal appointed by the king to manage a castle , am important
job, he was usually of high rank and had to be loyal to the crown ) of York Castle and
was with the king on the notorious ' harrying of the North' during the winter of 1069-
70.

The end of an era?

William fitzOsbern was killed in a small battle in Flanders in 1071. His death left the
king bereft of a childhood friend and the most loyal and powerful man in the kingdom.
His death marked a turning point in the Conquerors policy. It came soon after the great
rebellions of 1067-71 and left a power vacuum. FitzOsbern's son never had the power
his father enjoyed and his participation in the rebellion in 1075 was partly due to his
resentment. The second generation could never emulate the achievements of their
fathers. After Roger de Breteuil's rebellion , the earldom of Herefordshire was not
replaced until 1120s . The new Earldoms of Shrewsbury and Cheshire were much
smaller . The unique bond of trust between the king and his closest noblemen began
to dissolve. Most of the leading Norman landowners were related to the king but as
time passed, that family loyalty began to be by a more venal , political motivation .
Had fitzOsbern not been killed in battle , there might never have been a rebellion in
1075 and the Earldoms of Hedfordhsire, east Anglia and Northumbria may have
continued as before. As it was Ralph De Gael was removed as earl of East Anglia,
Waltheof beheaded as earl of Northumbria and Roger de Breteuil was imprisoned as
earl of Hereford. They were not replaced during William’s reign, leaving them to
disappear.