The Normans and Their World

by Jack Lindsay

  Stigand lost his nerve and submitted, being told that William would recognize him as his spiritual father. The other English magnates were cowed. William was met at Berkhamstead by Ealdred, Edgar, the earls and bishops, Wulfstan of Worcester and Walter of Hereford, with representatives of the Londoners. He promised to rule as Edward’s legal successor and marched on London, still systematically laying waste the land. Admitted to London, he repeated his promise at his coronation on Christmas Day in Westminster Abbey. How unsure the Normans still felt was shown by their reaction when he was presented to the people for acclamation, with the question put in both English and French. The responses were misunderstood by the men-at-arms on guard, who at once set the near houses on fire. While the houses burned, the ceremony went on. William had had doubts whether he should be crowned without his wife present, fearing that later objections to the king-worthiness of his sons might arise. But he knew the magnates and Londoners wanted to get as good a bargain as possible by pushing him quickly on to the throne, now they had no choice; his own lords also must have been keen to see him crowned. He was in an ambiguous position, which was inherited by his sons. All his actions were based on the claim that he was the lawful king of England, chosen by Edward and continuing his line after disposing of a perjured usurper; yet he was the conqueror of a foreign country which he had to rule by ruthless military power.

  Both his roles, that of king by right and that of king by might, carried on throughout his reign. In the first of his declarations he said ‘He wished above all things God to be revered throughout his realm, the faith of Christ to be preserved inviolate, and peace and security to be kept between English and Normans.’ He granted all men the laws of King Edward; he confirmed London’s customs and ordered the ports and certain roads to be opened to traders. He also ordered his troops to behave well: they were to refrain from outrages liable to provoke revolts among those justly subjected to them; they were not to shame their homeland’s good name amid strangers; they were not to visit brothels or drink too much in taverns, as drunkenness begot brawls and brawls begot murder. He appointed judges to deal with offenders, Normans, Bretons, or others. In all this he was sincere enough; he wanted no unnecessary trouble and still felt insecure. He had the Norman determination to wring every penny of profit out of a situation, together with a realization of the limits which must not be transgressed if he wished to maintain the basis on which the pennies could be extorted. The Normans, quite lacking in original ideas, were highly adaptable and able to take over the systems of others and make them work better or more profitably. Where there was no system on which to build, as for long in Apulia, they were at a loss and reverted to simple freebooting; but where, as in Sicily and in England in different ways, there were effective systems of government and exaction of taxes, they did their best to make no unnecessary alterations.

  William’s call for good order among his troops was thus meant to be taken seriously; but the nature of the situation ensured that vast oppression and harrying of the English would go on — accepted by William as long as the administrative structure, on which his profits depended, was still able to function. Many noblewomen had to find refuge in nunneries or be raped, and we can but dimly imagine how the commonfolk suffered.

  To the natives it appeared that ‘devils had come through the land with fire and sword and havoc of war’, ‘that under the scourges of the chastising God many thousands of the people are thrown down and the kingdom is ravaged by fire and plundering’, and what can we expect but a miserable end in slaughter unless the infinite and inestimable mercy of the Lord...should give us pardon.’ The same, or another, contemporary wrote, ‘How many thousands of the human race have fallen on evil days! The sons of kings and earls and nobles...are fettered with manacles and chains...How many have lost their limbs by the sword or disease or have been deprived of their eyes, so that when released from prison the common light of the world is a prison for them!’ The last of William’s statutes reads, ‘I forbid that any man be executed or hanged for any offence, but let his eyes be gouged out and his testicles cut off’ (Barlow).[330]

  One great advantage of Hastings for William was that he was able to declare a considerable portion of England forfeit to the crown: all the wide lands of the house of Godwin (in the southern and southwest shires, Herefordshire, the south-east shires, and East Anglia) and of any other landowner who had opposed or fought him. He could also claim that no Frenchman was given anything unjustly taken from an Englishman; in such a situation there was little need for ‘injustice’. And soon further revolts made more and more land forfeit. William, protesting his good intentions, could hardly feel secure or beloved.

  He at once began building a castle by the river in the south-east corner of London. This was later in his reign replaced by the White Tower, ninety feet high, which is still the centre of The Tower of London. Poitiers admits that it was needed to scare the citizens.[331] Perhaps Baynard’s Castle in the south-west of the city was also built for the same reason at about this time. William made his first allocations of lordship: Odo was given Kent, with the royal steward William fitzOsbern probably in the Isle of Wight. Count Brian, second son of Eudo of Porhoët, count of Penthièvre in Brittany, may have been promised the south-west peninsula; the Anglo-Breton Ralf de Gael, son of Ralf the staller, servant of Edward, was given East Anglia (perhaps only Norfolk). More troops were brought over from France and installed in castles and strongholds. William himself moved about west of London. Several English magnates were summoned to Barking to give him allegiance. William no doubt went as far as Winchester, to get the treasury and for strategic reasons. Odo was based on Dover Castle to control the south; William fitzOsbern was to watch the north from Winchester; Edwin was left over Mercia; Copsi was put over Northumbria. There was still a Scandinavian threat. Edgar, Morcar, Stigand and others were kept at court under surveillance and taken along when William crossed the Channel.[332]

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  He must have completed many dispositions in January, for in February he was back in his duchy. He had laid a heavy geld on England and already some of the war loot had reached Normandy; he himself brought more, appearing at Rouen in magnificent vestments to match his new kingly title. As there had been no time to gather taxes, what he brought must have consisted of ‘gifts’, many no doubt extorted from the church. Poitiers is eloquent about the wonderful treasures, embroideries and ornaments which the monasteries ‘bestowed’ upon their new king. At Pevensey he had paid off his mercenaries. Splendid gifts had to go to the papacy for its important aid; in return for his banner he sent Harold’s flag embroidered in gold with an armed man. Gold and jewelled crosses, golden vases, bullion and embroidered palls were distributed, we are told, to churches in France. Aquitaine, Burgundy and Auvergn; the Norman churches must have been given even more valuable plunder. At Fécamp, during Easter, visitors admired the gaudy glitter, but they seem to have been most attracted by the long-haired English nobles who looked lovelier than girls. For the first time, William, inured to hardship and careless of display, found the time and the means for luxuries.

  How much his heart was in Normandy and not in England is shown by the fact that at this crucial period he stayed on for nine months, and only returned to England when trouble broke out. Not that the duchy needed him: everything was quiet, as could be expected with so many turbulent nobles killed or busy grabbing wealth in England; there was no external threat. He must have thought his measures would keep England cowed and tranquil. While the country provided him with a title, profitable revenues and with lands to grant his adherents, he had no further interest in. it. But he misjudged the situation; and his attitude helped to precipitate further warfare and decisively deepen the gap between conquerors and conquered. Orderic tells us that the Normans behaved as badly as might be. The castellans oppressed rich and poor with unjust exactions and added insults to the injuries. The commanders acted brutally and had no interest in hearing or judging the complaints of the tormented peop
le. Soldiers raped and looted with impunity, protected by their superiors. If any English were fools enough to object, they were punished. The lack of any English rival for the throne meant that the opposition had no focal point. In desperation the men of Kent called on Eustace of Boulogne, whom they would have known to some extent under Edward, to intervene and save them from Odo; they must have heard that the count, apparently considering that he had been insufficiently rewarded, had quarrelled with William. He made an attempt on Dover, but was driven out of the town by the castle garrison. William was compelled to return on 6 December 1067 with reinforcements, bringing Robert of Montgomery. He was able to use his authority to quieten things. Before Whitsun 1068 Matilda, pregnant with the future Henry I, came over to be crowned queen at Winchester by Ealdred; she stayed till her son was born, then went home.

  England, angry and discontented, but lacking a leader, was inevitably breaking up into areas of revolt: the south-west, the Welsh borderlands, the north. In other parts some English prelates were working hard to damp down the wraths: Bishop Aethelmaer (Stigand’s brother) in East Anglia; Aethelwig, abbot of Evesham, and Wulfstan bishop of Worcester, in west Mercia. On the borders Eadric the Wild (a Welshman?), a Worcestershire thegn, was helped by Welsh princes to attack Richard fitzScrob and other Normans who had settled earlier in Herefordshire. Northumbria, which always had a strong feeling of independence, had no effective ruler and was growing rebellious, looking for some scion from the family of earlier native earls and ready to ask for aid from Scotland or Denmark. The Scottish king had thoughts of carrying his realm down to the Humber; the Danish king had his claim to England. With such aliens as the Normans and their allies swarming over England, Danes and Scots seemed like brothers to the English. Copsi, whom William had appointed to the north, was murdered in March 1067 or 1068; there was only the archbishop Ealdred of York, who lived mostly in the south, to support Norman rule.

  William proceeded to attack his opponents, who had no castles in which to take shelter, but only walled towns or boroughs. The fighting went on from 1068 to 1071. English nobles turned on William in the dissident areas, but the opposition remained localized: no unifying leadership emerged. At the height of the troubles William had several armies in the field, his own and those of kinsmen and trusted comrades such as William fitzOsbern or Brian of Brittany. The commanders had their retainers, but most of the soldiers were hired. As a result, with the arduous conditions and prolonged campaigning, the composition of any contingent kept changing, and much expenditure and skill in management were required. Heavy taxes and much plunder were needed to meet the costs. There was the further problem of garrisoning the castles William was building as the necessary basis for a stable repression of the people. He proved astute in calling up native levies on the old system and in using them with effect in the south.

  He turned first to the south-west where Exeter had defied him and was seeking to build a league of boroughs. On his arrival the rich citizens wanted to surrender, but the people disavowed them and shut the gates. The siege lasted eighteen days, during which he had a hostage blinded before the defenders and set to work undermining the walls. The city gave in. William saw that savage reprisals would make things worse; he demanded only the right to build a castle on the highest point inside the walls, which his men garrisoned. Then he made a circuit of Cornwall and was back in Winchester by Easter. Harold’s illegitimate sons, who had been exercising some of the family influence in the region, sailed off to Norse Ireland (as their father had once done) and for some summers kept up raids on the south-west. But they merely annoyed and injured the people there, to William’s benefit. When they attacked Bristol, the citizens drove them off. In Somerset they met a local force under Ednoth (staller under Harold). Ednoth was killed, but the invaders were expelled. Harold’s son attacked again next year and failed. This sort of fighting had the effect of dividing the English. In the north Oswulf, who had challenged Copsi, himself died, and his cousin Gospatrick bought the earldom from William. But by the summer both Mercia and Northumbria were in revolt. Edwin and Morcar went off to the Welsh; but when Henry of Beaumont was put over a castle built in Warwick, they gave in and were pardoned. Edgar Aetheling, with his mother and two sisters, left for Scotland, where Malcolm Canmore reigned. (He married one of the sisters, Margaret, in 1069-70. A very influential woman, she was later canonized; three of her sons became successive kings of Scotland, and her daughter Edith married Henry I in 1100.) William built a castle at Nottingham, which he entrusted to William Peverel, then he took York, where another castle was raised. Aethelwine, bishop of Durham, persuaded Malcolm not to intervene. The county of Durham, now or soon after, was put under the Flemish count of Comines.

  On his way south William built castles at Lincoln, Huntingdon and Cambridge. We can gauge the morale of the Normans in England at this time by Orderic’s tale that their wives in Normandy, afraid to venture into England, clamoured for the men’s return. William replied by granting the discontented soldiers rich fiefs, with promises of more when England was subjugated. But there were some grave defections, including, it seems, Hugh of Grandmesnil, a Hastings fighter, who had been put over the Winchester area. William got together more mercenaries, with increased promises of reward. Early in 1069 Roger de Comines marched on Durham. He ignored warnings, was enclosed in the town, and burned in Aethelwine’s house. A York castellan was also killed. Edgar moved in from Scotland, with rebels flocking to join him. Welcomed at York, he attacked the castles. But before Easter William drove him out, executed many, gave the city up to loot, and put William fitzOsbern over it. Gospatrick resumed the earldom. In the summer Harold’s sons were beaten off from north Devon by Brian of Brittany. Small revolts went on all over the west. Men from Dorset and Somerset assailed Robert of Mortain’s castle at Montacute, but were put down by Geoffrey bishop of Coutances. On the Welsh borders there were uprisings. Men from Chester were helped by the Welsh in an attack on Shrewsbury, where the burgesses joined them together with men from Shropshire and Eadric the Wild. Exeter was attacked by rebels from Devon and Cornwall, but this time the citizens resisted. William had returned to Winchester by Easter; fitzOsbern and Brian, sent to quieten down the situation, found Shrewsbury burned out and deserted, but they routed the besiegers of Exeter. We may note that Orderic rated the value of the castle for defence highly and considered that the English suffered much from lacking them: ‘For the fortifications called castles by the Normans were scarcely known to English provinces; and so the English, in spite of their courage and love of fighting, could put up only a weak resistance to their enemies.’

  Now at last came the Danish challenge, from Sweyn Estrithson, son of Cnut’s sister, cousin of Harold and Queen Edith, claiming that Edward had left him the throne. He got together a large force, not much smaller than that of William in 1066, comprising volunteers from Poland, Frisia, Saxony and Leuticia (probably Lausitz). His brother Osbern (expelled from England in 1049) and two of his sons commanded the fleet, said to number 300 (or 240) ships. They ravaged the coast from Kent northwards, till they anchored off the Humber. Yorkshire again rose. Edgar arrived to join the fleet, with Gospatrick and other nobles. The army of Danes and English took York with its castles on 20 September, and killed or captured the garrison. The city was again on fire. Ealdred died during the struggle. William had a dangerous situation to face, as the south-west was in revolt again and Eadric the Wild struck from Wales into Staffordshire and Cheshire.

  But the northern combination did not hold together. If it had the story of the Normans in England might have had a different ending; for a strong stand would have badly weakened William and stimulated further risings, with the Scots joining in. Edgar retreated back into Scotland, and Osbern withdrew to the Isle of Asholme in Lindsey. When William arrived, the Danes, thinking more of their loot than their cause, moved off to their ships. William left the counts of Mortain and Eu to watch them, and marched west to deal with Staffordshire while the south-west rebels were h
eld up at Exeter. Again the bishop of Coutances dealt with them. He took the risk of removing most of his troops from the south-east and reduced Somerset and Dorset. William was returning to the east coast when he heard that the Danes were moving north again. So he turned north himself. Once more he tried the tactic of devastation. Instead of making a direct attack, he hovered round in a semi-circle, laying waste, burning, murdering, looting. The Danes went back to their ships and were bribed to sail away. William then felt it safe to enter York where amid terrible slaughter he celebrated Christmas, ordering his full coronation regalia to be sent up. He decided to smash the north once and for all. In January 1070 he rode onwards to the Tees, destroying everything as he went. Two of the chief English leaders, Waltheof and Gospatrick submitted. He pushed on to Hexham on the Tyne, then returned to York. Despite the sharp winter weather he crossed the Pennines, while mercenaries from Brittany, Anjou and Maine mutinied and left him. Still, he reached Chester with enough men to build a castle and lay waste Mercia. All the while he tried to hearten his men with promises of the great rewards they would get in land and money if they stayed with him. At Salisbury, before Easter, he paid off his soldiers, who included Englishmen, but bade the mutineers be kept under arms for forty days more in punishment.

  The destruction in the north was ghastly. On his march to York everyone, man or boy, had been slaughtered. After that he broke his forces up into small bands with orders to destroy everyone and everything of use to man. Fugitives were hunted down. Houses, crops, cattle and implements were all burned. Between York and Durham a whole generation was eliminated; in 1086 York was still largely deserted. Though the devastation was less complete in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire, it was severe enough to ensure that no one there would think of resistance for a long time. Simeon of Durham, writing some fifty years later, recalled the days of cannibalism, of highways littered with rotting corpses, of starvation and pestilence following in the wake of the butchery. Even Norman chroniclers had to admit that there had been ‘an act which levelled both the bad and the good in a common ruin’. (And yet, to see the devastation in perspective, we must recall how cruel the men of the north themselves could be. In 1065 the Northumbrians who had risen. against Tostig wrought much havoc round Northampton while waiting for the king’s answer to their demands: ‘They killed people and burned houses and corn and took all the cattle they could get...and captured many hundreds of people and took them north with them, so that the shire and other neighbouring shires were the worse for it for many years.’) To meet the heavy demands on his finances, William is said in February to have plundered all the monasteries; in such a situation rents and taxes must have been hard to collect.