1066 Despite winning the Battle of Hastings, William had not definitely won the country. Remaining English magnates elected Edgar the Aetheling as king and prepared to resist. William, with a significantly weakened army, refrained from a full frontal assault on London and instead his army circled London, pillaging, burning and stripping the surrounding country of supplies, thus denying it to London. He also secured the royal treasury from Winchester at this time. Eventually the magnates in London submitted, starting with Archbishop Stigand. William build a castle and had Archbishop of York Ealdred crown him (Stigand was not approved of by the Pope due to his pluralism).

1067 – Start and Middle To cement his position in England William seems to have attempted to create an Anglo-Norman state, promising reward to those that collaborated with the Normans. Waltheof, by then earl of Northhampton and son of the old Northumbrian earl Siward, was married to William’s niece Judith. William seems also to have promised the hand of one of his daughters to earl Edwin. One reason why William was able to receive the Papal banner for his invasion was probably because of the pluralism of Archbishop Stigand, however William recognised that he needed some important English magnates on his side if the kingdom were to be won and he controversially allowed Stigand to remain as Archbishop of Canterbury and Winchester at the same time.

1067 – End William felt secure enough to head back to Normandy, leaving William fitzOsbern (now Earl of Hereford), William’s former guardian, and Bishop Odo (now Earl of Kent), William’s half-brother, as regents. William takes Edwin, Morcar, Stigand and Edgar the Aetheling with him to Normandy as he paraded through his old Dukedom of Normandy. It could be that William wanted to show how powerful and mighty he was to have such influential Englishmen in his possession or, more likely, that he wanted to take any potential rebel leaders out of the country whilst he was absent. The city of Exeter, with Harold Godwinson’s mother Gytha, revolt against the Normans at this time. Also, Eustace of Bologne invades, probably encouraged by the population of Kent and frustrated at not being richly rewarded for fighting with William at Hastings. Eustace is easily beaten off by the Normans and the population fails to rise in support of Eustace.

1067 – End Also, before William can return, an English thegn called Eadric the Wild attacked Hereford alongside some Welsh allies, including Prince Gwynedd. They ravaged the countryside but could not take the castle so they retreated to Wales. William returned in December and set immediately to besieging Exeter. Warfare in northern France often involved sieges so the Normans were experienced and Exeter held out for 18 days. During this time William had hostages mutilated and hung up for the defenders on the wall to see. William, possible in an attempt to show that the English could live happily under him, sets Exeter lenient terms, builds a castle, installs a loyal Norman (Baldwin) as castle guardian and moves on.

Start Harold Godwinson’s sons, who had been living in exile in Ireland, raid the English coast. They were driven off by a English thegn called Eadnoth who eventually died in battle with the Godwinson brothers. This shows that some English thegns were very willing to collaborate with William, but also Harold’s sons had not made themselves popular with their raiding so English resistance is quite understandable. William brought his wife Matilda to England for the first time to be crowned in However in the north, trouble is brewing. Copsig (Tostig’s old deputy) had been put in charge of Northumbria but was quickly murdered by the Northumbrians who probably remembered the rule of Tostig. A man named Gospatric appears to have bought the earldom from William (who was well known for his avarice) but in 1068 Gospatric joined Eadgar the Aetheling and Edwin and Morcar in the first of a series of northern rebellions.

1068 – Middle and End William marched with his army to meet the northern rebels, stopping to build a castles such as one in the Mercian city of Warwick which cut Edwin and Morcar from the north and compelled them to submit to William once again. They were forgiven. As news of William’s march reached the rebels, they melted away. A clear indication of the northern intention to resist through the use of Fabian tactics. Gospatric and Edgar the Aetheling fled to Scotland to the court of King Malcolm. William ordered a castle to be built in York, installed the first ever Norman earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines, and headed south, building more castles such as at Lincoln and Cambridge. The dye was cast: William would attempt to control through the use of castles as strongpoints. Rebels would resist but would avoid pitched battles, melting away when a major army came near.

Start Robert de Comines proved to be a rapacious and harsh Earl of Northumbria and, in typical Northumbrian style, the inhabitants rebelled, forced Comines to take refuge in Bishop of Durham Aethelwine’s house and then set the house on fire, killing Comines and all his men. The rebels then moved south to take York, successfully assaulting the castle. Edgar and Gospatric quickly travelled from Scotland to join the rebellion but again William moved north quickly, killing the rebels or forcing them to flee.

1069 –End This period saw potentially William’s greatest threat during his rule. For the third time the north rebels. This time Edgar the Aetheling sought the support of King Sweyn of Denmark who sent his brother Osbjorn, two of his sons and an army to assist. This time Waltheof, son of the old earl of Northumbria Sweyn, decided to abandon the Normans and join the rebels, he is said to have cut off the heads of many of the Norman defenders. The rebels assaulted York, successfully taking castle and killing the Normans there. As before William rushed north, no doubt frustrated and furious, as before the rebels retreated before him although this time they fought some small skirmishes, and as before William was left in control of York but had not decisively defeated the rebels. The Danish army had retreated close to their ships in the Humber, William chose to pay them to go away rather than fight the Danes and the Danes gladly accepted, seeing that their plight was hopeless.

1069 –End and 1070 HARRYING OF THE NORTH William decided that, after three rushed marches northward to deal with rebllion in the space of just 18 months, the problem of the north had to be dealt with once and for all. He decided to decimate the north, kill livestock, burn crops, burn villages and kill any people they find. Oderic Vitalis, writing in the 12 th century stated that ‘100,000’ people perished of starvation. I have often praised William in this book, but I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter. God will punish him.’ But the north never again rebelled against William. Waltheof was forgiven for his part in the rebellion.

Spring 1070 King Sweyn of Denmark, probably unhappy with the performance of his brother and sons, set sail to England himself and began raiding the coast. He eventually joined with Hereward the Wake, a rebellious earl who had a base on the Isle of Ely in East Anglia. Together they raided Peterborough Cathedral and then, probably realising that taking England wouldn’t be as easy as it had been in the past, Sweyn took his bounty and sailed away. Meanwhile William met with 3 papal legates and started to reform the English church, finally removing Stigand. Lanfranc became Archbishop of Canterbury and Thomas of Bayeux Archbishop of York, with both men being Norman it showed that by this point William no longer felt that he needed the existing English ecclesiastical magnates.

1071 By 1071 Edwin and Morcar appear to have realised that collaboration with William has landed them with no real power and so they decided to rebel once again. Morcar went to join Hereward the Wake and Edwin set off for Scotland but was murdered for an unknown reason by his followers on the way. Hereward and Morcar together were a threat to William and so he set off to deal with yet another rebellion. William’s army laid siege to the Isle of Ely, apparently being thwarted by the boggy marshes of the fenlands. Eventually William was able to overcome the problems of the siege (possibly by building a causeway but probably with a joint land and naval assault), Hereward fled and Morcar was captured, sent to Normandy and imprisoned.

1071/2 William decided that he must deal with the problem of Scotland as it had provided sanctuary for rebels and King Malcolm was known to have raided into Northumbria often. Edgar the Aetheling was still in Scotland. Malcolm saw the wisdom of not meeting William in battle and agreed to submit to William, probably giving his son as a hostage. Malcolm also expelled Edgar from Scotland at William’s request.

1075 The Revolt of Earls For the first and only time William faced rebellion from earls that were not English (except Waltheof). William’s refusal to sanction marriage of Ralph de Gauder earl of East Anglia and Emma, daughted of William fitzOsbern. Roger de Breteuil now also revolted but it soon turned to disaster as Waltheof (son of former earl of Northumbria Siward) confessed to Archbishop Lanfranc. Lanfranc told William and excommunicated the rebels. Roger was held by and army of the Worcestershire Fyrd led by the English bishop Wulfstan. Bishop Odo and Geoffrey de Montbray forced Ralph’s army to flight and Ralph fled to Denmark, returning briefly with Danish reinforcements but he failed to do anything significant. Ralph was stripped of his lands. Roger was imprisoned. Waltheof was beheaded.

King Malcolm of Scotland raided into Northumbria, probably having heard of some trouble William was having with his son Robert in Normandy. The lack of protection they were given in the face of the Scottish raids seems to have angered the Northumbrians to rise against the Normans but this was quickly put down when William sent Bishop Odo with an army. Odo also invaded Scotland, forcing Malcolm to again come to terms. Strangely in 1082 Bishop Odo was arrested and imprisoned, possibly due to an attempt to encourage some Norman barons to support him in his quest to become Pope. In 1085 William commissioned the Domesday book, probably to keep track of who owned the land, to finalise any existing land disputes and to serve as a justification for increased taxation.

1087 William died leaving his son William in charge of England and his son Robert in charge of Normandy. Afterwards there was a war between William the Conqueror’s sons for control of England and Normandy.