A Brief History Of William The Conqueror - William I Of England

today on brief history we look at one of the most well-known respected feared and loathed english monarchs remembered in history embattled and contested throughout his entire kingship in dukedom this man would adapt overcome conquer and slaughter to reserve a space in history that few could parallel join me as i take a brief look at william the first of england or as you may know him the conqueror [Music] william was born sometime around 10 27 at chateau de velez in normandy france he was the son of robert the first duke of normandy who was known as the magnificent at the time of robert's succession tensions ran high amidst the noble's enormity due to assertions that robert had killed his older brother richard for control of the duchy however by 1031 robert had gained support from a majority of nobles to garner a certain degree of peace in the area it is said that robert had many mistresses one of which was a woman named erleva she was the daughter of fulbert of fallace which historians have concluded was a local tanner erleva carried on an affair with robert and soon gave birth to william out of wedlock at that time he was referred to as william the bastard due to his illegitimate birth a far less appealing nickname than his future title [Music] erlevo would later go on to marry erlon de conville with which she had two sons william's half-brothers odo and robert in 1034 william's father robert decided on a pilgrimage to jerusalem with the intent to return in time but died in the greek city of nicaea modern-day iznik turkey on his return trip to normandy however before robert departed on his journey he had his supporters swear fealty to william as the successor to the duchy with robert's untimely death william was forced into a nefarious situation as he was only approximately eight years old when he became the duke of normandy this made him a target for power grabs with nobles wanting control of the young duke and the duchy he did however have strong allies his great uncle robert was the archbishop of ruan and a staunch ally along with king henry the first of france who although was a fervent ally of williams and his youth will go on to oppose him once william's power becomes apparent unfortunately his great uncle died in 1037 and with him died one of william's main supporters quickly the battle for control of the young duke ensued over the course of time william had multiple regents and guardians many of which died mysteriously or were outright killed due to their position one of which was allegedly killed in william's bedchamber as william slept through the night although the barons fought for control they still acknowledged william as the heir to the dukedom and he continued to have support from king henry the first of france however anti-william sentiment began to arise and in 1046 a rebellion was formed led by william's cousin and childhood friend gee of burgundy william initially escaped and sought refuge with king henry the first but returned to normandy in 1047 to defeat the rebellion with the assistance of henry gee and the rebels were defeated at the battle of valedun near khan after which he retreated to his castle at bryon which was besieged by william gee was eventually exiled in 1050 and william and king henry would then turn their attention to jeffrey martell the count of anju as jeffrey had attempted to seize control of the county of maine after the death of hugh iv of maine instead in a twist of power william would be the one to seize the majority of control over the county of maine after he and henry were able to drive jeffrey out of the county unfortunately many thought this gave william exceedingly too much power including many of williams nobles it was at this time that many of his nobles turned on him within his duchy this was also the time that king henry became weary of william's power and decided to partner with his previous adversary jeffrey of anju to contest williams growing power they along with the norman rebels led a double invasion of normandy in an attempt to reign in william's ever-growing power the invasions were beaten back by william and his supporters after they defeated one of the invasion forces at the battle of mortimer in 1054 further cementing williams growing power in the region although henry and jeffrey continue to contest williams power for the next six years through a series of separate invasions and seizures their deaths both in 1060 reinforced the shift in the balance of power to william who is now a battle-hardened warrior and power-hungry duke [Music] by the time william had consolidated his power in 1060 following the deaths of jeffrey and henry he had been married to his wife matilda flanders for approximately 10 years as they had married in the early 1050s matilda was the daughter of baldwin v the incredibly powerful count of flanders this alliance would become crucial as baldwin would become the co-regent to the seven-year-old heir to henry's throne philip the first after securing his western border with brittany via an invasion and gaining remaining control of the county of maine via his son robert's marriage to margaret of maine he turned his attention across the channel to the english throne with the understanding that the young king would not continue henry's campaign against him due to baldwin's influence the english king at the time was edward the confessor who was childless and in old age william was familiar with edward due to the fact that his father robert supported edward during his exile when viking claimants held the throne in england edward spent much of his exile in normandy and it was alleged that edward designated william to be the successor to the english throne this is plausible due to the fact that william was the grandson of edward's maternal uncle richard ii of normandy however upon edward's ascension to the throne and subsequent death things would not pan out as william had expected [Music] one of the most powerful barons in england at the time was godwin earl of wessex who gained his power under danish king knuth the great godwin became a supporter of edward the confessor's claim to the throne culminating in edward marrying godwin's daughter edith in 1043. however the relationship between edward and godwin turned in 1051 and godwin was exiled by edward this was mainly orchestrated by the conniving robert of jumiez the archbishop of canterbury it was at this time that edward allegedly offered the throne to william godwin gained support and forcefully returned from exile in 1052 reaching an agreement with king edward to have his lands and titles reinstated however robert of jumiej fled the country and took one of godwin's sons and nephews as hostages to hand over to william who he sought refuge with godwin died in 1053 and his son harold succeeded him as the earl of wessex godwin also had other sons that gained earldoms between 1053 and 1057 including his son tostik who became the earl of northumbria in 1055 and would play a crucial role in william's ascension to the english throne harold's power in england continued to grow with harold's victory over welsh raiders in the west of the country harold decided to make a diplomatic trip to normandy to try and secure his prisoner brother and cousin from william but the trip soon turned into a disaster he was blown off course by unfavorable winds and was shipwrecked off the coast of normandy williams nobles captured harold and he was brought before william william kept him as a quasi-royal guest and quasi prisoner it is believed that harold was not aware of edward's offer to william to be the heir at the time of his trip it is said that harold went with william on his campaign in brittany and that william made harold swear to honor his bid to become the king of england over holy relics in order for harold to be granted passage back to england [Music] harold did so but under duress and had no intention of keeping his oath when the alien king edward was on his deathbed he nominated harold to be a successor to the throne in january 1066. at that time the english throne was not inherited but instead the king was elected by a group of noblemen known as the witton upon his nomination as heir and subsequent election harold was crowned king in westminster abbey a short time later william was furious when word of herald's coronation reached him in william's mind there was no doubt this was a usurpation and william would begin preparations to take the throne from herald by force however harold was a battle-hardened warrior and a powerful leader who knew all too well that william would be crossing the channel to contest his kingship he knew he had the upper hand as william would have to land his men before a battle could take place with that in mind he started preparations to gain support to defend his position and set the stage for a battle whose reverberations would be felt for hundreds of years [Music] in 1065 the nobles of northumbria rebelled against harold's brother tostic in favor of morkar who was the younger brother of the earl of mercia edwin due to the fact that harold was aware that he needed the support of edwin morkar in his bid for the throne he sided with the rebels convincing king edward to replace his brother with morkar tostig escaped to flanders with his wife judith who was the half-sister of baldwin v of flanders however tostig would not go away quietly he attempted an invasion with the assistance of baldwin having intentions of regaining the lands and titles taken from him however he was not able to muster much support and he retreated to the north of the country meanwhile william was amassing his army and building his fleet at the river div to sail across the channel and confront harold he also obtained a papal banner and consent from pope alexander ii for the invasion based on harold's oath over the holy relics and was said to have even carried the relics into battle by august williams army was ready to sail however unfavorable winds kept him in normandy until september with some of his ships being driven up the channel he regrouped his fleet at some valerie on the song this delay was costly but proved beneficial to him in the end tossing had contacted harold hadrada king of norway and helped convince him to pursue his claim to the english throne hadrada was the heir of king magnus the first who made a pact with harthekanut in 1040 who held the english throne during edward's exile the pack stated that if either magnus or harthik newt died without an heir the other would inherit the kingdom of the deceased with tossing by his side he raised an army and sailed to northumbria in september 1066 they were able to defeat tossing's replacement morkar and his brother edwin at the battle of fulford near york with this news harold marched his army north to meet his traitorous brother and the viking invader he encountered them at stamford bridge on september 25th 1066. tostig and hedrata were defeated both being killed in battle but harold took heavy casualties a couple days later the winds would finally be in william's favor and he with his army would sail to england landing at pevensey bay on september 28 1066. william moved to the east near the town of hastings where he began to set up his base of operations harold began to march his battle-weary troops back south and word of williams landing reached him during his return trip by october 13th he had reached the edge of the force near hastings and camped approximately 13 kilometers eight miles from where william's base was in hastings the next day october 14th the battle commenced at 9 00 a.m harold attempted to surprise william but william scouts notified him of the approaching anglo-saxon army it is believed that harold set up a defensive position between caldweck hill and talum hill often referred to as cenlak hill near the modern day town of battle in east sussex williams archers opened the battle with little effect with william subsequently sending his spearmen forward who were also not able to break the english line william then sent his cavalry into action which also failed to have the effect william desired his left flank which was manned by volunteers from brittany acquired during the previous campaign against brittany broke and began to retreat at this time word began to flow through william's ranks that he had been killed adding to the retreat some of the english army began to pursue the fleeing normans thinking a route was at hand it was at this time that william famously tore off his helmet and rode through his troops showing his face and rallying them to turn and re-engage the enemy the smaller group of pursuing english forces were engaged and quickly obliterated [Music] it is said that william had his men feigned retreat at least twice in the battle a tactic which had been used by the normans before this had the desired effect of causing english warriors to pursue only to be counter-attacked and destroyed eventually the battle began to sway in william's favor harold having already lost two of his brothers girth and left-wind in battle was allegedly killed with an arrow to the eye thus leaving the english forces without their leader without their king many soldiers gave up and decided to flee with pursuit being given by the normans thus ending the battle of hastings after the battle concluded the victorious williams showed a small glimpse of the savagery he would impose on the english throughout his kingship it was said that harold's mother offered her son's weight in gold for the return of the body but william refused instead harold's body was mutilated with his head and one leg cut off along with the majority of the other it is widely accepted that he was buried in bosom church near the coast with which he had strong ties to much of the remaining english battlefield dead were stripped naked and left on the battlefield it was expected that the english aristocracy would capitulate to william after his defeat of herald at hastings instead the whitton attempted to elect edgar etheling the teenage boy and grandson of english king edmund ironside who was the king deposed by the viking claimants prior to ed with their confessors kingship edgar was nominated but never crowned william slowly made his way to london capturing the royal treasury at winchester along the way he arrived at london in december at which point edgar etheling and the witton submitted to william he was crowned at westminster abbey on christmas day 1066. [Music] although william had defeated harold's army and ultimately commanded control of the nobles he knew that a small group of non-english-speaking normans could not run the country efficiently on their own many english nobles retain their lands in titles did however replace a large majority of them with norman aristocrats which included his half-brother odo who was the bishop of bayou and william fitz osborne who was the son of one of williams guardians who had been killed protecting william in his childhood in the same vein church positions were almost exclusively norman and religion throughout the country was heavily normanized he left odo and fitzosburn in charge of the country for a short time as he returned to normandy eventually discontent began to grow and rebellions seemed to continuously arise which included prominent figures such as edgar etheling morkar and edwin william took on a system of castle building to maintain a hold on the area and to keep a physical reminder in the eyes of the population of who was truly in charge of the country many of these castles still exist in the modern day including the white tower which would eventually become the inner hall of the tower of london at this time the northern part of the country would become a problem for william the broad term of english is not quite accurate in describing the population as the different parts of the country were very different culturally [Music] much of the north was settled by and held loyalty towards scandinavia as opposed to the saxons settled south the southern anglo-saxon kings historically exerted little control over the anglo-scandinavian north during their reigns however william had no intention of continuing this tradition and anger began to fester within william with regards to the north [Music] much of the resistance was based around edgar etheling who had submitted to william before his coronation in december edgar's supporters killed northern earls loyal to william and replaced them with rebels edgar also contacted swain ii of denmark for assistance swain sailed with the fleet to the north of england and he and edgar raided the coast and took the city of york at that point william decided to personally intervene and his rage toward the area would lead to one of the cruelest occurrences attributed to william during his reign in england after william reached york in the winter of 1069 edgar's army had fled with edgar seeking sanctuary with his sister in scotland who was married to king malcolm iii the danish army camped near their ships for the winter william negotiated with them and paid them off to return to denmark without a fight which they did he then turned his attention to the english rebels due to the fact that the rebels were not willing to stand and fight him in battle he turned to a policy of destruction and scorched earth in a sequence of events known today as the harrying of the north many innocent people were slain and all crops livestock food reserves and tools were destroyed his army destroyed settlements and massacred populations since all food reserves were destroyed along with any other means of sustenance famine was widespread with some survivors turning to cannibalism it is estimated that 75 of the population was killed died of starvation or left the area never to return it was said that on william's deathbed he expressed repentance for the suffering he had caused in the north during this time rebellions continued both in england and normandy swain of denmark returned and was defeated in 1070 edwin and morkar were defeated with edwin being killed and morkar imprisoned malcolm iii of scotland invaded the north of the country and was defeated and forced to remove edgar etheling from his court in 1072 deaths on the continent led him to lose allies in flanders and france and revolts arose in maine ancho in brittany three powerful earls in england led the revolt of the earls which was mostly defeated by williams allies he also started to have issues within his family structure his son robert grew angry due to his lack of power bestowed upon him and rebelled with the assistance of philip the first of france and other leaders who opposed william william was actually defeated at ge bergois where he was besieging robert it was during this battle that he was famously unhorsed by robert but was not killed robert and william would eventually reconcile for a short time and robert assisted william in putting down a scottish raid in the north in 1080 [Music] william then arrested and imprisoned his half-brother odo due to his desire to invade southern italy without williams consent and his wife matilda of flanders with whom he was very close to died in 1083 robert again rebelled with the assistance of the french king around the same time and although he remained as king and duke the weight of the crown was substantial [Music] around the end of 1086 william returned to normandy robert was still in rebellion and william led a campaign against him during this time he was said to have been injured by the pommel of his saddle and fell ill on his deathbed he did his best to reconcile and sort out his affairs he gave gifts to the church and the poor he had his brother odo released from prison and he designated his son robert as the heir to the norman his second surviving and favorite son william rufus he willed to become the king of england with his third surviving son henry receiving monetary compensation on september 9th 1087 william died in the priory of sanja vase in rueong it is said that all in attendance abandoned the body where it laid and his body was stripped of all possessions eventually he was moved to khan where he had requested to be laid to rest neither robert nor william rufus attended the funeral only his youngest son henry attended it is said that the ceremony was interrupted by a local citizen who claimed that william has stolen his land for the construction of the church without compensation this was determined to be true and the man was compensated for his lost land continuing with the already odd ceremony william's bloated body did not fit into the tomb as the bearers attempted to force the body into the tomb it burst releasing a foul odor throughout the church causing those in attendance to draw back this would however not end up being the final indignity for william his grave was desecrated many times over the centuries during the french wars of religion and french revolution with all of his bones being destroyed or lost currently his memorial exists in the abejosam in khan where he was initially buried william's life left an astounding impact on the world whether you view him as a foreign invader or the rifle heir to the kingship his life sent ripples throughout time influencing people's day-to-day lives up to current day a perfect example of this is the english language itself with the sudden and absolute takeover of the country by foreign french-speaking conquerors and subsequent domination of the church and nobles the english language morphed throughout history being strongly influenced by french after conquest [Music] there are incredibly also physical relics that still exist from his time as king including the bayou tapestry which is actually an embroidered cloth made in england but was commissioned a couple years after william's victory at hastings and shows the events leading up to and including the battle of hastings the doomsday book which was commissioned by william near the end of his life to account for all the land holdings in his possession and the assets and people they contained and lastly his castles which still dot the english countryside a concrete reminder of his power and legacy we know that his life is not without criticism his brutal mistreatment of the north and warlord mentality have led some to believe william to be less a king and more a genocidal power-hungry monster but he was a product of his situation in times walking a dangerous line for the entirety of his life many a time could he have made a wrong decision that cost him his life but with wit military cunning political talent and luck he remained at the pinnacle until his final breath and for this he will forever be remembered not just as a king but as a conqueror [Music] you

Channel: Brief History

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Keywords: William the conqueror, Brief History, William I of England

Id: NQ8HBJhYnb0

Length: 26min 20sec (1580 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021