How The Normans Ruthlessly Conquered The Anglo-Saxons | History Of Warfare | Chronicle

this channel is part of the history hit Network [Music] in the year 1066 King Harold of England was killed with the Battle of Hastings with him till the house of goblin on the line of Saxon kings came to an end within two months on Christmas day of that year William the bastard of Normandy was found in Westminster only then having won his crown did the new king unleash upon the land with a crushing force of his ruthless ambition and truly became a conqueror [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh foreign [Music] 's defeat at the Battle of Hastings was a shock to the surviving Saxon leaders but because of the nature of English society at that time it did not result in either immediate or effective resistance from them at this time 11th century England was like most contemporary European countries a feudal society in the aftermath of their defeat many local officials and Nobles were eager to make personal bonds at peace with a conqueror as they had with the Saxon King had gone before him even stigant the Archbishop of the Canterbury attempted to make an immediate pact with William stegan had been appointed by Harold while his predecessor on Norman still lived his name had as a result been vilified by successive popes it was partly because of him that the Norman Invasion Fleet had sailed with a special Banner blessed by the pontiff while a new king crossed the Thames at Wallingford stegan submitted to him hoping to retain his office he was disappointed easy-going attitude towards political life may also been responsible for the behavior of King Harold's Northern allies Edwin and morkar the Earls of Mercia and northumbria for reasons still unknown these Nobles have been too slow to turn South in aid of their King at Hastings after Huddle's death they were content at least at first to return to the earldoms believing that the new king would rule in the same way as the old for the most part they had always enjoyed independence from the Wessex based King until no reason why things should change sharing this simple belief based on centuries of tradition most of the south of England gave itself up to William Winchester the capital of Wessex submitted without a fight and when he had burnt and pillaged enough of the surrounding Villages the burgers of London dismissed Edgar ethling's vein Proclamation as king and sent word to William inviting him to his own coronation at Westminster by the evening of October the 16th 1066 King of the English Harold godwinson his brothers other members of the royal family and a large number of the elite of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy lay dead on the field of Hastings but William's position was far from secure he had troubles in Normandy he had a Restless country which he needed to rivet his rule on as quickly as possible he took his army from Hastings into Kent where he remained waiting for the submission of the Anglo-Saxon nobility the Anglo-Saxon Nobles headed by Earl's Edwin and Moka and Archbishop stigand of Canterbury were in The Dilemma the king had been defeated their army crushed and yet the only legitimate heir to the West Saxon Throne was a boy Edgar only a few years old completely unsuited to taking the realm of power at this difficult time there was a split decision as to whether to push Edgar forward as king but finally they realized that they must submit to William to speed their decision William decided to lay waste part of the home counties in a great harrying March he encircled London part of his troops set far to Suffolk and finally the leaders of the Anglo-Saxons came to William according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at birkenstead and says the chronicle they bowed down to him that they swore to be his loyal men and in return William swore to be a gracious liege Lord to them this I think is the key point that William stepping into the shoes of an Anglo-Saxon King Anglo-Saxon government relied on a strong Monarch that had tradition of monarchy for hundreds of years William claimed to be the legitimate Kinsmen and successor to Edward the Confessor Norman propaganda was to make out that Harold was a usurper and promising to be if you like the legitimate heir to Edward William was trying to set himself up as king and to take on board both the Loyalty of the Anglo-Saxons and the administrative machine that would help him rule this was symbolized on Christmas Day 1066 when William was crowned by Archbishop Aldridge of York stick and was present and the Norman Bishops as well it symbolized a plea for both a status quo of continuity and it proclaimed Williams legitimacy history hit his like Netflix just for history fans with exclusive history documentaries covering some of the most famous people and events in history just for you with familiar faces such as Dan Jones and Dr Eleanor janega we've got hundreds of documentaries covering the greatest figures and events of medieval history we're committed to Bringing history fans award-winning documentaries and podcasts that you cannot find anywhere else sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50 off their first three months just be sure to use the code Chronicle at but William was not a man to plod in the footsteps of tradition William who was known to his contemporaries first as the bastard then as the great was the illegitimate son of Robert the devil Duke of Normandy he was born in 1027 and after the death of his father while returning from a pilgrimage to Palestine he became a child ruler in one of the most warlite and turbulent regions of Europe in the face of intrigue and attempted assassinations William grew up to become the greatest and most respected of Norman leaders he was a giant of a man of great strength and bravery that is also ruthless and easily moved to acts of great cruelty when Once in a local French Skirmish his enemies had mocked his low birth about which he was forever sensitive he had his prisoners suddenly mutilated in Revenge with her eyes torn out and their hands and feet cut off they were flung among their quickly silenced friends William was not a man to accept the slightest form of independence from his rule or tolerate even a suspicion of treason even during his coronation as the king of England Williams men were pursuing alleged traitors outside the Abbey by setting fire to local houses all it was said but William himself and the officiating clergy ran out to take part in the routing of what turned out to be imagined traitors during the tarnation ceremony at the Norman troops stationed outside hearing the people within Acclaim William as king mistook the shouting for a riot and set fire to Westminster following 1066 Williams task was clear he somehow had to rivet Norman control on a country that was in a state of political flux he also had to watch his back in Normandy and one of the first things he does in 1067 is to go on a triumphal progress back to the duchy leaving Key lieutenants in charge of castles such as Dover Hastings pevensey but he takes with him the leading Anglo-Saxon magnets virtually as political hostages and we have an account from a Norman chronicler who says that in rural the Normans Marvel to see these prisoners brought with their long hair their wonderful clothes fabulously adorned filigree work of their Saxon ornaments this was a triumphal progress but William couldn't remain in Normandy very long he distributed gifts made sure that his control of the duchy was Secure against his French enemies against the count of bonjour the king of France counter Flanders and then quickly returned to re-establish his authority William was careful to argue and establish in the eyes of the church that his was a lawful and true succession to the throne but already the brutal reality of his tyrannical methods had become evident many English Nobles had abandoned their opportunity to unite in opposition to the invader their expectations of keeping their lands therefore was high now they felt a slap of Norman Justice on the grounds that they had acknowledged King Harold as usurper King in William's rightful place Saxon possessions were deemed forfeit the Estates of Saxon Lords were confiscated by the crown as realization dawned in the land but the relatively easy days of old might disappear forever the Saxon population turned too late her thoughts of serious resistance a Normans met their challenge head on although the Norman spoke French and lived in what we now call France they will actually breed apart the name Normandy meant land of the northmen and the Normans were in fact direct descendants of the Vikings they retained both the traditions of seafaring adventure and a Fierce war-like Attitude to life they brought this zealous quality to all they did above all this included their religion no longer worshipers of the Norse gods but Normans were fanatical Christians they were also at this time among the best soldiers Craftsmen administrators and artists in Europe whatever they could they developed the Arts and Crafts they practiced and became both accomplished Architects and expert Horsemen they also excelled in all forms of hunting which was apart from being great sport one more way of refining their military skills and weaponry one of the key Norman weapons was their cavalry at Hastings it was a combination of archers and these mounted Warriors that finally defeated the shield wall of Harold and the Anglo-Saxons at sunlight the Norman Cavalry were heavily equipped with hoboks of mail with long kite-shaped Shields with Lance and sword they rode superbly bred and trained war horses these horses are unafraid of the noise of battle were fighters in their own right we have a description of William's own horse trampling on people at Hastings the knights would ride knee to knee in a charge put in groups of three or four and they had great tactical flexibility the key weapon of the night was the Lance deployed in a shock tactic the Knight would couch his Lance under his arm bring his shield up for protection feet in Long stirrups high-backed saddle and together a group of Normans would charge with a great shock impetus whenever they struck a static line of Infantry one contemporary speaking about the Franks on the First Crusade said the charge of the Normans is irresistible it could bore its way through the walls of Babylon the Norman Knight was the tank of the 11th and 12th century and as Williams sent out this weapon to crush Rebellion wherever he saw or even imagined it he gave little warning and still less Mercy another Norman development was that of the quickly erected military fort from the moment William landed in England he began to build these huge circular mounds of Earth using the forced labor of Saxon peasants at the top of the mound or Mott a Timber Fortress was constructed in front of this was an outer Court called a Bailey which was protected by the earthworth enclosure where possible the mound was surrounded by a moat eventually the timber Fortress was replaced by Stone which later evolved into the distinctive Norman keep and Castle design castles a basic function was to protect a small group of Horsemen allowing them to Sally out and suppress the local Countryside remember that the Normans were always a very small minority maybe about ten thousand in the initial years of the conquest at most living amongst a hostile population it was imperative that they had these fortified bases what the Normans did they would build a castle Often by requisition Saxon labor it's a deep irony there that the Saxons are forced to build the very mechanisms of their own oppression but from that they use the cast as a springboard for further Conquest they would build a castle within let's say 15 miles of the next one the operating radius of Horsemen in a day's ride and then from that castle they would take a further area of territory consolidate with the castle and move on by the death of William the Conqueror in 1087 England was literally studded with castles probably by the year 1100 there are over a thousand modern Bailey castles in Britain many examples of Norman Castle stand to this day although some have been altered or rebuilt in intervening 800 years in the traditions of later periods their massive Earthworks remain as an indication of how important a weapon they were in 11th century Warfare these robust simple castle castle keeps were their distinctively heavy pillars and round-headed doors and windows are in some ways the most rudimentary of buildings they were after all constructed out of expediency rather nostentation Clifford's tire in York stands on an earth Mound which was raised under the supervision of the Conqueror himself although only part of your Castle the surviving Tower even now retains its domination over the surrounding town how much more psychologically imposing must such a building had been to the already defeated Saxons in military terms the Saxons had no real answer to the castle and several castles fell for example York in 1069 but this was because they were vulnerable because they made of wood but generally speaking a few men a handful of men could defend against several thousand people in a castle this was even more true when castles became built of Stone from the early years of the 12th century Stone Castle very difficult to attack unless you have sophisticated Siege weapons and effective the the native Saxons did not have these weapons Stone casters have a very few and far between they were extremely expensive to build and it's symbolic of William's power and Prestige that one of the first castles built of stone in England is the great Tower of London the White Tower which was his fortified Palace massive building that would have over awed London and it would have shown his great Prestige and power to the conquered people middleham Castle was built in about 1170 and in later years would become a stronghold of Richard III Pickering Castle not far from the east coast is a fine example of the Norman Mountain mote a Shell keep still stands on the mound along with a cross wall and a ditch which divides the castle into two courts part of the curtain wall also stands most romantic of all the remaining Norman castles must surely be connersburg Castle near Doncaster in South Yorkshire this still beautiful and impressive site is a setting for many of the events in Sir Walter Scott's Epic Novel Ivanhoe although it is believed to have been constructed within a hundred years of the Norman invasion circular keep with its six wedge-shaped buttresses is almost completely intact and the solid round Towers on the curtain wall which are among the earliest of their kind anywhere in England still stand the air of permanence which must have surrounded the Norman invasion was not a deception but such Castle survived to this day is testimony to the strength of their construction The Mont Bailey's Chief virtue was that it was cheap and easy to build one could be thrown up in a matter of weeks simply by digging ditches piling up the top soil and surrounding the top of the castle with a stout Palisade of Timber I think we shouldn't underestimate how sophisticated these buildings of Timber were we have archaeological excavations and literary descriptions which describe certainly the keep on the malts of some major castles as being very sophisticated pieces of carpentry often with several floors even with a kitchen in a wooden building which is Quite a feat of craftsmanship however they were vulnerable to Fire and as soon as Norman Lords could afford to they began to transform wooden castles into ones made out of stone this was however very gradual process Stone built Castle was phenomenally expensive only the greatest Lords could have a castle like Connor's prayer and well into the 12th century many minor Lords perhaps the tenants of a lord like Hamlin of Warren would still have been living in a modern Bailey castle made of Timber these mounted citadels were virtually impregnable once established they completely dominated the countryside around them and provided a perfect base for Norman soldiery connersburg Castle has been here in here over 800 years and this is one of the finest examples of Norman architecture it would have been probably whitewashed in its time to really recreate a symbol of power for the whole area it is the circular keep supported by six massive buttresses it's made of magnesium limestone and it's ashlar which means it's dress Stone and it's self-cleansing so that's why the outside looks practically as new today as it did 800 years ago when it was first built on the other hand inside the keep it was never meant to be exposed to the elements and this is the problem that we've had in the last 100 years because of the heavy industry of the area we've had the stones actually suffered from acid rain now and the obvious wind erosion which unfortunately has damaged a lot of the carvings inside the keep particularly in the chapel which will obviously be gone forever the reason why we've put the roof on now is to preserve what is left of the keep inside for future Generations and now we've actually added two floors which not only does it preserve The Monuments it adds now to the feeling that you're actually entering a real castle and it's recreates a total atmosphere of what it was like 800 years ago the building of such bases was always the first step in Williams extended campaign to suppress and punish the people of England wherever he smelled Rebellion in the Easter of this year the king came to Winchester in that year 1068 Easter was on the 23rd of March soon the lady Matilda came hither to this land and Archbishop Eldred consecrated her Queen in Westminster on which Sunday 1068 when the King was informed that the people in the North had gathered together and would oppose him if he came he marched on Nottingham and built a castle there and so on to York and they're built two castles and also in Lincoln and in many other places in that part of the country Earl Goss Patrick and the best men went into Scotland William raised a campaign in the southwest for two years establishing and fortifying his bases there this was essential in order for him to introduce the Norman system of rule there can be little doubt however that he was set on destroying the last remnants of the old Saxon House of Godwin which had been concentrated on these areas and the most efficient means at his disposal was a systematic pillage of the land at a time when merely to be Saxon could be construed as treachery many men died at the hands of the conquerors lawgivers death was often a punishment to be desired compared with some treatment out of those who in any way crossed the king some of them were blinded some of them were banished some were brought to shame so all the traitors to the king were laid low by 1068 William had firmly established his rule over the South in the north however although he was acknowledged King very little change had yet taken place in particular northumbria and Mercier under the Earl's Moka and Edwin remained as they had been under Harold in 1068 perhaps as a deliberate test of the loyalty and tolerance of these Northern Saxons William made a proclamation concerning the earldom of Northumberland King William gave Earl Robert the earldom of Northumberland the inhabitants opposed and slew him and 900 of his men Prince Edgar came to York with all the northumbrians and the citizens came to terms with him King William marred from the south with all his levees and ravaged the borough slaying many hundreds and the prince returned to Scotland although the rebellion was suppressed and the two Earls were pardoned the status quo in the North had been irreversible a year later as accusations of treachery flew across the stools this United Kingdom there was a second Rebellion this time it was made much more serious by the participation of the sons of the king of Denmark who invaded from East and the incursion of the Welsh who crossed offers Dyke in the west to challenge the land also the Malcolm III of Scotland chose to invade to northumbria 1069. in this year Bishop etherick of Peterborough was accused and he was sent to Westminster and his brother Bishop ethelwine was outlawed then between the two festivals of Saint Mary and the nativity the sons of Swain and his brother came from the east from Denmark with 300 ships then Earl walthyoc took the field and the prince Edgar and many hundreds of men came and joined those troops that were lying in the Humber and set out for York they landed and stormed the castle slaying many hundreds They carried off much treasure to their ships and made prisoners of the leading citizens and lay between the oohs and the Trent the whole winter King William marched into the Shire and completely devastated it so began Williams Great Northern campaign which was of a savagery and cruelty previously unknown even in the southern Heartland of the defeated King Harold in 1069 William conqueror faced the greatest threat to his rule so far a coalition of the king of Scots the king of Denmark who sent a fleet which entered the U's estuary a rising of the northern Earls outbreaks in Wales and the South countries William's response was short and brutal his army entered Yorkshire laying waste killing and burning whatever he could find crops were garnered together and systematically burnt plows instruments of agricultural production were destroyed in order to create an artificial famine those who escaped the Norman swords died of slow starvation chronicler records that the the streets and houses lay empty the fields littered with bodies and there was no one left alive to bury them between Durham and York King William's men destroyed all property they encountered and killed every man they could catch not one house remains standing not one man once discovered escaped even 17 years later hundreds of villagers remained uninhabited rooms the north and east ridings of Yorkshire were almost completely depopulated by the massacres the people of Durham receiving warning fled northwards but the homes horses and cattle they left behind were destroyed in desperation with nothing to return home to many of these dispossessed people sold themselves into slavery abroad and there was a vast infusion of refugees into Scotland this was the harrying of the North it was an act of inhumanity of biblical proportions an atrocity almost unequally yet the Act was of its time but the Normans were above all zealous Christians carrying the blessings of the pulp with them on their genocidal Rampage into the table North this harrying was successful they could quite simply be no more rebellions in the North after such a holocaust as a direct result of this shattering campaign the north ceased from that day on to be a separate domain in the past a North had been tied more firmly to the tributes and traditions of Scandinavia and the Dane law under the london-based king of Wessex now it was firmly placed within the control of the English monarch within a generation the Norman architecture of Durham Cathedral arose from the ruins of the Pagan devastation symbolically its construction was an example of the sheer force of Norman's strength will and energy in fact the cathedral attended to Durham Castle was built with slave labor under the overseeing eyes of only a handful of Norman Architects soldiers and churchmen such was the painful Taming of the wild North [Music] by the year 1070 the last stage of Williams military conquest took place the Isle of Ely in the fence was a secluded boggy area as well as being a touristy difficult terrain it was the home of a proud and taciturned people who were pure Saxon by descent here the last Saxon Rebellion took place it was led by heroid the wake a charismatic leader with a genius for guerrilla warfare and a good knowledge of the local Waters in the fence resistance was being carried on by harrywood the Wake aiding Earl mocha and they had risen up in expectation of aid from the Danish Fleet William however bought off the Danish Fleet he bribed them to go away and this left Harry wood and his followers isolated William built logs across a Causeway he made a Causeway across the marshy fans into the Isle of Ely which was Harry Wood's headquarters and finally but subdued this guerrilla warfare Harry would disappeared from history into Legend if more men had fought like heroin in the early days of the invasion William's campaign may have been stopped in its tracks but though heroin and his people fought nobly his resistance began far too long after the rest of England had been subjugated William was by now able to mount a massive Siege operation against Herald's base in the Isle and maintain it without distraction the operation is described in the medieval Lord Chronicles to bethelwine and sywood barn and many hundreds of men entered Ely when King William learned of this he ordered out Naval and land levees and surrounded the district building a Causeway as he Advanced deeper into the fence while the naval forces remained to the Sea wood then the outlaw surrendered to him namely bishop ethelren and Earl Mor car and all their followers except Harry wood alone and all who wish to follow him and he courageously LED their escape the king seized ships weapons and many treasures and dealt with the prisoners as he pleased he sent Bishop ethelwine to Abingdon very soon he passed away in the winter of this year it took a year to suppress the Revolt of Herod and take the Isle of Ely but William won his inevitable Victory and with it at last held sway over all England by now William was so well established that he was able to deal with his Scottish Neighbors in impressive Style in this year King William LED Naval and land levies against Scotland and blockaded that country to seaward with his ships he invaded the country with his land levees at the fourth but gained no Advantage from it King Malkin came and made his peace with King William gave hostages and became his vassal and the King returned home with all his levees the administrative structure of England from this time on had already been decided in part by the gradual manner of Williams Conquest if the country had been taken over all at once William would inevitably have parcel at the lands to his followers in complete segments consisting of Hall shires but because Saxon lands have been confiscated one piece at a time that was how they'd been conferred on the french-speaking Barons and churchmen as a result one man's lands might be scattered in small lot in all parts of the country this allowed annulment to derive an income but made him Reliant upon the king to govern and tax it this centralization of power made the king much stronger it also made it much easier for him to take the lands away again this system of government consequently required a network of local Governors to order through these officers called sheriffs William gained control over both Saxon and Norman malcontents alike another change made to help in the governing of the country was deliberate further divisions of the land the boundaries of the six great earldoms were dismissed and carved into smaller units the first to disappear was Wessex which was identified far too closely with the Fallen House of Godwin to ever survive intact the result of these changes was the introduction of 42 counties from Durham in the north to bodmin in the Southwest these counties are still mostly recognizable in the structure of modern day Britain the power of Williams Court began to grow steadily this core of central Norman power consisted of a permanent staff of officials and clerks who worked with an ever-changing flow of Bishops and Barons which consisted of whoever was currently in the king's favor the Court Assisted the king in any matter he laid before it and gave advice on such things as policy and audit accounts it even sat to try legal cases involving the barons although William traveled the country continually setting disputes himself wherever possible he introduced from the normal system the tradition of sending a delegation from his court to represent him this court delegation often employed the method of trial by inquest this was a totally New Concept in England where trial by combat had long been the preferred method of settling disputes but its introduction led to both peaceful settlements and protection of the king's rights wealth and respect and those of his vassals faced with the confusion of so many redistributed lands the king needed information he needed to know exactly who owned What lands and precisely how much they owed him he also needed an overview of the entire state of England as it actually was it has been suggested that such a detailed survey could have been made only through the force of Williams grip on par and determined reorganization of the land certainly no other European country at the time could have been so rigorously examined a uniform set of questions was put to every District in the country it was surveyed so carefully wrote a Saxon chronicler that there was not a hide of land in England of which he did not know who held it and how much it was worth in 1086 at the Christmas court at Gloucester William took a deep speech says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with his counselors and ordered an investigation into all the lands and holdings of his Norman subjects Commissioners were sent round the country and the greatest piece of medieval surveying ever taken undertaken was completed within a year the great Doomsday Book this recorded who held what land which Lord he held it of what the value was in 1066 in the reign of Edward the Confessor and now in the year 1086. nothing says the Anglo-Saxon chronicler was left out he surveyed everything down to the last Pig and sheep the Doomsday Book allowed William to see the wealth of his newly conquered country it also acted as a register of land tenure so he knew immediately which Baron held what land and who was in Thief of that great Baron it also must be said that Doomsday Book was a reflection of the sophistication of the Anglo-Saxon system that William had inherited it was essentially an Anglo-Saxon administrative device that had allowed William to make the greatest survey of medieval Europe depth of the survey which made up the Doomsday Book is indicated by the note which the monks have Ely attached their own doomsday returns bearing in mind the recent history of that place it is difficult to believe that there was not at least a little irony in The Writer's tone here it is written down the inquest of the lands of Ely as the king's Barons inquire about them namely by the olds of the sheriff of the Shire and of all the Barons and their French soldiers and of the whole hundred court and of the priest the Reeve and six villains of each Ville how the manner is called who held it in the time of king Edward the Confessor and who holds it now how many hides how many plows on the domain how many men how many villains how many surfs how much Woods how much Meadow how much pasture how many mills how much it was worth altogether and how much now all this three times over once for the timer King Edward once for the time when King William gave it out and once as it now is and whether more can be had from it than is now being given the findings of the Doomsday Book enabled William to ensure that all the old Saxon Villages and townships which survived this Conquest were incorporated into manners which could in turn be directly taxed through its Lord this meshing of the old Saxon ways on the new centralizing Norman Court made England increasingly more stable it was said that at the very least King William kept such good order in the land that a man of any substance could travel unmolested throughout the country with his bosom full of gold such claims have always been made on behalf of tyrants but the Saxon commentator who made this observation was well aware that only a Norman could be of such substance as to muster a bosom full of gold this tempers the boss with a hint of what reality lay behind the king's Triumph King William had brought peace and order to England he had truly United it for the first time yet the country suffered now more than ever before from the Stark division of its people into two separate classes under the old Saxon way of life there were warriors and they were Traders kings were as often elected as succeeded by Birthright in that chaotic feudal society small peasant communities were almost independent and largely unaffected as rulers came and went the Normans however were from the outset a french-speaking nobility an entire upper class was treated the Saxon population with utter contempt a generation after the invasion what gains were to be had from the new prosperative English order were enjoyed exclusively by this haughty and war-like ruling class though impressive castles and beautiful cathedrals continue to be built and the Norman Architects expressed in stone the rigorous reorganization of their new land Common People suffered the main impact of the Norman Conquest was to replace a native Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with a small dominant alien aristocracy from France this was extremely important because it meant that the rulers of England who dominated government who developed laws were French speaking culture of the aristocracy became French Old English it's Anglo-Saxon was relegated to the level simply of language used by the peasantry and it wasn't until Chaucer that English came back to court as a language of literature most Saxon peasantry after the initial shock waves of the invasion in the 1060s probably would not have noticed a great deal of difference with the conquest one Lord was substituted for another slightly more foreign but the Reeves the bailiffs on the farms the Estates would have remained fairly similar taxes perhaps Rose but probably they would have done under Harold or his Anglo-Saxon successes similarly there's a great deal of continuity in terms of towns the Norman simply to find a very healthy flourishing Urban economy all they do is to plant castles in strategic places within those towns but urban life continues very much as it was before 1066. perhaps the most crucial of all changes however was that Anglo-Saxon England which had been part of a Scandinavian Empire very much Northern looking was drawn away from the north into the world of France England became an appendage of the duchy of Normandy and after 1154 it became but part of the Great orangevan Empire of Henry II the Saxon Chronicles described the suffering of ordinary people in the 21st year of King William's reign alas how wretched and how unhappy the times were then so fever-stricken lay the unhappy people in those days that they were never far from death's door until the pangs of hunger finished them off who can fail to be moved to compassion by such days as these or who is so hard-hearted that he cannot bewild such misfortune but such things come to pass because of a nation's sins because its people will not love God and righteousness the king and leading men were fond yay too fond of avarice big coveted gold and silver and did not care how sinful it was obtained as long as it came to them the king granted his land on the hardest terms and at the highest price if another buyer came and offered more than the first had given the king would let it go to the man who offered him more if a third came and offered still more the king would make it over to the man who offered him most of all he did not care how very wrongfully the Reeves got possession of it from Wretched men or how many illegal acts they did but the louder the talk of Law and Justice the greater the Injustice is committed unjust tolls were levied and many other unlawful Acts were committed which are distressing to relate in the summer of 1086 King William sailed to France his relations with his French neighbors had deteriorated and parts of Normandy had been plundered by the French King's Men based in nant on the 9th of September 1087. having ridden upon nomt unburned it his horse stumbled and he was thrown heavily against the iron pommel of his saddle Now 60 years of age his powers of recovery failed him and he died of his deaths the Saxon Chronicle says very little and that is expressed in terms of acceptance if some surprise that this monstrously rugged Man could die what can I say the chronicler asks us that bitter death that spares neither High nor low seized him alas how transitory is the prosperity of this world and yet William the bastard who became the Great and is now known to us as the Conqueror was a tyrant a man of almost inhuman ruthlessness by comparison his son William Rufus who immediately succeeded him on the throne was a sympathetic man with very human traits yet by comparison the hapless Rufus whose Reign was won at best described as of continuity was vilified upon his death within the pages of those same Chronicles in the year 1100 King William held his court at Christmas in Gloucester and at Easter in Winchester and at Whitson in Westminster on which Sunday of this year at a village in Berkshire blood was seen bubbling forth from the ground as many reported and thereafter on the morning after Lamas King William was killed with a narrow while hunting by one of his own men he was afterwards brawl to Winchester and buried in the diocese in the 13th year of his reign he was a very harsh and fierce in all his rule over his realm and very terrifying influenced by the advice of evil counselors who are always agreeable to him by his own greed he was continually exasperating this nation with depredation and unjust taxes in his days therefore righteousness declined an evil of every kind towards God and man put up his head he oppressed the Church of God and it is days of the head of a bishop prick or an Abbasi died he either sold them for money or kept them within his grasp and let them for rent for he claimed to be the heir of every man cleric all day therefore he was hated by almost all the people and abhorrent to God the Chronicles continue in the same fashion for some time it is almost as though having fear to speak in this way of such a force as William the first for fear of what he might have become in death the Saxon chroniclers save their bile to Heap upon the head of his comparatively ineffectual son and yet if we look back only a year to the days when William still lived and England was yet trembling in his grasp we find in The Chronicles of verse written in the last year of Williams Reign it serves as epitaph he caused castles to be built which were a sore burdened to the poor The Hard Man was the king and took from his subject's many marks in gold of pounds in silver there sums he took by weight from his people most unjustly and for little need sunk in greed and utterly given up to avarice he set apart a vast deer preserve and imposed the laws concerning it whoever slew a heart or Hind was to be blinded he forbade the killing of boars even as the killing of hearts for he loved the Stags as dearly as though he had been their father his also he decreed should go unmolested the rich complained but he was too Relentless to care though all might hate me and they were compelled if they wanted to keep their lives and their lands and their goods and the favor of the king to submit themselves holy to his alas that any man should bear himself so proudly and deem himself exalted above all other men May almighty God show Mercy to his soul and pardon him his sin

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 38,741

Keywords: Battle of Hastings, Charlemagne era, Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries, Godwin dynasty, Medieval warfare, Middle Ages exploration, Norman Empire, Renaissance beginnings, Westminster Abbey, William the Conqueror, ancient kings and queens, ancient warfare tactics, conqueror's legacy, conquest of England, historical figures, historical insights, medieval civilization, medieval conquests, medieval kingdoms, medieval society, rise of empires

Id: gkPJ5ncikZ0

Length: 50min 50sec (3050 seconds)

Published: Sat May 13 2023