The Terrifying Reality Of Medieval Life During The Norman Invasion | History Makers | Chronicle

[Music] in April of the year 1066 a strange sight in the heavens caused panic and alarm throughout much of Europe what we now know to have been Haley's Comet was then called a long-haired star but the ignorant and terrified inhabitants of Europe thought they were witness to a Divine portent heralding disaster and cataclysmic changes in the Affairs of men this time they were to be proved right within 6 months two of the most powerful monarchs in Western Europe were to lie slain on the battlefield a third had begun the bloodstained rise which was to give him Mastery of England the richest nation in Western Europe he was known in his own time as William the great but to Future Generations he would be better known by another name William the [Music] Conqueror from about the year 800 ad a new and terrifying Force had begun to make itself felt across the face of Europe sallying out from their Scandinavian homelands wave after wave of sea Raiders Norwegians Danes and sweds voyaged in their longships to carry fire and sword through the prosperous lands of the Western World this was the age of the Vikings at first they came in search of booty plunder and slaves and the fury of the Norsemen was a bitterly experienced horror to the peoples of Britain France and most of the Civilized World in about 9917 ad one such group of Raiders led by a giant Norwegian called Ral the ganger had been exiled by their ruler the king of Norway Ralph and his lawlessness it seems exceeded even the norseman's generous standards of Tolerance Rolph and his men must have been a desperate crew indeed they boarded their long ships and headed along the English Channel until they reached the French Coast at the mouth of the river s before them lay a fertile Countryside filled with Farms churches and prosperous towns a land made to be plundered in a series of devastating raids Ralph and his men penetrated to the very Gates of Paris finally the king of France Charles the simple sought peace in desperation he offered rol the title of of count and all the lands which lay between the river apra and the Sea Ralph agreed accepted Christianity and the Hand of the King's Daughter in marriage by doing so he became the French King's uneasy vassel and his followers and their families took possession of their new territory the land of the Northman had been born its name survives today as Normandy there's still a lot of debate over who exactly the Normans were but when we're looking at this we should consider what the Normans themselves thought they saw themselves as a distinctly separate race the Jean Norman Orum they call themselves The Norman people they were a Fierce People and ambitious Restless people yet with a love of order yet paradoxically but perhaps not surprisingly considering their Viking ancestry they were difficult to rule the their ruler whoever he was had to have a strong hand and he could never relax during The Next Century the new rulers of Normandy prospered they became for the most part zealous Christians the devastated towns churches and monasteries were rebuilt and the Normans became all but French in speech and culture but scarcely concealed beneath this outward veneer here the Old Norse restlessness and love of Adventure and battle remain they had seen brutal times in the past and even more horror lay in the future it was into this Fierce Dynasty that the young William was born the fact that he was illegitimate affected him psychologically throughout his life however illegitimacy carried no particular stigma in 11th century Normandy his early childhood seems to have been spent in the obscurity of his unmarried mother's household but at the age of about six he was propelled to the Forefront of events in 1034 after a lifetime spent fighting domestic and foreign enemies and governing his unruly duy William's father Duke Robert of Normandy suddenly announced his intention of going going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem before leaving he called together his leading Nobles and made a remarkable Announcement by my faith it is not my will to leave you without a lord I have a little bastard here who will grow if God pleases to be a gallant man this is why I conjure you you by the duty you owe me to rever him as your lord there was was nothing in Norman law or custom to prevent an illegitimate son from succeeding to the dukedom and to make William's position more secure Robert appointed a Regency Council of notables led by his brother the Archbishop of Ruan in this precaution at least Robert's fears proved well-founded in the summer of 1035 news reached Normandy that his father had died of a fever at NAA in what is now turkey not only had the Duke failed to set eyes upon the holy city but his dreams of a peaceful succession for his infant son would soon be in ruins the hereditary violence of the Normans was about to be reawakened within a few months of the news of Duke Robert's death his brother the AR Bishop of Ruan died without his strong hand to guide its government Normandy was plunged into bloody Anarchy One By One The Trusted lieutenants in whose care Duke Robert had left the infant William met violent ends at the hands of plotters and Rebels Allen count of Britany was poisoned the young Duke's Guardian Gilbert of bro and Thorold his shooter were both brutally assassinated the tide of violence was to engulf William himself in a horrifying way one night as he slept alongside his senal asban crepon in his castle at vro a party of rebels under Roger of Montgomery forced their way in osbor was viciously hacked to death but the little boy unkown noticed in the frenzy cowed undiscovered amid the bloody sheets who can tell how the traumatic event must have affected the mind of an impressionable six-year-old maybe it was the horror which was to shape his own behavior during these terrible days Normandy tasted all the horrors of a medieval land without effective leadership throughout the realm Anarchy descended as its nobility rampaged unchecked but as he grew into manhood gradually the tide of events turned in William's favor wisely he was able to surround himself with an efficient team of trusted advisers and after a great deal of Bloodshed he reestablished peace in Normandy Duke William broke by Iron the two arrogant heads dismantled the the ramparts of crime by victoriously capturing many castles and this stopped for a long time the intestinal Wars of our region it was a battle worthy of memory for many centuries to come William of course is known as William the bastard he was the son of the previous Duke of Normandy and a waser woman who took his attention came to the duche in 1035 after a very turbulent youth several attempts to assassinate him by various factions in the normon scene therefore he was very much a pragmatic Man Of No Nonsense fellow first to last during the fight to pacify his homeland William had been noted for his generosity and lenient treatment of his enemies but there were incidents which showed a darker side of his nature not surprisingly it was his concern over his illegitimate birth which was to provide the spark once during the siege of alons as William approached an enemy Outpost its Defenders had hung from its walls as a protection against fire the hides of some newly slaughtered oxen in a reference to Williams illegitimate birth they chanted derisively hides hides for the Tanner white with rage the young jke ordered his men to storm The Outpost then the 32 survivors of the Garrison were blinded had their hands and feet struck off and were catapulted over the walls into the besieged city as a grim warning to its Defenders that they would suffer the same fate unless they surrendered which they made haste to do the ruthless side of the juke's nature was to become even more apparent as the years went by if his gains were to be secure it was now time to think of marriage his choice was made with political implications firmly to the Forefront he married Matilda daughter of count Baldwin of Flanders no doubt their match was intended to help secure normandy's northern border remarkably for the age and possibly reflecting his attitude towards illegitimacy William appears to have remained faithful to Matilda for the rest of her life she bore him a number of children including four Sons two of whom William and Henry were to be Kings of England but it was not in the nature of either William or his subjects to remain for long at Peace fighting continued with the duchy neighbors and in one such campaign in 1065 William was accompanied by a distinguished Foreigner Harold godwinson the second most powerful man in England after King Edward the Confessor it was a visit which was to have the most profound implications for both men and also for their countries there are a lot of ambiguities about Williams claim to the English Throne he himself said that he had been promised it in 1051 by Edward the Confessor but what is in fact not often realized is that the throne wasn't Edwards to offer the English Monarchy was elective which meant that the successor was chosen by a council made up of the leading Nobles and clergy the most that Edward possibly offered William was some sort of vague assurances of good will now there are the same sort of problems regarding Harold's visit to Normandy in 1064 or 1065 we don't even know why he went there in the first place one possibility is that he was sent as an emissary by Edward what may have happened is that once in Williams power he was made to swear an oath giving his support Williams claimed for the throne but again Harold was not in a position to make any such promise whatever agreement William believed he had obtained from Harold he was to be bitterly dis disillusioned when news reached Normandy of Edward the confessor's death on the 5th of January 1066 William expected to be offered the Throne of England imagine then his rage at the announcement of Harold godson's coronation as king of England all the Contemporary accounts speak of William's rage so terrible that none dared approach him motivated perhaps as much by injured pride and the affront to his Prestige as by any other reason William was set on Vengeance if he was not to have the throne by popular Ascent he would have it by force as the summer of 1066 approached all the Furious Norman energy was employed in preparing to invade England and submit William's claims to trial by battle the main source of troops for William Invasion came from the Norman nobility who had to supply him with men as part of the duty to their Overlord but he also recruited a significant number of mercenaries and volunteers from other places notably France Flanders and Britany these were drawn by hopes of land and booty the main strength of the Norman Army based on the popular image of the be tapestry has always been thought to be its Cavalry and this is certainly true to a point that were the main striking force of Williams Army but also important were the Infantry there were spearmen bowmen and crossbowmen and these latter had an important role to play in the Norman preferred tactics of combined arms Warfare the Infantry would soften up the enemy and then the Cavalry would be sent him for the kill Norman preparations were on a vast scale William is said to have built or collected together over 700 ships a huge total for those times and he was also active on the Diplomatic front for instance he obtained the blessing of the Pope and was able to carry the papal Banner at the head of his army now this not only gave him some useful spiritual brownie points it was also a useful Safeguard at home any foreign enemies of whom he had a large number would hesitate to invade Normandy if they knew William had the Pope's backing William the conqueror's Army which he was collecting in Normandy ready to invade Britain really compris two main sections first of all there are those local nor and uh Lords and magnates who owed him a certain amount of military service possibly 40 days a year he also applied for and received a great many mercenary applications from other uh Knights and so forth at a loose end and literally came along for the loot if you might say not particularly on the side of William but he was paying them and he said there might well be rewards in Britain for them so you have a lot of bretons you have other kinds of French Knights as well a few Germans even uh who were in this very kind of polyglot Army although the basis of it was of course Normans as you might suppose now there are three sorts of soes first of all the knights which we all think of from the Bay of tapestry with their kite-shaped Shields their chain maale hellur and their lances they were possibly about a couple of thousand of those then there were the foot soldiers and the archers maybe 7,500 or so between them when we say archers we are talking about the short bow of course not the long bow of later generations this was a far less devastating weapon but a useful fire instrument to have at your disposal the Menat arms were equipped much the same as the knights but fought only on foot over in England it was a different situation from that in Normandy whereas the Normans now use their horses to fight on as well as to move them to the battlefield field over the channel in England we had the last of the Danish traditional type Army organizations horses were very much used yes certainly for the king and his THS and his hus cars but they were used only for Mobility they always dismounted to fight as had done the Vikings and the Danes in the previous centuries they had of course as by way of a separate weapon from what the Normans had the feared battle ax The Great Battle axes of The Shield wall would be indeed a daunting thing to F Fai at any time whether on Horseback or not so two armies which were going to meet at Hastings really represented two distinct types of military organization William the mounted Knight with his great charges up the hill at senlac and so forth he represented the future the great age of the night in armor was about to begin and would last for the next 250 years or so on the other hand Harold's Army represented the last of the old Danish Norse type armies which always fought on foot using their horses to get them to the battlefield but then dismounting to form the famous Shield wall and then fight it out with their battle axes William faced a formidable task in challenging the richest nation in Western Europe led by one of its foremost soldiers however William was to be aided by events Elsewhere for he was not the only claimant to the English throne in late September 1066 a powerful Army led by King Harold hardrada of Norway and Harold godwinson Renegade brother tostig landed in the north of England defeated the local Saxon forces under Earls Edwin and morar and occupied York King Harold who had been waiting on the south coast to meet the rumored Norman invasion was forced to hasten North to counter this new unexpected threat fatally he also gave permission for the southern fear the militia to stand down in order to bring in the Harvest moving with great speed the English king confronted his Northern foes at Stamford Bridge on the 25th of September and won a total Victory hardrada and tostig were killed and scarcely pausing for breath Harold and his household troops the hus cars hurried South once again but the terrifying news was out the Norman Invasion had begun sometime around September 27 the huge Norman Armada of some 700 ships set sail from the Esty of the river s unopposed by the English Fleet they arrived off pavy early the following morning the Norman forces disembarked unopposed and moved to occupy the easily defensible Peninsula occupied by the town of Hastings where the Norman army established its Base Camp William did not want to risk marching on London while Harold remained undefeated instead he ordered his men to devastate the surrounding Countryside rightly calculating that Harold would be stung into giving immediate battle Harold wasted no time arriving back in London on October 6th with the survivors of his husars the English king desperately gathered what many could and then without waiting for reinforcements from the Midlands and the north marched out to meet the Norman Invader Harold was also keenly aware that as well as as being depleted in numbers the bulk of his troops were distinctly inferior to most of Williams men especially the lightly armed and equipped fears men the Saxons therefore took up a strong defensive position on senlac hill where they barred The Road To London and awaited the Norman Onslaught and then how in effect said to William come and get me you want the kingdom here I am am come and get me now saying that of course he was in effect handing the initiative over to Juke William the form the battle would actually take and it successive stages then would be dictated by the Normans rather than by the Anglo-Saxons and indeed uh several of The Chronicles of the time speak of the way the shield wall stood as if rooted into the ground this was going to be a fine stalwart fight to the death the chances of winning the Battle of Hastings were fairly limited because William could choose the tune and make the Anglo-Saxons dance to it as his army formed up for battle early on the morning of October 14th 1066 William must have known that at the age of 38 he was facing the Supreme test of his military career it is sometimes forgotten that hither to the Duke had fought in only two major pitched battles and his reputation as a general though adequate did not compare with that of his opponent Harold godwinson furthermore a defeat would have dire consequences for even if William were to survive and get back home to Normandy he would be discredited and prey once more to his domestic and French enemies none of these doubts showed however in the pre-battle speech which the Juke made to his commanders it is now that your arms must prove your strength and courage if you fight like men you will gain Victory honor and wealth otherwise you will be covered with eternal ignominy no road is open for Retreat on one side armed men and a hostile and unknown country bar your passage on the other the sea and other armed men are opposed to your flight the courage of a small number of Warriors May easily overcome a greater number of men unskilled in fighting above all when the cause of justice is protected by Divine Aid let nothing stand in your way and soon you will Triumph the battle opened with an attack on the English position by Williams archers and crossbowmen they made little impression and a general assault by the remainder of Williams infantry was met by a hail of slingshot small axes and javelins at Hastings it was a combination of archers and these mounted Warriors that uh finally defeated the shield wall of Harold and the Anglo-Saxons at sen the Norman Cavalry were heavily equipped with hobber of male with long kite-shaped Shields with luns and sword they rode superbly bred and trained War Hors horses these horses 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 uh put in groups of three or four and they had great tactical flexibility the key weapon of the Knight 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 stups High biked saddle and together a group of Normans would charge with a great shock impetus whenever they struck a static line of infantry one contemporary uh 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 with the battle deadlocked William committed his Cavalry but hindered by the sloping ground and the English Shield wall many Knights and their charges were hacked down by Harold's formidable axen and could not penetrate the English line and now some of Williams men probably the bretons on his left wing broke and fled and the Panic began to spread to the rest of the Norman line some of the English ran forward in Pursuit and a rumor began to spread that William had been killed it was a moment of Crisis but William was equal to the occasion pushing back his helmet from his face and roaring with the full strength of his powerful lungs William seized by one of his famous rages cried out to his troops look at me all of you I still live and with God's help I will conquer what Folly has driven you you to flight if you flee not one of you will escape death well up to this point the battle had been going quite well for Harold his men were still holding the Ridgetop position and they'd thrown back everything that William could send against them furthermore the day was drawing on and William was in the position whereby if he didn't win the battle by the end of the day he wasn't going to win it at all it was at this point that the Normans carried out the famous Fain Retreats there's been a lot of debate about these were they deliberate or were they just accidents that William was able to take advantage of quite a large number of Harold's less disciplined troops charged down the slope in Pursuit were cut off and wiped out but the battle was still not won the best of Harold's men including the famous hus cars his personal bodyguard was still in position on the Ridgetop and the shield wall was still intact aided by his half brother the Fearsome mace wielding Odo Bishop of Bayer William rallied his men and cut down the pursuing Saxons though the immediate crisis was over the battle was far from one by about midday uh the Battle of Hastings had reached a rather parous situation perhaps for both sides Harold had lost the whole right wing third which had charged down and uh been been butchered by the Normans who turned around having deliberately lured them into a premature attack in that way but as far as the Normans were concerned although that was obviously a plus yet the battle was yet far from one and it was absolutely necessary that a decision should be reached within that day before Sunset they had nowhere to fall back upon their morale would plummet if they didn't win the battle on this first day and they would probably face therefore total disaster therefore the battle is not yet won but every incentive is now for William to fling all his remaining resources into this battle the Anglo-Saxon line was battered it had no right flank now but still there was this formidable line of The Shield wall with their battle axes waving threateningly over the top of it and so everything was yet to be gained or lost William at this point changed his tactics he ordered his archers to advance and fire a barrage of arrows at close range now these really began to tear gaps in the English line it was probably at this point that Harold was struck down quite likely by the famous arrow in the eye which is no now normally accepted as probably being an authentic incident his brothers girth and Le wine were already dead and as a result the English command structure started to break down and morale began to crack as gaps appeared in the line the Norman Cavalry were unleashed forc the way through and began to hack down the isolated groups of Englishmen it was also probably at this point that the mostly wounded Harold was finished off with King Harold lying dead at the foot of his standard William had won his greatest Victory whatever his skills as a general it is clear that the jke had been an aspiring leader of his men in battle it was always always customary for medieval chroniclers to magnify the role of leaders in battle but William seems to have carried out both of the roles expected of him with great success he was in the thick of the fighting inspiring his men and yet he also was able to keep control of his army overall and direct their operations in a coherent fashion it's true to say that without William the Normans would not have won the Battle of Hastings Harold was dead dukee William clearly triumphant and de facto King of England trial by battle as religious men regarded it at the time had now decided once and for all the question of the succession to Edward the Confessor the whole future indeed of these islands was going to be IR IR remedia affected by the outcome of this battle which must be certainly one of the most significant moments in the history of these islands William was crowned King of England in in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066 it was noted that William was visibly trembling if so it was one of the few occasions in his life when he apparently showed fear that fear may have been apprehension because William was well aware that his conquest of England had only just begun even though many of the leading magnets had submitted the English people for the most part remained defied if they had glimpsed the full horror of what was to follow they may well have chosen not to resist the Norman Invader at first all was relatively civilized the new king made a brief progress through the territory under his control and with characteristic thoroughness set his men to work to extend and consolidate their gains following 1066 Williams task uh 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 duy leaving Key left tenants in charge of castles such as do Hastings pavy 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 uh in Ruan the Normans Marvel to see these prisoners brought with their long hair their wonderful clothes fabulously uh 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 duy was Secure against his French enemies uh against the count of onju the king of France count of Flanders and then quickly returned to reestablish his authority the Normans in England were few in numbers perhaps no more than 10,000 in all and so depended upon a network of castles to overall and control the conquered English many of these structures still scatter the English landscape today what the Normans did they would build a castle Often by requisition sax and labor a deep irony there that the are forced to build the very uh mechanisms of their own oppression but from that they used the casts as springboard for further Conquest they would build a castle within let's say 15 miles of the next one the operating radius of Horsemen uh 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 moern Bailey castles in Britain the promises which William had made to respect English rights and laws were quickly forgotten those who had fought at Hastings and the families of those slain had their lands confiscated or had to make heavy payments in gold to the Norman victims it seems clear that William himself was as guilty of abuse as any of his followers his Greed for gold was proverbial especially among the conquered English to the Norman Barons whose rapacious Viking ancestry was still very much in their blood The Riches of England presented a Temptation impossible to resist they were a Restless drunken and emotional Society dazzled with a prospect of unaccustomed wealth William at least initially seems to have succumbed along with the rest and as well as greed he was now to gain a steadily growing reputation for ruthlessness not surprisingly the next few years saw a flood of uprisings against the rule of the hated Normans one such Rebellion took on a serious new dimension in January 1069 when William's new Overlord in the north was surprised at Durham and slaughtered along with 900 Normans this was a major disaster for the Normans of even more concern was a new wave of insurrection throughout the country Williams hold on England seemed to be hanging by a thread but he responded with a ferocity which has echoed down the ages striking first at edric the Wild's rebels in the Midlands William then LED his troops North in a Savage and Whirlwind campaign King William was determined to break the power of the north once and for all in order to do this he was prepared to use the most brutal methods in 1069 William mcer faced the greatest threat to his rule so far a coalition of the king of Scotts the king of Denmark who sent a fleet which entered the US Esty a rising of the northern Earls outbreaks in Wales and the South countries Williams 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 Agriculture 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 lited with bodies and there was no one left alive to bury them it has been estimated that the ravaging of the north which extended across the counties of Yorkshire darbishire Staffordshire Chesire and Shropshire cost the lives of between 5 and 10% of the total population of England and caused a Devastation whose effects were still visible 60 years later despite the horrors the period after the conquest saw a great Resurgence in religious activity in England for example building work went on on great Cathedrals like Durham Canterbury and Gloucester and the monasteries flourished a kind of uneasy peace settled on the land man though Stern beyond measure to those who opposed his Will William was kind to those Good Men Who Loved God on the very spot where God granted him the conquest of England he caused a great Abbey to be built and he settled monks in it and richly endowed it during his Reign was built the Great Cathedral at Canterbury and many another throughout all England the land was filled with monks living their lives after the rule of St Benedict such was the state of religion in his time that every man who wished to whatever considerations there might have been with regard to their rank could follow the profession of Monk William had made the English church administratively efficient but he had also made it Norman in their spiritual lives as in every other aspect of their existence the English people was subject to the their foreign overlords William also established his rule of law over England and made a rudimentary use of what was later to become the jury system but once again it was a Justice very much designed to protect the position of the conquerors it was said that in Williams Reign any man might travel over the kingdom with a bosom full of gold unmolested but anyone fortunate enough to have possessed such wealth would undoubtedly have been speaking Norman French in 1080 a threat of renewed Danish Invasion and the need to pay large numbers of Continental mercenaries Drew attention to the lack of any accurate record of the wealth of England and who exactly held its lands this was a situation which William with his avarice and energy could not allow to continue at Christmas 1085 groan we are told immensely fat and with a harsh commanding voice William called his Council together and decided what to do the result was to be the great survey later called with Ry humor by the English the Doomsday Book it was the most thorough land survey which had ever been carried out and it was done with amazing speed and deficiency King William sent his men all over England into every Shire to ascertain how many hundreds of hides of land there were in each Shire and how much land and livestock the king himself owned in the country and what annual Jews were lawfully his from each Shire he also had it recorded how much land his archbishops had and his diois and Bishops his Abbotts and his Earls and what or how much each man who was a landholder old ER here in England had in land and livestock and how much money it was worth so very thoroughly did he have the inquiry carried out that there was not a single hide nor one fergate not even it is shameful to record it but it did not seem harmful to him to do it one ox or one cow or Pig which escaped his survey as William Grew Older his relationship with his eldest son Robert had deteriorated Robert had been named as Williams Heir for the dukedom of Normandy and as the years went by he grew impatient to take up his inheritance William was dismissive of his son's demands remarking it is not my custom to take off my clothes before I go to bed in the summer of 1086 reports reached King William that Robert was plotting with King Philip of France to invade Normandy and though now almost 60 years of age immensely Stout and in deteriorating Health William crossed to the duche to meet this new threat at the end of July 1087 William's troops stormed the city of N and put it to the torch riding exultantly through the burning streets William was either struck by a seizure in the immense heat or was thrown by his stumbling mou with great force against the iron pommel of his SLE he suffered a fatal internal injury the dying King was carried back to Ruan where he lingered in great pain for 6 weeks William sensed the end was near and with typical pragmatism began settling his Affairs William with great reluctance confirmed his errant son Robert in his long for Normandy his second son Will William Rufus was to become king of England in his 60 years William had risen from obscurity secured his juked against internal and external foes and conquered the richest land in Western Europe bringing to it a harsh and ordered government such as it had never previously known but now William was at last faced by death the greatest foe of all and one whom even he could not defeat on the morning of September 9th 1087 as the great Bell of the minster of Ruan told the fierce old Warrior breathed his last a monk from William's own Abbey though writing 200 years later has left an account of the conqueror's tormented words of guilt and anguish which may well serve as his most fitting epitaph especially in the eyes of his English subjects I persecuted the native inhabitants of England beyond all reason whether Nobles or Commons I Cru oppressed them many I unjustly disinherited innumerable multitudes especially in the county of York perished Through Me by famine and sword I tremble when I reflect on the Grievous sins which burden my conscience and now about to be summoned before the most awful tribunal of God I know not what I ought to do I was bred to Arms from my childhood and am stained with the rivers of blood that I have [Music] shed [Music] a

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

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Keywords: Anglo-Norman relations, Anglo-Saxon, Castles, Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries, Hastings, Medieval England culture, Medieval England society, Medieval Europe, Medieval culture, Medieval period, Medieval society, Medieval timeline, Medieval village life, Medieval warfare, Middle Ages politics, Norman impact on England, Norman invasion, Norman knights, Norman legacy, Norman rule in England, Norman warriors

Id: O7zcPvQDIMU

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024