THE BEGINNINGS OF NORMAN CONQUEST AND TWENTY YEARS OF ENGLISH RESISTANCE

1066 AD: THE CONSEQUENCES OF ENGLISH DEFEAT AT HASTINGS

On October 14 1066 the last native and true Anglo-Saxon English king was dead, killed in battle defending his hearth, home, kingdom and people, along with many a good warrior Englishman, along with Harold’s own household troops his Huscarls, his heroic brothers Gyrth and Leofwine and their household troops, along with the rest of the flower of the native English nobility.

The Battle of Hastings was over, and England submitted to its Norman overlords, and England was hammered into a Nation in the years after, well at least that is the official English history, told by generations of so called English history teachers, but we must remember, that they were merely following the official line, a line that has continued to be written into England’s history as if it was the end of any English resistance.

And up until thirty or forty odd years ago, English history was taught with Hereward the Wake and his struggle, and we were told, by official English history writers, that after his struggle in the Fens, in what is now East Anglia in eastern England, that his resistance was the end of any further English resistance. None of this is quite accurate.

ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE ENGLISH ‘THE HARRYING OF THE NORTH’

The previous article talked of the ethnic cleansing of the English known as the Harrying of the North, and how much of the northern counties of England was laid waste*. The Normans seemed to combine up to date military skill and tactics, with their own violent Scandinavian Viking heritage. They had many vengeful Bretons with them. They were the Romano-Brythons (who some mistakenly call Celts,) who had fled the English / Saxon onslaught in 458 AD to Brittany in northwestern France and sought some weird revenge. French mercenaries accompanied them. Later English retaliation on northern France was furious. In their blood lust the Normans killed 150,000 English. The Harrying of the North was a brutal act that wouldn’t have been worthy of an English King, but was certainly worthy of the usurper William Duke of Normandy. His ‘harrying’ not only affected Northumberland and Cumberland, and Yorkshire, but also large tracts of Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

Simeon of Durham describes it;

“there was such hunger that men ate the flesh of their own kind, of horses and dogs and cats. Others sold themselves into perpetual slavery that they might be able to sustain their miserable lives. It was horrible to look into the ruined farmyards and houses and see the human corpses dissolved into corruption, for there were none to bury them for all were gone either in flight, or cut down by the sword and famine. None dwelt there and travellers passed in great fear of wild beasts and savage robbers.”

Wherever the English arose against his usurpation of their rights and homeland, William the Conqueror would put the revolt down mercilessly and destructively leaving the land uninhabited, families homeless or butchered, villages wiped out, towns sacked and burnt, those who were not butchered by the William of Normandy and his violent and vengeful Norman knights were killed off by disease, hunger and cold.

In this story of England and English history and the English People themselves, you will learn the truth, and that the impression that has been given by the school system and state, is inaccurate and false or told in half truths; the reality is that Norman chroniclers and their descendents - the tellers and writers of the official English histories, have throughout the centuries since that momentous year 1066 AD, and succeeding years have tried to wipe from English history altogether, and they would have succeeded if it hadn’t have been for the English themselves, who continued the telling, of their forefathers resistance and of the warrior leaders who lead them, in stories, poems and songs. The story the Saxon Robin Hood fighting the evil Norman Sherriff of Nottingham is one such persistent legend.

We know now from the rear guard action after the bloody struggle for England’s future on Senlac “Blood Lake” Ridge, known now as the fight at the ‘Fosse’, or Mal-fosse (“Evil Ditch”,) where Norman casualties were higher than those in the main Battle of Hastings, to the final quenching of English resistance, that it took twenty years to finally calm the Saxon fighting spirit and the fires of English resistance. Twenty years in which those who called themselves the masters of the English, knew very little peace from their English subjects. But has it ever really ended? And indeed there are many of those who know the English class system, with Viking / Norman aristocracy at the top and Saxons at the bottom, who have said that the struggle against the ‘Norman Yoke’ still continues on to this day.

WILLIAM AND HIS ‘SAXON’ GRANDSON

William the “Bastard” would become King of England, but he would spend the rest of his life not only trying to hang on to England, but also the Duchy of Normandy. The English would only begin accepting the twisted tangled web of Fate ‘Wyrd’ that God and the three sisters of Wyrd (the Fates) had cast over them when the “Bastard’s” English born son, Henry, who married Edith of Scotland. For it was in her that the ancient blood of the royal house of Wessex had flowed, and only then would the descendents of William the “Bastard” truly become the heirs of the English throne, which William had usurped and stolen.

But there are many other historical figures, heroes and villains in this continued story of the English, and there are many tales yet to be told. Tales of those who refused to accept Norman Rule, and fled England, some forever never to return to the Motherland that bore them, who took ships with other Englishmen, who raided Normandy itself, along the coast of Southern France, Italy and the coast of North Africa, before taking service in Byzantium, that ancient city founded in the seventh century BC, and how they became the stubborn backbone of the Varangian or ‘English’ Guard. They also had their story, and their story along with the story of the English resistance to Norman Rule and the warrior leaders who led it will unfold.

*WASTE. In Domesday Book, wasta (possibly Latin. Old English Wæste, meaning uninhabited, desolate, Old Frankish French Wast).

Land, which does not render dues either because it has been physically devastated, or because the dues have been attached to some other manor, or because they have been withheld. Some Manors described as ‘Waste’ are nevertheless credited with values and with population in the Domesday Book. Land on which geld was not paid is also sometimes described as ‘Waste’. Wasteland is still used in modern colloquial English.

OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 1066 AD: WILLIAM’S MARCH ON LONDON

After the construction of the cairn or Mountjoy, on Caldbec Hill, William returned to the camp at Hastings. Here he waited five days, partly to rest his troops and partly to await any arrival of a deputation from the English. When none came, he struck his camp and marched from that site with his remaining forces, no doubt leaving a strong garrison behind. The numbers of his army must have been severely weakened after both the Battle for Senlac “Blood Lake” Ridge, and the struggle at the Mal-fosse, perhaps even by 25 to 30 per cent of his original invasion force, and by the end of October 1066 AD much needed reinforcements had arrived from across the English Channel.

William’s route can tentatively be reconstructed from chroniclers’ reports and the areas of waste recorded in Domesday Book. He moved towards Dover, detaching troops en route to punish the town of Old Romney, just east of Hastings, whose inhabitants had killed either the crew of two stray Norman invasion ships, or a foraging party. Dover submitted and the usurper had a castle built within the Roman fortress on the cliffs. Squires fired several houses, but William made reparation for them. While here the Norman army was stricken with dysentery, but, leaving the sick behind, William proceeded to the religious centre of Canterbury (north of Hastings,) where representatives came out to submit before he reached the city. The Men of Kent also now submitted. William himself was taken ill, but was determined to press on, as forage was needed for the army.

In London there was panic as the Norman invaders approached. Either or both Stigand of Canterbury and Ealdred of York elected the young Edgar Atheling as English king, probably supported by Earls Edwin and Morcar. There seemed no set plan of resistance, however. Wary of the power of the city of London, William veered westwards. A large detachment advanced to the city where it sacked and burnt Southwark after skirmishing with Londoners who had crossed London Bridge. William may have hoped to seize the city by surprise, or it may have been a diversionary tactic to allow the main army to pass by to the south. The detachment rejoined the main force that continued into Hampshire and Berkshire, dividing into columns that wasted the countryside partly for food and partly to intimidate London. Winchester the old capital of Saxon Wessex now submitted. This now meant that the capital and the southeast ports were under William’s control.

He crossed the Thames at Wallingford where Archbishop Stigand came to submit and dissociate himself from Edgar. After having built a castle in the English burh the usurper now moved north and east, finally turning south to (most probably Little) Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. Here Ealdred, Edgar and several magnates who possibly included Edwin and Morcar met him. The latter earls, having declined to fight at Hastings, (according William of Malmesbury d.1143 AD.) Now tried to make one or the other of themselves king and when that failed disappeared northwards, hoping that their safety lay in Northumbria. If so, they may have submitted at Barking after the coronation. William of Normandy is supposed to have been wary of immediately accepting the crown because of the numerous rebels still to be dealt with.

25^THDECEMBER 1066 AD: WILLIAM OF NORMANDY IS CROWNED KING OF ENGLAND

Still outside London, the army and an English delegation finally managed to persuade William to take the crown. William came down to London and appears to have entered without incident, though Jumieges tells of a skirmish at the gates and the Carmen describes elaborate siege works and negotiations. The march from Hastings had covered more than 350 miles. William was crowned in Edward the Confessor’s new church at Westminster on Christmas Day, 1066 AD. At the shout of acclimation the Norman soldiers stationed outside thought a riot had begun and began firing the nearby houses. As fighting broke out between the English and the Norman soldiers, many of those within the Church rushed outside while William the “Usurper King”, it was reported, trembled like an aspen leaf. Having come so far and caused so much suffering and bloodshed that even at the very time of coronation it seemed that his dreams might be thwarted. Given the panic, the sound of fighting and the burning buildings, as the smell of smoke blew into the Church, it must have appeared that God himself had declared him unfit for the sacred office, the office he’d usurped by violence and bloodshed, an office that wasn’t his by right, but in the half empty interior, Archbishop Eldred placed the Crown of England on William the “Bastard’s” head.

THE CONQUEST BEGINS

Official English history tellers have taught wrongly that the Battle for Senlac Ridge (known as the Battle of Hasting,) was the final act of conquest, but if anything that is far from the truth. The battle was certainly a decisive victory for the Norman invaders, but it was a costly one, both for the Normans and the English, especially for the English, since Harold the last true Saxon English king and two of his brothers, as well as many of the cream of the native English nobility, were now dead. Also counting the slaughter of good English fighting men at both of the first two bloody engagements for the English in 1066 at Fulford and Stamford Bridge not only assisted William, since it reduced Harold’s immediate potential, but also helped neutralize a serious concerted threat from the north of England. In addition, the lack of castles or fortified positions in England before the Norman invasion was seen as a reason for the ease of William’s conquest. There were no fortified pockets from which the English could ambush or attack his forces and supply lines during a march. By contrast, the William threw up castles everywhere. However, it would take twenty more years before he could feel secure in his new Kingdom.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH RESISTANCE

At first the English resistance to William’s rule manifested itself not in armed defiance, but in stubbornness, when English monks at Peterborough not only elected one of their own to replace the recently deceased Abbot, but sought out Edgar Atheling, whom they themselves declared was the only true king of the English, to approve this appointment. William was not happy with this blatant English stubbornness to his rule so soon after his coronation, and sent armed men to show them his wroth. Fortunately William was always greedy for gold and allowed himself to be bought off with a hefty fine. Afterwards William returned to Normandy in March 1067 AD, leaving Bishop Odo and his seneschal, (an officer in the houses of important nobles,) William Fitz Osbern, in charge but their methods were heavy handed which lead to out right armed revolt.

1067 AD: EDRIC ‘THE WILD’ AND THE BEGINNING OF ARMED ENGLISH REVOLT

Real armed rebellion in 1067 AD, was brewing in the hilly Marcher land of the Welsh Borders. Here the two Norman Earls who belonged to families who settled in that area during the reign of Edward the Confessor, in their greed for land, used the confusion caused by William’s seizure of the English throne, to extend their land holdings at the expense of local English Thanes. They attacked those lands held by Edric, who was soon to become known as ‘the Wild’. This Edric is thought to be the Edric the Steersman who commanded the Harold’s English Channel Fleet in 1066. There was already bad blood between Edric and his Norman neighbours and now that bad blood exploded into open warfare. In revenge for raids on his land Edric, in alliance with two Welsh princes, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, devastated Herefordshire and eventually sacked Hereford itself, before withdrawing back into the hills ahead of the William’s vengeful army.

DECEMBER 1067 AD: WILLIAM RETURNS FROM NORMANDY – THE CITIES SUBMIT

William the returned to spend Christmas in London and in early 1068 AD marched on Exeter, which submitted and was given a castle. The castellan later pushed into Cornwall to establish Norman rule. In the summer three illegitimate sons of Harold landed from Ireland but were beaten off by the men of Somerset. When revolt broke out in Devon and Cornwall the following year the men of Exeter, mindful of the royal power, dealt with the trouble.

William’s wife, Mathilda, came over in the spring of 1068 AD, to be crowned at Westminster. At about this time Edgar removed himself to Scotland while the English Earls Edwin and Morcar began to ferment trouble; it is said that Edwin was denied the promise of William’s daughter in marriage. The northern earls allied with their nephew, Bleddyn of Wales, and a northern insurrection seemed likely. William proceeded to march north to deal with it, building castles as he went. While one of those castles was being built at Warwick, Edwin and Morcar submitted; and while William was beginning on the castle at Nottingham, York was surrendering. Malcolm of Scotland made peace with William’s representative, the Bishop of Durham. William then built a motte in York itself (probably what is now known as Clifford’s Tower, although the stonework on the summit is 13^th century in date. The second motte across the river, the Old Bailey, may be that built the following year in response to further unrest – see below.)

1069 AD: MORE ENGLISH REBELLION IN THE NORTH

The following year, the north again rose in rebellion. In January of 1069 AD William appointed a certain Robert de Commines or (Comines), as Earl of Northumberland in place of Earl Morcar, and the first Norman Earl of Northumbria, without any attempt to ask the English of Northumbria if they were willing to accept a Norman overlord rather than the English Earl Morcar. Of course the result of this blatant act of Norman arrogance was that the English rose in rebellion and massacred Robert and the 900 Norman troops while they were staying in the city of Durham. Edgar Atheling took advantage of this rebellion and massacre, and came south from Scotland and received the men of Northumbria at York. At this, William acted swiftly and marched north and with complete surprise he sacked the city of Durham killing hundreds of the English population and torched the city.

ENTER THE DANISH VIKINGS UNDER SWEIN ESTHRITHSON

More mayhem was to come later in 1069 AD. Harold’s sons were back raiding the west of England again, however, unfortunately for them they were met and defeated at the hands of Earl Brian of Penthievre, at which they withdrew back to Ireland. More or less at the same time that Harold’s sons were raiding Cornwall, Edric the Wild and his Welsh allies had broken out from their Marcher hills and sacked and took Shrewsbury before moving onto Chester. William the was tied up dealing with the rebellion in the north, so had to leave Edric to his own devices until he had dealt with Earls Edwin and Morcar who were supported by the Danish King, Swein Esthrithson, who also had a claim to the English throne. Remember also that Harold Godwinson; the now defeated Harold king of England was originally part of the Danish party in England. The link with Denmark was strong.

The Danish Fleet of around 240 and 300 ships, which also included three of Swein‘s sons and a brother. They plundered their way north along the English eastern coast via Dover, Sandwich, Ipswich and Norfolk before sailing into the River Humber. Fighting alongside them were the Earl’s Waltheof and Gospatrick, together with Edgar Atheling. As the northern rebellion spread, the English and their Danish allies marched on York and attacked both the City and the new Norman Castle. William Malet the Norman Constable of York, sent word that he could not hold out much longer in York and William the marched rapidly toward the city, in a march that can almost be compared with King Harold’s march north in 1066 AD. The Constable of York fired the houses surrounding the castle (Clifford’s Tower) to prevent them being used but the flames spread throughout the city even to the Minster. The Norman garrison made a sortie which was defeated and the Norman garrison was slaughtered, after which heroic verses were sung about Earl Waltheof’s exploit in slaying many Normans with his Danish long axe as they tried to escape through one of the cities many gates. After William had retaken York the English and their Danish allies withdrew, and a second castle was built on the other bank of the Ouse (Now known as the Old Bailey – or from the Old French word baile.)

William continued his campaign in the north of England laying waste as he went, leaving his subordinate commanders to deal with the revolts in Devon and Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, and Cheshire. The Danes took to their ships and began raiding the east coast of England, seeking help from their brethren in the old Dane Law part of England, which included the marshy wetlands of the Fens, where other rebellious problems for the Normans were brewing

William then returned south, placing castles at Lincoln, Huntingdon and Cambridge, he left part of his forces to watch the Fens while he crossed the Pennine hills to face the threat posed by Edric the wild and the Welsh princes. Edric now had a formidable force bolstered by the fighting men of Cheshire and Staffordshire. William rode with his force and joined Earl Brian, who had marched up from the West Country after dealing with the dead English king Harold’s sons. Edric became wary and withdrew to the hills with his fighting men from Herefordshire and Shropshire. The Welsh, with the remaining English, fought on and were defeated at the Battle of Stafford. William true to his violent and destructive nature proceeded to devastate the surrounding countryside laying it waste. A further revolt in the West Country, that seemed to be aimed at individual Normans, fizzled out in the face of Norman forces drawn from London and the south east and through internal arguments amongst the English.

Once again William turned north and now dealt with the issue of Northumberland. A problem that had festered and grown in unison with the stepping up of the revolt in the Fens in the east of England - lead by the local landholder, one Hereward the Wake. After a hard march north along a route determined by violent resistance, broken bridges and swollen rivers, William re-took York without a fight. The Danes had fled and the men of Northumberland, dispirited by the William’s ability to advance despite the hazards set before him by both nature and the English, fled into the hills, pursued by the Normans. With grim determination, the William’s army set about their usual task of destroying homes and crops, and extinguishing all human and animal life from the river Humber to the Wash. Those Englishmen, women and children who avoided violent death, died from exposure or starvation. Tens of thousands died. It was ethnic cleansing of the English on a huge scale. It took decades for the English to repopulate the area. Mainly returning English refugees.

The bloodletting didn’t end there, but continued even while the “Bastard usurper” William celebrated Christmas at York, complete with a feast served on silver plate especially brought up from Winchester, while the English suffered and starved. Christmas over, the William pursued the men of Tees (north east England,) around the Cleveland hills. William’s harrowing of the north and of the whole of England had its effect on the leaders of the northern rebellion, as Waltheof and Gospatrick both came to an accommodation with him. The usurper made his way back to York in atrocious conditions, seeking bands of Englishmen as he and his army went, suffering heavy losses of men in the process. Here he re-erected the castles that the English and their Norse allies had burned down and re-garrisoned them. He was now able to turn his destructive attention to Chester, which was still defiantly refusing to recognise him as their King. Chester was at the northern extremity of the Welsh Marches and at the same time offered access to the Norse based in Ireland, should they decide to help their Viking brethren living in Cumberland.

1070 AD: THE RESISTANCE BEGINS TO HURT THE NORMANS

In the January of 1070 AD, a Norman army marched across the Pennines in bad weather through land that offered them no sustenance since they themselves had laid it waste. William the Conquerors army suffered badly in the hills to both the weather and continued English ambushes and hit and run attacks both during the day and at night. The men, who were mainly fickle French mercenaries from the northern provinces of France, mutinied, so he abandoned them to their fate, and their just fate was to freeze to death or to be butchered by the vengeful English who had suffered terribly at the hands of these hired killers. William with a reduced force consisting of only Normans, arrived at Chester, and it submitted without a fight. He then busied himself building castles to hold the north down. He also spent money on buying the Norse, under their leader, Jarl Osbjorn, off with large Danegeld.

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1070 TO 1071 AD: HEREWARD THE WAKE AND THE ENGLISH RESISTANCE IN THE FENS

The Fens area of eastern England has always been a marshy if not boggy area of salt-water flats. Treacherous, misty and a place that is easy to get lost in even in modern times. It has and still has one prominent high point – the Isle of Ely. The gathering revolt in the Fens, lead by Hereward, had been strengthened by refugees from the William’s ravages in the north the harrying of Northumberland, including Earl Morcar. With Osbjorn accepting the Norman bribe, the English revolt in the north had been weakened and to some extent so had the revolt in the Fens. However, whilst his brother, Jarl Osbjorn, and his fleet had been bought off, King Swein of Denmark and a newly arrived Norse fleet hadn’t. What happened during the years 1070 and 1071 AD is as much apart of legend as it is of recorded fact. We know that William made at least two or more unsuccessful attempts, either in person, or through his lieutenants, to take the Isle of Ely where Hereward and his stubborn English and Norse forces were based. We also know that Hereward kept his Norse allies paid by allowing them to sack Peterborough and its Cathedral, which was now controlled by a Norman Abbot. What we do not really know are the exact facts of either Hereward’s resistance operations, or the reason why eventually Swein, allowed himself to be bought off. Was it perhaps that Swein saw himself in a no win situation? Or another reason? There just may not have been enough glory or money in slogging out a resistance war for a vainglorious Danish Viking!! Whatever the truth was, Hereward lost his Norse allies, and after continued steadfast English resistance the Normans later took the Isle of Ely, the legend being that the resistance in the Fens ended after local monks betrayed the secret causeways through the marshes, allowing the Normans access to the Isle, But although Ely fell some time in the year 1071 AD, Hereward escaped and, with a band of true followers, continued to be a thorn in the William’s side for many years to come. There will be more on Edric, Hereward and other English leaders later on in this continuing story of the English Nation in the link:

HEROS OF THE ENGLISH RESISTANCE.

1072 AD: THE ENGLISH RESISTANCE CONTINUES BUT ENGLISH ARE CUT OFF IN WHAT IS NOW CALLED ‘SCOTLAND’

1072 AD, and this time the trouble comes from the Scots, whom with their numbers swelled by many English, including Edgar Atheling, the usurper took a Norman army across the border and confronted Malcolm the King of Scots at Abernethy. But Malcolm lost the fight in him and accepted what he thought was the inevitable and made peace. The Scottish lowlands are still primarily occupied by people who are racially of English / Anglo-Saxon descent. Many are those who were ‘cut off’ by the Norman occupation of the other parts of England or are descendents of older Anglo-Saxon settlers. Edinburgh (‘Edwins Burgh’) being a Saxon town originally. Dumfries (‘town of the Friesians.’) Many Scots still speak English intermixed with Old English terminology and Old English sounding words such as the way they pronounce ‘out’ or ‘house’. This separation of many tens of thousands of English peoples into what is now called Scotland may be the true cost of the Harrying of the North. But English they are.

1073 AD: ENGLISH SOLDIERS MOVE WITH WILLIAM TO CRUSH THE REVOLTING FRENCH

By the year 1073 AD, William felt that at last he had conquered the English. And it was perhaps just as well, when he had news that his French subjects in Main in France were in revolting. It may surprise many to realise that the army that the usurper King William took with him to subdue his French subjects was largely English. Possibly his Viking genealogy of toughness and effectiveness had won over many of Saxon descent. And these Englishmen were going to show that they had watched their new Norman overlords well, for it was they who devastated Main in the same manner as the Normans had done to their lands in the north of England, in Cheshire, Northumberland, Cumberland, and North Derbyshire and Yorkshire, Devon, Cornwall, the Tees and the Fens, so perhaps the English had had some of their bloody revenge. The French chroniclers lament at the scale and ferocity of the English blood lust. And not for the last time. In the long run Hastings was the beginning of the Anglicising of France and in more modern times the whole of Europe*. It brought England and the English language out of its ‘box’. It produced hundreds of years of vengeful English counter punches on the French - notably at the battles of Crecy and Agincourt. But back in England, the William’s feelings that he had finally put an end to any English Resistance were perhaps a bit premature, apart from some roving bands of bandits praying on their new overlords, England was still very much quietly brooding both in that year of 1073 and in the following years.

* The finality of this process began in the role reversal of the Anglo-American led invasion of Normandy in 1944. A vastly weakened northern France has taken on a very Anglo style of society, economic look and aspiration.

1075 AD: “THE REVOLT OF THE ENGLISH EARLS” - THE STORM OF ENGLISH REBELLION BRAKES OUT AGAIN

The English storm broke yet again in the year 1075 with the rebellion known as the “Revolt of the Earls”. The two Earls were both half English and half French, and previously they had supported William in his claim to the English throne in that bloody ‘year of change’ - 1066 AD. Ralf, Earl of East Anglia, who was English on his father’s side and had been born in Norfolk, but had grown up in Brittany. And Roger, Earl of Hereford, who was English on his mother’s side and who was born in Hereford, was Ralf’s brother-in-law. These two Anglo-French Earls plotted to bring in Danish support; they were also in communication with both Edric the Wild and Earl Waltheof for their support. Waltheof declined his support and would not get involved in any plot, but also declined to betray them. If this rebellion were successful, the simultaneous rising of the Earls would split England in two. But as fate would have it the timing of the revolt was out of alignment and the usurper King was able to crush Earl Roger’s forces, before dealing with Earl Ralf’s forces. The only memorable event was the stubborn defence of Norwich by Ralf’s new bride, Emma, where she withstood the bloody Norman siege for three long hard months after her husband had left to seek support and aid from the Danes. The Norse fleet of perhaps 200 ships were too late to lift the siege. What of the two Anglo-French Earls though, well Ralf made it to his Breton holdings to be joined by his wife, and there they continued their fight against the Normans. Ralf’s punishment was the losing of all right to his English lands. Earl Roger was also disinherited. Unfortunately for him he had been captured and spent the rest of his life in prison. But what of Earl Waltheof, well having refused to take part in the “Revolt of the Earls”, and had nonetheless sworn an oath of secrecy, but on the advice of Lanfranc, the Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, he revealed the whole plan to King William. And at first William accepted Waltheof’s protestations of innocence but, some have said that on the information given to him by his niece Judith, Waltheof’s wife, William later charged the Earl of Northumberland with treason and had him beheaded. But the English, and as it turned out many of the Normans, were against the execution. Sometime after Earl Waltheof’s execution miracles were reported at Waltheof’s tomb and it rapidly became a place of pilgrimage. Many contemporaries said that from then on William’s facial ‘look’ changed from then onwards as a result of Divine judgment.

1076 TO 1087 AD: THE ENGLISH IN ‘SCOTLAND’ RAID

By the late 1070’s and 1080’s Williams original band of Normans were thinning in numbers. Their sons were now able to understand English and grew their beards and hair like English boys. They married English girls. It remained fashionable to be called Norman and many English ‘converted’ with the Kings blessing to being regarded as ‘Norman.’ But the numbers of pure Normans were falling. Many free English men still carried the Seax fighting around their waist as a sign of their English ethnicity. William’s troubles were now coming from France and the borders with ‘Scotland’ where Malcolm and his English supporters were regularly raiding. The Welsh too were becoming a growing cause for Norman concern. And he was still having a few problems with the English from the mid 1070’s onward, but the major problem with the continuing English resistance came in 1080 AD, when the men of Gateshead slew the Norman Bishop of Durham and massacred a hundred Frenchmen, and in the year 1086 AD when Edgar Atheling was again in revolt. And throughout the rest of his reign, the usurper would have no real peace from his English subjects and he would continue to be threatened by the Norse, even in the following year 1087, the year of the William the Conquerors death he was still having trouble from the Norse, who new that in any landing they made on the East Anglia or Northumberland coasts they would find strong support from their brethren in the Old Dane Law area of north and east England. .

WHY DID THE ENGLISH RESISTANCE FAIL? DID IT ULTIMATELY FAIL?

The long answer to that follows. The short answer is that the English speak English, despite going on 400 years of Norman oppression of the English language after the Battle of Hastings. 400 years where the English stubbornly refused to speak another language to the extent that the famous English ‘inability’ to learn languages is in fact genetic coding born of this stubbornness, Even in those later years, when it seemed to the new Norman overlords that the English were getting used to their new masters, things were not as peaceful as they looked. Evidence of this is the Murdrum fine. Because of the high rate of homicide being inflicted on the Normans and their French allies by the English (bar fights, arguments etc - if you are of English descent you may relate!) William legislated that all Frenchmen who settled in England after the invasion were to be in the King’s peace and therefore he was their protector in an alien land. Its introduction was to be recognised at the time as being necessary due to the stubborn hatred of the Normans by the English, and the growing number of attacks on them. The fine was a high one of 46 Marks. This sum was to be paid by the Lord of the dead man to the Crown if the perpetrator was not soon caught. If the killer could not reimburse the victim’s lord, then the Hundred (small area of an English county,) where the crime had been committed had to. In view of the strength and longevity of the English resistance to their new usurper King, why did English resistance to the Normans fail, if it really failed at all? Well one vital element was William’s determination and immense energy that saw him going from one end of England to another, fighting out brakes of resistance and stamping on the smouldering embers of resentment, resentment that never really died in the hearts of the English. Another important element was that, once an area had been secured, castles were raised and garrisoned to keep the English in check. But the key element was that the viable leadership of any form of English resistance was effectively neutralised when the last true native English King, Harold, was killed at the Battle of Senlac Ridge near Hastings. There was no King, and therefore no united English leadership or heart in the remaining English. Until a new king was elected, the defence of the English realm devolved on the noble ealdormen – who were either dead, or recovering from Stamford Bridge or Fulford. Under the ealdormen came the king’s thanes and shire-reeves (men like Edric the Wild or Hereward the Wake, Harold’s son Swein or any one of a myriad of other resistance leaders who continued to remain a problem to the new Norman overlords) that did continue fighting against the William in their own areas. Those English nobles who were left after the defeat on Senlac Ridge seemed to be driven by their own personal needs, or quest for their own survival, co-operating with each other on occasions, but then only to head off on their own agenda when it suited them. Without a decisive leadership, no English army could take the field.

Without a doubt, this inability to find a leader was to be advantageous to William, which would have given him time to recover in 1066 AD, to take London and Winchester and force the acknowledgement of his accession from the remaining members of the English Witan (Parliament of sorts.) But it did take until 1075 AD until the usurper felt confident in his control of England. But then it was the turn of the Anglo-Norman barons to rebel against him, claiming a wish to return to the laws and rights of Englishmen during the ineffectual rule of Edward the Confessor. And always there was the threat of Norse invasion, supported by the men of the Dane-law.

But as time passed the English and Normans slowly came together through the necessity of living side by side and also through marriage. The Normans are by lineage closely related to the English through the Viking connection. With many of the common Normans, and their French brethren, being men of small worth, they had little option, but to inter-marry with their English neighbours, leaving their noble masters to carry on the illusion of being Norman. But as the years passed, even they, with their children being raised by English nannies and their English Reeves and stewards managing their estates, began to adopt first the title of Anglo-Norman, and then the title of Englishmen. An Anglo-Norman chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, who in 1125 AD even applauded the continued resistance of the English to William. Being ‘Norman’ became and is an unpopular phrase. As the legend goes the Saxon Robin Hood is the hero. The Norman Sherriff of Nottingham is the villain. In short, the continued English Resistance won through, the English continued to be English, the English language continued until even their Norman overlords were speaking English, English songs and verse continued as did English identity and history. The English remained themselves, they didn’t become Norman, the Normans became English, or the invaders had to adapt to the English and in the end were absorbed by the English, so in the end the English had finally won. Who now speaks Norman French? Is Normandy / Normandie truly part of England? It is an irony that through Harold Godwinsons connection with Rus (Russian) Royalty, the present Prince William, sons of Prince Charles, has Harold’s blood flowing through his veins a thousand years on. So the Saxons won after all. Poetic justice.

1087 AD: THE SEAL OF THE CONQUEROR

By the year of our Lord God 1086 AD, England was finally into the William’s cold bloody hands, its lands, that had once belonged to the native English nobility who were now dead or in self-inflicted exile, I say that because to these sons of the old and wiped out native English nobility, who were growing up with no lands, and certainly no future in an England dominated by William and his army, had no choice but to seek their own fortunes elsewhere, such those who took ship to Byzantium, becoming the back bone of the Varangian Guard, but that is another story.

William of Normandy put his final seal on this Kingdom, that he had take by bloody force, that final seal was the Doomsday Book, in which every town, village, water mill, flower mill, farmstead, every field, crop, every forest, wood, and copes including there length and breadth, in every Parish, in every County in England was taken down, plus its worth before 1066 AD, and its worth in 1086, even down to the lands in the north of England that the William and his gangs of Norman thugs harried, ravaged, burned and butchered were marked down as well, but simply marked down as waste, or Waste (wasteland,) in other words, nothing was left out; as if it was as though King William ‘’the Bastard,’’ was stamping both England and its subjected, and disenfranchised English People with his hard bloody Usurper’s Seal, as if he was saying, England and its People is mine, it belongs to me and my heir’s and successor’s. The Doomsday book is, however, a factual snapshot of Saxon England. Like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles before it. Both works give supreme credence to the English Nation.

In these words, as if in a plea to the almighty for freedom from the Norman yoke were spoken by an Englishman in the years following 1066:

“A Cold Heart and a Bloody Hand, Now Rule The English Land!”

But within the next few hundred years, those heir’s and successor’s William were to lose their Norman estates, among those other Lands that once belong to the Norman King’s of England, the descendants of those first Norman thugs would gradually become native and English, their children would be brought up by English nannies, learning English, and English songs, poems, and stories, first English became their second language after their old Norman-French tongue, but later English became their one and only native tongue, even the later Anglo-Norman Kings would become wholly English, so it was to be that finally from being a subjected second or even third class people in their own homeland, speaking a language that had once been only spoken by the English serfs, had finally absorbed their Norman overlords, the English were no longer second class, or subjected, England was theirs again. Some centuries later when the English King Henry V defeated the French army at Agincourt he was giving his words of command in English. When he famously disguised himself to walk amongst common soldiers the night before the battle, he did it as an Englishman.

William reigned for twenty years after that long hard bloody struggle on Senlac Ridge (Hastings) he had stamped his bloody mark on England and with the very hearts, minds and souls of the English People, that even still to this day, is unforgotten in the hearts and minds of the English who care to remember.

But in the year 1087 AD he was injured in a riding accident, when his saddles high pommel was thrust into his abdomen, which had the affect of rupturing his stomach. After four days of unending pain, which Englishmen would say was the God’s punishment on him, asking for absolution for the lives he had taken by his own hand, and for those, whose lives had been lost in his cause, since he was at the young age of eight, and at the last, his death bed confessions mainly lay on his bloody subjugation of England and its English People, who were laying heavy on his mind.

Orderic Vitalis recorded his dying words thus:

“May God forgive me, for I have taken that which was not mine to take…”

“I have persecuted the English beyond all reason. Whether gentle or simple I have cruelly oppressed them; many I unjustly disinherited; innumerable multitudes perished through me by famine or the sword…. I fell upon the English of the northern Shires like a ravening lion. I commandeered their houses and corn, with all their implements and chattels to be burnt without distinction, and great herds of cattle and beasts of burden to be butchered wherever they were found. In this way I took revenge upon the multitudes of both sexes by subjecting them to the calamity of a cruel famine, and so became the barbarous murderer of many thousands, both young and old of that fine race of people. Having gained the throne of that Kingdom by so many crimes, I dare not leave it to anyone but God…..”

William’s bloated rank corps was buried at Caen amidst some confusion, his tomb was decorated and desecrated by turns many times during the ensuing centuries, until now only a thigh bone lies beneath the simple slab there, just inscribed with his name.

So ended the life of William the Bastard Usurper, who sort to rule a land that was not his to rule, a land he had taken without legality or legitimacy, a land whose people he cruelly subjugated a people he had no god given right to persecute or govern, since they were not his people to govern, his death was the end of his rule, but not the end of Norman rule, he was followed by his son William Rufus who was to be as cruel to the English as his father, but he would prove to be not even half the man his Father had been, but that as they say is another story in the continuing history of the brave English Nation.