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The Harrying (or Harrowing) of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror, in the winter of 1069–1070 in order to subjugate Northern England and is part of the Norman conquest of England. William I of England ( 1027 His reign which brought Norman culture to England had an enormous impact on the subsequent course of England in the Middle Ages Northern England, The North, The North of England or (less commonly The North Country refers to the parts of England north of an ill-defined line It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through wide scale destruction resulting in the relative pacification of the local population and the replacement of local Anglo-Danish lords with Norman ones. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. The death toll is believed to be 150,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage. Due to the scorched earth policy, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated, a fact to which Domesday Book, written almost two decades later, readily attests. A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method (possibly more often referred to as a tactic but this is not entirely correct as there is a difference between The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey

Contents

Background

see also Gwynedd's alliance with Mercia and Northumbria

With the abdication of Edgar Ætheling from the kingship of England in December 1066, the population of northern England found themselves bereft of the state protection which a king provided, for William's victory had not been secured there. See also Kingdom of Gwynedd Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th Edgar ( the) Ætheling, also known as Edgar the Outlaw (c 1051&ndashc Despite their never having sworn allegiance to Edgar, William considered the northerners rebels as they were within the realm of King Edward, whom he regarded as his direct predecessor. King Edward the Confessor (c 1003 &ndash 5 January 1066 son of Ethelred the Unready, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon King of England and the last

Pre-conquest society can be described as “Anglo-Scandinavian” carrying a cultural continuity from a mixing of Viking and Anglo-Celtic traditions. A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas It was reported that the dialect of English spoken in Yorkshire was unintelligible to people from the south of England, the aristocracy was primarily Danish in origin, and the Anglo-Saxon kings were said to only exercise a limited amount of power in the shire. Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. The term Dane may refer to People with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity whether living in Denmark, emigrants or the descendants of emigrants Anglo-Saxon monarchs were the rulers of the various kingdoms which arose in England following the withdrawal of the Romans in the fifth century [1]

William secured the situation in Northumbria with the quick appointment of Copsi, a native who had done homage to William, as earl. Copsi (also known as Copsig was a Northumbrian magnate in late Anglo-Saxon England. The appointment did not last as Copsi was murdered by Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf III of Bernicia, whose family had long been rulers of Bernicia and at times Northumbria also. Osulf II (also known as Oswulf) was the son of Eadulf III, Earl of Bernicia (killed 1041 and grandson of Uchtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria Eadulf III or Eadwulf (died 1041 was the earl of Bernicia from 1038 until his death Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now the South-East of Scotland and the North-East of When the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. Gospatric or Cospatric (from the Cumbrian "Servant of Saint Patrick " (died after 1073 was Earl of Northumbria, or of Bernicia He was not long in power before he joined the Aetheling in rebellion in 1068. With support of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, the deposed earl of Northumbria, Edgar rebelled against the new king but was immediately defeated. Edwin (died 1071 Old English: Ēadwine) was the elder brother of Morcar Earl of Northumbria, son of Ælfgār Earl of Mercia and grandson Morcar (or Morkere) (d 1087 was the son of Ælfgār (earl of Mercia) and brother of Ēadwine. Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. He fled to the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland and there married his sister Margaret to the Scottish king in expectation of assistance. Máel Coluim mac Donnchada ( Modern Gaelic: Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh) called in most Anglicised regnal lists Malcolm III, and in later centuries Saint Margaret (c 1045 – 16 November 1093 was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Upon receiving the assistance, he began to plot with the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute. This is a list of Danish Monarchs, that is the Kings and Queens regnant of Denmark. Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson (c 1019 &ndash April 28, 1074 or 1076 was the King of Denmark from 1047 until his death } Canute the Great, also known as Cnut in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, or Knut ( Old Norse: Knútr inn ríki, Norwegian With his allied forces he invaded in 1069 to claim the crown to which the old Witan had once elevated him. The Witenagemot or the Witena gemot (ˈwɪtənəgɪˌməʊt also known as the Witan (more properly the title of its members was a political institution in It was at this time, on 28 January, that the rebels converged on Durham and murdered the newly-named earl Robert de Comines, a Norman who ignored the advice of William's ally, the bishop of Durham, Ethelwin. Events 1077 - Walk to Canossa: The Excommunication of Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is lifted Durham (ˈdʌrəm in RP, locally ˈdʏrəm is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham, England Robert Comine (also Robert de Comines, Robert de Comyn) was very briefly Earl of Northumbria. The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. See also List of Bishops of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican Bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in Ethelwin (also Egelwin, Aethelwyne, Aethelwine, Aethelwyn, Æthelwine, or Aethelwin) was the last Anglo-Saxon

The Harrying

At that juncture, Ethelwin abandoned the pro-Norman camp (the only English prelate to do so) and a mixed army of Gaels, Vikings, and Angles fell on the north to secure the throne for the old dynasty. A prelate is a high-ranking member of the Clergy who either is an Ordinary or ranks in precedence with ordinaries A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their name from the cultural ancestral region of Angeln, a modern district located in The army captured York, but made no other headway and the Northumbrians proclaimed no independent state. York ( is an historic Walled city sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. William promptly dispatched an army north to stop the attempted restoration of the West Saxon line to the throne. Again Edgar fled to Scotland and, for the first time in many years, the king of England paid the Danes to leave his soil. The term Dane may refer to People with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity whether living in Denmark, emigrants or the descendants of emigrants

From the Humber to Tees, William's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. The Humber is a large tidal Estuary on the east coast of northern England The Tees is a river in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the Pennines, and flows eastwards for about 85 miles Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The land was salted to destroy its productivity for decades forward. The survivors were reduced to cannibalism, with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that the brains could be eaten. Cannibalism (from Spanish es ''caníbal'' in connection with cannibalism among the Antillean Caribs, also called anthropophagy (from Greek ἄνθρωπος A plague followed.

Even some people who were usually in support of William and the Normans were horrified by his actions;[2]

“The King stopped at nothing to hunt his enemies. He cut down many people and destroyed homes and land. Nowhere else had he shown such cruelty.

To his shame he made no effort to control his fury and he punished the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food should be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of hunger.

I have often praised William in this book, but I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter. God will punish him.

”

—Orderic Vitalis, 11th century

Aftereffects and Legacy

Having effectively subdued the population, William carried out a wholesale replacement of Anglo-Saxon leaders with Norman ones in Yorkshire. Orderic Vitalis (1075&ndashc 1142 was an English chronicler who wrote one of the great contemporary Chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and He granted Alain Le Roux the Honour of Richmond in 1071 giving him control of York. Alain Le Roux (c 1040-1089 known in Latin as Alanus Rufus and in English as Alan the Red, was a probable companion of William the Conqueror in the The Honour of Richmond was created by Alain Le Roux, son of Eudes Count of Penthièvre, grandson of Geoffrey I Duke of Brittany. As a result of the demographic decimation, Norman landowners sought settlers to work the agricultural fields. Evidence suggests that such barons were willing to rent lands to any men not obviously disloyal. Unlike the Vikings in the centuries before, Normans did not settle wholesale in the shire, but only occupied the upper ranks of society. This allowed an Anglo-Scandinavian culture to survive beneath Norman rule. Evidence for continuity can be seen in the retention of many cultural traits:

“Many personal names of a pre-conquest character appear in charters that date from the 11th century to the 13th century. The vigorous northern literary tradition in the Middle English period and its distinctive dialect also suggest the survival of an Anglo-Scandinavian population. The relative scarcity of Norman place-names implies that the new settlers came in only at the top rank. Domesday Book shows that at this level, however, Norman takeover in Yorkshire was virtually complete. ”

[3]

It was not until 1072 that William appointed another earl in Northumbria and the Scots made peace. It was, further, not until 1074 that Edgar and William made peace and William's hold on the crown was theoretically uncontested.

From the Norman point of view, the tactics were a complete success, as large areas, including regions as south and west as Staffordshire, were waste (wasta est, as Domesday says) and further rebellions of any substance did not occur. Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. Contemporary biographers of William considered it to be his cruelest act and a stain upon his soul, but the deed was little mentioned before Whig history and was not mainstream knowledge until then. Whig history or Whiggish historiography presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment culminating in modern forms of liberal

The effect on the north was immense and, in economic terms, there was a great inequality between North and South until the Late Middle Ages and arguably into modern times. The Late Middle Ages is a term used by historians to describe European history in the period of the 14th and 15th centuries (AD 1300–1499 In the fifteenth century, the Council of the North was enacted to repair some of these inequities. The Council of the North was an administrative body originally set up in 1485 by king Richard III of England, the last Yorkist monarch to hold the Crown of England

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ *Kapelle, William E. Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The Domesday Book (ˈduːmzdeɪ bʊk also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and Its Transformation 1000-1135. University of North Carolina Press, 1979. The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press) founded in 1922 is a University press that is part of the University of North Carolina. Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) p. 11.
  2. ^ "Orderic's reaction", NormanConquest. co. uk, 24 October 2007. Events 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus the commander of the Danube armies loyal to Vespasian, defeat Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.  
  3. ^ *Hey, David Yorkshire from AD1000. Longman Group Limited, 1986. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) p. 19

References

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