Harrying of the North
Encyclopedia
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England
, and is part of the Norman conquest of England
. It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through large-scale destruction that resulted in the relative "pacification" of the local population and the replacement of local Anglo
-Danish
lords with Normans
. The death toll is believed to be over 100,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage. Because of 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.
, English resistance to the conquest was centred around Edgar Ætheling
, nephew of Edward the Confessor
. It is said that the English conceded defeat, not at Hastings, but at Berkhamsted two months later when Edgar and his supporters submitted to William in December 1066. The population of northern England found itself bereft of the state protection that a king provided, for William's victory had not been secured. Despite their never having sworn allegiance to Edgar, William considered the northerners rebels because they were in the realm of King Edward
, whom he regarded as his direct predecessor.
Pre-conquest society can be described as “Anglo-Scandinavian” carrying a cultural continuity from a mixing of Viking
and Anglo-Saxon traditions. 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 exercised a limited amount of power in the shire..
William secured the situation in Northumbria with the quick appointment of Copsi, a native who had done homage to William, as earl. 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. When the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. 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. 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. Upon receiving the assistance, he began to plot with the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute
. With his allied forces he invaded in 1069 to claim the crown to which the old Witan had once elevated him. It was at this time, on 28 January, that the rebels converged on Durham
and murdered William's newly-named earl Robert de Comines
, a Norman
who ignored the advice of William's ally, the bishop of Durham, Ethelwin
.
to do so) and a mixed army of Gaels
, Vikings, and Angles
fell on the north to secure the throne for the old dynasty. The army captured York
, but made no other headway and the Northumbrians proclaimed no independent state. 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.
From the Humber
to Tees, William's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre
would succumb to starvation over the winter. The land was salted to destroy its productivity for decades forward. The survivors were reduced to cannibalism
Even some who were usually in support of William and the Normans were horrified by his actions.
the Honour of Richmond
in 1071 giving him control of York. 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:
It was not until 1072 that William appointed another Earl of Northumbria, William Walcher
Bishop of Durham 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 strategy was a complete success, as large areas, including regions as far south and west as Staffordshire
, were waste (wasta est, as Domesday says) and further rebellions of any substance did not occur. 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.
However this view is challenged by the writings of Symeon of Durham
in his Libellus De Exordio Atque Procursu Istius, Hoc Est Dunhelmensis, Ecclesie in which he states after the 1080 murder of Walcher Bishop of Durham by the local Northumbrians, King William rode up with an army and laid waste all the lands from York to Durham. The implication here being that a second laying 'waste' implied a general sacking, and that contemporary records were guilty of exaggerating the extent of the Harrying.
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
, and is part of the Norman conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through large-scale destruction that resulted in the relative "pacification" of the local population and the replacement of local Anglo
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
-Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
lords with Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
. The death toll is believed to be over 100,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage. Because of the scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policy, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated, a fact to which Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, written almost two decades later, readily attests.
Background Information
After the defeat of the English army and death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of HastingsBattle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
, English resistance to the conquest was centred around Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling
Edgar Ætheling , or Edgar II, was the last male member of the royal house of Cerdic of Wessex...
, nephew of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
. It is said that the English conceded defeat, not at Hastings, but at Berkhamsted two months later when Edgar and his supporters submitted to William in December 1066. The population of northern England found itself bereft of the state protection that a king provided, for William's victory had not been secured. Despite their never having sworn allegiance to Edgar, William considered the northerners rebels because they were in the realm of King Edward
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, whom he regarded as his direct predecessor.
Pre-conquest society can be described as “Anglo-Scandinavian” carrying a cultural continuity from a mixing of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
and Anglo-Saxon traditions. The dialect of English spoken in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
was unintelligible to people from the south of England, the aristocracy was primarily Danish in origin, and the Anglo-Saxon kings exercised a limited amount of power in the shire..
William secured the situation in Northumbria with the quick appointment of Copsi, a native who had done homage to William, as earl. The appointment did not last as Copsi was murdered by Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf III of Bernicia
Eadulf III of Bernicia
Eadulf III or Eadwulf III was the earl of Bernicia from 1038 until his death. He was a son of Uhtred the Bold and succeeded his brother Ealdred. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was betrayed by King Harthacnut and killed...
, whose family had long been rulers of Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
, and at times Northumbria. When the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. He was not long in power before he joined the Aetheling in rebellion in 1068. With support of Edwin, Earl of Mercia
Edwin, Earl of Mercia
Edwin was the elder brother of Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, son of Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia and grandson of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. He succeeded to his father's title and responsibilities on Ælfgār's death in 1062...
, and Morcar, the deposed earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria
Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia. Under the Norse kingdom of York, there were earls of...
, Edgar rebelled against the new king but was immediately defeated. He fled to the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland
Malcolm III of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...
and there married his sister, Margaret
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland , also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England...
, to the Scottish king in expectation of assistance. Upon receiving the assistance, he began to plot with the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute
Canute the Great
Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...
. With his allied forces he invaded in 1069 to claim the crown to which the old Witan had once elevated him. It was at this time, on 28 January, that the rebels converged on Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
and murdered William's newly-named earl Robert de Comines
Robert Comine
Robert Comine was very briefly earl of Northumbria. His name suggests that he originally came from Comines, then in the County of Flanders, and entered the following of William the Conqueror. He was sent to the north as earl from 1068 to 1069 after the deposition of Gospatric...
, a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
who ignored the advice of William's ally, the bishop of Durham, Ethelwin
Ethelwin
Æthelwine was the last Anglo-Saxon bishop of Durham, the last who was not also a secular ruler, and the only English bishop at the time of the Norman Conquest who did not remain loyal to King William the Conqueror.-Life:Æthelwine was consecrated bishop in...
.
The Harrying
At that juncture, Ethelwin abandoned the pro-Norman camp (the only English prelatePrelate
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...
to do so) and a mixed army of Gaels
Gaels
The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....
, Vikings, and Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
fell on the north to secure the throne for the old dynasty. The army captured York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, but made no other headway and the Northumbrians proclaimed no independent state. 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.
From the Humber
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal River Ouse and the tidal River Trent. From here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank...
to Tees, William's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
would succumb to starvation over the winter. The land was salted to destroy its productivity for decades forward. The survivors were reduced to cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
Even some who were usually in support of William and the Normans were horrified by his actions.
Legacy
Having effectively subdued the population, William carried out a wholesale replacement of Anglo-Saxon leaders with Norman ones in Yorkshire. He granted Alain Le RouxAlain Le Roux
Alan Rufus was a probable companion of William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest and especially during Harrying of the North, in which he built Richmond Castle. He was the second son of Odo, Count of Penthièvre, by Agnes, daughter of Alain Cagnart, Count of Cornouaille, and a cousin of...
the Honour of Richmond
Honour of Richmond
The Honour of Richmond in north-west Yorkshire was granted to Count Alan Rufus by William the Conqueror in 1071AD. The honour, which was assessed for the service of 60 knights, was one of the most important fiefs in Norman England. - Territory :...
in 1071 giving him control of York. 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:
It was not until 1072 that William appointed another Earl of Northumbria, William Walcher
William Walcher
William Walcher was the bishop of Durham from 1071, a Lotharingian, the first non-Englishman to hold that see and an appointee of William the Conqueror....
Bishop of Durham 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 strategy was a complete success, as large areas, including regions as far south and west as Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, were waste (wasta est, as Domesday says) and further rebellions of any substance did not occur. 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
Whig history
Whig history is the approach to historiography which presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, Whig historians stress the rise of constitutional government,...
and was not mainstream knowledge until then.
However this view is challenged by the writings of Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham
Symeon of Durham was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. When William of Saint-Calais returned from his Norman exile in 1091, Symeon was probably in his company...
in his Libellus De Exordio Atque Procursu Istius, Hoc Est Dunhelmensis, Ecclesie in which he states after the 1080 murder of Walcher Bishop of Durham by the local Northumbrians, King William rode up with an army and laid waste all the lands from York to Durham. The implication here being that a second laying 'waste' implied a general sacking, and that contemporary records were guilty of exaggerating the extent of the Harrying.
See also
- List of massacres in the United Kingdom
- Earl of NorthumbriaEarl of NorthumbriaEarl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia. Under the Norse kingdom of York, there were earls of...
- NorthumbriaNorthumbriaNorthumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
- Norman Conquest
- Domesday BookDomesday BookDomesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...