William I

The man who was to become William the First of England was born the barstard son of the Duke of Normandy, Robert the Devil and a tanner's daughter, Herleva. This mismatched pairing maintained a long-term relationship, but never married, presumably for political reasons. When Duke Robert died while on pilgrimage in 1035, the 7-year-old bastard William was his only male offspring. Unsurprisingly, the magnates of Normandy were somewhat reluctant to recognise William as their overlord.

To the average person, William I is remembered for two things; the Battle of Hastings, which allowed him to claim the English throne, and the Domesday Book, which stands as invaluable resource for students of the period. The Bayeux Tapestry is another record of his acheivement which has survived the ages.

William defeated Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. Harold was killed during the battle, and his death is commonly attributed to an arrow in the eye (as is hinted at by the Bayeux Tapestry). Whatever the truth of the matter, it seems that William's archers, along with his cavalry were the keys to this battle. The English professional army, Harold's huscarls were amongst the best in Europe at the time, and had just won a great victory at Stamford Bridge. Like their Norse and Saxons ancestors, they fought on foot, with battle axes and round shields. William however had a diverse and flexible force, under the command of a wily commander, and was able to triumph against the numerically superior English.

Contrary to a popular conception, the victory at Hastings was not in itself enough to guarantee the English crown to William, although it was certainly a decisive blow. A number of the more remote regions held out against the invaders well into 1067. The northern regions were particularly intransigent in yielding to the Conqueror, influenced as they were by the presence of a Saxon Atheling at the Scottish court.

After repeated campaigns against the Yorkshiremen, by the autumn of 1067 William had had enough, and he ordered the harrowing. His men traversed the area from the North Sea to the Irish Channel and from the Humber to the Tyne burning villages and homesteads and killing or driving off the cattle and people who lived there. The land was salted and the crops burned. As winter came on, many of those who had not been killed in the actual attacks starved to death on the highways and byways of the north. Some 20 years later, when the Domesday Book was compiled, it showed many areas still depopulated as a result of this act. It did, however, put an end to the unrest in the north.

When he died in 1087, William was succeeded by his second son, William Rufus, who was crowned as William II . As I understand it, this follows the typical pattern of Norman inheritance. The Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose, inherited the patrimony which had been handed down to William by his father, namely Normandy, while his younger sons received the territories which William had conquered in his own lifetime. This is probably one of the few occasions where this system resulted in the eldest son missing out on a significant part of the inheritance.

timn_from_oz

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