WILLIAM
I 'THE CONQUEROR' (r. 1066-1087)Born around 1028, William was the illegitimate
son of Duke Robert I of Normandy, and Herleve (also known as Arlette), daughter
of a tanner in Falaise. Known as 'William the Bastard' to his contemporaries,
his illegitimacy shaped his career when he was young. On his father's death in
1035, William was recognised by his family as the heir - an exception to the general
rule that illegitimacy barred succession. His great uncle looked after the Duchy
during William's minority, and his overlord, King Henry I of France, knighted
him at the age of 15.
From 1047 onwards, William successfully dealt with
rebellion inside Normandy involving his kinsmen and threats from neighbouring
nobles, including attempted invasions by his former ally King Henry I of France
in 1054 (the French forces were defeated at the Battle of Mortemer) and 1057.
William's military successes and reputation helped him to negotiate his marriage
to Mathilda, daughter of Count Baldwin V of Flanders. At the time of his invasion
of England, William was a very experienced and ruthless military commander, ruler
and administrator who had unified Normandy and inspired fear and respect outside
his duchy.
William's claim to the English throne was based on his assertion
that, in 1051, Edward the Confessor had promised him the throne (he was a distant
cousin) and that Harold II - having sworn in 1064 to uphold William's right to
succeed to that throne - was therefore a usurper. Furthermore, William had the
support of Emperor Henry IV and papal approval. William took seven months to prepare
his invasion force, using some 600 transport ships to carry around 7,000 men (including
2,000-3,000 cavalry) across the Channel. On 28 September 1066, with a favourable
wind, William landed unopposed at Pevensey and, within a few days, raised fortifications
at Hastings. Having defeated an earlier invasion by the King of Norway at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge near York in late September, Harold undertook a forced
march south, covering 250 miles in some nine days to meet the new threat, gathering
inexperienced reinforcements to replenish his exhausted veterans as he marched.
At
the Battle of Senlac (near Hastings) on 14 October, Harold's weary and under-strength
army faced William's cavalry (part of the forces brought across the Channel) supported
by archers. Despite their exhaustion, Harold's troops were equal in number (they
included the best infantry in Europe equipped with their terrible two-handled
battle axes) and they had the battlefield advantage of being based on a ridge
above the Norman positions.
The first uphill assaults by the Normans failed
and a rumour spread that William had been killed; William rode among the ranks
raising his helmet to show he was still alive. The battle was close-fought: a
chronicler described the Norman counter-attacks and the Saxon defence as 'one
side attacking with all mobility, the other withstanding as though rooted to the
soil'. Three of William's horses were killed under him.
William skilfully
co-ordinated his archers and cavalry, both of which the English forces lacked.
During a Norman assault, Harold was killed - hit by an arrow and then mowed down
by the sword of a mounted knight. Two of his brothers were also killed. The demoralised
English forces fled. (In 1070, as penance, William had an abbey built on the site
of the battle, with the high altar occupying the spot where Harold fell. The ruins
of Battle Abbey, and the town of Battle, which grew up around it, remain.)
William
was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey. Three months later, he
was confident enough to return to Normandy leaving two joint regents (one of whom
was his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who was later to commission the Bayeux
Tapestry) behind to administer the kingdom. However, it took William six years
to consolidate his conquest, and even then he had to face constant plotting and
fighting on both sides of the Channel. In 1068, Harold's sons raided the south-west
coast of England (dealt with by William's local commanders), and there were uprisings
in the Welsh Marches, Devon and Cornwall. William appointed earls who, in Wales
and in all parts of the kingdom, undertook to guard the threatened frontiers and
maintain internal security in return for land.
In 1069, the Danes, in alliance
with Prince Edgar the Aetheling (Ethelred's great-grandson) and other English
nobles, invaded the north and took York. Taking personal charge, and pausing only
to deal with the rising at Stafford, William drove the Danes back to their ships
on the Humber. In a harsh campaign lasting into 1070, William systematically devastated
Mercia and Northumbria to deprive the Danes of their supplies and prevent recovery
of English resistance. Churches and monasteries were burnt, and agricultural land
was laid to waste, creating a famine for the unarmed and mostly peasant population
which lasted at least nine years. Although the Danes were bribed to leave the
north, King Sweyn of Denmark and his ships threatened the east coast (in alliance
with various English, including Hereward the Wake) until a treaty of peace was
concluded in June 1070.
Further north, where the boundary with Scotland
was unclear, King Malcolm III was encroaching into England. Yet again, William
moved swiftly and moved land and sea forces north to invade Scotland. The Treaty
of Abernethy in 1072 marked a truce, which was reinforced by Malcolm's eldest
son being accepted as a hostage.
William consolidated his conquest by starting
a castle-building campaign in strategic areas. Originally these castles were wooden
towers on earthen 'mottes' (mounds) with a bailey (defensive area) surrounded
by earth ramparts, but many were later rebuilt in stone. By the end of William's
reign over 80 castles had been built throughout his kingdom, as a permanent reminder
of the new Norman feudal order.
William's wholesale confiscation of land
from English nobles and their heirs (many nobles had died at the battles of Stamford
Bridge and Senlac) enabled him to recruit and retain an army, by demanding military
duties in exchange for land tenancy granted to Norman, French and Flemish allies.
He created up to 180 'honours' (lands scattered through shires, with a castle
as the governing centre), and in return had some 5,000 knights at his disposal
to repress rebellions and pursue campaigns; the knights were augmented by mercenaries
and English infantry from the Anglo-Saxon militia, raised from local levies. William
also used the fyrd, the royal army - a military arrangement which had survived
the Conquest. The King's tenants-in-chief in turn created knights under obligation
to them and for royal duties (this was called subinfeudation), with the result
that private armies centred around private castles were created - these were to
cause future problems of anarchy for unfortunate or weak kings. By the end of
William's reign, a small group of the King's tenants had acquired about half of
England's landed wealth. Only two Englishmen still held large estates directly
from the King. A foreign aristocracy had been imposed as the new governing class.
The
expenses of numerous campaigns, together with an economic slump (caused by the
shifts in landed wealth, and the devastation of northern England for military
and political reasons), prompted William to order a full-scale investigation into
the actual and potential wealth of the kingdom to maximise tax revenues. The Domesday
survey was prompted by ignorance of the state of land holding in England, as well
as the result of the costs of defence measures in England and renewed war in France.
The scope, speed, efficiency and completion of this survey was remarkable for
its time and resulted in the two-volume Domesday Book of 1086, which still exists
today. William needed to ensure the direct loyalty of his feudal tenants. The
1086 Oath of Salisbury was a gathering of William's 170 tenants-in-chief and other
important landowners who took an oath of fealty to William.
William's reach
extended elsewhere into the Church and the legal system. French superseded the
vernacular (Anglo-Saxon). Personally devout, William used his bishops to carry
out administrative duties. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070, was a
first-class administrator who assisted in government when William was absent in
France, and who reorganised the Church in England. Having established the primacy
of his archbishopric over that of York, and with William's approval, Lanfranc
excommunicated rebels, and set up Church or spiritual courts to deal with ecclesiastical
matters. Lanfranc also replaced English bishops and abbots (some of whom had already
been removed by the Council of Winchester under papal authority) with Norman or
French clergy to reduce potential political resistance. In addition, Canterbury
and Durham Cathedrals were rebuilt and some of the bishops' sees were moved to
urban centres.
At his coronation, William promised to uphold existing laws
and customs. The Anglo-Saxon shire courts and 'hundred' courts (which administered
defence and tax, as well as justice matters) remained intact, as did regional
variations and private Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions. To strengthen royal justice,
William relied on sheriffs (previously smaller landowners, but replaced by influential
nobles) to supervise the administration of justice in existing county courts,
and sent members of his own court to conduct important trials. However, the introduction
of Church courts, the mix of Norman/Roman law and the differing customs led to
a continuing complex legal framework. More severe forest laws reinforced William's
conversion of the New Forest into a vast Royal deer reserve. These laws caused
great resentment, and to English chroniclers the New Forest became a symbol of
William's greed. Nevertheless the King maintained peace and order. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle in 1087 declared 'he was a very stern and violent man, so no one dared
do anything contrary to his will ... Amongst other things the good security he
made in this country is not to be forgotten.'
William spent the last months
of his reign in Normandy, fighting a counter-offensive in the French Vexin territory
against King Philip's annexation of outlying Normandy territory. Before his death
on 9 September 1087, William divided his 'Anglo-Norman' state between his sons.
(The scene was set for centuries of expensive commitments by successive English
monarchs to defend their inherited territories in France.) William bequeathed
Normandy as he had promised to his eldest son Robert, despite their bitter differences
(Robert had sided with his father's enemies in Normandy, and even wounded and
defeated his father in a battle there in 1079). His son, William Rufus, was to
succeed William as King of England, and the third remaining son, Henry, was left
5,000 pounds in silver. William was buried in his abbey foundation of St Stephen
at Caen. Desecrated by Huguenots (1562) and Revolutionaries (1793), the burial
place of the first Norman king of England is marked by a simple stone slab.