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Home England under Foreign Kings England under Foreign Kings; Part 2 |
England under Foreign Kings; Part 2Remembering, then, that we have to deal with kings who were foreigners, we must see
In tracing these events we shall see the Feudal System at its best, and also at its worst. The victory of Hastings laid the south and east of England at William's feet, but it did not touch the north and west. Edwin and Morcar's forces were still dangerous. William's conduct, indeed, shows that he did not expect the country of Alfred and Edmund Ironside to submit after one defeat only. But the English were still quarrelling t among themselves; so, though the Witan chose Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, to succeed Harold as king, yet in a short time they found it hopeless to resist further. William, indeed, was anxious for them to submit of their own free will. He had moved cautiously towards London, and had burned Southwark; but then, instead of besieging London, he had crossed the Thames and moved his army to Berkhampstead. Thither an embassy, with the Atheling himself at the head of it, came to William and offered him the crown. Thus he was able to say that he ruled not as conqueror, but as the lawful king of England elected by the Witan. Canute, and even Alfred, his two greatest predecessors, had owed their crown to the same title. Being able to say he was lawful king was a great advantage, but William was still in an extremely difficult position. He had two things to do: the first, to subdue the English thoroughly; the second, to keep his own Norman followers contented and obedient, to reward them, and yet not make them so strong that they could revolt against him. He had, in fact, to keep himself master of both Normans and English alike. His first stroke was to declare that all those who had fought against him at Hastings were rebels, fighting against their lawful king, and that their estates were forfeited to him. Thus he became master of almost all the land in the south of England. It was not long before he got hold of the rest. In 1067, when the Conqueror had gone back to the Continent, leaving his brother, Odo of Bayeux, as Justiciar, to rule the country, rebellions burst out everywhere. In the south-west, in Mercia, in Northumbria, there were English risings. Luckily for William there was no union among the English rebels. Each district took as its leader a descendant of its own earl; each fought for itself and each was consequently crushed by itself. William returned, subdued the west, took Exeter, harried Gloucester and Worcester, and drove the English leaders to take refuge in Ireland and Wales. In the north he had sterner work to do. The rebels were headed by Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, and helped by the King of Scotland, who had married Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling. A force of Danes under King Sweyn, who had hopes of recovering Canute's kingdom for himself, also took the field with them. At first they were successful. Durham and York fell into their hands. But the allies soon began to quarrel, and William, marching north, found them an easy prey. The Danes drew off in their ships, plundering Peterborough on their way, thereby making themselves as odious to the English as they had been in Ethelred's day. Waltheof was forced to submit; and to punish the rebels, and guard against another rising, William harried the whole of the Vale of York. From the Humber to the Tees everything that could be burnt was burnt. The people were slain, driven out or left to die of starvation. Nearly twenty years after, the Domesday Survey echoes the same story of one estate after another - "Waste". |
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