Devastation of the north of England

The devastation of the north of England ( Harrying off the North in English) is the final stage of a series of campaigns carried out by William the Conqueror, first Norman king of England, during the winter 1069-1070, in order to subject definitively the north of the kingdom (initially the Northumbrie and the the Midlands), and to complete the Conquête Norman of England. The term Harrying off the North is generally used to indicate this series of campaigns.

The north of England (Northumbrie), at this period, was an occupied territory by a mixed population of Anglo-Saxon and emigrants Viking S who lived in independence of the royal capacity. It posed several problems strategically. It was at the same time a Marche Royaume of England, regularly invaded by the Scot, a place of used unloading of the Scandinavian invaders, and finally a pocket of resistance with the royal capacity. After several ineffective campaigns, the Conqueror followed to it a policy of the burned Ground and systematic murder which had an economic impact and social immense, the touched territories remaining depopulated and devastated during decades.

Context

Traditionally, the north of the kingdom of England was loosely controlled by the Anglo-Saxon kings. In 1055, Edouard the Confessor named Tostig Count de Northumbrie but it was expelled of the county by the inhabitants of York and Northumbriens in 1065.

After the abdication of Edgar Ætheling (that the Norman ones had not recognized besides) in December 1066, and the accession of William the Conqueror, the population of the north of England is out of royal control, and the Anglo-Saxon adversaries of the invaders take refuge there. Edwin, Count de Mercie, disappointed still not to have received in marriage the promised girl of the king, insists near the Conqueror. This one hesitates, feeling its hostile barons with the project. Edwin prefers to anticipate the imminent rupture while fleeing of the court at the beginning of the summer 1068. It takes refuge in north, with his brother Morcar, old the Count de Northumbrie. It finds there a strong movement anti-Norman which is coming up around York.

Countryside of the summer 1068

The arrival of the two counts allows the regrouping of the Anglo-Saxons, and gives body to a movement of national width. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, King de Gwynedd (in the Wales), is combined with them; Gospatrick, the count de Northumbrie, rejoins their camp the army which they gathered begins a walk on York, then takes the way of the south. The movement disintegrates as of the first signs of the firm determination of the Norman ones. The Conqueror with his Ost takes the road of north, raising mounds castrales on the naturally protected sites that it meets, and there places garrisons.

After having built the castle of Warwick and to have entrusted it to Henri de Beaumont, it receives the tender of Edwin and Morcar. It makes build then the castle of Nottingham, and arrives without opposition to York. It receives there the keys of the city and the hostages. Many barons of Yorkshire come to subject themselves to him, just as Ethelwin, the bishop of Durham. It makes build a mound castrale to protect the city, and negotiates with Malcolm III, the King d' Écosse, in order to make sure that it will not lend assistance to Egdar Ætheling, which had taken refuge at its court with Gospatrick. Then the Conqueror goes down again towards the south by an Eastern road, making build new castles with Lincoln, Huntingdon, Cambridge. The deployment of power was impressive, but did not do anything to decrease the capacity of rebellion of north. The Anglo-Saxons still did not give up in spite of the evasion of their chiefs.

Campaign at the beginning of 1069

The Conqueror decides to send Robert de Comines, one of his auxiliaries, to deal with the county of Northumbrie since Gospatrick betrayed it. Comines leaves for north with an army. With the approach of Durham, the bishop Ethelwin makes it prevent that an English large army was constituted. Comines is unaware of the warning, and enters the city. January 28th, 1069, the English encircle Durham, there enter, and kill the Norman ones, then burn Comines in the house of the bishop where it took refuge.

The English connect quickly by an attack on York, the septentrional main city. The lord of the manor set up by the king is killed, and the citizens of the member city, or are constrained to adhere, with the cause of Edgar Ætheling. Nevertheless the castle of York holds good, and its occupants are able to make warn the Conqueror. This one arrives quickly at their rescue, making flee the rebels in front of him. He begins the construction of a second castle, on Right Bank of the Ouse, which he entrusts to the count Guillaume FitzOsbern. Then it turns over to Winchester to attend the festivals of Easter. During this time, FitzOsbern demolishes the English army. For five months, north remains calm.

Campaigns of the summer 1069

In August 1069, appears a Danish fleet on the English coasts. The English leaders understanding that the movement carried out by Ætheling is not likely any to succeed, proposed the crown with Sven '' Estridsen '', the King de Danemark. Sven is the nephew of Knut II of Denmark, which was King d' Angleterre between 1016 and 1035, and thus has legitimate claims with the throne. It is however not decided to invest all its power in its claim. It sends nevertheless a Dane force and Norwegians, accompanied by three of its sons, its brother and much of Magnat S Danish. The fleet, estimated at 240 boats, is certainly equivalent to that sent by Harald III of Norway in 1066.

This fleet goes up the English coasts of the Kent to the Northumbrie, by making unloadings tests to evaluate defenses with Dover, Sandwich, Ipswich and Norwich where they are pushed back each time. They reach the Humber and find there a place of anchoring calm. They unite their forces with those gathered by the English around Edgar Ætheling, Gospatrick and Waltheof, the Count d' Huntingdon. They then travel towards York.

Attacks on York

At the end of September, the men garnisonés in the two castles of York put fire at the city before the arrival of the English. Being too very few to be able to hold head to them, they try despaired exits in which they are massacred. Waltheof is in particular the hero of this day, decapitating the many Norman ones with its axe as they leave the castles. It is the heaviest defeat which the Norman ones will have to undergo in England. The allies do not seek to push their advantage, and with the simple rumor of the approach of the king, they flee and avoid a direct confrontation on several occasions.

Risings in the kingdom

The rumor of the arrival of the Danes causes risings in all the country: Devon, Cornouailles, Somerset and Dorset. The insurrections in the west of the Mercie and the north of the Wessex are most virulent. In the Herefordshire, Eadric the Savage, a Anglo-Saxon baron, was combined with the Welsh princes of the area. He had succeeded in being maintained in a state of independence, and was with the head of a many army. The revolt which it initiates spreads until in the Cheshire in north, and the Staffordshire in the east. The Norman ones although having many castles in the area, are not able to repress this revolt. The Conqueror decides to undertake repression in person. He leaves Robert de Mortain and his Robert cousin Have to supervise the Danes on the Humber. He demolishes the concentrated insurrectionists with Stafford, then turns over towards the Lindsey at the end of November.

Devastation of the north of England

In way it is informed that the Danes prepare to attack York. It decides to try to catch up with them, but is blocked in the passing of the Aire during three weeks, the bridge making it possible to cross it having been carried.

When a ford is found, he repeats the strategy which enabled him to subject London earlier three years. Instead of attacking York directly, it makes devastate a broad belt of territory in the north and the west of the city, in order to insulate it. Quickly, the Danes turn over to their boats, and are paid to give up their claims. Guillaume authorizes them to remain on Humber until the end of the winter.

Definitively to solve the problem arising from Northumbrie, and in order to prevent a new rebellion, it continues its devastation campaign. It passes the festivals of Christmas to York, then takes again its countryside. It burns whole villages, massacres the inhabitants, destroys the reserves of foods and the herds. The survivors find themselves in full winter completely stripped, not having more anything to survive, and succumb in mass. The chronicler Florence de Worcester writes that the survivors were obliged to nourish human cats, dogs and corpses to escape the famine.

While arriving at the Tees, it receives the tender of Waltheof and Gospatrick, sign which Anglo-Saxon resistance is broken.

Epilog

The last pocket of resistance activates which remains in Mercie, is made up of the remainders of the army mercian beaten in Stafford. The Conqueror thus walks towards the Cheshire. Its Ost, which is exhausted and in service for a very long time comes almost to the mutiny. Nevertheless, the king is able to arrive before its enemies are not ready to face it. He crushes the revolt mercian without generalized combat. He then makes build castles with Chester and Stafford, then turns over to Salisbury, little before the Passover 1070, and releases his men.

Conclusion

Since the 11th century, the historians noted the incredible cruelty with which the king and his army destroyed any trace of life between the Humber and the Tees. The Domesday Book is there to prove that this destruction was quite real, because seventeen years later, most of the grounds were always with the abandonment.

It is obviously in the Yorkshire that devastation is most obvious, but there were other devastation campaigns. The Cheshire, the Derbyshire, the Shropshire, the Staffordshire had to undergo this kind of treatment more localized and less complete in order to prevent future revolts in the west of the Mercie.

Already poor and depopulated before the revolt, north was inserted in a difficult economic situation which will perdura until the end of the Middle Ages. This is why at the 15th century, the Conseil of north was created to improve its development.

See too

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