Dear Folk,
On September 9, 1087 died the first of a long line of kings of England, William the Conqueror or William the Bastard. Take your pick.
William was born in France on October 14, 1028, an illegitimate son to Robert, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva (the daughter of a tanner.) Robert on some religious impulse went to the Holy Land in 1035. Before he left, he brought seven year old William up in front of the nobles and demanded that they swear allegiance to his young son. "Oh, he is little but he will grow, and if God please, he will mend." Robert was wise in his pronouncement and his designation for the rigors of the pilgrimage proved deadly. Robert never returned home.
The power vacuum around William was terrifying. Three of his guardians were murderered and several kidnap attempts were thwarted. After a period of apparent anarchy, William became Duke of Normandy for real. He was able to show that in 1047 when the nobles became openly rebellious. William along with King Henry of France won a great battle at Val-es-Dunes, near Caen. We shall return to Caen later. In 1048 William captured two strong castles of Alencon and Dombront. Those became his base of operations and the young Duke (only 20) took the province of Maine as well. This made him the most powerful man (next to the king) in all of France. He became stronger still when he married Matilda, daughter of the Earl of Flanders, in 1053. Matilda was a direct descendant of Alfred the Great which made a strong connection to the throne of England.
In 1051 William visited England. It was a fateful visit.
There had been many northern European attacks over the course of English history. In 1016 CE, the ruler of England, Aethelred "the Unready", died. In his place stepped his son, Harthecnut. After Harthecnut died, his half-brother Edward "the Confessor" took the throne in 1042. Now these folks were truly Norman, that is to say "Norse men," guys who loved to go out viking (which I am sure you remember is a verb not a noun) which entailed much pillaging, raping, and generally not folk you would invite into your parlor for tea. Edward had been living over in Normandy, France, while brother Harthecnut was ruling. Safer that way. When Edward came back to "That Sceptred Isle," he mostly hung out with his buddies he had brought back with him from Normandy. Edward split England into Earldoms. The only strong military force was led by Earl Godwin of Wessex. Wessex was the last remnant of the Saxons in Britain. Godwin died in 1053 and left command pretty much to his son, Harold (born around 1022.)
So William was from the old country and got in tight with Edward. Some folks say that Edward promised that William could take over for him when Edward died. You see Edward was so pious that he never had time to have any kids. Prayer sort of got in the way. Oh, there is a story that when Harold was over in Normandy and got himself in a scrape, he promised William that he would recognize William's claim to the throne. I think he had his fingers crossed when he said that. When Edward went off to take the next step to becoming a saint (died) in 1065, Harold thought that he should be king and had himself crowned the first week of January in 1066. Harold was evidently pretty acceptable as a king. He led his troops to a great victory at Stamford Bride on September 25, 1066 against the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada.
I think we will save the discussion of the Battle of Hastings (October 14, 1066) until October. We all know William's side won. Harold was killed. Then what?
"The Norman Conquest," says H. C. Davis, "raised the English to that level of culture which the continental people had already reached and left it for the Plantagenets of Anjou to make England in her turn 'a leader among nations'." Isn't that smurfy? Really good for everyone, especially the Normans who trooped over with William.
Things were not over in 1066 when William was crowned on Christmas Day. The next year when William went back home to Normandy, rebellion broke out in the southwest (Exeter being the rallying point), the Welsh border, then Northumbria, then up north aided by some friendly Danes. William came home mad and was not exactly slack about this. In Northumbria, after a second inssurrection, he laid the whole country from York to Durham to waste. In the district of Amunderness, where there had been sixty-two villages in Edward's time, there were left only sixteen and with many fewer folk. Mutilation, blinding, fire and sword were some of William's ultimate persuaders. The rebellions and their being put down continued until at least 1075.
Having at last whooped the country into submission, William went about rearranging things to become such a wonderful place. He divided the land amongst his followers, the Norman French. He made sure that no follower had enough land to be a power in and by himself. The king would reign supreme. In the Domesday Survey 20 per cent of the land belonged to the King, 25 per cent to the church, 50 per cent to the Norman Barons and only the remaining 5 per cent to the Anglo-Saxons. French was made the official language of the country which made stock in Berlitz Language Schools go through the thatched roof.
Heavy taxation was levied against the folk (probably less than we pay now) and square stone forts were constructed all over the place. Hey, invaders could be on their way anytime. Large tracts of land were set aside for raising the King's deer. So what if other folks had lived there? And no one had better be caught poaching, roasting, or frying any of those Bambis either. This shows that William may have been a progenitor of PETA or at least the EPA.
William was a good Catholic and did homage to Pope Gregory VII. In fact when the Church had objected to William and Matilda's marriage, they built a nice church and nunnery at Caen as a gift to the Church. None of this Saxon "Old Religion," thank you very much!
William and Matilda did their matrimonial duty also. They had ten kids, though not all of them lived. The list goes: Robert (b. 1054), Richard Duke of Brittany (b about 1055), Adeliza (b 1055), Cecilia of the Holy Trinity, Abbess of Caen, (b 1056), William II Rufus (b. between 1056-1060, d. 1100), Constance (b about 1066), Adela - Countess of Blois (b. about 1067), Henry I (b about Sept 1068 & d. 1135), Agatha (b 1064), and Matilda (?). So two of his sons, William Rufus and Henry succeeded him.
In the last years of William's reign a great deal of his attention was absorbed by the political complications which threatened his Continental dominions and by the undutiful attitude of his sons, in particular Robert "Curthouse.". It was in avenging a gibe leveled against him by the King of France that the Conqueror met with an accident on horseback, which terminated fatally on September 9,1087. He was buried at the abbey in Caen.
The Saxon chronicler summed up William's character well when he wrote: "He was mild to good men who loved God, and stark beyond all bounds to those who withsaid his will."
What have we learned from this? It takes a bastard to really grab a country? Sometimes kids grow up to be just like their fathers, much to the horror of everyone? In order to improve a land it is necessary to burn it and kill its folks? How about always designate your replacement loud and clear before you leave the room?
Hello to you folk out there who are burning a district, putting out folks' eyes, or just getting yourself crowned. If you have a yen to forward these missives to others while you are out viking, please do so only leave my name and sig. attached.
Remembering John Saxon and his luck with ladies,
J. Ellsworth Weaver
SCA – Sir Balthazar
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats