Chapter Fifteen: The Conqueror is Crowned

“And Earl William went back to Hastings again, and waited there to see if he would be submitted to; but when he realised that no one was willing to come to him, he went inland with all of his raiding army which was left to him… ” The Anglo Saxon Chronicle D

Whilst London was celebrating their new king, Edgar, William, ignorant of these new events, marched his army back to Hastings where he hoped the English would start turning up in their droves to honour and submit to him. He waited there for a fortnight, but none came to him, which may have surprised him. It was hardly a surprise, I suspect, to the English, however, considering how he had dealt so mercilessly with their king. So, realising that the big welcome fanfare was not going to arrive any day soon, William decided to march out of Hastings with his army, to see what was what. This was probably the first act (apart from opposing him at Hastings) the English had performed or rather not performed, that endeared  them to him, not.

William’s next move was to go east to Romney, where Poitiers states, some of his fleet had landed by mistake and were slaughtered by the inhabitants. For this heinous act, William punished the town, probably by burning it. He then moved onto Dover, who, perhaps on hearing of the punishment dealt out to Romney, surrendered. It didn’t stop the Normans  plundering and burning it anyway, an act that Poitiers insists was accidental and caused by the greedy lower ranks of the duke’s army. Apparently, William paid compensation for this later.

Now with Dover in his hands, the Duke of Normandy remained there about a week or so to strengthen the fortifications and perhaps to  wait for the overseas reinforcements that are mentioned in volume D of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Whilst holed up in Dover, the overcrowded town became a sick bed for most of the army. Running out of supplies, they may have had to resort to drinking the water and an outbreak of dysentery occurred. Many of these men who had survived the horrors of Hastings, were now dying of this agonising illness. Even William was not unaffected, and became ill himself, but made of strong stuff, he pushed on, for the army needed to forage for more supplies. William wanted to aim for London, perhaps because he’d heard, by now, that Edgar was now the proclaimed king. He left those who were too ill to continue behind in Dover and as he went on his path, the leading citizens of the south east came to submit to him, as Canterbury did before he even got to its gates.

This must have pleased the conqueror no end, but London was a different matter. The people of London were too riled to do any organised submitting at this stage, however I am sure William was hoping to change their minds, one way or another.

Soon, the dowager queen, Edith, would submit Winchester to the king, and by the end of October, the whole of Kent and much of the South East had submitted.

The route that William had taken, according to Gravett (2000), was from Hastings to Dover, to Canterbury, and along the trackways  of the ancient ridgeway which runs from Wiltshire down to the east coast of Kent. After a failed attempt to take London, a large party of Normans set fire to the buildings on the south bank of the Thames and then, avoiding London for now, caught up with the main body marching onto Wallingford where he was given passage by the thegn of that burgh, Wigod. There they set up camp about mid November.

It was here that Stigand and his followers came to submit, having changed their minds about betting on Edgar. William set up a castle in Wallingford and being satisfied that he had the obeisance of the people in that area, moved on towards Luton, sending out columns of men along the way to ravage the countryside for food, and quite likely, to let London know what was coming. He finally turned southeast again, stopping first at Little Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire where he received the obeisance of Ealdred, Edgar and the thegns of London, around mid December. Perhaps, too, came the northern earls, Morcar and Edwin, though some say the brothers may have submitted later at Barking having to flee back to Northumbria when it was clear that support for Edgar was failing in the face of William’s successful campaign to win followers.

William was hesitant, it is said, to be crowned just yet, mostly because of the obvious unrest that still presided over the kingdom. He was, as yet, unsure of the North’s response to the conquest and there was still a large amount of survivors and members of the fyrd who hadn’t made it to Hastings in time, filling the streets of London. But he was either convinced by his own barons, or the English magnates, that England needed a king to prevent anymore loss of life, and sent a mixed delegation of English and Norman ahead to the capital to make the necessary preparations.

Eventually the English in London submitted, and the Coronation took place in Westminster Abbey, in the traditional format of former English kings, and as the Worcester Chronicle says:

“…Archbishop Aldred consecrated him (William) king in Westminster; and he gave his hand on it, and on Christ’s book, and also swore, before he (Aldred) would set the crown on his head, that he would hold this nation as the best of any kings before him did, if they would be loyal to him.”

But it all went catastrophically  wrong when the audience, as part of the service, was required to participate by calling out their affirmations,  and began shouting out, first in English, and then in French, and the Norman guards, on a knife edge due to the already extreme high tension in the burgh, assumed treachery was afoot and started setting fire to the houses outside the church. It wasn’t long before the crowds inside the church heard the clamour and rushed out in panic, leaving William standing virtually alone in the church, visibly shaken, to continue the service with just a few monks and bishops.

Chaos ensued outside and many lives were lost as the fires took hold and men tried to put them out. People were also trampled in the streets trying to flee the fracas. It was a PR disaster for William and a life changing tragedy for many Londoners.

London had been a tinder box waiting to go off at the first sign of a spark and the hostilities between the English and Normans were palpable. The Normans, the blood lust still in their veins, used this episode as an excuse to fulfil it with harrying and looting. This was a sad day for Londoners who, had stood where England’s darling, Harold, had stood, only a year ago to cheer him as England’s saviour. Such were the fates imposed upon the English that terrible year. 

Thus ended the year of the Conquest, a new king, a new regime. Death, destruction and cruelty were about to hit the English on a scale of which England would not have seen since the Viking incursions of the 9th century.

The fight for England was just beginning, and it would be no easy game for rebellions would plague the new king for some time to come yet. Though the new Norman king of England be crowned, there was still a long way to go before he could sit on the throne, secure in the knowledge his kingdom was won.

Primary Sources

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Worcester D

Guy de Amiens  Carmen de Hastingae Proelio

William Poitiers Gesta Guillelmi

Further Reading

Gravett C Hastings 1066 The Fall of Saxon England, Osprey Publishing Ltd, UK.

Morris M. (2012) The Norman Conquest Hutchinson, London.

Swanton M. (2000)  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (new ed) Phoenix Press, Great Britain.

Chapter Fourteen: Behold Our New King, Edgar the II!

In London, it was said that the streets were ‘teeming’. There were so many men, survivors of Hastings, and the armies that had been summoned by Harold, but had not quite made it to the battle, that there was hardly room for them all to be accommodated. The people of London were defiant. William of Normandy might have killed their king and many of their leading nobles, but those men and women of the city and all those who had come there, stood with the hope that they ‘might live there in freedom, for a very long time,'(Carnen de Haestingae Proelio). And as Poitiers says ‘it was their highest wish that they have no king who was not a compatriot.’

 

An artist interpretation of early Anglo Saxon London

 

Archbishop Ealdred of York had journeyed with the brothers, Edwin and Morcar from Yorkshire, to London, most likely hoping  to have met with the victorious King Harold back from Hastings having beaten the Normans, or to have awaited his orders to join him in the campaign to rid the Normans from their country. A council of nobles was called and it was decided that the young atheling, Edgar, should be pronounced king, ‘just as was his noble right’ (Anglo Saxon Chronicle).

Edgar Atheling was around fourteen or fifteen at this time, untried, untested and inexperienced in matters of state, kingship and war, although as a ward of the old King Edward and Queen Edith, would most likely have had some grooming in these affairs. It is interesting that he stayed behind in London. If he had gone into battle at Hastings like most boys of his age had probably done, it would have been mentioned, and one must wonder whether this was because some thought had been given as to who might succeed Harold, should he be killed at Hastings. Perhaps, unofficially, Harold had arranged for him to be his heir and successor, because of his bloodline, as opposed to his own sons. There may have been a lot of support for Edgar, when the king had died, and this might have been a compromise in the deal that allowed Harold to become king. At such worrying times, it would have seemed more expedient to have an experienced veteran on the throne, than a young boy, just in his adolescence.

 

C/O Regia.org

 

Few people in England had known about Edgar’s existence before 1057. His father, Edward, had been a fugitive as an infant, from King Cnut’s ill wishes back in the earlier half of the 11thc. Edward’s father had been Edmund Ironside, half brother of Edward the Confessor. Both of them had been born to the same father. Edmund had defended England whilst still an atheling and when he had been proclaimed king after the death of his father, Ethelred The Unraed. Edmund had been a respected warrior, hence his name ‘Ironside’, but after  The Battle of Assandun, an agreement between King Cnut and Ironside meant that England was divided into two territories, one for each of them. Not long after that battle, however, Ironside died and his wife, Ealdgyth, fled with her two sons, one of whom was later to become known as Edward the Exile. It was this Edward the Exile, that was brought to England from Hungary where he had been given refuge and married a Hungarian noble woman, Agatha. He and his family had been sought out on behalf of the Confessor, as it had become worryingly clear that England had no heir to the throne. There had been some who had recalled that Edmund’s children had gone into exile, and so Bishop Ealdred had travelled to Europe to seek him out. However, after only being in England a few days, the Exile died before he could even meet the king. It was not known what caused his death, but the Anglo Saxon (Worcester Chronicle D) makes this observation

We do not know for what cause it was arranged that he might not see his relative King Edward. Alas! That was a cruel fate and harmful to all this nation, that he so quickly ended his life after he came to England, to this misfortune of this wretched nation.

And so, it was left to little Edgar, then aged about five, to wear the mantle of atheling, a title which was given to princes or anyone with royal blood who was considered throneworthy. Having been endowed with the title, did not mean that Edgar would definitely be raised to the throne upon Edward’s death, what it did entitle him to, was to be considered for the throne. The end decision was in the hands of the Witan.

 

Battle of Assundon

 

There is not much known about Edgar’s early years. He and his father came to England in 1057, possibly brought over by a delegate that may have included Harold, and perhaps Bishop Ealdred. There is evidence to state that Harold was in Europe in this time and could well have been part of the contingent that brought the family back to England. It is not known in whose care Edward the Exile was in when he died, but it may well have been Harold’s who most certainly had the means to accommodate the family.

Edward and Edith are known to have care of the children of nobles, among these, may have been the children of such members of the aristocracy as, Harold, son of Ralph de Mantes, the king’s nephew. Edgar and his sisters I am sure would have also been wards, and perhaps their mother, Agatha, one of Edith’s ladies. Much more is known about the adult Edgar, who, despite being let down by his country, did his best to fight William and although he never won his crown, he was a brave contender for the throne. And if anyone had a right to be king, it was Edgar, not William, who won by right of Conquest, and nothing more.

For those who would like to know more about Edgar you can find books about him on Amazon such as Martin Lake’s blog and also Martin’s books about Edgar, the true king of England

Primary Sources

Anglo-Saxon Chronicles Translated and edited by Michael Swanton.

Guy de Amien Carmen de Haestingae de Proelio.

William Poitiers Gesta Guillelmi.

Further Reading

Morris M. (2012) The Norman Conquest Hutchinson, London.

Walker I. W. (1997) Harold The LAst Anglo-Saxon King Sutton Publishing, Stroud.

 

Chapter Thirteen: The Aftermath of the Battle

And so, the battle culminated in the end of Harold Godwinson’s reign. The Battle of Hastings, as it has largely been referred to, resulted in wiping out nearly all of the surviving sons of Godwin except for the youngest son, Wulfnoth, who, fortunately for him, was at least alive (if not kicking) somewhere in Normandy at the time of the battle. For those who may not be endowed with the full story, Wulfnoth Godwinson had been taken to Normandy in around 1052, most probably by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Champart along with Wulfnoth’s nephew, Hakon. It is thought that Champart had plotted to put William of Normandy on the throne and had brought the boys with him when escaping the wrath of Godwin. Wulfnoth and Hakon, were at the time, hostages for Edward, left behind by Godwin when he had fled into exile. But when Godwin returned and fought his way back to power once more, Champart decided it was a good time to return to his native Normandy, taking the boys with him to use as pawns in the 11th century game of thrones. Was this the time in history that the seeds of William’s hopes were planted, leading him to believe for many years that one day England would be his?

As the sun came down over Battle Hill, later known as Senlac, Harold’s body lay among the rest of the dead, mutilated beyond recognition, so much so, that they had to bring his wife, more Danico, Lady Edith Swannehaels, to the field to identify him the next morning. His brothers Gyrth and Leofwin were said to have  been found slain near his body. The king’s ornately decorated banner of the Fighting Man, made, possibly, by the loving hands of Edith, snatched from Harold’s personal bodyguard as they fought bravely to save it, just as they’d desperately tried to save their lord. And in doing so, they had died, their blood and guts spilled over the earth, mingling with the blood of their king. The Carmen was to bemoan that the English ideology of fighting to the death with their lord was the undoing of them. To the English, this was loyalty and honour, which, as we see in centuries to come, would still be an intrinsic part of English nature.

Once the word had gone round that Harold was dead, it was, as is usual when this point is reached in battle, for those who were still alive, to throw their swords down and surrender to whatever fate the victor decides, or to run for their lives. It was known that many did flee, even those who were severely injured, crawling their way to imagined safety. Some of the worst collapsed in the woods and as Poitiers reports somewhat theatrically, their corpses blocked the escape of their comrades. He also tells us that William and the Count of Ponthieu led the pursuit into the night, viciously slashing at the escapee’s backs and trampling over their bodies. But the fleeing English weren’t the only ones to die; as the Norman pursuers rushed into unknown terrain in the darkness, they went headlong into an old ancient rampart. As they rode up against it, on horseback and in full armour, they fell on top of one another, horse and rider, crushing each other to death. Sometime later, the Battle Abbey Chronicle was to refer to this pit as the Malfosse: the evil ditch.

The next morning, Poitiers was to record in poetic prose this poignant phrase referring to the carnage of the day before:

‘Far and wide the earth was covered with the flower of the English nobility and youth, drenched in blood.’

William allowed his men time to bury the dead and left the English to bury their own. He wanted the body of Harold to be dealt with and did not want him taken somewhere where his remains would attract pilgrimages and sainthood. The bodies of the English warriors had been stripped of all their effects and valuables, and due to the horrific mutilations inflicted on them, it was difficult to identify him. According to the Waltham Chronicle, two clerics of that church, Aethleric and Osgod, accompanied Harold to the battle. In the aftermath, they requested from William that he allow the to find his body so they could bring it home for burial. Unfortunately they were unable to identify him because of the poor state of his corpse. They fetched Harold’s wife, the Lady Eadgifu, or Edith Swanneck as she was also known and brought her to the field to identify her husband’s body, which must have been an horrific ordeal. His face was said in later sources to have been terribly mutilated, hacked by the swords of those who had wanted to boast they’d a hand in the ‘killing’ of the King of England. He had been disembowelled and castrated, ‘hacked to pieces’. It was said that the Lady Edith  knew him by the marks on his body. What marks these were, one can only speculate, for we are not told. Tattoos, perhaps? Or lovebites? Or maybe moles or scars. Nonetheless she was able to identify him, and his body was lifted onto a bier. Some Norman knights out of respect walked by his side to Battlebridge, joined by some English warriors who had turned up late only to find the battle over and their king dead. He was brought back to Waltham and buried with honours.

Unlike the Waltham chronicle, other sources tell a different story. Harold’s mother, it is said, offered the duke the weight of her son’s body in gold if he would allow her to take it. William refused, telling one of his retainers, William Malet, to take the king’s body and bury him on a hill under a pile of stones, so that he could continue to watch for enemy invaders. This sounds like the stuff of legend. William was a deeply pious man, it seems hard to believe he wouldn’t have afforded this man, who he had once supposedly greatly respected, a Christian burial. However, we have no solid, non contradictory evidence to support this. Whether or not the aforesaid story is fable or has some truth to it, where Harold’s remains ended up has been the subject of speculation for a long time. Waltham Abbey claimed that it had been secreted there, and a later excavation at Bosham, Harold’s childhood home, has found remains belonging to a man around a thousand years old, suggesting that this could also be him. There are remarkable stories that he survived the battle and wondered around an old hermit. Some people seem to have a hard time accepting someone has actually gone, died, dead, caput.

William had Harold’s own personal standard sent to the pope in thanks for his support. It was said that the pope had given him a banner which William used on the day but this is now the subject of a thesis by Daniel Armstrong in which he looks into the unlikelihood that the pope had given his blessing. These were, however, the days when the outcomes of conflict were decided by God.

Thousands of men died, perhaps as many as 50% of who participated, the majority being English. William had his men rolled into a mass grave, but did not deign to give burial to those English who had no one to take care of their bodies, but did give permission for the English relatives to come and claim their men. It has been said that people came for years to search for their loved ones and give them a decent burial. This must have made it difficult to identify them, seeing as most of them had been stripped of everything they owned. Battle Hill must have been known as a place of sorrow for years to come.

William allowed his men to camp for the next few days to recover, before moving on with the next stage of the conquest, to take Dover, Rochester and London. He was expecting the rest of the English to submit to him but Edgar the Atheling was announced as king in London by the leading bishops and the young northern earls, Edwin and Morcar. London was full of men who’d marched south to support Harold, but had obviously got there too late. Some of the lucky survivors of Hastings, may also have made it back with the news of how the day had gone, shocked and distraught. Apparently the streets were teeming with men who would have no other king who wasn’t a compatriot. But of course, William was unaware of this and instead of rushing on to London, killing and devastating the land as he went, he waited patiently for a fortnight for his new subjects to come to him and surrender. When they didn’t, he decided that he would have to go to them and made ready to move.

The Normans crash into the Malfosse

William may have been the victorious conqueror of the men he had defeated at Hastings, but it would be some years yet that he could actually consider himself, Conqueror of all the English. Apart from Hastings and Pevensey, the rest of the cities and towns had yet to be taken. The battle for England was only just beginning.

Primary Sources

Guy de Amiens  Carmen de Hastingae Proelio

William Poitiers Gesta Guillelmi

The Waltham Chronicle

Further Reading

Morris M. (2012) The Norman Conquest Hutchinson, London.