2.3.1
Harrying of the North, 1069-70
Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North
One of the main ways William I established control as king was through the Harrying of the North.
Causes of the Harrying of the North
Causes of the Harrying of the North
- The Harrying of the North was one of William I's most extreme methods of retaining control of England.
- It happened because:
- William wanted to avenge Robert Cumin (his appointed earl of north Northumbria) who had been killed by locals in the north.
- To end the guerrilla war which was going on with local northerners resisting Norman rule.
- To stop any opposition military forces (whether King Sweyn's Danes, Edgar the Aethling's Scots or Hereward's Englishmen) from using the north as a base to attack Norman England.
What was the Harrying of the North?
What was the Harrying of the North?
- The Harrying of the North happened in wintertime, from October 1069 to March 1070.
- It essentially tried to make the north of England uninhabitable.
- All the land from York and Hull north (between the Rivers Tees and Humber) was essentially destroyed. Farmyard animals were killed, all crops and seeds were killed and whole towns were destroyed.
- The aim seems to have been to make the north impossible to survive in.
Short-term impact
Short-term impact
- Up to 100,000 people, which was about 5% of the English population at the time, died in the Harrying of the North.
- Thousands of people lost their homes, crops, and livestock. This forced them to move to other parts of the country and caused a refugee crisis in England.
- A lady at the time, called Florence of Worcester, reported that people were starving to death so badly that they resorted to eating other humans (cannibalism).
Long-term impact
Long-term impact
- William, unsurprisingly, was criticised for killing hundreds of thousands of people.
- When the Domesday Book would later survey the state of Yorkshire (the harried area) in 1086, most of the land and property would be categorised as waste.
- There were no more rebellions from the local population or the local nobility in the north of England.
- The only resistance and further rebellion was the one led by Hereward the Wake, which ended in 1071.
- As the harrying ended the guerrilla war, and the local resistance, it seems like it worked and consolidated the Normans' control of England.
1Anglo-Saxon England & The Norman Conquest, 1060-66
1.1Anglo-Saxon Society
1.2Edward the Confessor & The Succession Crisis
1.3The Rival Claimants for the Throne
2William I in Power: Securing the Kingdom, 1066-87
2.1Establishing Control
2.2Causes & Outcomes of Anglo-Saxon Resistance
2.3The Legacy of Resistance to 1087
2.4Revolt of the Earls, 1075
3Norman England, 1066-88
3.1The Feudal System & the Church
3.2Norman Government
3.3The Norman Aristocracy
Jump to other topics
1Anglo-Saxon England & The Norman Conquest, 1060-66
1.1Anglo-Saxon Society
1.2Edward the Confessor & The Succession Crisis
1.3The Rival Claimants for the Throne
2William I in Power: Securing the Kingdom, 1066-87
2.1Establishing Control
2.2Causes & Outcomes of Anglo-Saxon Resistance
2.3The Legacy of Resistance to 1087
2.4Revolt of the Earls, 1075
3Norman England, 1066-88
3.1The Feudal System & the Church
3.2Norman Government
3.3The Norman Aristocracy
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