Harrying of the North

Information about Harrying of the North

The Harrying (or Harrowing) of the North was a series of campaigns waged by Alain Le Roux, grandson of Geoffrey I, Duke of Brittany, in the winter of 1069–1070 in order to subjugate Northern England as part of the Norman conquest of England. The north at the time was a land of many free farmers and Scandinavians, and the harrying suppressed their independent way of life. The death toll is believed to be 150,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage. Due to the scorched earth policy, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated, a fact to which Domesday Book, written almost two decades later, readily attests.

Background

After the abdication of Edgar the Aetheling from the kingship of England in December 1066, the population of northern England found themselves bereft of the state protection which a king provided, for William's victory had not been secured there. Despite their never having sworn allegiance to Edgar, William considered the northerners rebels as they were within the realm of King Edward, whom he regarded as his direct predecessor.

William secured the situation in Northumbria with the quick appointment of Copsi, a native who had done homage to William, as earl. The appointment did not last as Copsi was murdered by Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf III of Bernicia, whose family had long been rulers of Bernicia and at times Northumbria also. When the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. He was not long in power before he joined the Aetheling in rebellion in 1068. With support of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, the deposed earl of Northumbria, Edgar rebelled against the new king but was immediately defeated. He fled to the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland and there married his sister Margaret to the Scottish king in expectation of assistance. Upon receiving the assistance, he began to plot with the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute. With his allied forces he invaded in 1069 to claim the crown to which the old Witan had once elevated him. It was at this time, that on 28 January, the rebels converged on Durham and murdered the newly-named earl Robert de Comines, a Norman who ignored the advice of William's ally, the bishop of Durham, Ethelwin.

The Harrying

At that juncture, Ethelwin abandoned the pro-Norman camp (the only English prelate to do so) and a mixed army of Gaels, Vikings, and Angles fell on the north to secure the throne for the old dynasty. The army captured York, but made no other headway and the Northumbrians proclaimed no independent state. William promptly dispatched an army north to stop the atempted restoration of the West Saxon line to the throne. Again Edgar fled to Scotland and, for the first time in many years, the king of England paid the Danes to leave his soil.

From the Humber to Tees, William's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would soon succumb to starvation over the winter. The survivors were reduced to cannibalism, with one report stating that the skulls of the dead were cracked open so that the brains could be eaten. A plague followed.

Legacy

William granted Alain Le Roux the Honour of Richmond in 1071.

It was not until 1072 that William appointed another earl in Northumbria and the Scots made peace. It was, further, not until 1074 that Edgar and William made peace and William's hold on the crown was theoretically uncontested.

From the Norman point of view, the tactics were a complete success, as large areas, including regions as south and west as Staffordshire, were waste (wasta est, as Domesday says) and further rebellions of any substance did not occur. Contemporary biographers of William considered it to be his cruelest act and a stain upon his soul, but the deed was little mentioned before Whig history and was not mainstream knowledge until then.

The effect on the north was immense and, in economic terms, there was a great inequality between North and South until the Late Middle Ages and later. In the fifteenth century, the Council of the North was enacted to repair some of these inequities.

See also

References

Alain Le Roux (c.1040-1089), known in Latin as Alanus Rufus and in English as Alan the Red, was one of the companions of William the Conqueror in the Norman Conquest and especially the Harrying of the North, in which he built Richmond Castle.
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Geoffrey I of Rennes (980 – November 20 1008) was duke of Brittany, from 992 to his death. He was son of Duke Conan I and Ermengarde of Anjou, whose parents were Geoffrey I of Anjou and Adele of Meaux.
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Northern England, The North or North of England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. Its extent may be subject to personal opinion and many companies or organisations have differing definitions as to what it constitutes.
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Norman conquest of England began in 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), and his success at the Battle of Hastings resulted in Norman control of England.
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Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centred on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
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For the computer game, see .


A scorched earth policy is a military tactic which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area.
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Domesday Book (also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today.
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Edgar Ætheling[1], also known as Edgar the Outlaw, (c. 1051–c. 1126?) was the last male member of the West Saxon royal house of Cerdic. He was proclaimed, but never crowned, King of England.
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Saint Edward II, the Confessor
King of England

Reign June 8 1042 (not crowned till 3 April, 1043) – 4/5 January 1066
Born c. 1004
Islip, Oxfordshire, England
Died January 5 1066
Buried
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Copsi was a Northumbrian magnate in late Anglo-Saxon England. He was a supporter of Tostig and was exiled along with him in 1065. He fled to Orkney, then part of Norway. He returned the next year (1066) when he joined Tostig at Sandwich in Kent with 17 ships.
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Osulf II (sometimes Oswulf) was the son of Eadulf III, earl of Northumbria, and thus heir to the ancient family of theirs, which had, until 1041, been ealdormen or earls of Bernicia (between the Tweed and the Tees), with their capital at Bamburgh.
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Eadulf III or Eadwulf (d. 1041) was the earl of Bernicia from 1038 until his death. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was betrayed by Hardecanute and killed.
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Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now the South-East of Scotland, and the North-East of England.

The Anglian territory of Bernicia was approximately equivalent to the modern counties of Northumberland, Durham,
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Gospatric or Cospatric (from the Cumbrian "Servant of Saint Patrick"), (died after 1073), was Earl of Northumbria, or of Bernicia, and later ruler of sizable estates around Dunbar.
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Edwin (died 1071) was the elder brother of Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, son of Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia and grandson of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, Hereward's probable father1. He succeeded to his father's title and responsibilities on Ælfgar's death in 1062.
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Morcar (or Morkere) (d. 1071) was the son of Ælfgar, earl of Mercia, brother of Edwin, earl of Mercia. He was himself the earl of Northumbria from 1065 to 1066, when he was replaced by William the Conqueror with Robert Comine.
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Earl of Northumbria was a title in the Anglo-Danish, late Anglo-Saxon, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. The earldom of Northumbria was the successor of the ealdormanry of Bamburgh, itself the successor of an independent Bernicia.
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Máel Coluim mac Donnchada
(or Malcolm III)
King of Scots

Reign 1058–1093
Born 1030x1038[1]
Scotland
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Alnwick, Northumberland, England
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Saint Margaret (c. 1045–16 November 1093), was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the Anglo-Saxon heir to the throne of England. She married Malcolm III, King of Scots, becoming his Queen consort.
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Denmark

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Sweyn II Estridsson Ulfsson. (c. 1019 – April 28, 1074) was the King of Denmark from 1047 to 1074. He was the son of Ulf Thorgilsson and Estrid Margarete Svendsdatter, daughter of Sweyn I of Denmark and sister of Canute the Great.
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Canute the Great
King of England, Denmark and Norway, as well as some of Sweden

Reign England: 1016 - 1035
Denmark: 1018 - 1035
Norway: 1028 - 1035
Predecessor Edmund Ironside (England)
Harald II (Denmark)
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The Witenagemot (also called the Witan, more properly the title of its members) was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated between approximately the 7th century and 11th century.
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January 28 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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