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Canute was buried at Winchester. Given that there was no political or
governmental unity within his empire, it failed to survive owing to discord
between his sons by two different queens - Harold Harefoot (reigned 1035-40)
and Harthacnut (reigned 1040-42) - and the factions led by the semi-independent
Earls of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex.
HAROLD HAREFOOT (1035-1040)
Harold Harefoot was the son of Canute and his first wife, Elfgifu. The
brothers began by sharing the kingdom of England after their father's death -
Harold Harefoot becoming king in Mercia and Northumbria, and Harthacanute king
of Wessex. During the absence of Hardicanute in Denmark, his other kingdom,
Harold Harefoot became effective sole ruler. On his death in 1040, the kingdom
of England fell to Hardicanute alone.
HARDICANUTE (1035-1042)
Harthacnut was the son of Canute and his second wife, Emma, the widow of
Ethelred II. His father intended Hardicanute to become king of the English in
preference to his elder brother Harold Harefoot, but he nearly lost his chance
of this when he became preoccupied with affairs in Denmark, of which he was
also king. Instead, Canute's eldest son, Harold Harefoot, became king of
England as a whole. In 1039 Hardicanute eventually set sail for England,
arriving to find his brother dead and himself king.
EDWARD III, THE CONFESSOR
(1042-66 AD)
 The
penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, Edward was the oldest son of Æthelred II
and Emma. He had gone to Normandy in 1013, when his father and mother had fled
from England. He stayed there during the reign of Canute and, at his death in
1035, led an abortive attempt to capture the crown for himself. He was
recalled, for some reason, to the court of Hardicanute, his half-brother.
Canute had placed the local control of the shires into the hands of several
powerful earls: Leofric of Mercia (Lady Godiva's husband), Siward of
Northumbria and Godwin of Wessex, the most formidable of all. Through Godwin's
influence, Edward took the throne at the untimely death of Hardicanute in 1042.
In 1045, he married Godwin's only daughter, Edith.
Resulting from the connections made during Edward's years in Normandy, he
surrounded himself with his Norman favorites and was unduly influenced by them.
This Norman "affinity" produced great displeasure among the Saxon
nobles. The anti-Norman faction was led by (who else?) Godwin of Wessex and his
son, Harold Godwinsson, took every available opportunity to undermine the kings
favorites. Edward sought to revenge himself on Godwin by insulting his own wife
and Godwin's daughter, Edith, and confining her to the monastery of Wherwell.
Disputes also arose over the issue of royal patronage and Edward's inclination
to reward his Norman friends.
A Norman, Robert Champart, who had been Bishop of London, was made
Archbishop of Canterbury by Edward in 1051, a promotion that displeased Godwin
immensely. The Godwins were banished from the kingdom after staging an
unsuccessful rebellion against the king but returned, landing an invasionary
force in the south of England in 1052. They received great popular support, and
in the face of this, the king was forced to restore the Godwins to favor in
1053.
Edward's greatest achievement was the construction of a new cathedral, where
virtually all English monarchs from William the Conqueror onward would be
crowned. It was determined that the minster should not be built in London, and
so a place was found to the west of the city (hence "Westminster"). The
new church was consecrated at Christmas, 1065, but Edward could not attend due
to illness.
On his deathbed, Edward named Harold as his successor, instead of the
legitimate heir, his grandson, Edgar the Ætheling. The question of
succession had been an issue for some years and remained unsettled at Edward's
death in January, 1066. It was neatly resolved, however, by William the
Conqueror, just nine months later.
There is some question as to what kind of person Edward was. After his
death, he was the object of a religious cult and was canonized in 1161, but
that could be viewed as a strictly political move. Some say, probably
correctly, that he was a weak, but violent man and that his reputation for
saintliness was overstated, possibly a sham perpetrated by the monks of
Westminster in the twelfth century. Others seem to think that he was deeply
religious man and a patient and peaceable ruler.
HAROLD II (1066)
 On Edward's death,
the King's Council (the Witenagemot) confirmed Edward's brother-in-law Harold,
Earl of Wessex, as King. With no royal blood, and fearing rival claims from
William Duke of Normandy and the King of Norway, Harold had himself crowned in
Westminster Abbey on 6 January 1066, the day after Edward's death. During his
brief reign, Harold showed he was an outstanding commander.
In September, Harald Hardrada of Norway (aided by Harold's alienated brother
Tostig, Earl of Northumbria) invaded England and was defeated by Harold at the
Battle of Stamford Bridge near York. Hardrada's army had invaded using over 300
ships; so many were killed that only 25 ships were needed to transport the
survivors home.
Meanwhile, William, Duke of Normandy (who claimed that Harold had
acknowledged him in 1064 as Edward's successor) had landed in Sussex. Harold
rushed south and, on 14 October 1066, his army of some 7,000 infantry was
defeated on the field of Senlac near Hastings. Harold was hit in the eye by an
arrow and cut down by Norman swords.
An abbey was later built, in 1070, to fulfil a vow made by William I, and
its high altar was placed on the spot where Harold fell. The ruins of Battle
Abbey still remain with a stone slab marking where Harold died.
THE
NORMANS
The Normans came to govern as a result of one of the most famous battles in
English history, the Battle of Hastings in 1066. From 1066 to 1154 four kings
ruled. The Domesday Book, that great source of English landholding, was
published, the forests were extended, the Exchequer was founded and a start was
made on the Tower of London. In religious affairs, the Gregorian reform
movement gathered pace and forced concessions, while the machinery of
government developed to support the country while Henry was fighting abroad.
Meanwhile, the social landscape was altered, as the Norman aristocracy came to
prominence. Many of the nobles struggled to keep a hold on both Normandy and
England, as divided rule meant the threat of conflict.
This was the case when William the Conqueror died. His eldest son, Robert,
became Duke of Normandy, while the next youngest, William, became king of
England. Their younger brother Henry would become king on William II's death.
The uneasy divide continued until Henry captured and imprisoned his elder
brother.
The question of the succession continued to weigh heavily over the remainder
of the period. Henry's son died, and his nominated heir Matilda was denied the
throne by her cousin, Henry's nephew, Stephen. There then followed a period of
civil war. Matilda married Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, who took control of
Normandy. The duchy was therefore separated from England once again.
A compromise was eventually reached whereby the son of Matilda and Geoffrey
would be heir to the English crown, while Stephen's son would inherit his
baronial lands. All this meant that in 1154 Henry II would ascend to the throne
as the first undisputed King in over 100 years - proof of the dynastic
uncertainty of the Norman period.
THE CONTINENTAL DYNASTIES
1066 - 1216
HAROLD BLUETOOTH,
King of Denmark
  
Gunhilda of = SWEYN
FORKBEARD
Styrbjorn = Thyra
Poland
Richard I,
Duke
of Sweden
of Normandy
  
Thorgils Sprakalegg
Elgiva of (1) = CANUTE
= (2) Emma, widow
of
Judith
= Richard II,
   Northampton
(1016–1035) ATHELRED
II
daughter of Duke
of
Gytha = Godwin,
Conan
I
Normandy
Earl of
Wessex
  
HAROLD
HARDICANUTE
HAREFOOT (1040–1042)
Robert
I = Herleve
(1035–1040)
Duke of
Normandy
HAROLD
II EDWARD THE=Eadgyth
(1066)
CONFESSOR
(1042–1066)
WILLIAM
I
= Matilda, dau. of
THE CONQUEROR
Baldwin V, Count
(1066–1087)
of Flanders
WILLIAM II
Adela =
Stephen,
Adela of = HENRY I,
(1087–1100)
Count
of
Louvain (1100–1135)
Blois
STEPHEN
Matilda
= Geoffrey, Count
(1135–1154)
of Anjou and Maine
HENRY
II = Eleanor of
(1154–1189) Aquitaine, divorced
wife of LOUIS VII,
King of France
RICHARD
I
JOHN =
Isabella, dau. of
(1189–1199)
(1199–1216) Count of
Angoulême
HENRY III
(1216–1272)
WILLIAM I «THE CONQUEROR»
(1066-1087)
 Born
around 1028, William was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert I of Normandy, and
Herleve (also known as Arlette), daughter of a tanner in Falaise. Known as
'William the Bastard' to his contemporaries, his illegitimacy shaped his career
when he was young. On his father's death in 1035, William was recognised by his
family as the heir - an exception to the general rule that illegitimacy barred
succession. His great uncle looked after the Duchy during William's minority,
and his overlord, King Henry I of France, knighted him at the age of 15.
From 1047 onwards, William successfully dealt with rebellion inside Normandy
involving his kinsmen and threats from neighbouring nobles, including attempted
invasions by his former ally King Henry I of France in 1054 (the French forces
were defeated at the Battle of Mortemer) and 1057. William's military successes
and reputation helped him to negotiate his marriage to Mathilda, daughter of
Count Baldwin V of Flanders. At the time of his invasion of England, William
was a very experienced and ruthless military commander, ruler and administrator
who had unified Normandy and inspired fear and respect outside his duchy.
William's claim to the English throne was based on his assertion that, in 1051,
Edward the Confessor had promised him the throne (he was a distant cousin) and
that Harold II - having sworn in 1064 to uphold William's right to succeed to
that throne - was therefore a usurper. Furthermore, William had the support of
Emperor Henry IV and papal approval. William took seven months to prepare his
invasion force, using some 600 transport ships to carry around 7,000 men
(including 2,000-3,000 cavalry) across the Channel. On 28 September 1066, with
a favourable wind, William landed unopposed at Pevensey and, within a few days,
raised fortifications at Hastings. Having defeated an earlier invasion by the
King of Norway at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York in late September,
Harold undertook a forced march south, covering 250 miles in some nine days to
meet the new threat, gathering inexperienced reinforcements to replenish his
exhausted veterans as he marched. At the Battle of Senlac (near Hastings)
on 14 October, Harold's weary and under-strength army faced William's cavalry
(part of the forces brought across the Channel) supported by archers. Despite
their exhaustion, Harold's troops were equal in number (they included the best
infantry in Europe equipped with their terrible two-handled battle axes) and
they had the battlefield advantage of being based on a ridge above the Norman
positions. The first uphill assaults by the Normans failed and a rumour
spread that William had been killed; William rode among the ranks raising his
helmet to show he was still alive. The battle was close-fought: a chronicler
described the Norman counter-attacks and the Saxon defence as 'one side
attacking with all mobility, the other withstanding as though rooted to the
soil'. Three of William's horses were killed under him. William skilfully
co-ordinated his archers and cavalry, both of which the English forces lacked.
During a Norman assault, Harold was killed - hit by an arrow and then mowed
down by the sword of a mounted knight. Two of his brothers were also killed.
The demoralised English forces fled. (In 1070, as penance, William had an abbey
built on the site of the battle, with the high altar occupying the spot where
Harold fell. The ruins of Battle Abbey, and the town of Battle, which grew up
around it, remain.) William was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in
Westminster Abbey. Three months later, he was confident enough to return to
Normandy leaving two joint regents (one of whom was his half-brother Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, who was later to commission the Bayeux Tapestry) behind to
administer the kingdom. However, it took William six years to consolidate his
conquest, and even then he had to face constant plotting and fighting on both
sides of the Channel. In 1068, Harold's sons raided the south-west coast of England
(dealt with by William's local commanders), and there were uprisings in the
Welsh Marches, Devon and Cornwall. William appointed earls who, in Wales and in
all parts of the kingdom, undertook to guard the threatened frontiers and
maintain internal security in return for land. In 1069, the Danes, in
alliance with Prince Edgar the Aetheling (Ethelred's great-grandson) and other
English nobles, invaded the north and took York. Taking personal charge, and
pausing only to deal with the rising at Stafford, William drove the Danes back
to their ships on the Humber. In a harsh campaign lasting into 1070, William
systematically devastated Mercia and Northumbria to deprive the Danes of their
supplies and prevent recovery of English resistance. Churches and monasteries
were burnt, and agricultural land was laid to waste, creating a famine for the
unarmed and mostly peasant population which lasted at least nine years.
Although the Danes were bribed to leave the north, King Sweyn of Denmark and
his ships threatened the east coast (in alliance with various English,
including Hereward the Wake) until a treaty of peace was concluded in June
1070. Further north, where the boundary with Scotland was unclear, King
Malcolm III was encroaching into England. Yet again, William moved swiftly and
moved land and sea forces north to invade Scotland. The Treaty of Abernethy in
1072 marked a truce, which was reinforced by Malcolm's eldest son being
accepted as a hostage. William consolidated his conquest by
starting a castle-building campaign in strategic areas. Originally these
castles were wooden towers on earthen 'mottes' (mounds) with a bailey
(defensive area) surrounded by earth ramparts, but many were later rebuilt in
stone. By the end of William's reign over 80 castles had been built throughout
his kingdom, as a permanent reminder of the new Norman feudal order.
William's wholesale confiscation of land from English nobles and their heirs
(many nobles had died at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Senlac) enabled him
to recruit and retain an army, by demanding military duties in exchange for
land tenancy granted to Norman, French and Flemish allies. He created up to 180
'honours' (lands scattered through shires, with a castle as the governing
centre), and in return had some 5,000 knights at his disposal to repress
rebellions and pursue campaigns; the knights were augmented by mercenaries and
English infantry from the Anglo-Saxon militia, raised from local levies.
William also used the fyrd, the royal army - a military arrangement which had
survived the Conquest. The King's tenants-in-chief in turn created knights
under obligation to them and for royal duties (this was called subinfeudation),
with the result that private armies centred around private castles were created
- these were to cause future problems of anarchy for unfortunate or weak kings.
By the end of William's reign, a small group of the King's tenants had acquired
about half of England's landed wealth. Only two Englishmen still held large
estates directly from the King. A foreign aristocracy had been imposed as the
new governing class. The expenses of numerous campaigns, together with an
economic slump (caused by the shifts in landed wealth, and the devastation of
northern England for military and political reasons), prompted William to order
a full-scale investigation into the actual and potential wealth of the kingdom
to maximise tax revenues. The Domesday survey was prompted by ignorance of the
state of land holding in England, as well as the result of the costs of defence
measures in England and renewed war in France. The scope, speed, efficiency and
completion of this survey was remarkable for its time and resulted in the
two-volume Domesday Book of 1086, which still exists today. William needed to
ensure the direct loyalty of his feudal tenants. The 1086 Oath of Salisbury was
a gathering of William's 170 tenants-in-chief and other important landowners
who took an oath of fealty to William. William's reach extended elsewhere
into the Church and the legal system. French superseded the vernacular
(Anglo-Saxon). Personally devout, William used his bishops to carry out
administrative duties. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070, was a
first-class administrator who assisted in government when William was absent in
France, and who reorganised the Church in England. Having established the
primacy of his archbishopric over that of York, and with William's approval,
Lanfranc excommunicated rebels, and set up Church or spiritual courts to deal
with ecclesiastical matters. Lanfranc also replaced English bishops and abbots
(some of whom had already been removed by the Council of Winchester under papal
authority) with Norman or French clergy to reduce potential political
resistance. In addition, Canterbury and Durham Cathedrals were rebuilt and some
of the bishops' sees were moved to urban centres. At his coronation,
William promised to uphold existing laws and customs. The Anglo-Saxon shire
courts and 'hundred' courts (which administered defence and tax, as well as justice
matters) remained intact, as did regional variations and private Anglo-Saxon
jurisdictions. To strengthen royal justice, William relied on sheriffs
(previously smaller landowners, but replaced by influential nobles) to
supervise the administration of justice in existing county courts, and sent
members of his own court to conduct important trials. However, the introduction
of Church courts, the mix of Norman/Roman law and the differing customs led to
a continuing complex legal framework. More severe forest laws reinforced
William's conversion of the New Forest into a vast Royal deer reserve. These
laws caused great resentment, and to English chroniclers the New Forest became
a symbol of William's greed. Nevertheless the King maintained peace and order. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1087 declared 'he was a very stern and violent man, so
no one dared do anything contrary to his will ... Amongst other things the good
security he made in this country is not to be forgotten.' William spent
the last months of his reign in Normandy, fighting a counter-offensive in the
French Vexin territory against King Philip's annexation of outlying Normandy
territory. Before his death on 9 September 1087, William divided his
'Anglo-Norman' state between his sons. (The scene was set for centuries of
expensive commitments by successive English monarchs to defend their inherited
territories in France.) William bequeathed Normandy as he had promised to his
eldest son Robert, despite their bitter differences (Robert had sided with his
father's enemies in Normandy, and even wounded and defeated his father in a
battle there in 1079). His son, William Rufus, was to succeed William as King
of England, and the third remaining son, Henry, was left 5,000 pounds in
silver. William was buried in his abbey foundation of St Stephen at Caen.
Desecrated by Huguenots (1562) and Revolutionaries (1793), the burial place of
the first Norman king of England is marked by a simple stone slab.
WILLIAM II (KNOWN AS WILLIAM
RUFUS) (1087-1100)
Strong, outspoken and ruddy (hence his nickname 'Rufus'), William II
(reigned 1087-1100) extended his father's policies, taking royal power to the
far north of England. Ruthless in his relations with his brother Robert,
William extended his grip on the duchy of Normandy under an agreement between
the brothers in 1091. (Robert went on crusade in 1096.)
William's relations with the Church were not easy; he took over Archbishop
Lanfranc's revenues after the latter's death in 1089, kept other bishoprics
vacant to make use of their revenues, and had numerous arguments with
Lanfranc's popular successor, Anselm. William died on 2 August 1100, after
being shot by an arrow whilst hunting in the New Forest.
HENRY I (1100-1135)
 William's
younger brother Henry succeeded to the throne. He was crowned three days after
his brother's death, against the possibility that his eldest brother Robert
might claim the English throne. After the decisive battle of Tinchebrai in 1106
in France, Henry completed his conquest of Normandy from Robert, who then
(unusually even for that time) spent the last 28 years of his life as his
brother's prisoner. An energetic, decisive and occasionally cruel ruler,
Henry centralised the administration of England and Normandy in the royal
court, using 'viceroys' in Normandy and a group of advisers in England to act
on his behalf when he was absent across the Channel. Henry successfully sought
to increase royal revenues, as shown by the official records of his exchequer
(the Pipe Roll of 1130, the first exchequer account to survive). He established
peaceful relations with Scotland, through his marriage to Mathilda of
Scotland. Henry's name 'Beauclerc' denoted his good education (as the
youngest son, his parents possibly expected that he would become a bishop);
Henry was probably the first Norman king to be fluent in English. In 1120, his
legitimate sons William and Richard drowned in the White Ship which sank in the
English Channel. This posed a succession problem, as Henry never allowed any of
his illegitimate children to expect succession to either England or Normandy.
Henry had a legitimate daughter Matilda (widow of Emperor Henry V, subsequently
married to the Count of Anjou). However, it was his nephew Stephen (reigned
1135-54), son of William the Conqueror's daughter Adela, who succeeded Henry
after his death, allegedly caused by eating too many lampreys (fish) in 1135,
as the barons mostly opposed the idea of a female ruler.
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