Harrying of the North

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Under the (fixed) term harrying of the North (also Harrowing of the North , such as looting of the North ) is understood in English history the campaign of William the Conqueror to subdue the northern border of his new kingdom in the winter 1069 / 1070 as part of the Norman Conquest of England . Northumbria and the Midlands were particularly hard hit . The north of England was inhabited by free peasants and Scandinavians at that time , and their extensive independence was suppressed with the campaigns. It is believed that around 150,000 people died. The scorched earth policy left behind - as can be read in the Domesday Book , published twenty years later - a depopulated and devastated country.

background

After Edgar Etheling's deposition as King of England (whom Wilhelm had never recognized anyway) in December 1066, the residents of Northern England were deprived of state protection, as Wilhelm's victory was not yet assured up here. As people with Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian roots, they preferred members of the Swedish house Munsö , the Norwegian dynasty Harfagre or the Anglo-Saxon house Wessex as rulers . Wilhelm, on the other hand, regarded the northerners, who had never paid homage to him, as subjects of Edward the Confessor , whom he in turn regarded as his direct predecessor.

Wilhelm wanted to settle the situation in Northumbria by quickly appointing Copsi as Earl, a local who had submitted to him. However, Copsi was murdered by Osulf , a son of Earl Eadwulf III. whose family had ruled for a long time in Bernicia and at times also in Northumbria. When the usurper Osulf was also killed, Wilhelm sold the county to his cousin Gospatric , who, however, joined Edgar Etheling's uprising in 1068. With the assistance of Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar , the deposed Earl of Northumbria , Edgar rose against the new king but was defeated almost immediately. He fled to the court of the Scottish King Malcolm III. , who married his sister Margarete and in return gave Edgar his support. Edgar also got in touch with Sven Estridsson , King of Denmark and nephew of Canute the Great . In 1069 he and his allies invaded the country and moved to Durham , where they murdered the newly appointed Norman Earl Robert de Comines .

The looting

Ethelwin then left the Norman camp (the only English prelate who dared) and an army of Scots , Vikings and Anglo-Saxons invaded the north to reclaim the throne for the old dynasty. The invaders conquered York , but made no progress thereafter and the Northumbrians also failed to declare an independent state. Wilhelm immediately had his own army march north, which crushed everything on the way to destroy the enemy. Edgar fled to Scotland again, and William paid off the Danes to leave his country.

From the Humber up to Tees , Wilhelm's men burned entire villages and killed the inhabitants. Food supplies were destroyed and cattle slaughtered so that anyone who survived the massacre would starve to death in winter. There was cannibalism on, followed the epidemics.

It was not until 1072 that William appointed a new Earl of Northumbria. In the same year he made peace with Scotland. In 1074 Wilhelm and Edgar also came to an understanding, so that any resistance to the crown was now theoretically impossible.

From a Norman point of view, the tactic was a resounding success, as large areas down to Staffordshire were depopulated ( wasta est , as recorded in the Domesday Book) and further uprisings did not take place. Contemporary biographers of Wilhelm see the campaign as Wilhelm's cruelest act and as a stain on his soul, but it was hardly mentioned until the Whig Interpretation of History Herbert Butterfields (1931) and was not part of common knowledge.

The consequences for the north were immense. Until the late Middle Ages there was a great economic gap between the south and the north, and despite the Industrial Revolution , the north is still the poorer half of England.

literature

  • Frank Merry Stenton : Anglo-Saxon England. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press, 1971, ISBN 0-19-821716-1 .
  • Thomas Hynde (Ed.): The Domesday Book: England's History Then and Now. 1995.