4
Although William had won the crown of England in a single battle, the fight to gain control over England itself had only just begun. King William I would spend the first ten years of his reign fighting off foreign invaders and internal rebellions.
During the first full year of his reign, he faced no less than four rebellions. The first rebellion was instigated by English magnate Edric the Wild who called on Welshmen to raise a rebellion in Herefordshire. That rebellion fizzled out as did the second rebellion in Kent. There the citizens asked Count Eustace of Boulogne to come to England and help them overthrow William. The Kentish rebels attempted to take Dover Castle but failed and Eustace fled back across the Channel. The third rebellion was in the summer of 1067 when three illegitimate sons of King Harold invaded from Ireland but they were fought off by the citizens of Bristol.
There was a fourth, more serious threat from King Sweyn II of Denmark that caused William to leave Normandy to deal with the problem personally. But when William landed in England, he discovered another huge problem: the citizens of Exeter were about to launch a rebellion against him. William immediately marched his army of mercenaries to Exeter and besieged the town for eighteen days until they finally surrendered. Thereafter, most surrounding counties submitted in obedience, including Gloucester and Bristol.
By the spring of 1068, William had much to celebrate. He had conquered England against all odds and had survived his first year as king despite numerous rebellions. He celebrated Easter 1068 in London and held a great court at Westminster with his new English magnates and the Norman magnates who had been granted English estates. He must have been feeling secure at this point because he chose this time to bring his wife Matilda to England for the very first time. Along with Matilda on the voyage from Normandy to London were their three sons Robert, Richard, and William.
William’s victory celebration turned out to be a little premature as there were still pockets of simmering unrest throughout his new kingdom which would have to be dealt with decisively if he hoped to hold onto his crown. That became apparent shortly after Easter 1068 when Edgar Ætheling deserted William’s court and was harbored by King Malcolm of Scotland. The two men were undoubtedly working together on a plan to supplant William and place Edgar on the throne. Back in England, William’s earls in the north, Edwin and Morcar, conspired with the Scotland and King Sweyn II of Denmark to overthrow the king. King William rode north to York, caused the local magnates to submit to him, and negotiated a truce with Scotland.
The year 1069 was no less eventful in terms of uprisings and rebellions. In January 1069, one of William’s Norman earls was murdered in the streets of Durham, leading to civil unrest that quickly spread to York. A few months later, Edgar and King Sweyn II launched their joint invasion of York. When the people of York put up a resistance, Edgar and Sweyn burned down their town. The city submitted to Edgar on 20 September 1069.1
The fall of York stirred many other rebellions in the north, including revolts in Dorset and Somerset. King William acted swiftly to these latest threats, riding north with his army and putting down rebellions in each town he passed through. Once he neared York, he ordered his troops to harry all the surrounding areas, killing all the animals and burning the crops, so the rebels inhabiting York Castle would have no means of sustenance. William’s slash and burn campaign against York was particularly barbaric and the destruction he caused left the city in desolation for an entire generation.2 So fearful was William’s reputation after the harrying of York that even King Sweyn II decided to take his soldiers and ships back home to Denmark. It probably didn’t hurt that William offered him a cash bribe to leave.
In the spring of 1070, King Sweyn II came back to England for more, launching an invasion in concert with a Lincolnshire nobleman named Hereward. By June they had ransacked Peterborough Abbey in Cambridgeshire, about 150 kilometres north of London, and burned the cathedral down. Once again, Sweyn was persuaded to leave England with the help of a cash bribe. His partner Hereward wasn’t ready to give up yet, so he allied with the troublesome northern earl Morcar in their own rebellion. William led an army against them and captured Morcar but Hereward disappeared and was never heard from again.
While William was in England dealing with unrest there, some of his unruly Norman barons were fostering rebellions of their own. Count Geoffrey of Mayenne instigated a rebellion in the city of Le Mans, Maine in 1069 and then again in the spring of 1070. Further danger emerged in the spring of February 1071 when Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders, passed away and his wife Richildis took control of the duchy on behalf of her son. William had been too busy putting down rebellions in England to attend to the troubles in Normandy until the winter of 1071 at which time he held court with his leading councillors and left his half-brother Odo of Bayeux in charge of Normandy so he could sail back to England and deal with a new Scandinavian invasion.
William quickly realised that he could not personally deal with all the rebellions on the island of England and the duchy of Normandy at the same time so he devised a plan to deal with Scotland once and for all. In the summer of 1072 he led an offensive army into the heart of Scotland to put down King Malcolm. Malcolm was so frightened by William’s huge army that he immediately negotiated a truce and pledged to be his man from that point forward. Additionally, William made him promise not to aid English rebels and made him expel Edgar Ætheling from Scotland.
In early 1073, King William boarded a ship and sailed back to his home duchy of Normandy, intent on subduing the unrest there once and for all. First, he set his sights on gaining back control of Maine, which had fallen under the control of Fulk le Rechin, Count of Anjou, in 1072. William led his army to the capital city of Le Mans and it surrendered to him on 30 March 1073.
At this point Normandy fell under even more danger when the king of France, Philip I, joined with the leading rebels to remove William from Normandy in order to bring the independently ruled Normandy under France’s rule. In 1074 Philip conspired with Edgar Ætheling to overthrow the king but William was able to negotiate with Edgar and bring him back to his English court. William knew it would be better to have him close so he could keep an eye on him rather than let him roam England (and Scotland) gathering supporters to his cause.
Next William faced a rebellion in 1075 by Ralph de Gael who held lands in Normandy and the earldom of Norfolk in England. Ralph managed to get several other Breton and English magnates to join his rebellion, including Roger, Earl of Hereford, and Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon.3 Ralph also managed to convince King Cnut of Denmark, son of King Sweyn II, to join his rebellion. Ralph’s plan was to lead his army to Norwich and meet up with Cnut’s huge fleet of warships. However, William’s adherents in England, including his brother Odo, quickly dispersed Ralph’s army so that when Cnut arrived, Ralph was already gone. Cnut pillaged some border lands but then headed back home to Scotland. William dealt with the rebels harshly, imprisoning them for several months before having them unceremoniously beheaded.
Since the most recent rebellion in 1075 had been instigated by Brittany, William also planned to punish that duchy by bringing war upon them. In September 1076, William led his troops to Dol in Brittany and besieged the city. King Philip of France threw in his support with the besieged Bretons, sending in supplies and reinforcements, successfully fighting off William’s army and causing them to retreat. This was the first serious loss in William’s recent history and it had the effect of encouraging even more magnates to challenge his authority. But the next person to cause him serious trouble was his very own son and heir, Robert Curthose.