Saxon Storm: The Huscarl Chronicles Books 1 & 2
Page 53
However, when Edward the Confessor finally died in January 1066, the nobles faced a stark choice. The country was threatened by invasion from the south by Duke William and from the north by the Vikings. Could they really place their trust and hope in an unproven teenager? Perhaps understandably, they chose to elect Harold, middle-aged and a proven war-leader. Harold had no blood link to the ‘royal family’ of Wessex, thereby demonstrating how Anglo-Saxon kingship worked by election rather than by birth-right. He was nothing more than the brother-in-law of the previous king, but he was also the wealthiest and most powerful noble in England and in the right place at the right time. But when Harold met his end fighting in the midst of the shieldwall on Senlac ridge, there was little choice other than to finally elect Edgar to be the new king.
This story forms the backdrop of the first half of the book. Thurkill has made his way to London with his warband, eager to continue the fight against the foreign invader and having heard that the Saxon lords have rallied there around the new king. The Normans, meanwhile, had been making their slow progress from Hastings along the coast to Dover, which was burned to the ground despite having submitted to the Duke. From there, William marched on London, launching the attack at Suthweca (Southwark) that features in the first chapter. Suthweca stood at the southern end of the one bridge across the Thames and thus was the only way to enter the fortified city of London (known as Lundenburh at this time). The chronicles tell us that the Saxon defenders launched a sortie across the bridge and – though it was a defeat – they did succeed in preventing the Normans from crossing.
Unable to take London from the south, Duke William rode west to find a place where his army could cross the river. All the way, his soldiers ravaged the land, partly because they needed huge amounts of food for the army and horses, and partly to spread terror as a means of convincing the English to surrender. Though his precise route is not known for certain, it is a matter of record that he did cross at Wallingford (Warengeforte) and that, while he camped there, Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury did submit to him. This really marked the beginning of the end for Edgar. His support gradually melted away, most notably when the two most senior surviving Earls of Mercia and Northumbria (the brothers Eadwine and Morcar) left London to return to their lands to the north, despite having promised to fight for Edgar. Their motivation for doing so is unknown and many have branded them cowards (a line I follow in the book). What is certain, however, is that that without their warriors, Edgar could not hope to resist.
Accepting the inevitable, Edgar – along with many notables, including Archbishop Ealdred of York – met Duke William at Berkhamsted where the young man swore fealty to the new king.
The coronation took place soon after in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day. The burning of houses around the Abbey is true but to suggest that it was the result of cheering during the ceremony that was mistaken for rioting is facile at best. Rather, this seems a poor attempt by the Norman chroniclers to excuse the violent looting of their soldiers.
One of the reasons why the English were prepared to accept William as king was that they hoped it would bring an end to the deprivations of the previous weeks. It is true that William – outwardly at least – promised to rule in a fair and just way and it could well be said that it was also in his interests to establish a new, peaceful norm as quickly as possible. His coronation did, indeed, include the promissio regis (a feature of Anglo-Saxon coronations since the tenth century), in which the new king would make a three-fold promise to provide peace, to forbid robbery and offer justice and mercy in all judgements. You can see why such words would appeal to the Saxons who were eager to put an end to the violence.
But words and deeds do not always match. William had many followers who expected to be rewarded for their part in his victory and – to achieve this – it was expedient to rule that the lands of any who had fought against the Duke at Senlac were forfeit. Thus was created perhaps the greatest grievance that the Saxons held in the months and years immediately following the Conquest; the wholesale transfer of land to the new Norman overlords. Taking the lands of those who had died might not seem unduly harsh on the face of it, but it created a class of disinherited heirs who, until then, had expected to succeed their fathers. No wonder that many of them chose to rise up against the Normans. But more of that in book three.