Setting the Scene: Background

The contents of this section of the blog:

• General Overview
• The Heptarchy - The Seven Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England
• Edward and the Godwins
• Invasion and Conquest
• The Normans


• The Normans

Normandy is located in northern France along the English Channel between Picardy in the east and Brittany in the west. Its name is derived from the settlement and conquest of the territory by Vikings during the ninth century. The Vikings (men of the North) had so harried the French coast that the French King granted lands to their leader Rollo. The fiefdom of Normandy was created in exchange for his homage and fealty. In time these Northmen absorbed French culture and language, intermarried, and by the time of the Conquest were indeed Norman French.

The Dukes of Normandy commissioned and inspired epic literature to record and legitimise their rule. Wace, Orderic Vitalis, and Étienne of Rouen were among those who wrote in the service of the Dukes.

Duke William of Normandy was the illegitimate son of Duke Robert of Normandy and a tanner's daughter named Herleva (Arlette) hence the name derogatory name 'Bastard'. When William became king of England following the Battle of Hastings in 1066 Normandy and England were linked by Norman rulers for a century and a half until it to reverted to French rule during the reign of King John.

The Normans introduced into England their system of land tenure based upon military service. The word feudalism is derived from fee, an estate in land. However they kept the whole system of Saxon of local governance and the counties, sheriffs, and courts survived. In short, Norman and Saxon institutions were blended. The Normans were also great builders, in the round arched Romanesque style. Great castles, keeps, cathedrals, abbeys and monasteries flourished. Even the most modest churches were enriched with ornate carvings, stained glass and chevron and beakhead ornamentation.

Rouen: a city on the Seine River, about 70 miles northwest of Paris. The site of Rouen was originally settled by Celts and later by the Romans as Rotumagus. Its name was changed to Rouen during the Middle Ages. The city was held by the English from 1066 to 1204 and from 1419 to 1449. It is known as the Museum City because of its historical and architectural treasures.

Caen: located on the Orne River about 9 miles inland from the English Channel, Caen is a major port and trade centre for the surrounding agricultural region. Caen served as the capital of Normandy under William the Conqueror. It was captured by the English in 1346 and was ruled by them from 1417 to 1450. Historical landmarks include the eleventh century Abbaye-Aux-Hommes founded by William the Conqueror, the Abbaye-Aux-Dames founded in 1066 by William's wife Matilda, and the Church of Saint-Pierre.

Bayeux: home to the famous Bayeux Tapestry, an eleventh century embroidery, which details the Norman Conquest of Britain, probably commissioned by Bishop Odo, Duke William's half brother, for his cathedral.

• The Gesta Normannorum Ducum:
One of the most important sources for the history of Normandy and England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It contains the earliest prose account of the Norman Conquest and was written by a succession of authors including William of Jumieges, who wrote for William the Conqueror, and later historians such as Orderic Vitalis d. c.1142 and Robert of Torigni d.1186:

The Gesta Normannorum Ducum

• Norman Conquests in other Lands

Coin of Roger I, Norman conqueror of Sicily

Besides the conquest of England the Normans expanded into other areas, perhaps most significantly Sicily. The sons of Tancred of Hauteville - William Iron Arm, Drogo of Hauteville, Humphrey of Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great conquered the Emirate of Sicily and additional territories in Southern Italy and carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader States of Asia Minor and the Holy Land. Norman families, such as that of Tancred's, played important roles in the Crusades.

The 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom on the Canary Islands. He received the title King of the Canary Islands but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord.

Notes:
This post concludes section 2. Setting the Scene: Background

Setting the Scene: Background

• Invasion and Conquest

Harold may have been Edward the Confessor's brother in law but Duke William of Normandy was Edward's cousin and therefore with some claim to the throne. William also believed that a pact had been made, albeit a forced one from Harold's point of view, in 1064 in which William would become king of England and Harold would retain all of Wessex linked to the crown by marriage with his daughter. This story as well as the subsequent Battle of Hastings is told, from the Norman perspective of course, in the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is an eleventh century embroidery most likely commissioned by Bishop Odo, Duke William's half brother, for his cathedral.

William prepared to seize what he thought was rightfully his and Harold awaited his arrival with confidence. However, another invasion was being planned by Canute's successors in Norway. Harold's half brother Tostig had joined in a pact with King Harold Hardrada and, after gathering a large fleet and army, they sailed toward the northeast coast of England. This left Harold facing two invasions, one from the north and one from the south. When news reached Harold that Hardrada, Tostig, and their army were encamped in York he marched north to confront them and arrived within five days. On 25th September Harold's army met Tostig and Hardrada's forces in battle at Stamford Bridge and inflicted a resounding defeat on their army. Hardrada was killed in the first skirmish and Tostig took command. Harold offered
Tostig peace but he refused it and at the battle's end he too lay dead. With this victorious battle barely over Harold received the news that William had landed at Pevensey Bay on 28th September. William had secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II for a Norman invasion. The Norman conquest of England had begun.

Harold marched his army south and prepared to meet William's forces. At dawn on 14th October 1066 William set out to attack Harold's army and the Battle of Hastings began. By nightfall the last line of Saxon troops were broken by a feigned retreat of the mounted Normans, and Harold and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine had been killed. A scene from the Tapestry depicts a Saxon, thought to be King Harold, pierced by an arrow through the eye.

William waited for two weeks for a formal surrender of the English throne. However, the Witan proclaimed the youthful fifteen year old Edgar Aetheling king instead. William marched to London but his initial advance was beaten back at London Bridge. He then decided on a new tactic which was to march westward and storm London from the northwest. He crossed the Thames at Wallingford, and in early December forced the surrender of Archbishop Stigand who was one of Edgar's main supporters. William pressed on relentlessly and reached Berkhamsted a few days later. It was here that Edgar Aetheling relinquished the crown and the Saxon noblemen surrendered. William was formally crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Aldred.

• The Battle of Hastings:
An account of the battle by William of Malmesbury: The Battle of Hastings, 1066

• The Battle of Stamford Bridge:
An account of the battle from Norwegian sources - Theodricus Monachus: Battle of Stamford Bridge

• William, Duke of Normandy:
By William of Newburgh - Book 1: William, Duke of Normandy

Setting the Scene: Background

• Edward and the Godwins

England had experienced a period of peace after the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid tenth century by King Edgar. However from 980AD small companies of Danish adventurers carried out a series of coast line raids against England. Hampshire, Thanet, and Cheshire were attacked in 980AD, Devon and Cornwall in 981AD, Dorset in 982AD, and in 988AD a battle was fought between the Danish and the thegns of Devon.

The main historical importance of these events in this context is that they brought England into diplomatic contact with Normandy for the first time. The Danes would occasionally seek port in Normandy upon returning from a raid on England. As a result tension between the English and Norman courts grew, and when word of their enmity eventually reached Pope John XV he took steps to broker a peace between England and Normandy, which was ratified in Rouen in 991AD.

In the same year Edgar's 24 year old son, King Ethelred II, who would eventually marry Emma of Normandy in 1002, sat on England's throne and a sizable Danish fleet began a sustained campaign in the southeast of England. In the aftermath of The Battle of Maldon it was decided that the English should grant the tribute to the Danes and a gafol of 10,000 pounds was paid to them for their peace. It was a peace destined not to last and the raids would continue.

In 1016 England submitted to the Danish King Canute. He married Ethelred II's widow, Emma of Normandy, and by her had two sons who succeeded him after his death in 1035, namely Harold Harefoot 1035-1040 and Hardacanute 1040-1042.

Prominent among the nobles at this time was the Wessex earl, Godwin, who had already earned Edward's enmity when he captured his brother Alfred and had him blinded after an unsuccessful attempt by them to depose Harold Harefoot in 1036. The dynamic between Edward and the Godwin family would continue to dominate Edward's reign after his ascension to the English throne.

Edward was duly invited by the Witan to return to England in 1041 and according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was sworn in as king alongside his half brother Hardacanute. After his death in 1042 Edward became king and was crowned in April, 1043. However, having been raised and educated in Normandy during the twenty six years of Danish rule it would appear that Edward returned to England more Norman than English, bringing with him Norman friends and clergy which frustrated the both the English and Danish barons alike. He was supposedly monkish in his ideals and his chief interest was the Church. He married Edith the daughter of Godwin in 1045, moved the royal court from the walled city of London to his new Palace of Westminster, and set about founding Westminster Abbey. Meanwhile, despite a brief period in exile in 1051, the Godwin family maintained their powerful stranglehold over the affairs and crown of England. When Edward died childless in January 1066, the Witan elected Harold as his successor. Edward was canonised as a saint in 1161.

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: The years 1052-1069

A Note about Emma of Normandy:
Emma born c.985 was the daughter of Richard the Fearless, Duke of Normandy and holds the distinction of being the wife of both Ethelred II the Unready and Danish King Canute. In addition to being Queen twice, two of her sons, one by each husband, Edward the Confessor and Hardacanute, and two stepsons, also by each husband, Harold Harefoot and Edmund II Ironside, became kings of England. Her great nephew William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy would become king of England in 1066.

In an interesting twist to her story, Emma did not support her son Edward when he became King of England on the death of Hardacanute. Stranger still perhaps, apparently in both her marriages she was known as or called Aelfgifu, firstly in deference to Ethelred's first wife Aelfgifu, and then in her marriage to Canute as Aelfgifu of Normandy. Emma died in 1052.

• Encomium Emmae Reginae

The Encomium Emmae was written under her patronage. Interestingly, her marriage to Ethelred is not mentioned in this account but her marriage to Canute is.

Setting the Scene: Background

• The Heptarchy - The Seven Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England

Wessex: Ancient kingdom of the West Saxons

From the sixth century Wessex was the kingdom of the West Saxons. At the beginning of the ninth century the king of Wessex, Egbert, subdued the Celts of Devon and Cornwall, defeated the Mercians in battle, and became Bretwalda, the high king of Britain. He had come to the throne in 802AD and decisively defeated King Beornwulf of Mercia at Ellendun in 825AD, seizing control of Sussex, Kent and Essex from the Mercians. He conquered Mercia in 829AD, forcing King Wiglaf into exile and he secured acknowledgment of his overlordship from the king of Northumbria. Wiglaf returned and restored Mercian independence in 830AD, but the expansion of Wessex across south eastern England became permanent.

Long settled as mostly farmers in the lands that their ancestors had invaded four centuries before, the Saxons were now called upon to repel another wave of invaders - the Vikings of Norway and Denmark. The raids had begun in the eighth century but by the middle of the ninth had become an invasion.

Danish Viking raids on Wessex occurred frequently from 835AD onwards and in 851AD a huge Danish army arrived in the Thames estuary. However they were decisively crushed by Egbert's son and successor King Aethelwulf in the Battle of Aclea, which postponed Danish conquests in England for a few years although raids on Wessex did continue. In 865AD another huge Danish army arrived in England, and in the following years the Danes over ran eastern England and Northumbria, and began to threaten the southwest.

In 871AD the Danes invaded Wessex, but were checked at Ashdown in the Berkshire Hills by Aethelred and Alfred of Wessex. The arrival of yet another Danish army compelled Alfred to pay the Danes to leave Wessex, but in 876AD they returned before finally withdrawing in 877AD. At the beginning of 878AD the Danes started a winter invasion of Wessex and took Alfred by surprise. They over ran much of the kingdom and Alfred took refuge with a small band of followers in the marshes of Somerset, but some months later he was able to gather an army and defeat the Danes at the Battle of Edington which brought about their final withdrawal from Wessex. Forced to come to terms, they would retire behind the line of Watling Street, into the Danelaw, and also accept Christianity.

This left Alfred as ruler of the south and west. From his capital in Winchester, he created an efficient army and built a fleet, organising his defences so that later Danish raiders were diverted to northern France. King Alfred the Great then turned his attention to reforming the administration of justice, rebuilding churches, founding schools for the sons of his noblemen which included bringing over foreign scholars, and began the compilation of the English Chronicle. With assistance from his scholars, he himself translated several books from Latin into English including Bede's Ecclesiastical History, and to his version of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis he added a preface describing the decay of learning. When Alfred died in 900AD the later part of the tenth century had become something of a golden age due in a large part to his work. The West Saxon dialect of this period became the standard written form of Old English for the rest of the Anglo-Saxon period and beyond.

Aethelflaed, the daughter of Alfred the Great, married Aethelred Ealdorman of Mercia and after his death in 911AD she ruled as ‘Lady of the Mercians’ until her death in 918AD. Meanwhile Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, was in possession of London, Oxford and their surrounding lands, which had been annexed from Mercia to Wessex. Between the years 913AD to 918AD Edward overwhelmed the Danes of Mercia and East Anglia, and brought all of England south of the Humber under his power. After Aethelflaed died Edward took over direct control of Mercia. By c.954 King Edred had conquered Northumbria, bringing the whole of England under one ruler. After the death of King Edred in 955AD, England was divided once more, with Edwig ruling in Wessex while Mercia passed to Edgar. However, when Edwig died in 959AD the whole of England came under Edgar's control. This unity was threatened once more when Ethelred II (The Unready) became king in 975/8AD. The kingdom fell into confusion and in 980AD the Danish renewed their attacks.

When Danish king Cnut came to power in 1016, he established earldoms based on the former kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, and a few years later created an earldom of Wessex, which encompassed all of England south of the Thames and was governed by Earl Godwin. Godwin and then his son Harold became the most powerful men in English politics after the king. After the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066, Harold was elected king by the Witan which reunited the earldom of Wessex with the crown. Harold would be the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.

Footnote:
English administration (The Witan): the king was dependent upon the loyalty of his thegns, local landowners, and the bishops and ealdormen who composed his Witan.

• More about Wessex:

• Discover The Kingdom of Wessex
• Read about King Alfred the Great
• Explore Westminster Abbey