A short history of the Norman Conquest of England

1. Early Dealings between England and Gaul.—Up to the tenth century the English had very little to do with their neighbours in Gaul. The English kings commonly married the daughters of other English kings, or, after there was only one kingdom, the daughters of their own great men. It was somewhat more common for English kings to give their daughters to foreign kings; but even this did not happen very often. But in the days of Edward the Elder and his son Æthelstan several of Edward’s daughters were married to the chief princes of Western Europe. Among them one married King Charles of Laon and another Duke Hugh of Paris. Thus King Lewis the son of Charles was sister’s son to the English kings Æthelstan and Edmund. They played a certain part in the affairs of Gaul on behalf of their nephew, and, as Lewis was an enemy of the Normans, it may be that some ill-feeling between the English and the Normans began thus early. But there was no open quarrel till the last years of the tenth century, when Æthelred was King of the English, and when the long reign of Richard the Fearless in Normandy was coming near to its end.

2. The first Quarrel between England and Normandy.—The first time when Englishmen and Normans are distinctly recorded to have met as enemies was in a quarrel which arose out of the Danish invasions of England. In 991 King Æthelred and Duke Richard had a quarrel, and they were made friends by Pope John the Fifteenth. The ground of quarrel seems to have been that the Danes had been allowed to sell the plunder of England in the Norman havens. About nine years later we hear of another quarrel. The Norman writers say that Æthelred sent a fleet with orders to harry the whole land and to bring Duke Richard before him with his hands tied behind his back. Then they tell us that the English fleet did land in the Côtentin, but that they were driven back by the men of the land, with the women helping them, without any help from Duke Richard. We need not believe these details, any more than we need believe the details of many other stories of these times; but there must be some ground for the tale. At any rate there is no doubt that Æthelred in 1002 married Emma, the daughter of Duke Richard. This was most likely when peace was made, and some say that Æthelred went over to Normandy himself to bring home his bride.

3. The Marriage of Æthelred and Emma.—This marriage marks one of the main stages in the events which led to the Norman Conquest. First of all, it was, as we have seen, an unusual thing for an English king to marry a foreign wife. In all the time that the English had been in Britain it had, as far as we know, happened only twice before. This is one of many things which show that England was now getting to have more to do with foreign lands than before. Secondly, by reason of this marriage Normans and other French-speaking people now began for the first time to settle in England and to hold English offices. Emma now became Lady of the English, for by the custom of the West-Saxons the King’s wife was called not Queen but Lady, and she changed her name from the foreign Emma to the English Ælfgifu. As the King’s wife she received a gift from her husband. This gift consisted of lands and towns, and among them the city of Exeter. Here the Lady set one Hugh, whom the English call the French churl, as her reeve. When the Danes attacked Exeter in 1003, Hugh, if he did not actually betray the city, at least made no good defence, and Exeter was taken. Such was the beginning of Norman command in England. Thirdly, for the first time in the West-Saxon house, the children of a king were half-strangers by birth, and what followed made them strangers yet more thoroughly. And fourthly, the reigning houses of England and Normandy now became of kin to one another, and it was this which first put it into the head of Duke William that he might perhaps succeed to the throne of his English kinsfolk.

4. The Marriage of Cnut and Emma.—Emma, the Norman Lady, now becomes a very important person in English history. She was the wife of two kings and the mother of two kings. Her first husband Æthelred had not to stay very long in his banishment in Normandy. For the next year Swegen the Danish king died. Then the Danes chose his younger son Cnut or Canute to be king in England, while his elder son Harold reigned in Denmark. War followed between Cnut and Æthelred, in which at last Æthelred showed some little spirit, but in which the great leader on the English side was his son Edmund, called Ironside. He was not the son of Emma, whose children, Alfred, Edward, and Godgifu, were still quite young, but of an earlier wife of Æthelred. Then in the beginning of 1016 Æthelred died. Many of the English now thought that it was best to accept Cnut as king; so he was chosen at a meeting at Southampton, while Edmund was chosen in another meeting in London. The English gradually joined Edmund; he was a strong and brave captain, very unlike his father; six battles were fought in the year; London was three times besieged by Cnut; but in the last battle, at Assandún in Essex, Edmund was defeated by the treason of his brother-in-law Eadric. Still he was so powerful that it was agreed to divide the kingdom, Cnut reigning in the North and Edmund in the South. But before the year was out, Edmund died, and many thought that Eadric, some that Cnut, had brought about his death. Then at the Christmas of 1016–1017 Cnut was a third time chosen king over all England, and one of the first things that he did was to send to Normandy for the widowed Lady Emma, though she was many years older than he was. She came over; she married the new king, and was again Lady of the English. She bore Cnut two children, Harthacnut and Gunhild. Her three children by Æthelred were left in Normandy. She seems not to have cared at all for them or for the memory of Æthelred; her whole love passed to her new husband and her new children. Thus it came about that the children of Æthelred were brought up in Normandy, and had the feelings of Normans rather than of Englishmen, a thing which again greatly helped the Norman Conquest.

5. The Reign of Cnut.—Though Cnut came in as a foreign conqueror, yet he reigned as an English king. He was chosen when he was quite young; England was his first kingdom; and, though he soon inherited the kingdom of Denmark and afterwards conquered Norway, yet England was always the land which he loved best. He began harshly, banishing or putting to death every one whom he thought at all dangerous, especially such of the kinsfolk of Æthelred as he could get at. Emma’s two boys were safe in Normandy, perhaps safer with their uncle Duke Richard—that is Richard the Good, son of Richard the Fearless, who reigned from 996 to 1026—than they would have been with their mother in England. But when Cnut was fully established on the throne, he left off this harshness; he ruled the English according to their own laws, and gradually got rid of the Danes who had come with him, and to whom he had given earldoms and other high offices. These places were now again given to Englishmen, and the chief among them was Godwine, Earl of the West-Saxons. Under Cnut England became the centre of a great Northern Empire, such as was not seen before or after. His father Swegen had been baptized in his childhood; but he cast away Christianity and became a heathen again. His son Cnut was therefore brought up as a heathen, but he was baptized while still a young man by the name of Lambert, though he was always called Cnut, just as Rolf was always called Rolf and never Robert. He made the pilgrimage to Rome, and was there received with great worship by the Pope and by the Emperor Conrad, who came to be crowned while he was there. All his wars were in the North, in Scotland, Norway, and Sweden. He was always on good terms with Duke Richard of Normandy; but things changed in this respect before the end of Cnut’s reign. When Richard the Good died, he was succeeded by his son Richard the Third, who reigned only two years. Then in 1028 came his other son Robert, who is famous in several ways, but perhaps most of all for being the father of William the Conqueror of England.

6. Duke Robert and the English Æthelings.—There seems no doubt that Cnut and Robert had some kind of quarrel, but the story is told in different ways, and it is not easy to make out the exact truth. But it seems that Robert married Cnut’s sister Estrith and then put her away. She had, seemingly before this, been married to the Danish Earl Ulf, who was put to death by Cnut, and she was the mother of Swegen called from her Estrithson, who was afterwards King of the Danes, and who plays a great part in English history also. The Northern writers tell some wild stories about Cnut invading Normandy and dying while besieging Rouen; but it is quite certain that he died quietly at Shaftesbury in 1035. But it does seem likely that Robert, though he never actually invaded England, yet made ready to do so. He played a great part in the affairs of the neighbouring states, and he seems to have been specially pleased to restore dispossessed princes to their dominions. Thus he restored Baldwin Count of Flanders and his own lord Henry King of the French. He was therefore very likely, above all if he had any quarrel with Cnut on other grounds, to try to bring home his cousins, the English Æthelings or King’s sons, Alfred and Edward, and to set one of them on the English throne. It is said that he got together a fleet and set out, but he was hindered by the wind, and driven to the coast of Britanny, where he hardly had a quarrel with the reigning Count Alan. So, instead of conquering the greater Britain, of which England is part, all that he did was to harry the lesser Britain in Gaul. But no doubt this attempt of Duke Robert’s would make an invasion of England to be talked of in Normandy as a possible thing, and might specially help to put it into the head of his son William.

7. The Second attempt of the Æthelings.—Of the accession and youth of William we shall say more presently. It is enough to say now that Cnut and Robert died nearly at the same time. After Cnut’s death the kingdom of England was again divided, as it had been before between Edmund and Cnut. Earl Godwine and the West-Saxons wished to keep the whole kingdom for Emma’s son Harthacnut, who was already reigning in Denmark under his father. But it was decreed that Harthacnut should have Wessex only, and that the rest of England, together, it would seem, with the overlordship of all, should pass to Harold, who was said to be Cnut’s son by an Englishwoman named Ælfgifu. But Harthacnut stayed in Denmark, and his English kingdom was ruled by his mother Emma, with Godwine to her minister. Thus we seem to be getting nearer to the Norman Conquest, when the Norman Lady rules in Wessex. And now comes a story which is told in the most opposite ways by the old writers. It is certain that one or both of the English Æthelings, Alfred and Edward, made another attempt to get the kingdom of England, that Alfred fell into the hands of Harold, that his eyes were put out by Harold’s orders, and that he soon afterwards died. But as to all the details of the story, there is nothing but contradiction. Some say that Edward invaded England with a Norman fleet, and won a battle near Southampton, but sailed away without doing anything more. Others say nothing about Edward and only speak of Alfred. And it was believed by many that Earl Godwine betrayed Alfred to Harold, though those who say this seem to have forgotten that Godwine was the minister of Harthacnut. Some say too that Alfred had a large party of Normans with him, and that they were put to death in various cruel ways. The chief thing for our purpose is that it was fully believed in Normandy that either Godwine by himself, or the English people with Godwine at their head, had betrayed and murdered the Ætheling, the kinsman of the Norman Duke. So this was treasured up as a ground for vengeance against the English nation in general and against Godwine above all.

8. Emma and Edward.—The next thing that happened in England was not likely to please the Normans much better. For the West-Saxons got tired of waiting for their king Harthacnut, who stayed all the time in Denmark; so in 1037 they forsook him and chose Harold to be king over Wessex as well as over the rest of England. The first thing that Harold did was to drive the Lady Emma out of the land. She did not go to Normandy, but to Flanders; because Normandy was just then, as we shall presently see, full of confusion. But in 1040 Harold died, and Harthacnut was chosen king over all England. Thus England had a king who was, on the mother’s side, of Norman descent. Emma came back, and Harthacnut sent for his half-brother Edward to come from Normandy and live at his court. And Edward brought with him a French nephew of his and of Harthacnut’s. This was Ralph, the son of their sister Godgifu or Goda, daughter of Æthelred and Emma, who was married to a French prince, Drogo Count of Mantes. So the foreign influence, Norman and French, was spreading. Their other sister Gunhild, the daughter of Cnut and Emma, was married to King Henry of Germany, afterwards the great Emperor Henry the Third. Harthacnut, like his brother Harold, reigned only a short time, and died in 1042. Then the English said that they had had enough of strange kings, and that they would have a king of the old stock. There were only two men of that stock now living. Edmund Ironside had left two little twin sons, Edmund and Edward, who were sent away beyond sea in Cnut’s time. Of these Edmund was dead, but Edward was living far away in Hungary. By modern law he would have been the right heir, as the son of the elder brother. But in those days it was deemed enough to choose within the kingly house, without thinking of any particular rule of succession. So no one thought of Edward who was away in Hungary, and the Wise Men—the great men of the land in their assembly—chose Edward who was near at hand, the son of Æthelred and Emma. Some were for choosing another Danish king, Swegen, the son of Cnut’s sister Estrith. Swegen afterwards reigned very wisely in Denmark, and it might perhaps have really been the best thing to choose him. But the feeling was all in favour of a king of the old English stock; so Edward was chosen.

9. King Edward.—With Edward’s election the connexion between English and Norman affairs becomes closer still; we might almost say that the Norman Conquest began in his time. Men thought that, by choosing Edward, the English royal house was restored to the crown; but it was in truth very much as if a Norman king had been chosen. Harthacnut had as much Norman blood in him as Edward, but he had not been brought up in Normandy; his feelings and ways were Danish. But Edward’s feelings and ways were all Norman. His being the son of a Norman mother had not much to do with it, as there was no great love between mother and son. Emma had quite neglected her children by Æthelred, and she seems even to have opposed Edward’s election. He had not been very long king before he took away all her treasures. What really made Edward more of a Norman than an Englishman was that he had lived in Normandy from his childhood, and had made many friends there, and chiefly his young cousin Duke William. He liked to speak French and to have French-speaking people about him, specially Norman churchmen, to whom he gave English bishoprics and other high preferments. He also gave estates and offices to Norman and other French-speaking laymen as far as he could; but the King could not give away the great temporal offices so much according to his own pleasure as he could give away the great places of the Church. He could not give away either without the consent of his Wise Men; but the Wise Men were more ready to allow a foreign bishop than a foreign earl. So, while we find several French-speaking bishops and abbots in Edward’s reign, we find only one French-speaking earl. This was the King’s nephew Ralph the son of Godgifu. Of smaller men, both clergy and laymen, many held benefices and estates. This was specially so during the former part of Edward’s reign, which was chiefly a time of struggle between English and foreign influences in the land.

10. King Edward and Earl Godwine.—Edward was a devout and well-disposed man. His love of foreigners he could hardly help; his chief fault was now and then giving way to fits of passion, in which he sometimes gave rash and cruel orders. But in these cases he seems to have been commonly stirred up by his favourites. Otherwise he was remarkably free from cruelty or any other of the common vices of his time. Being thus a really good and pious man, and one whom both Normans and English could agree in reverencing, he was very early looked on as a saint and thought to work miracles. But he was a weak man and quite unfit to govern his kingdom. The first nine years of his reign were one long struggle whether England should be ruled by the King’s foreign favourites or by the English Earl Godwine. Godwine, along with his friend Bishop Lyfing, had the chief hand in bringing about Eadward’s election, and this claim on the King’s gratitude made him yet more the first man in the kingdom than he was before. The King married his daughter Edith, and his sons were gradually raised to earldoms, some of them while they were very young. Godwine was beyond all doubt an Englishman who loved his own land and folk; but he was over-grasping on his own behalf and on that of his children. In marrying his daughter to the King, he no doubt looked forward to a grandson of his own wearing the crown; but Edward had no children, and, at least in the early part of his reign, he seems to have had little love for his wife. And the gathering together of many earldoms in the one house of the Earl of the West-Saxons gave offence, not only to the Normans, but seemingly to the earls and people of the rest of England. Thus these first years of the reign of Eadward tell us the tale both of the power of Godwine and of his fall.

11. The Earldoms.—It will be well here to explain who were the chief men of England at this time, and what were the earldoms which they held. At this time an earldom was not a mere rank or title, but meant the government of one or more shires over which the earl was set by the authority of the King and his Wise Men. There were now four chief earldoms, answering to the four greatest of the ancient kingdoms, those of Wessex, Mercia, Northumberland, and East-Anglia. There were always these four; but there were also others as well, and shires were often taken from one earldom and given to another, as was thought good at the time. The Mercian shires above all, those in the middle of England, were very often handed to and fro between one earl and another. When Edward was elected, Godwine was Earl of the West-Saxons, that is, of all England south of the Thames. Siward, a famous Dane, was Earl of the Northumbrians, that is of all England north of the Humber and the Ribble, and also of Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. Leofric was Earl of the Mercians, but he had only the western part of Mercia under his immediate rule. Who was Earl of the East-Angles we do not know. Besides these there were other earls who held one or more shires, seemingly under the great earls; and as these smaller earldoms became vacant, room was found both for the King’s friends and for the family of Godwine. Thus the King’s nephew Ralph was Earl, first of Worcester and then of Hereford. And Godwine very soon got earldoms for his elder sons Swegen and Harold, and for his wife’s nephew Beorn, the brother of the Danish King Swegen. Swegen had a strangely-shaped government, taking in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire. Harold had East-Anglia; Beorn had all eastern Mercia except Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. Thus the power of Godwine and his house was very great; but it was perhaps shaken by the crimes of his eldest son Swegen, who killed his cousin Beorn. For this he was banished, but was afterwards restored to his earldom.

12. Norman influence in England.—The way in which Godwine had to strive against the King’s love of strangers is shown, as we have said, in the appointment of bishoprics and other great offices in the Church. Early in his reign, in 1044, the see of London was given to Robert, Abbot of Jumièges in Normandy, the first time that an English bishopric had ever been held by a French-speaking man. Robert had great power over the King, which he used against the English and especially against Godwine. At last in 1051 Robert himself became Archbishop of Canterbury; other bishoprics were given to Normans, and Norman clerks and knights held benefices and estates in various parts of the kingdom. But the King did not venture to give an earldom to any Norman, or to any foreigner except his own nephew Ralph. One fashion which the Normans brought in with them was that of building castles. The English were used to fortify towns, and their kings and other chief men had lived in halls, often on the tops of mounds and fenced in by a palisade. But the Normans now began to build castles, that is, either strong square towers, or strong stone walls crowning the mounds. Thence they could oppress the people in many ways, and the writers of the time always speak of the building of the castles with a kind of shudder.

13. The Banishment of Godwine.—The appointment of Robert to the archbishopric marks the time when the Normans had things most thoroughly their own way. About this time the King’s brother-in-law, Count Eustace of Boulogne, came to pay him a visit. As he went home, he and his followers rode into the town of Dover, and tried to quarter themselves where they pleased in the houses. So a fight followed, in which several men were killed on both sides. Then the Count rode back and told the King how insolently the men of Dover had dealt by him. Then Edward flew into one of his angry fits, and bade Godwine go and lay waste Dover with fire and sword. But Godwine said that he would do no such thing; he would do nothing to any man in his earldom except according to law; the men of Dover should be lawfully tried before the Wise Men, and, if they were found guilty of any crime, they should be lawfully punished. While these things were doing in Kent, there came also a cry from Herefordshire about the deeds of certain Normans there, Richard and his son Osbern, who had built a castle called Richard’s Castle, and had greatly oppressed the people. And at the same time the Archbishop and the other Normans were setting the King against Godwine more than ever, and bringing up the old story about his brother Alfred. Godwine and his sons therefore gathered the men of their earldoms, and demanded that the King should give up the foreigners, Count Eustace among them, for lawful trial. Edward got together the forces of the rest of the kingdom under the Earls Siward, Leofric, and Ralph, and made ready for war. The West-Saxons and East-Angles accordingly marched on Gloucester, where the King was; but actual warfare was hindered by Leofric, and it was agreed that all matters should be judged in an assembly in London. The King came there with an army. The assembly met; Swegen’s outlawry was renewed; Godwine and Harold were summoned to appear as criminals for trial. As they refused to come without a safe-conduct, they were outlawed. Harold and Leofwine found shelter in Ireland, Godwine and the rest of the family in Flanders. The King’s wife, the Lady Edith, stayed in England, but she was shorn of her royal rank, and sent to the monastery of Wherwell. The Normans now had for awhile everything their own way. They thought it a good time for Duke William to come over and pay a visit to his cousin the King. William was now about twenty-three years of age, and he had been called Duke ever since he was a child of seven. We will now go back and see what had been going on in Normandy during these early years of his reign.