The British History Podcast

Five years of fighting. The conquest of England wasn’t something that was resolved on a single day in October of 1066. William had been fighting this thing for five years… and they were long years.

Thirty thousand pounds. That’s what the Gesta claims Hereward charged the Normans for the return of their warlike Abbot Turold.

The once mighty Godwinson dynasty was gone… I guess Harold’s poor baby brother, Wulfnoth, was still alive, given that he was still assumed to be breathing in one of William’s dungeons. But he never again saw freedom…

It was late October of 1071, and Hereward was out with a column of his rebel fighters, foraging and pillaging Norman allied settlements for supplies. 

If the story of Hereward wasn’t what you were expecting, you’re not alone. Researching this tale has been just as wild an experience as hearing it. In fact, between this episode and the last one, I came across another fascinating tidbit about our favorite French witch.

Ok, when we left off William hired a witch to help with his rebel problem, Hereward disguised himself as a potter and infiltrated the Norman camp while William was out hunting, and in the end a bunch of Normans were slain and Hereward barely escaped with his life thanks to the speedy hooves of his trusty horse.  Swallow.

The situation in Ely was getting out of hand. The Liber Eliensis speaks of how Hereward and his army carried out raids far and wide, bringing with him bands of a hundred men or more.

Word soon reached King William’s Court that Hereward remained free. Even worse, the man tasked with capturing the Wake (William de Warenne) had barely escaped with his life.

Hereward was returning to Ely with his men. The upside was they were taking literal boatloads of treasure with them.

You may have noticed that Hereward the Wake seems to keep disappearing from the story and then reappearing again. This reflects the actual record, where he pops up only to vanish back into the mist just as quickly. His life appears to have been enigmatic. We only know him by these tidbits. But, even those small moments he appears in the record, he manages to stand out. Hereward was a man on the go...

When we left off, William (satisfied with the damage he had inflicted upon the people of the North) marched south towards Chester.

When we ended the last episode. William and his knights had ravaged the North.  He had spared nothing and no one.  Men, women, children, animals, buildings, even the plants.  Everything between York and Durham was annihilated, a stretch of nearly 100 miles.

Weeks in the rain and cold, marching through mud and picking through forests, had finally - in spite of Northumbria’s best efforts - ended with William reaching his goal. The King arrived in York.

William was charging North. If he was going to hold on to his new kingdom, he had to counter this threat in person.

News of the victory at York spread fast, and people everywhere were finding their courage.

It was Fall of 1069, and the Danes were coming.

The Godwinsons are back in England. Harold’s sons, along with a fleet of 64 Irish ships loaded down with fighters, have just hit the shores.  And it seems like they were students of history, because they were taking up the traditional family business.

Things in the North were dire. This was a problem, because as Orderic tells us, this wasn’t just a minor local revolt.  This was intended to be much bigger.

They appeared as if from nowhere. A great force of men and horses… armed to the teeth… charging towards the city of York.

Earl Robert lay dead at Durham. Along with 700 of his men. At least. The Chronicle bumps the numbers up a bit, claiming Earl Robert had died 900 of his soldiers at Durham. Either way, that’s a lot of dead Normans.

Happy New Year! It was 1069… nice… and as the new year dawned…things in England were getting a bit weird.

I feel for the English commoners in the late 1060’s. They had nothing to do with the arrival of the Normans… everything they suffered was the result of the actions of the nobles. Exclusively.

In early 1068… as William was preparing for the tactical Coronation of Matilda… the three sons of Harold Godwinson were in Ireland. They had come to meet with King Diarmad of Dublin and prepare an invasion force to re-take England.