Harrying of the North

Under the ( fixed ) term harrying of the North (also Harrowing of the North, such as looting of the North) is understood in English history the campaign of William the Conqueror to subdue the northern border of his new kingdom in winter 1069/1070 as part of the Norman conquest of England. These were primarily Northumbria and the Midlands. The north of England was inhabited at the time of free peasants and Scandinavians, and with the campaigns of their degree of independence was suppressed. It is believed that about 150,000 people were killed. The scorched earth policy left behind - what is in the Domesday Book, written twenty years later, read - a depopulated and devastated land.

Background

( Wilhelm had anyway never recognized ) After the deposition Edgar Ethelings as King of England in December 1066 the residents of northern England, the State protection was withdrawn because of William 's victory was not secured at the top here. As people with Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian roots they preferred as ruler members of the Swedish House Munsö, the Norwegian dynasty Hårfagre or the Anglo-Saxon Wessex House. Wilhelm, however, looked at the North Englishman who had never paying homage to him, as subjects of Edward the Confessor, which he regarded again as its direct predecessor.

The situation in Northumbria Wilhelm wanted by the rapid appointment of COPSI regulate Earl, a local who had submitted to him. COPSI but was murdered by Osulf, a son of Earl Eadulf III. of Bernicia, whose family had ruled for a long time in Bernicia, and at times also in Northumbria. When the usurper Osulf was also killed, Wilhelm sold the county to his cousin Cospatrick, the 1068, however, joined Edgar Ethelings uprising. With the support of Edwin, Earl of Mercia and Morcar, the deposed Earl of Northumbria, Edgar brought an action against the new king, but was defeated almost immediately. He fled to the court of the Scottish king Malcolm III. , Who married his sister Margaret and Edgar gave his support in return. Furthermore, Edgar joined with Sven Estridsson in conjunction, the King of Denmark and nephew of Knut the Great. 1069 he fell and his allies into the region and moved to Durham, where they the newly appointed Norman Earl Robert de Comines murdered.

The Pillage

From the Humber to Tees by up burning down entire villages William's men and killed the inhabitants. Food stocks were destroyed, slaughtered the cattle, so that everyone who survived the massacre, in winter had to die of hunger. There was cannibalism, the epidemics followed.

It was only in 1072 appointed a new Earl of Northumbria Wilhelm. In the same year he made ​​peace with Scotland. 1074 reached an understanding Wilhelm and Edgar, so that each resistance was for the crown now excluded and theoretically.

From Norman perspective, the tactic was a resounding success, as large areas were depopulated down to Staffordshire ( wasta est, such as the Domesday Book recorded ) and failed to further uprisings. Contemporary biographers of William see the campaign as William cruel deed and as a stain on his soul, but it was barely mentioned until the Whig interpretation of History, Herbert Butterfield (1931 ) and also was not common knowledge.

The consequences for the north were immense. Until the late Middle Ages there was a large economic disparities between the South and the North, today is the north - in spite of the Industrial Revolution - the poorer half of England.