From The Battle of Hastings to the Coronation of William the Conqueror

As for William, his struggle was not so quickly over. He traveled east over an old Roman road and then attacked Romney, where two of his ships had landed and been attacked by the English. Dover surrendered, but the Normans brutally burned it to the ground. While in Dover, the army fell ill; leaving many of them behind, he pressed on to Canterbury, which quickly surrendered. Here, William himself became ill, and he stayed at an unidentified place called Broken Tower for a month.

Meanwhile, the English had finally ended their virtual silence after the defeat. Just as when Edward the Confessor died, the English turned to an Englishman rather than have a foreign king, so again a witena gemot was convened and elected Edgar, the only remaining claimant to the throne. He was only thirteen at the time. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Stigand, and the Archbishop of York, Aldred, supported his election but did not arrange a coronation. Some of their hesitation was no doubt based on Edgar's age, but perhaps the rest can be accounted for the by fact that William had the papal blessing and, after all, Harold had lost. Had not Edward's deathbed vision been fulfilled?

William marched on from Canterbury to London, not by the main Roman road, but by the Pilgrim's way, a back road. The path of destruction left in his wake can be traced in the Domesday Book. We get a glimpse into William's march as we realize that the pattern of devastation reflects land or estates separated by a days march. Nevertheless, William's men so devastated the countryside that these places were uninhabitable for generations.

William finally arrived in London, and engaged the Londoners at the London Bridge. The Normans were repelled, but instead of pressing the attack as they did at Battle, they simply burned Southwark, near the bridge.

William now turned to Winchester, the capital of England in the Anglo-Saxon era, the age of Alfred. Edith, the widow of King Edward the Confessor and the sister of Harold, held the town. Oddly enough, she seemed to support William's cause, and sent him her offer of loyalty and submission. With Winchester in his hands, other offers came. Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, came over to William's cause, and was soon removed from power. Stigand had replaced the Norman Archbishop Robert before these events, and in Norman eyes, his election was uncanonical.

Warwick was an outpost in William's defensive lines. Here, as in many other places, William erected a fortification. Here is a view of the original mound of the motte and bailey castle.

William's forced then concentrated on the area around Hereford, leaving detachments all around the countryside. Meanwhile, in London, the sheriff Edgar, who had survived the Battle of Hastings, had assumed leadership of the resistance to William. William's forces were by now even more exhausted that those of Harold had been on that fateful day in October, and they were also scattered all over the countryside. William sent Edgar a message, proposing that William be king in name only, but that he rule the kingdom under the supervision of Edgar. Perhaps William was concerned over the state of his army and his chances of final victory at this point, or he was a master strategist and politician. At any rate, Edgar never informed anyone of the message, but rather went to the witan and suggested that a message be sent from them to William. In the message, the English would offer William a feigned proposal for peace and submission. This would buy them time, he argued.

According to the Norman Carmen, William outsmarted the English, accepted their offer and loaded the messenger down with all kinds of goods. When the messenger returned to the English, he tried to convince them to accept the rule of a "king more glorious than David, more glorious than the sun, wiser than Solomon and more bountiful than Charlemagne." According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Archbishop of York along with other bishops, the young elected king Edgar, and other important nobles rode out to Berkhamstead, east of Hereford, where they submitted to William. Evidence from the Domesday Book suggests that this happened at Little Berkhamstead, further to the east. At any rate, they submitted to William, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, "out of necessity ... it was very imprudent that they had not done it sooner, since God, for [their] sins, would not better things for us."

William promised to rule as a benevolent king, yet he had already promised many of the spoils of war as well as great amounts of land to the Normans. William had only conquered about one-tenth of England, yet now was king of a race he hoped would submit. He entered England, but not before his men had erected a fortification on the site where the Tower of London now stands.

Wax figure of William the Conqueror in Madame Tussaud's, London. It is hard to say how close this likeness comes to William's actual appearance.

He was finally crowned on Christmas day in Westminster Abbey by Aldred, Archbishop of York, the very man who had crowned Harold king less than a year before. Those present had to give their assent twice, once in French and once in English. When the people shouted their assent, the forces guarding the abbey thought that a disruption had occurred, and so set fire to the city. According to Odericus Vitalis, the shouts of alarm from outside and also smoke from the fires came into the abbey, creating a panic. Guards came charging in to rescue William, and the ceremony was completed. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle states that Aldred refused to place the crown on William's head without a special oath on the Bible that he would govern the English as well as kings before him.

And so a new king was made and a new era began in English history. Many Normans were brought in to restructure the land, as well as the Church. The abbot of Bec, the great Lanfranc, became archbishop of Canterbury. He reformed the constitutions of Canterbury, and made many other contributions. He was succeeded by his pupil, St. Anselm of Bec and Canterbury, who was a great theologian, one of the fathers of scholasticism, and an archbishop who battled for church autonomy against the power of the state.

William's struggle to gain firm control of England did not end with his coronation. For the next several years, he would brutally subdue rebellions and ravage the countryside of such places as York. Four years later, as an act of penance, William founded Battle Abbey. You can explore Dr. Vess's Virtual Tour of the ruins of the abbey.

The influence of the Norman period is still very much present in England today; the inscriptions of the stalls for the Knights of the Order of the Garter found in the Tower of London are in French. Although there was a long history of hostilities between the English and the French, these French inscriptions in honor of one of the most valued English traditions betray the influence of the Conqueror, a man who won a victory against all odds, and whose culture transformed that of a nation hostile of foreign rule.

For further exploration, consult the following links:

The Life of Edward the Confessor: view the manuscript

Edward the Confessor from Britania.com; this site includes a link to Edward's genealogy from the Royal Genealogy database.

Harold II entry from Britania.com; includes a link to Harold's genealogy from the Royal Genealogy database.

William the Conqueror entry from Britania.com; includes link to William's genealogy.

Laws of William the Conqueror; see also Paul Halsall's version in the Medieval Sourcebook at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1066malmesbury.html

Secrets of the Norman Invasion

an excellent site with speculations about the exact location of the Norman landing, excerpts from the Domesday Book, other primary source accounts, links to the Bayeux Tapestry, and other resources.

The Tower of London a virtual tour

Panoramic View of the Tower of London in Quicktime VR from the Library of Congress now this is truly cool: a quicktime VR tour of Tower and Tower Bridge as they appeared in 1911.

Battle www.battle1066.com

This is a very glitzy site with nice graphics and text. There are also photos of reenactments. There are color panels here from the entire Bayeux Tapestry, along with explanations of events depicted.

Military History; The Norman Conquest

This site contains a wealth of resources here.

The Bayeux Tapestry

The Invasion of England, 1066

Transitions: English Feudal Development 1016-1135. A graduate thesis.

Castles of Wales. View some of William the Conqueror's fortifications.

The Effects of the Norman Conquest of particular interest here is an article on oral and other accounts of the battle, and on the effects of Normanization on the English language.

The Norman Conquest of Wales a translation of Geraldis Cambrensis.

William of Malmesbury on the Battle of Hastings

Copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1999. All rights reserved. Photographs by Dr. Deborah Vess. Visitors to this site are welcome to use the photos and other information for educational purposes provided that user acknowledges the source.