Anglo-Saxon resistance to Norman rule
With the job of conquering England almost complete, King William returned to Normandy only six months after the Battle of Hastings in March 1067. Bishop Odo and William FitzOsbern were left to rule England in William鈥檚 place.
According to contemporary sources their methods were harsh and deeply unfair towards the Anglo-Saxons and many began to rebel against their new Norman overlords.
1067 - Eadric 鈥楾he Wild鈥 and the beginning of armed Anglo-Saxon resistance
Norman earls took advantage of the confusion in 1067 to extend their land in Shropshire and Herefordshire on the border with Wales. The hilly border was known as the Area around the Welsh border which were controlled by Normans.. This created resentment amongst the Anglo-Saxon An aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England. who held the land, especially Eadric. Under his leadership Anglo-Saxon forces allied with the Welsh princes, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, ransacked Hereford before disappearing back into Wales.
1068 - Rebellion in the North
Between 1066 and 1071 five different earls led Northumbria. The first, Morcar was replaced in 1066 and the two earls that followed him were murdered. Cospatrick, an Anglo-Saxon, paid William to become earl but he quickly changed sides and became involved in the rebellion against William across the north which was led by the Edwin of Mercia, Morcar and Edgar Atheling. Support for the rebellion grew when William tried to install the Norman, Robert de Commines, as Earl of Northumbria. Robert and his army of 900 men were massacred in Durham because the people of Northumbria did not want to have a Norman as their earl.
Edgar Atheling joined the rebellion after the massacre at Durham and became the figurehead for the resistance.
1070 to 1071 - Resistance in the East
According to the The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. It was continued until the end of the Norman conquest in the 11th century. the greatest threat to William I since he became king came in the spring of 1070, when the Danish King Sweiyn sent an army to conquer England. The army he sent was not large enough to restart the northern rebellion but it was large enough for King William to pay the Danes a large amount of money to leave. Some Danes landed in East Anglia to support the rebellion led by Hereward the Wake. Not much is known about Hereward except that he was an English thegn who became involved in disputes with the Norman barons that were given land in Lincolnshire. Hereward fought a guerrilla war against the Normans until King William captured his base on the Isle of Ely. Hereward was pardoned by William but Morcar, who came to support Hereward, was imprisoned for life.