John Yowan

Mr Bruner

World History Cultures hour 2

07 December 2002

            I am William The Conqueror. I was born in the year 1027 at Falaise Castle, Normandy. My father was Robert The Devil who was the Duke of Normandy and my mother was Herleva of Falaise. My father did not marry my mother, instead he persuaded her to marry his friend, Herluin of Conteville. When I was about eight years old my father decided to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Before leaving he gathered his vassals together and ordered them to swear fealty to me. May father died on his journey and I became the new Duke of Normandy. Several leading Normans including Gilbert of Brionne, Osbern the Seneschal, and Alan of Brittany became my guardians.

            My father's Barron's quickly plotted to do away with me. First one of my guardians Gilbert of Brionne was murdered, and then Osbern the Seneschal was killed while protecting me from kidnappers who had invaded my bedroom. After that my tutor was also murdered. I was forced to accept Ralph of Wacy as my guardian and leader of my armed forces. I was unhappy with this because Ralph had been involved in the plot against me and had been responsible for the murder of Gilbert of Brionne. No one was surprised when my supporters decided to send me away from my home. They told me that it was for my own protection but I did not enjoy moving from place to place all of the time. Frequently my uncle Walter would wake me up in the middle of the night and take me to a new hiding place under the cover of darkness.

            Like most children of my time I grew up fast. At the age of thirteen I began to govern Normandy, then at the age of fifteen I was knighted. When I was about nineteen years old I went to war against my cousin Guy of Burgundy to defend my inheritance. This was my first major war and I am not sure if I would have won if it were not for the help of the French King Henri the First. After defeating Guy I forced the rebels to swear allegiance to me. In 1051 I visited Edward the Confessor the king of England. While I was there Edward promised me that I would become his heir to the throne.

            In the year 1053 I married Matilda of Flanders, she was the daughter of Count Baldwin of Flanders. Over the next sixteen years we had nine children. Their names were, Robert Curthose, Richard, Cecily, William Rufus, Agatha, Henry Beauclerc, and Adela.

            In a ten-year period between 1053 and 1063, I suppressed a revolt led by William of Arques. After repulsing two French invasions I eventually managed to capture Maine. At first the citizens of Maine were unwilling to accept me as their new leader. Then in 1063 my army ravaged the land until I received the people of Maines submission.

            In 1064 Harold of Messex was on board a ship that was wrecked on the coast of Ponthieu and imprisoned at Beaurain by Count Guy. I demanded that Count Guy release him into my care. Count Guy agreed and Harold and I went to Rouen. Later the two of us went into battle against Conan of Brittany.

For his role in the capture of Dinan, I knighted Harold. During the ceremony at Bayeux Harold took an oath that he would do his best to help me to become King of England when Edward the Confessor died. Harold also agreed to marry my daughter, Eadmer. In return I promised Harold half the realm of England.

            In 1065 Edward the Confessor became very ill. Harold clammed that Edward promised him the throne on his deathbed the 5th of January in 1066. The next day there was a meeting of the Witan to decide who would become the next King of England. The Witan was made up of about sixty lords and bishops and they considered the merits of four main candidates, Harold, Edgar Etheling, Harold Hardrada, and myself. On the sixth of January in the year 1066 the Witan decided that Harold was to become the next King of England. I was angry that I was not chosen by the Witan to be the next King. When I heard the news I sent a message to Harold reminding him of the oath he took to me in 1064. Harold responded that he was duty bound to follow the decision made by the Witan.

I now began to prepare for a war against Harold. After a meeting with my barons at Lillebonne to decide whether or not to go to war, I sent Gilbert the Arch Deacon of Lisieux to gain permission from Pope Alexander the second to go into battle against Harold. Although the action was opposed by many of the Cardinals, Alexander the second eventually agreed with me and sent me his blessings.

Tostig, Harold's brother visited me and offered to help me fight against his brother. It was agreed that Tostig's army would set sail for England. Tostig helped me a lot in the fight for the throne. In May of 1066 Tostig landed in the Isle of Wight and forced the inhabitants to give him money and provisions. After that Tostig sailed north with sixty ships and entered the Humber before being driven away by Morcar. Morcar was the Earl of Northumbria; his father was Elfgar, Earl of Mercia. Mocar supported Harold as King of England but he did not help him in the battle of Hastings.

After spending time in Scotland, Tostig went to Denmark and asked his cousin King Sweyn to help him against Harold. King Sweyn refused to help him, so Tostig went to Norway to meet King Hardrada. The two of them agreed to join the campaign and in early September Tostig set sail. He had three hundred war ships that sailed along the coast and plundered the area. The town of Scarborough was burned down during this campaign. Soon after that they entered Humber and on September Twentieth, 1066 defeated Morcar's army at Gatefield. Four days after this event they took York.

On September Twenty fourth, 1066 Harold's army arrived at Tadcaster and the next day he took Tostig and King Hardrada by surprise at Stamford Bridge. It was a very hot day and the Norwegians had taken off their byrnies, which are leather jerkins that have metal rings sewn to them. Harold and his strong army killed many of the Norwegians that day and both Hardrada and Tostig were killed. Out of the three hundred ships that arrived less that twenty- five returned to Norway.

While Harold had been fighting against King Hardrada, I had been completing my preparations for the attack on England. To make sure I had enough Normans to defeat Harold, I asked the men of Poitu, Burgandy, Brittany and Flanders to help me in my mission to become the next King of England. I also arranged for soldiers from Germany, Denmark and Italy to join my forces. In exchange for their services, I promised them a share of the land and wealth of England. I also arranged to enlist the support of the Pope in my campaign to gain the throne of England.

Negotiations for all that I asked for took all summer and I on top of all this had to arrange the building of the ships to take my large army to England. About seven hundred ships were ready to sail in August, but I had to wait another month for a change of the wind. My invasion fleet eventually departed on August Twenty third. My army traveling by night landed at Perensy Bay on August Twenty eighth, 1066.

I fortified a camp at Hastings and then began ravaging the area. Harold was at York when he heard the news and he immediately assembled the housecarls who had survived Stamford Bridge. They began marching south at such a pace that many of his troops failed to keep up with him. When Harold arrived in London on October fifth, he waited there for the local fyrd to assemble, the troops of the Earl of Mercia and the Earld of Northumbria to arrive fro the North.

Harold's brother Gyrth offered to lead the army against me. Gryth pointed out that King Harold should not risk the chance of being caught or killed. Harold rejected the advice and after five days he decided to head for the south coast of England without his northern troops. This was probably his fatal mistake.

When Harold finally realized that he was unable to take me by surprise he positioned himself at Senlac Hill near Hastings. Harold then selected a spot that was protected on each flank by marshy land and at his rear was a group of trees. He strengthened his position even more with palisade and a ditch. The English housecarls provided a shield wall at the front of Harold's army. They carried large battleaxes and were considered to be the toughest fighters in England. The Fyrd were placed behind the housecarls.

The Theghs, leaders of the Fyrd had swords and javelins, but the rest of the men were inexperienced fighters and carried weak weapons. These included iron studded clubs, scythes, slings, reaping hooks and hayforks. Their inexperience and lack of worthy weapons would become a hindrance to them.

I had about five thousand infantry and three thousand knights, while Harold had about two thousand five hundred housecarls and over six thousand members of the Fyrd. Before the fighting started on October Fourteenth, I spoke to my men reminding them they had never lost a battle under my command.

At nine in the morning my marchers walked up the hill and when they were about one hundred yards away from Harold's army, they fired the first batch of arrows. As the arrows flew through the air the housecarls put up their shields and blocked most of this attack. My infantry then charged up the hill. Harold's men held firm and my infantry was forced to retreat.

Members of Harold's Fyrd broke ranks and chased after my Bretons, so I ordered my cavalry to attack the English who had left their positions on Senlac Hill. English losses were heavy and very few managed to return to their place at the top of the hill. At about noon there was a break in the fighting for about an hour and this gave both of our armies a chance to remove the dead and wounded from the battlefield.

I decided to change my tactics instead of using my cavalry when the English retreated. At one in the afternoon I ordered my archers forward. This time I told them to fire high in the air; the direction of the arrows caught the English by surprise. The archers attack, was immediately followed by a cavalry charge and casualties on both sides wee heavy. Among those killed included Harold's two brothers Vythe and Leofwine, however the English line held and my army was eventually forced to retreat.

The Fyrd this time chased the Flemings down the hill, so I ordered my knights to turn around and attack the men who had left Harold's line. Once again the English suffered many casualties, and I again decided to let my army rest. I had lost a quarter of my cavalry, many horses had been killed and the men that had survived were to exhausted to fight any longer. After resting I then made the decision that the knights should dismount and attack on foot, along with the rest of my forces. All of my men went into battle together. My archers fired their arrows as of one, my knights and infantry charged up the hill at about four in the afternoon. Heavy casualties from the previous attacks had made the English front line smaller and my army could now attack from the side. The few housecarls left on Harold's force formed a circle around the English standard. My army attacked again and this time they broke through the shield wall. At this point in the battle a majority of the housecarls were killed. Most important however was that Harold himself was killed in this attack.

The next day Gytha, Harold's mother sent a messenger to me offering me the weight of Harold's body in gold if I would allow her to bury her son. I refused this declaring that Harold should be buried the shore of the land that Harold sought to guard. We then marched on Dover where we remained for a week. After resting we then went north to Canterbury before arriving on the outskirts of London. There at Southwark we met resistance, and as an act of revenge I had my men set fire to the area.

The people of London refused to submit to me so I turned and marched through Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. My forces ravaged the countryside and by the end of the year the people of London surrounded by the devastated countryside finally submitted to me.

On December Twenty fifth, 1066 I was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey by Aldred the Archbishop of York. After my coronation I claimed that all of the land in England now belonged to me, however I allowed Lords such as Morcar to retain their lands as a grant from me. The rest of the land was distributed to those men who had fought so courageously with me at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1067, my men & I went on a tour of England and I organized the confiscating of lands, began building castles and established law and order throughout England. I met no opposition during my travels through England, now my realm. I appointed my brother Odo and William Fitz Osbern as co-regents of England and returned to Normandy in March of 1067. While I was away disturbances broke out in several different places throughout England. When I returned to England in December of 1067 we put down the rebellions within a few months. Throughout the very beginning of my reign I had to put down a number of insurrections involving many different factions and peoples. One of which was my own brother Odo. I had to have him imprisoned for the good of my country. I did this with success and began to build my England.

I ordered a comprehensive survey of my kingdom, which became known as "The Doomsday Book". I did this for three reasons, information on taxation, distribution of the population and true ownership of land. My officials went to every town, hamlet and village asking questions that would ultimately help in completing this task. The information was recorded in Winchester and was completed in only seven months. There still exists to this day "The Bayeux Tapestry" which is a record done in needlepoint of the Battle of Hastings and the fall of Harold. The path I took was not an easy one; it was filled with trouble for quite sometime. I did overcome all obstacles that were placed in my way and was satisfied with all that I had accomplished.

In 1087 I mounted an attack on the King of Frances territories, after King Philip had made a slur about me. He compared me to a pregnant woman because of my weight. On August Fifteenth I captured Mantes and set fire to the town. During this campaign I fell from my horse and suffered internal injuries. I was taken to the priory of St. Gervase and being close to death I made my succession known. My son Robert Curthose would succeed me in Normandy and my son William Rufus would become King of England. My wealth would be distributed between the poor and the church. I, William the Conqueror, William the First of England did many great things in my life on earth. But no man however great he is lives forever. I died September Ninth, 1087 and so passed my name and accomplishments to the realm of history.

 

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