The Role of Castles
in William the Conqueror's Victory

1067-70, William’s Kingdom in Peril

by D. Clark Ulam, Jr., Colorado Springs, Colorado

In 1067, William was forced to return to England from his celebration in Normandy to counter numerous threats to his New Kingdom. The first of these threats came from the West Country bordering Wales. Here, Edric the Wild had enlisted the assistance of the Welsh princes, Bleddyn and Riwallon, to incite a rebellion around Herefordshire. They caused severe damage to the Shire but could not gain control of it. The two Welsh princes retired back to their land with their looted treasures and the rebellion quickly faded before William’s forces could arrive.

The second threat occurred simultaneously in Kent with the Anglo-Saxon rebels receiving support from the Count of Boulogne, Eustance. Eustance had sent a large force by sea to assist the Kentish rebels. During their campaign, they were not able to take the castle at Dover and suffered a great defeat when the castle’s knights sallied out and surprised them. This led to Eustance returning to Boulogne in disgrace.

These first two crises were the cause for William arriving in England on 6 December 1067. Soon after his arrival, he was faced with an uprising at the walled city of Exeter which had been attempting to form a league of cities to stand against William’s rule. It was at Exeter that William was forced to lay siege to the city and after eighteen days granted the city their ancient rights to gain its submission. Once gaining the city, William erected a castle to maintain his rule over it. However, William’s troubles were far from over.

No sooner had William brought Exeter under his influence than news arrived from the north that the Anglo-Saxons were in open revolt at York, and they were to receive aid from King Malcolm of Scotland. Upon receiving this alarming news, William set out for York to squelch the uprising. His movement to contact was quicker than the rebels, and he was able to enter York unopposed due to his lightening speed. During his march north, he was also able to establish a castle at Warwick to secure his line of march. With William’s possession of York, he erected a Castle and placed his trusted Lieutenant, Robert De Commines, in charge as the Earl of York.

William then returned south to prosecute a campaign against other rebelling cities. William’s attention was quickly returned to the north when York again burst into flames with the murder of the Norman Earl, and the castle being placed under siege by the combined forces of King Malcolm and the Anglo-Saxon rebel Edgar Atheling. It was on William’s return march to York that his forces laid waste to Yorkshire and lifted the siege of the castle in York. William signed a temporary truce with King Malcolm who then retired with his forces to Scotland. When William again gained control of York, he constructed another castle to further consolidate and stiffen his rule over this troublesome Shire. One is truly amazed by William’s stamina during the years directly following his victory at Hastings. Yet, 1069 was a year that would mark his most critical challenge to maintaining his throne in England.

In the summer of 1069 the Danish King, Sweyn Estrithson, launched his long-anticipated invasion of England with a force led by his sons, Harold and Cnut, that was every bit as large as the invasion of Harald Hardrada in 1066. “Not only did William have to contend with the Danes, but also Yorkshire revolted on their arrival.” It was during this northern invasion that the garrisons of the two Yorkish castles were destroyed when the Norman knights could no longer hold the castles.

So important were the castles to King William’s strategy that the knights sallied forth from them to be massacred in battle while attempting to fire the castles and city. William continued his campaign throughout the winter of 1069 and 1070 and finally defeated the enemy or forced them to flee the battlefield. It was during this time frame that William’s forces burned and razed the northern part of the country so thoroughly that it still had not recovered twenty years later at the writing of the Domesday Book.

In the summer of 1070, the Danish fleet returned under the command of King Sweyn to support the uprising of yet another Anglo-Saxon lord; however, this time the Danes were bribed by the Normans and left England. This guaranteed the failure of the uprising which soon was put down by William’s forces.

More Role of Castles in William the Conqueror's Victory

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© Copyright 2001 by David W. Tschanz.
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