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The Harrying (or Harrowing) of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate northern England. In the autumn of 1069 Sweyn II of Denmark had invaded England, in support of the forces of Edgar the Atheling. Edgar was the last remaining member of the House of Wessex with a claim to the throne of England. The Danes with their English allies were able to break the Norman hold on the north. William's response was to systematically devastate the countryside west and north of York, with the intention of isolating and destroying his enemies in the city of York. Instead, William made peace with the invading Danes and paid them off to return home. With the Danes gone, William continued his 'harrying' through the winter as far north as the River Tees. It seems that the main objective of the Harrying of the North was to lay waste the northern shires and eliminate the possibility of further revolts. To this end William's army carried out a campaign of general destruction of homes, stock and crops as well as the means of food production. Men, women and children were slaughtered and many thousands are said to have died due to the famine that followed. According to the Domesday Book large areas of Yorkshire and other northern counties were still lying in waste in 1086. Although it is evident that William's army was responsible for a large portion of the death and destruction in the north, some historians have suggested that the damage inflicted by William's forces may not have been as extensive as once thought. ==Background information== At the time of the Norman Conquest ''the North'' consisted of what became Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland on the east and Lancashire with the southern parts of Cumberland and Westmorland on the west.〔William E. Kapelle, The Norman Conquest of the North. p. 5〕 The population of the north pre-conquest can be described as "Anglo-Scandinavian" carrying a cultural continuity from a mixing of Viking and Anglo-Saxon traditions. The dialect of English spoken in Yorkshire may well have been unintelligible to people from the south of England, and the aristocracy was primarily Danish in origin.〔William E. Kapelle. The Norman Conquest of the North. p. 11.〕 Further, communications between the north and south were difficult, partly due to the terrain but also because of the poor state of the roads. The more popular route between York and the south was by ship.〔William E. Kapelle. The Norman Conquest of the North. p. 7.〕 In 962 Edgar the Peaceful had granted legal autonomy to the northern earls of the Danelaw in return for their loyalty; this had limited the powers of the Anglo-Saxon kings north of the Humber who succeeded him.〔 The earldom of Northumbria stretched from the Tees to the Tweed.〔 After the defeat of the English army and death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, English resistance to the conquest was centred on Edgar Ætheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside. Ironside was half-brother to Edward the Confessor.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. pp. 5–6.〕 It is said that the English conceded defeat, not at Hastings, but at Berkhamsted two months later when Edgar and his supporters submitted to William in December 1066.〔 However, of all the men who submitted to William at Berkhamsted it was only Ealdred, Bishop of York, who would remain loyal to the Norman king.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. p. 7.〕 William faced a series of rebellions and border skirmishes in Dover, Exeter, Hereford, Nottingham, Durham, York and Peterborough.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. p. 8.〕 Copsi, a supporter of Tostig (a previous Anglo-Saxon earl of Northumbria who had been banished by Edward the Confessor), was a native of Northumbria and his family had a history of being rulers of Bernicia, and at times Northumbria. Copsi had fought in Harald Hardrada's army with Tostig, against Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. He had managed to escape after Harald's defeat. When Copsi offered homage to William at Barking in 1067, William rewarded him by making him earl of Northumbria.〔William E. Kapelle. The Norman Conquest of the North. pp. 103–106.〕 After just five weeks as earl, Copsi was murdered by Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf III of Bernicia. When, in turn, the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. He was not long in power before he joined Edgar Ætheling in rebellion against William in 1068.〔 With two earls murdered and one changing sides, William decided to intervene personally in Northumbria.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. p. 10.〕 He marched north and arrived in York during the summer of 1068. The opposition melted away, with some of them – including Edgar – taking refuge at the court of the Scottish king Malcolm III.〔Stenton. Anglo-Saxon England. p. 606〕 Back in Northumbria, William changed tack and appointed a Norman, Robert de Comines, as earl, rather than an Anglo-Saxon. Despite warnings from the bishop, Ethelwin, that a rebel army was mobilised against him, Robert rode into Durham with a party of men on 28 January 1069, where he and his men were surrounded and slaughtered.〔ASC 1068. English translation at (Project Gutenberg. ) Accessdate 26 December 2012.〕 The rebels then turned their attention to York where they killed the guardian of the castle there plus a large number of his men.〔〔 William's response was swift and brutal: he returned to York, where he fell on the besiegers, killing or putting them to flight.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. p. 11.〕 Possibly emboldened by the fighting in the north, rebellions broke out in other parts of the country. William sent earls to deal with problems in Dorset, Shrewsbury and Devon, while he dealt with rebels in the Midlands and Stafford.〔Horspool. The English Rebel. p. 12.〕 Edgar Ætheling had sought assistance from the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute. Sweyn assembled a fleet of ships under the command of his sons. The fleet sailed up the east coast of England raiding as they went. The Danes with their English allies retook the city of York.〔ASC 1069. English translation at (Project Gutenberg. ) Accessdate 26 December 2012.〕 Then, in the winter of 1069, William marched his army from Nottingham to York with the intention of engaging the rebel army. However, by the time William's army had reached York, the rebel army had fled, with Edgar returning to Scotland. As they had nowhere suitable on land to stay for the winter, the Danes decided to go back to their ships in the Humber estuary. After negotiation with William, it was agreed that, if he made payment to them, then they would go home to Denmark without a fight.〔William E. Kapelle. The Norman Conquest of the North. p. 117〕 With the Danes having returned home, William's patience with the rebels seems to have run out. As they were not prepared to meet his army in pitched battle, he employed a strategy that would attack the rebel army's sources of support and their food supply.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harrying of the North」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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