The
Harrying (or
Harrowing)
of the North was a series of campaigns waged by
William the Conqueror[1], in the winter of 1069–1070 in order to subjugate
Northern England and is part of the
Norman conquest of England. It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through wide scale destruction resulting in the relative "pacification" of the local population and the replacement of local
Anglo-
Danish lords with
Norman ones. The death toll is believed to be 150,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage.
[citation needed] Due to the
scorched earth policy, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated, a fact to which
Domesday Book, written almost two decades later, readily attests.
[2]With the abdication of Edgar Ætheling from the kingship of England in December 1066, the population of northern England found themselves bereft of the state protection which a king provided, for William's victory had not been secured there. Despite their never having sworn allegiance to Edgar, William considered the northerners rebels as they were within the realm of King Edward, whom he regarded as his direct predecessor.
Pre-conquest society can be described as “Anglo-Scandinavian” carrying a cultural continuity from a mixing of Viking and Anglo-Saxon traditions. It was reported that the dialect of English spoken in Yorkshire was unintelligible to people from the south of England, the aristocracy was primarily Danish in origin, and the Anglo-Saxon kings were said to only exercise a limited amount of power in the shire.[3]
William secured the situation in Northumbria with the quick appointment of Copsi, a native who had done homage to William, as earl. The appointment did not last as Copsi was murdered by Osulf, son of Earl Eadulf III of Bernicia, whose family had long been rulers of Bernicia and at times Northumbria also. When the usurping Osulf was also killed, his cousin, Cospatrick, bought the earldom from William. He was not long in power before he joined the Aetheling in rebellion in 1068. With support of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, and Morcar, the deposed earl of Northumbria, Edgar rebelled against the new king but was immediately defeated. He fled to the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland and there married his sister Margaret to the Scottish king in expectation of assistance. Upon receiving the assistance, he began to plot with the king of Denmark, Sweyn II, a nephew of King Canute. With his allied forces he invaded in 1069 to claim the crown to which the old Witan had once elevated him. It was at this time, on 28 January, that the rebels converged on Durham and murdered the newly-named earl Robert de Comines, a Norman who ignored the advice of William's ally, the bishop of Durham, Ethelwin.
