The Copy Book

The Character of the Conqueror

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle looks back on the reign of King William I.

Abridged and emended

Part 1 of 2

1066-1087
In the Time of

King William I 1066-1087

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The Character of the Conqueror

© Roy Parkhouse, Geograph. Licence CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source
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Chepstow Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales, founded in 1067 by William’s lieutenant William FitzOsbern. It stands on a bend of the River Wye, hence its original name ‘Striguil,’ derived from Welsh ystraigl, meaning ‘river bend.’ These massive fortifications were a novel but key element in William’s plan for subduing a rustic people (as the contemptuous Normans saw them) who did not want him in the least. It was King John, over a century later, who quite unintentionally brought Normans and English together. See Macaulay on The Good Reign of Bad King John.

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© Roy Parkhouse, Geograph. Licence CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Chepstow Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales, founded in 1067 by William’s lieutenant William FitzOsbern. It stands on a bend of the River Wye, hence its original name ‘Striguil,’ derived from Welsh ystraigl, meaning ‘river bend.’ These massive fortifications were a novel but key element in William’s plan for subduing a rustic people (as the contemptuous Normans saw them) who did not want him in the least. It was King John, over a century later, who quite unintentionally brought Normans and English together. See Macaulay on The Good Reign of Bad King John.

Introduction

When the editors of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gave their assessment of William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087), they admitted that in his day England had been a powerful nation, and that there was good order at home. But the price was an intrusive government that taxed without mercy and had a file on everyone — a price the Chroniclers clearly thought too high.

AMONG other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made in this land; so that a man who was of any account* might go over his realm, with his bosom full of gold, unhurt.* Nor durst any manslay another man, had he done ever so great evil to the other. And if any common man* lay with a woman against her will, he forthwith lost the members that he had sinned with.

He reigned over England, and by his sagacity so thoroughly surveyed it, that there was not a hide of land within England that he knew not who had it, or what it was worth, and afterwards set it in his writ.* Wales was in his power, and he therein wrought castles, and completely ruled over that race of men.* In like manner he also subjected Scotland to him by his great strength.* The land of Normandy was naturally his, and over the county which is called Le Maine he reigned;* and if he might yet have lived two years he would, by his valour, have won Ireland, and without any weapons.*

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* Emended from ‘who had any confidence in himself.’ The translator of this extract, Benjamin Thorpe, admitted he was not absolutely sure how to render ‘þe himsylf aht wære,’ literally ‘that himself anything was.’ Michael Swanton (2000) gives it as ‘who was of any account,’ which fits better with the recurrent theme that William’s laws offered little protection to English peasants.

* Compare what Shaikh Nuru-l Hakk, one of the courtiers serving Mughal Emperor Jegangir (1605-1627) in India, wrote about Emperor Sher Shah Suri (1486-1545) in Zubdatu-t Tawdrikh: “There was so much security in travelling during his reign, that if a lone woman were to sleep in a desert with silver and gold about her person, no one would dare to commit theft upon her; and if it ever did so happen that anyone lost any property, the mukaddams of the village which was the scene of the robbery were subject to fine, and for fear of its infliction, the zamindars used to patrol the roads at night.”

* In Old English a ‘carl,’ a man of low birth.

* A reference to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, regarded today as a historian’s priceless tool but in William’s own time as evidence of an intrusive government that treated private property as its own, and was preparing to levy ever more extortionate taxes. See also Rome, Ruin and Revenue.

* A little unfair on King Gruffudd ap Llywelyn of Wales (r. 1039-1063) and on King Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd (r. 1081-1137), who managed to maintain a degree of independence. Wales was completely subdued by Edward I in 1282.

* Following a show of William’s military strength, Malcolm III King of Scots acknowledged his overlordship at Abernethy near Perth in 1072. In deference to William, Malcolm then exiled Prince Edgar, who in the Chroniclers’ opinion was the true King of England and who had found refuge with Malcolm, to France. Malcolm had married Edgar’s sister Margaret shortly before; their daughter afterwards married William’s third son Henry, who became King Henry I of England in 1101.

* William was Duke of Normandy ‘naturally’ i.e. by birth; his father was Robert the Magnificent. See The Gift Thrice Given. William briefly took Maine (with its capital at Le Mans) in 1063 and made his son Robert Curthose its Count; but the public revolted in 1070, and despite repeated efforts the Normans failed to regain the County. William’s great-grandson Henry II of England, Duke of Normandy, inherited Maine from his father, Geoffrey of Anjou, in 1151 but his son John lost Normandy and Maine together in 1204, when King Philip II of France took them by force.

* See A map of William I’s dominions in 1087 at Wikimedia Commons.

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