William the Conqueror?

Question

How did William the Conqueror increase and maintain his authority in England after defeating Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings?

Answer 1

He began by building castles 20 miles from London in all 8 cardinal directions (NE, SE, W, etc). While initially these were wooden forts, some grew into stone castles (Windsor). Also, he built the Tower of London in the city of London (or next to).

This enabled his military authority to grow from there.

From there I am I little unsure, but by standardizing courts, noble authority, introducing feudalism, and commissioning the Doomsday Book (a census of all land and owners in the kingdon), he was able to introduce a european model of governance that brought relative peace to the island. Also, the lack of further invasions from vikings and such reduced the military need to protect the island (although this may have happened much earlier in history).

Basically he was such an able military commander and with the system of governance that he introduced, was able to outperform any resistance he encountered.

Answer 2

~You can go from the uninformed conventional wisdom as bearstirringfromcave does with his cuts and pastes or you can rely on the anecdotal history from the times. The Quanwhosits of Westminster, John Malkovich, a transplanted Rus in the court of Ethelbert, Bretwalda of the Bretons in 1066, wrote a lengthy treatise on the topic entitled "The Kiethian Richard Accordance" made it abundantly clear that the heraldic heroes of the times were wont to think with their cods pieces before acting with their swords. William, being a Frank/Norman romantic, understood well this concept. He promised that the Angle and Saxon knights who would swear fealty to him and lay down their swords would be allowed to return to their homes and their lassies, but those who resisted would taste Norman steel and be entombed with their mates at Simpson's field. Discretion being the better part of valor, the Anglo-Saxon knights took the cue from their Sicilian brethen and yielded their kingdom. Thus was born Norman England. No big deal, really. One Teutonic empire in western Europe gave way to another. Such is the history of Western civilization since the fall of Greece. ( I would say since the fall of Rome but Rome, after all, was a Teutonic empire itself.)

Answer 3

Feudalism. He made castles and got English lords and Barons to swear an oath to him. He also made French the language of the court to promote a Norman hegemony.

Answer 4

He became a brutal dictator who demanded the allegiance of the nobles in order for them to maintain their lands and their lives.

Answer 5

He introduced a very rigid feudal society in which everyone (except the king) had an overlord

Answer 6

Pick ME!!! Best Answer here!!! We all love Ms Riley when she sets these questions don't we!!
All most as much as Ms Stoddart....

Answer 7

Castles are a nice touch but during an era of superstition nothing beats swearing oaths of loyalty. Much as Geo W Bush sanctioned his seizure of the Florida vote with a ruling by the Supreme Court followed by an Inaugural Ceremony, the VERY FIRST thing that William the B^stard did was to hurry on to London where he was Proclaimed King by a Majority of Noble, and Crowned on Christmas Day!! . Those that did not agree were dispossed of lands & titles and replaced by Normans. Gradually more excuses were trotted out for giving Angle-Saxon Nobles to heave ho, and more Normans came in and took there positions.

A link and a snippet ---
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page18.asp
"""""William was crowned on Christmas Day 1066 in Westminster Abbey. Three months later, he was confident enough to return to Normandy leaving two joint regents (one of whom was his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who was later to commission the Bayeux Tapestry) behind to administer the kingdom. However, it took William six years to consolidate his conquest, and even then he had to face constant plotting and fighting on both sides of the Channel.

In 1068, Harold's sons raided the south-west coast of England (dealt with by William's local commanders), and there were uprisings in the Welsh Marches, Devon and Cornwall. William appointed earls who, in Wales and in all parts of the kingdom, undertook to guard the threatened frontiers and maintain internal security in return for land. """

ONCE MORE, as said Castles are all very fine but William was an energetic Warrior who led his armies against his enemies and after defeating them he seized their lands and gave those lands to men whose loyalty was reconfirmed and strengthened...

http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page18.asp
""""""In 1069, the Danes, in alliance with Prince Edgar the Aetheling (Ethelred's great-grandson) and other English nobles, invaded the north and took York. Taking personal charge, and pausing only to deal with the rising at Stafford, William drove the Danes back to their ships on the Humber.

In a harsh campaign lasting into 1070, William systematically devastated Mercia and Northumbria to deprive the Danes of their supplies and prevent recovery of English resistance. Churches and monasteries were burnt, and agricultural land was laid to waste, creating a famine for the unarmed and mostly peasant population which lasted at least nine years.

Although the Danes were bribed to leave the north, King Sweyn of Denmark and his ships threatened the east coast (in alliance with various English, including Hereward the Wake) until a treaty of peace was concluded in June 1070.

Further north, where the boundary with Scotland was unclear, King Malcolm III was encroaching into England. Yet again, William moved swiftly and moved land and sea forces north to invade Scotland. The Treaty of Abernethy in 1072 marked a truce, which was reinforced by Malcolm's eldest son being accepted as a hostage.

William consolidated his conquest by starting a castle-building campaign in strategic areas. Originally these castles were wooden towers on earthen 'mottes' (mounds) with a bailey (defensive area) surrounded by earth ramparts, but many were later rebuilt in stone. By the end of William's reign over 80 castles had been built throughout his kingdom, as a permanent reminder of the new Norman feudal order.

William's wholesale confiscation of land from English nobles and their heirs (many nobles had died at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Senlac) enabled him to recruit and retain an army, by demanding military duties in exchange for land tenancy granted to Norman, French and Flemish allies.

He created up to 180 'honours' (lands scattered through shires, with a castle as the governing centre), and in return had some 5,000 knights at his disposal to repress rebellions and pursue campaigns; the knights were augmented by mercenaries and English infantry from the Anglo-Saxon militia, raised from local levies. William also used the fyrd, the royal army - a military arrangement which had survived the Conquest.

The King's tenants-in-chief in turn created knights under obligation to them and for royal duties (this was called subinfeudation), with the result that private armies centred around private castles were created - these were to cause future problems of anarchy for unfortunate or weak kings. By the end of William's reign, a small group of the King's tenants had acquired about half of England's landed wealth. Only two Englishmen still held large estates directly from the King. A foreign aristocracy had been imposed as the new governing class.

The expenses of numerous campaigns, together with an economic slump (caused by the shifts in landed wealth, and the devastation of northern England for military and political reasons), prompted William to order a full-scale investigation into the actual and potential wealth of the kingdom to maximise tax revenues.

The Domesday survey was prompted by ignorance of the state of land holding in England, as well as the result of the costs of defence measures in England and renewed war in France. The scope, speed, efficiency and completion of this survey was remarkable for its time and resulted in the two-volume Domesday Book of 1086, which still exists today. William needed to ensure the direct loyalty of his feudal tenants. The 1086 Oath of Salisbury was a gathering of William's 170 tenants-in-chief and other important landowners who took an oath of fealty to William.

William's reach extended elsewhere into the Church and the legal system. French superseded the vernacular (Anglo-Saxon). Personally devout, William used his bishops to carry out administrative duties. Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070, was a first-class administrator who assisted in government when William was absent in France, and who reorganised the Church in England.

Having established the primacy of his archbishopric over that of York, and with William's approval, Lanfranc excommunicated rebels, and set up Church or spiritual courts to deal with ecclesiastical matters. Lanfranc also replaced English bishops and abbots (some of whom had already been removed by the Council of Winchester under papal authority) with Norman or French clergy to reduce potential political resistance. In addition, Canterbury and Durham Cathedrals were rebuilt and some of the bishops' sees were moved to urban centres.

At his coronation, William promised to uphold existing laws and customs. The Anglo-Saxon shire courts and 'hundred' courts (which administered defence and tax, as well as justice matters) remained intact, as did regional variations and private Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.

To strengthen royal justice, William relied on sheriffs (previously smaller landowners, but replaced by influential nobles) to supervise the administration of justice in existing county courts, and sent members of his own court to conduct important trials. However, the introduction of Church courts, the mix of Norman/Roman law and the differing customs led to a continuing complex legal framework.

More severe forest laws reinforced William's conversion of the New Forest into a vast Royal deer reserve. These laws caused great resentment, and to English chroniclers the New Forest became a symbol of William's greed. Nevertheless the King maintained peace and order. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1087 declared 'he was a very stern and violent man, so no one dared do anything contrary to his will ... Amongst other things the good security he made in this country is not to be forgotten.'

William spent the last months of his reign in Normandy, fighting a counter-offensive in the French Vexin territory against King Philip's annexation of outlying Normandy territory. Before his death on 9 September 1087, William divided his 'Anglo-Norman' state between his sons. The scene was set for centuries of expensive commitments by successive English monarchs to defend their inherited territories in France.

William bequeathed Normandy as he had promised to his eldest son Robert, despite their bitter differences (Robert had sided with his father's enemies in Normandy, and even wounded and defeated his father in a battle there in 1079). His son, William Rufus, was to succeed William as King of England, and the third remaining son, Henry, was left 5,000 pounds in silver.

William was buried in his abbey foundation of St Stephen at Caen. Desecrated by Huguenots (1562) and Revolutionaries (1793), the burial place of the first Norman king of England is marked by a simple stone slab."""

Peace==============