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Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88

The legacy of resistance to 1087

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 2 booklet B

Overview

Why William ordered the Harrying of the North, what it involved and cost, its record in Domesday, the transfer of land from English to Norman owners, and the effect on peasants.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What were the human, economic and reputational costs of the Harrying of the North?

Key term

Why did William order the Harrying of the North in 1069–70?

Key term

What did the Harrying of the North involve?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Why did William order the Harrying of the North in 1069–70?

    Model answer

    Repeated northern risings and Danish landings convinced him the region would rebel again unless it was made incapable of feeding an army.

  2. 2

    What did the Harrying of the North involve?

    Model answer

    Norman troops burned villages, crops and food stores, slaughtered livestock and people, and ruined the land over a wide area between the Humber and the Tees.

  3. 3

    What was the immediate human cost of the Harrying of the North?

    Model answer

    Thousands were killed or died in the famine that followed, and survivors fled south or sold themselves into slavery to eat.

  4. 4

    How did the Domesday survey reveal the long-term effects of the Harrying?

    Model answer

    Much of Yorkshire was still recorded as waste in 1086 and worth a fraction of its value before the Conquest.

  5. 5

    Why is the Harrying of the North judged to have worked, despite its brutality?

    Model answer

    There was no further serious rising in the north, and Scottish or Danish invaders found nothing left there to live off.

  6. 6

    How did writers at the time judge the Harrying of the North?

    Model answer

    Even Norman chroniclers such as Orderic Vitalis condemned it as a cruelty for which William deserved no excuse.

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AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.
BForeign craftsmen and labourers were wanted.
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