The Harrying of the North

• Author of the first source: Oderick Vitalis, an Anglo-Norman, wrote in the 12th century
• Oderick Vitalis: 'The king stopped at nothing to hunt down his enemies, killed many people, destroyed homes and land, showed cruelty, made no effort to control his fury, punished the innocent with the guilty, ordered crops, herds, tools, and food to be burned to ashes, more than one hundred thousand people perished of hunger, I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter, God will punish him'
• Long-lasting effects on the north due to William's actions
• Historians argue that there are divides in the north to this day because of the slaughter
• William killed a lot of people
• Author of the second source: English monk writing at roughly the same time
• English monk: 'People were so hungry that they ate human flesh, horses, cats, and dogs, human corpses decaying in houses and roads, terrible smell due to lack of burial, no one lived in villages between York and Durham for nine years, these are war crimes, brutal actions, things to remember about William's actions'
• William was prepared to be incredibly violent and brutal to maintain control
• Actions during the Harring of the North: soldiers ordered north, castles built, men roamed countryside executing people, building castles was an act of oppression, property destroyed, homes and crops burnt, livestock killed, salt plowed into the land to prevent successful harvest, widespread famine, soldiers killed and terrified guilty and innocent, intimidation discouraged future rebellions, fear and destruction led to a devastating famine and huge numbers of refugees, as many as 100,000 people died
• Refugees' stories served as a deterrent against rising up against William
• Extract from the Domesday Book: entry for Pickering in North Yorkshire
• The kingdom it would have been a strong deterrent against anyone else who was considering rising up against William
• The Doomsday Book was written about 15 years after the events of the Harring of the North
• The area still hadn't recovered by then, as indicated by the entry for Pickering in North Yorkshire in the Doomsday Book
• The phrase "cetovasta" in the Doomsday Book means waste, describing villages turned into unproductive land with no tax being produced
• Vast areas of land were destroyed and the population was in huge distress as a result
• Parts of Yorkshire were still derelict in 1087 according to the Doomsday Book
• Many people died and there was a famine due to the destruction of the countryside
• Areas of the North were devastated, some took decades to recover, others remained deserted to this day
• Social effects of the Harring of the North

  • Distress suffered by the population
  • Derelict nature of many northern settlements
  • Number of deaths of people
  • Farms, land, and villages left deserted
  • Refugee situation
• Political effects of the Harring of the North

  • Breaking the will of the English to resist
  • William trying to secure his power
  • William taking brutal revenge
  • Other rebellions against William being minor or by other Normans