Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton and I'll be your teacher today guiding you right through to the end of today's lesson.

Right, let's get started.

William had shown great willingness to unleash total violence on the English but he'd also been willing to allow some Anglo-Saxons if they'd not fought against him to keep their land.

However, the Anglo-Saxon resistance from 1068 onwards impacted the way that William viewed the remaining Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and how he should change the way landownership operated in England.

This and other methods provide us with an insight into how William maintained his royal authority in England.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe how William maintained royal power.

Before we begin, there are a few keywords we need to understand.

Tenants-in-chief were the large Norman landholders who held land directly from the monarch.

A tenant is a person who pays for the use of land or a building.

Today's lesson is split into two parts.

In the first part, we look at how Anglo-Saxon landownership changed.

And in the second part we'll look at how William maintained royal power.

So let's begin the lesson with the reduction of Anglo-Saxon landownership.

After the Battle of Hastings, William ensured that Norman nobles inherited the land of the deceased Anglo-Saxon nobles.

Some Anglo-Saxons, if they had not fought against William at Hastings, were allowed to keep their land.

However, by the 1070s, after the various uprisings against William's rule, the way land was distributed changed.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Whose land did William claim for the Normans? A, all Anglo-Saxon earls.

B, Anglo-Saxons who had fought against him.

C, only the House of Godwin.

Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew the correct answer was B, Anglo-Saxons who had fought against him.

Initially, William may have felt that he would need to keep some Anglo-Saxons in positions of power to help him rule his new kingdom.

Earls Edwin and Morcar kept their earldoms, Gospatric was made an earl, and William had kept many Anglo-Saxon clergy.

He was actually crowned by an Anglo-Saxon archbishop of York.

And if you have a look at the image on the left, this is from a mediaeval manuscript and it shows William being crowned by Ealdred, the Archbishop of York.

Although William had shown he was willing to work with Anglo-Saxons, at the same time, the Normans plundered and seized land, taxed the English heavily, and transported all the loot back to Normandy.

And as you'll remember, Anglo-Saxon nobles responded with persistent rebellions between 1068 to 1071.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What I want you to do here is complete the sentence below by filling in the two correct missing names.

Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Let's check those answers.

So the sentence should have read, at first William allowed earls Edwin and Morcar to keep their earldoms, to help him be accepted as England's new king.

Which of these changed William's attitude to including Anglo-Saxons in positions of power? A, the building of castles.

B, the creation of the Doomsday Book.

C, the uprisings against Norman rule.

Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was those uprisings between 1068 and 1071 which caused William to change his attitude towards including Anglo-Saxons in positions of power.

Okay, let's continue.

So the persistent Anglo-Saxon rebellions persuaded William that he needed to dramatically reduce the power and wealth of the Anglo-Saxon nobility.

In mediaeval England, owning land gave you wealth and power.

William took land from thousands of Anglo-Saxon thegns and placed it in the hands of a few hundred Norman lords.

Have a look at the diagram on the left.

At the top of the diagram, these figures represent approximately 5,000 Anglo-Saxon thegns that held land in 1066.

By 1086, their land was redistributed to approximately 200 Norman lords, at the bottom of the diagram.

What this meant was that half of all the land in England was held by just 200 Norman lords.

A 1086 survey in England, the Doomsday Book, showed that landholders were now mostly Normans.

Of the 1,000 tenants-in-chiefs who held land directly from the king, only 13 were Anglo-Saxons.

The image on the left shows the compilation of the Doomsday book.

This was an unprecedented and detailed survey of England's possessions.

And historians have used the Doomsday book to reveal how much the landownership had changed within England.

A quarter of all England's land was held by just 10 Normans.

Of course, these top 10 lords included William's friends and family, such as his half brother Odo and his close friends and supporters like William FitzOsbern, Roger of Montgomery, and Hugh d'Avranches.

Have a look at the image on the left.

It's a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing William and his closest followers eating together.

In the centre is Bishop Odo blessing the food.

We can imagine then that William kept a close circle of his top Norman lords giving them land and titles, and in return they would help rule England for him.

So most of this transfer of land from Anglo-Saxons to Normans happened because William, as the owner of all the land, took land away from Anglo-Saxons and gave it to Normans.

In fact, 50% of all land redistribution happened this way.

However, a lot of land, perhaps as much as 40%, was grabbed illegally by Normans from its Anglo-Saxon owners.

As you'll remember that during the 1068 to 1071 uprisings, William had been quite brutal in stamping out those rebellions.

William had broken the will of the Anglo-Saxon nobility.

William's change in landownership had now removed the wealth and power of the Anglo-Saxon nobility.

William had broken up the large Anglo-Saxon earldoms, disempowering Anglo-Saxon earls, and giving him more control.

William owned all the land and was able to use his power to give land to those who were loyal to him and take it away from those who weren't.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did William use England's land to shift power towards the Normans? A, he granted half of England's land to the church.

B, he sold half of England's land to the highest bidder.

C, he transferred half of England's land to a few hundred Norman lords.

Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was C, he transferred half of England's land to a few hundred Norman lords.

Okay, let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do here is working with your partner, discuss the following questions.

How did William change landownership after 1071? And how would the change in landownership reduce resistance from the Anglo-Saxons? So have a quick discussion about those questions and then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Hope you had some interesting discussions there.

Let's see what you could have talked about.

So for the first question, how did William change landownership in the 1070s? Hopefully you said something like William initially allowed some Anglo-Saxons to keep their land.

By the 1070s, William took land from thousands of Anglo-Saxon thegns and placed it in the hands of a few hundred Norman lords.

And then for the second question, why would this change reduce resistance from the Anglo-Saxons? Perhaps you noted that in mediaeval England, owning land gave you wealth and power.

By reducing Anglo-Saxon landownership, Anglo-Saxons lose the resources, money, and soldiers, to support the resistance.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the second part of task A.

What I want you to do here is study the two maps of England between 1065 to 1086, and I want you to identify two ways in which Norman control was increased.

Pause the video, have a go at the task, and then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Your answer may include what I have here.

So the first way in which Norman control was increased was that William owned more land than Edward the Confessor had before him.

This meant that he could give it away as a reward for his followers or demand payments to return it to the Anglo-Saxons.

And if we have a look at the first map at the top from 1066, if you look at the pie chart, the light peach colour represents the land that Edward the Confessor owned.

And we can see it's about a third of England.

However, if we look at the 1086 map below, again looking at the pie chart at the light peach colour, this is how much land William owned directly and we can see it's roughly 2/3.

So twice what Edward the Confessor had owned before him.

So this obviously gave William a lot more control.

Okay, let's have a look at the second point.

Another way in which Norman control was increased was that William reduced and broke up the large angular Saxon earldoms. He divided this land and gave it to Norman tenants-in-chief.

And again, if we look at the 1066 map at the top, we can see those large Anglo-Saxon earldoms stretched across the map.

And as you'll remember, the Godwinson earls held most of the land of England.

However, if we look at the 1086 map below, we can see those large Anglo-Saxon earldoms have been broken up and divided into smaller Norman lordships.

Therefore, William didn't have any Norman lords that held too much power and land.

Whereas Edward the Confessor was dealing with earls that held lots of land and had lots of wealth and power.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the second part of the lesson.

How William maintained royal power.

William's military strength gave him personal authority, which was the key to his acquisition and maintenance of power over England.

Anglo-Saxons ruled as warrior lords and their culture was dictated by a warrior code.

This meant they respected kings who were great warriors and skillful in battle.

The English population were initially hostile towards William, but over time, they may have viewed his persistent success in battle as favour from God, which thereby gave him legitimacy as their king.

If you have a look at the image on the left, it's a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing William leading his army to the Battle of Hastings.

And of course, this was just one of many battles that William demonstrated his skill as a warrior.

William also used his military strength to oppress and control the kingdom.

His tactic of harrying enforced a brutal reminder to his people of what would happen if they did not accept his rule.

If you have a look at the image on the left, it's another scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing harrying.

In this example, it's the burning down of an Anglo-Saxon house.

Now, castles were almost like the physical embodiment of harrying, a permanent reminder of Norman power.

If you have a look at the illustration on the left, it shows a Norman castle overlooking an English village, and we can imagine how the physical presence of a castle would act as a reminder of Norman rule in the area.

And Norman castles were dotted across the land.

This enabled William to extend his royal power across the kingdom, controlling the area for both military and economic purposes.

If you have a look at the map on the left, it shows the location of important castles built during William's reign.

Castles were strategically placed along borders or river crossings, or near passes through mountains or hills.

Basically any areas that William wished to secure his power or to secure economic activity such as the trade that centred around market towns.

William also introduced changes to land holding.

In Anglo-Saxon England, people had more rights and freedoms to owning or holding land, which was often passed down to generations as long as their taxes were paid and military service provided.

However, William's system of landholding more strictly tied the landholder to the landowner.

The owner of all the land in England was William, who granted land to his tenants-in-chief, who could grant land to tenants below them.

William maintained power by granting or removing this land from the tenants below him.

Have a look at the mediaeval illustration on the left.

It shows a noble submitting to William.

This was a ceremony in which a noble would pay homage to William for the land they had been granted.

The noble swore allegiance to William.

This allegiance would help William to maintain his authority.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What I want you to do here is complete the sentence by filling in the blank.

Pause the video, have a go, come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back, let's check that answer.

So the sentence should have read William's system of landholding more strictly tied the landholder to the landowner.

Okay, let's continue.

William removed the power of the earls who had challenged Edward the Confessor's reign.

And as we remember, no Norman lord commanded as much land and wealth as that a pre-1066 earl.

And we've used these maps on the left to see the change in landownership between 1066 and 1086.

It gives us a great insight to how William maintained power by his use of the land.

In the map of landownership in 1066 on the left, we can see the huge earldoms that King Edward had granted to the earls and we can see that King Edward, the light peach colour, only held about a third of England's land.

However, if we look at the landownership in 1086 on the right, we can see that William has broken up the earldoms into smaller, less powerful Norman lordships, which he has distributed to his tenants-in-chief.

And we can see that William directly held twice as much land as King Edward had.

And of course, we know that in reality, William owned all of England and that his tenants-in-chief knew very well that they only held their land under strict conditions given by William.

Therefore, it was much more difficult for Norman lords to challenge William as he was by far the wealthiest and most powerful in the land.

In Anglo-Saxon England, Edward depended on his earls to govern the country.

However, Norman lords administered over smaller territories and were more easily replaced.

William's royal power was also maintained when he was abroad.

He appointed his closest supporters as regents who had royal power to run the country whilst William was absent.

The image on the left is a detail from the Bayeux Tapestry showing Odo fighting in the Battle of Hastings.

William trusted his half brother Odo to act as one of his regents.

Okay, what could you see in Williams royal seals? The seal was a wax mould attached documents that proved the order was from the king.

So pause the video and have a quick discussion about what you can see on William's royal seals.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you may have noticed that on the front of the seal, King William is holding a sword.

The sword symbolised that William was a just ruler.

And you may have also noticed that on the reverse side of the seal, William is mounted on a horse.

So he can see then that the seal shows symbols of royal power.

On the front of the seal he is seated like a judge with his sword of justice.

And on the reverse of the seal, William is riding a horse like a warrior protecting his people.

Therefore, William made sure that symbols of royal power were evident on a seal which could be sent miles away.

William used seals to extend his royal power across his kingdom.

The seal proved that an order was from the king and therefore, seals ensured that royal orders were obeyed.

A seal or a coin was probably the only image that most people would see of the king.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Which of the following was a method used by William to maintain control of England? Select three correct answers.

A, castle-building.

B, elections.

C, landownership.

D, military success.

Pause the video, select three correct answers, and then come right back.

Okay, welcome back and well done if you knew it was a, castle building, c, landownership, and d, military success, all methods used by William to maintain control of England.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

What I want you to do here is describe two ways in which William I maintained his power.

And you can see I've given you sentence starters below to help you to do that.

So you can structure your writing by saying, one way William maintained power was, and then briefly state what the way was, and then follow that up with, for example, or this meant that.

And this is just giving an additional sentence with some supporting information to back up your point in the first sentence.

And then you can move on to your second way in which William I maintained his power.

So another way William maintained power was, and then for example, or this meant that.

And again, this is just helping you to structure your writing so you can identify a way and then offer supporting information in your second sentence.

And by using words such as for example, or this meant that, those words at the beginning of a sentence provoke you to think about writing that additional information to support your points.

Okay, pause the video, have a go at the task, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

So there's many ways you could have written your answer but hopefully you found those sentence starts as helpful in structuring your writing.

So compare your answer with what I have here.

One way William maintained power was by breaking up the earldoms. This meant that Norman Earls commanded a reduced territory which reduced their power to pose a threat to William.

So you can see in that example, I've opted to use this meant that instead of for example.

But in my second answer, you can see that I've used the for example sentence starter.

So another way William maintained power was through the use of systems to give orders across his kingdom.

For example, that royal seal ensured that William's orders were obeyed.

Okay, great.

Let's summarise today's lesson.

After various uprisings in England, William took land from thousands of Anglo-Saxon thegns and placed it in the hands of a few hundred Norman lords.

William remained the largest landowner and made sure his tenants-in-chief did not command the land and power of a pre-1066 Anglo-Saxon earl.

William's personal reputation, the threat from harrying and castles, and his use of government, maintained his royal authority over England.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and I hope you've learned a lot about the legacy of Anglo-Saxon resistance, how this impacted William's rule, and how he maintained royal power.

I will see you next time when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.