Lesson video

Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I will be your teacher for today guiding you through the entirety of the lesson, breaking down any tricky concepts along the way.

Right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons, we will be thinking about our big inquiry question.

How did Anglo-Saxons resist Norman rule? This is the question we will use to investigate the events that followed William's victory at Hastings.

William had won the battle, but he and his surviving army now attempted to control a two-million strong Anglo-Saxon population, many of which were not willing to go gently into the night.

They were ready to resist Norman occupation.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain William's use of rewards and Marcher earldoms to control England.

Before we begin, there are a few key words that we need to understand.

A regent is a person who rules a country for a limited period because the monarch is absent or too young or too ill.

Tribute is when you pay money and declare loyalty or submission to your ruler, especially on a formal occasion.

A Marcher earl was a noble appointed by the King of England to guard the border known as the Welsh Marches between England and Wales.

A sheriff was an official who oversaw law and order in a local area on behalf of the monarch.

So today's lesson is split up into two parts.

We'll look at how William rewards those loyal supporters of his before looking at the creation of Marcher earldoms. Okay, let's start with the first part of the lesson, rewarding followers.

William was crowned King of England on Christmas Day, 1066 in Westminster Abbey.

That was the church built by Edward the Confessor and finished the previous year.

William swore an oath to be a just ruler, however, Normans continued to burn and plunder London.

If you have a look at the artwork on the left, it's from a mediaeval manuscript showing William's coronation.

After the coronation, William focused his efforts on controlling his new kingdom.

He faced the hostile Anglo-Saxon population and threats of invasion from Wales and Scotland.

If you have a look at the Bayeux Tapestry on the left, it shows William and the burning and plunder that Anglo-Saxons endured.

William rewarded his loyal followers with land and treasure plundered from England.

If you have a look at the Bayeux Tapestry on the left, we can see William and his closest followers eating together.

Bishop Odo, William's half brother, is in the centre blessing the meal.

We can imagine what it was like during this period to be victorious in battle and then enjoy the spoils of the victory.

Many thought that it was legitimate for the winners to claim a prize.

They believed they had the right to take money, property, or land from their conquered territory.

Indeed, William had persuaded knights to join his invasion with the promise of land and he had hired mercenaries from France with the promise of money.

And of course William then needed the knights and nobles who had fought for him at the Battle of Hastings to help him achieve control of England.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What happened in London during the William's coronation? Was it A, the Normans banned the English language? B, the Normans continued to burn and plunder? Or C, the Normans executed the Witan? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew that during William's coronation, the Normans continued to burn and plunder.

Why did William focus his efforts on controlling his new kingdom? Select two correct answers.

Was it A, he faced the hostile Anglo-Saxon population? B, he faced new challenges to his power in Normandy? C, he faced threats of invasion from Wales and Scotland? Pause the video, select your two correct answers, and then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

And well done if you knew it was that William faced a hostile Anglo-Saxon population, and he faced threats of invasion from Wales and Scotland.

So this required William to focus on controlling his new kingdom.

William permitted his Norman supporters to occupy the different regions of England, build castles, and stop uprisings or invasions.

William has a lot of land he could share out.

In 1066, William became the largest landowner in England after claiming all the land of those who had fought against him at Hastings, including King Harold and Earl's Leofwine and Gyrth of the House of Godwin.

Have a look at the map.

It shows the location of important castles built during William's reign.

William and his supporters planted castles across the kingdom, especially in places that were important or difficult to control.

Leaders in France and Normandy had huge problems when rival lords built castles, because these gave rivals strongholds that were very hard to attack.

So we can see why William went on a rapid castle building programme once he landed in England.

William gave large amounts of strategically important land to his half-brother Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, and his close friend and relative William FitzOsbern.

William gave Dover and Kent to Odo, and if you have a look at the left, we can see Odo depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry fighting in the Battle of Hastings.

And William gave the Isle of Wight and parts of Hampshire to FitzOsbern.

These were large and important lands as William intended that Odo and FitzOsbern would act as regents when he was away from England returning back to Normandy.

William sent treasures to the pope, probably plundered from the royal treasury at Winchester.

Paying tribute to the Pope kept the church on his side, a powerful support at this time.

If you have a look at the Bayeux Tapestry on the left, it shows William holding a papal banner with a golden cross.

This was a gift from Pope Alexander II and it shows how proud he was to have the Pope and the church supporting him.

William also imposed a new tax on his English subjects, which raised money to pay his mercenaries.

This ensured he could call on them again if he needed military support.

If you have a look at the left, it's an illustration from a mediaeval manuscript showing William riding with his soldiers.

We can imagine William keeping a good relationship with his soldiers and mercenaries to make sure they stay loyal and fight for him.

William also rewarded loyal Anglo-Saxons who had not fought at the Battle of Hastings.

He gave back land to the English nobility once they had proven their loyalty.

They had to swear oaths to William, handover hostages and pay tributes.

If you have a look at the mediaeval illustration on the left, it shows a noble submitting to William.

The noble is knelt before William who is seated on his throne.

An oath was a public promise to be loyal to William.

The promise is with the king and with God.

It was very unlikely you would break a public and spiritual promise like this.

Oath breakers had a bad reputation and it was felt that they might go to hell.

Despite William initially aiming to rule in conjunction with Anglo-Saxons, eventually however, the land he gave back to them did not amount so much.

About 4% of English land.

However, it did show that William was prepared to reward Anglo-Saxons to gain their loyalty and stop the unrest in England.

In March 1067, William returned to Normandy the conqueror of England, taking Archbishop Stigand, Edgar the Atheling, and Earl's Edwin and Morcar with him as hostages.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did William secure help in ruling England? A, by executing the English nobility? B, by removing titles from his supporters? C, by rewarding his supporters with land? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was C, by rewarding his supporters with land.

Okay, let's have another check.

What I want you to do here is fill in the correct missing key word.

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

Okay.

Welcome back.

Let's have a read of how that sentence should've looked.

William appointed his half brother Odo and close friend FitzOsbern to act as his regents.

Okay, let's move on to task A.

What I want you to do here is complete the table below by explaining how each reward helped William to establish control.

And you can see in the left-hand column of the table, I've listed the rewards that William distributes to his supporters.

And in the right-hand column, I want you to explain how each reward helped William to control England.

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

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at the answers that I have here.

Your answers should be quite similar to these.

So for the first reward, William rewarded his supporters with land in England, and so we needed to explain how that helped William control England.

So what I have here is William supporters could occupy the different regions of England, build castles with William's permission, and stop uprisings or invasions.

Okay, let's have a look at the next reward, which was William gave back land to the English nobility.

So how would that help him? So by giving back land to the English nobility, it's encouraging them to be loyal to him and to help him stop the unrest in England.

Okay, let's continue onto the next slide.

So the next reward was William sent treasures to the pope.

How does that help him? By paying tribute to the pope, it kept the church on his side, a powerful support at this time.

And in the last reward was William paid money to his mercenaries and this ensured he could call on them again if he ever needed extra military support.

Okay, excellent, let's move on to the second part of the lesson where we look at William's creation of these new types of earldoms called the Marcher earldoms. Mediaeval Wales was a collection of different kingdoms. And you can see on the map that I've highlighted the different Welsh princes spread across Wales.

Before the Norman Conquest, some of these kingdoms fought with each other and with Anglo-Saxon England.

In 1066, the border between England and Wales, known as the Welsh Marches, was not under the full control of either England or Wales.

And what this meant was there were frequent raids across the border going both ways, and William wanted to control these borderlands, these Welsh Marches.

In 1068, a rebellion against the Normans by an Anglo-Saxon Eadric the Wild was supported by the Welsh prince of Powys and Gwynedd.

Therefore, William wanted to control these borderlands, the Welsh Marches.

Therefore to secure the Welsh Marches, he created new Marcher earldoms to defend the border.

These Marcher earldoms centred around Chester, Shrewsbury and Hereford.

And if you have a look at the map on the left, it shows the Marcher earldoms of Chester, Shrewsbury, and Hereford along the borderlands with Wales.

William appointed his most trusted followers as Marcher earls, William FitzOsbern, Roger of Montgomery, and Hugh d'Avranches.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

What was the primary purpose of the Marcher earldoms? A, to collect taxes for the king? B, to defend the Welsh border? C, to train new knights? Pause the video, have a think, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was B, to defend the Welsh border.

As we said, these Marcher earldoms were unlike other earldom in England at this time.

So let's have a look at the particular features of Marcher earldoms which helped them to secure the Marches.

So first of all, they were a smaller size, the size of a shire, which made them a lot easier to control.

A larger piece of land would've been more cumbersome to administer and to secure.

Marcher earls also had the powers to create new towns, markets, and Norman churches to attract settlers from Normandy.

Therefore William could attract more Norman allies to the area offering much better security.

Furthermore, sheriffs reported directly to Marcher earls, which enabled the earls to respond quickly to any uprisings or disobedience.

Normally, the sheriffs would report back to the king and this might take some time, whereas Marcher sheriffs could report directly back to the Marcher earl, and any problems could be stamped out quickly.

Marcher earls were allowed to keep the taxes they collected rather than send it to the king and this was to incentivize them to invest in the development and the defences of the Marcher earldom.

And finally, Marcher earls could build castles without asking the king for permission.

And as we've seen, castles were used to control the area.

So as you can imagine, this meant the Marcher earls were almost as powerful as William himself within their earldoms. This was necessary because they were so far away from the southeast where the Normans were in control and because Welsh raids were a constant threat.

However, it was a risk for William to give other Norman such extensive military, legal, and economic powers.

They might use those powers to try and become king themselves.

For this reason, William chose only his most trustworthy followers to be Marcher earls.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What were some features of Marcher earldoms? Select three correct answers.

A, they could build castles without the king's permission? B, they could keep the taxes they collected? C, they had powers to attract settlers from Normandy? D, they were larger sized to defend the borderlands? Pause the video, select your three correct answers, and come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew the following features of March earldoms. There's A, they could build castles without the king's permission, they could keep the taxes they collected, and they had the powers to attract settlers from Normandy.

Okay, let's move on to Task B.

What I want you to do here is describe two aspects of Marcher earldoms. Discuss with a partner or explain your answer in writing.

You must provide detailed information to support each aspect.

So have a quick discussion or you can jot these down on a piece of paper and all you need to do is identify two aspects and then offer supporting sentence or two to further describe that aspect.

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

Okay.

Welcome back.

Hopefully you've had some really interesting discussions or you jotted them down on a piece of paper.

And your answers may have looked something like this.

So one aspect of Marcher earldoms was that their earls were William's most trusted followers.

So you can see I've identified the aspect that the Marcher earl's were Williams trusted followers.

Now I need to just give a little piece of evidence to back that up, little bits of supporting information.

And I said William needed to ensure that they would secure the Welsh border and not abuse their unique Marcher powers.

Okay, let's have a look at another aspect.

Another aspect was that Marcher sheriffs reported directly to Marcher earls rather than the king.

So there's the second aspect to do with the role of the sheriff.

So I just need some supporting information to further describe what that meant.

This enabled the earls to respond quickly to any uprisings or disobedience.

Okay, great.

Let's move on to the second part of Task B.

Explain why William gave land to his followers and the Marcher earls.

In your answer, try to include the following, the threats William faced and who was given Marcher earldoms. So use all the knowledge you've gained from today's lesson to fully explain those two points on why William gave land to his followers and the Marcher earls.

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

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Well done for having a go at that task.

There's many things you could've written here, but compare your answer with what I've got here.

William gave land to his followers and the Marcher earls.

to gain further control of England.

William faced threats from a hostile Anglo-Saxon population and invasion from Wales and Scotland.

William gave English land to his Norman supporters so they could occupy the different regions of England, build castles and stop uprisings.

William FitzOsbern, Roger of Montgomery, and Hugh d'Avranches were given Marcher earldoms and had special powers to defend the Welsh border from invasion.

And hopefully you're seeing there, there's a clear theme coming through.

After William's victory at the Battle of Hastings, he has a mammoth task in front of him where he needs to take control of his new kingdom, and he's got various tactics that he's using to achieve that.

Okay, excellent, let's summarise today's lesson, rewarding followers and the Marcher earldoms. William was crowned king, but faced unrest.

To help him rule, William rewarded his most loyal supporters with land.

They could occupy the different regions of England, build castles and stop uprisings or invasions.

William also gave back land to loyal Anglo-Saxons as long as they paid tribute.

William appointed Odo and FitzOsbern as regents to act on his behalf while he was away from England.

William created Marcher earldoms with special powers to defend the Welsh border from invasion.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and thank you for joining me as we learnt about how William sets about controlling England.

I'll see you next time when we continue our inquiry.

See you in the next lesson.