Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton and I'll be your teacher today guiding you through the entirety of the lesson, breaking down any difficult concepts we may encounter along the way.

Right, let's get started.

Over the next few lessons we'll 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.

We've seen that William defeated the various uprisings between 1068 and 1071.

William had militarised England with a programme of castle building and by sharing his power to his trusted supporters and a group of compact earldoms along the Welsh border, William had also shown willingness to unleash total violence to induce the submission of the people.

It is the population of Yorkshire which may have suffered from his violence acutely in the Harrying of the North.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe the features of the Harrying of the North and explain its causes and impacts.

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

When something is done systematically, it is done in a way that is done according to an agreed set of methods or an organised plan.

A scorched-earth policy is the act of an army destroying everything in an area, such as food, buildings or equipment that could be useful to an enemy.

A famine is a situation in which there is not enough food for a great number of people causing illness and death, or a particular period when this happens.

A refugee is the person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disaster.

Today's lesson is split into three parts.

We'll first look at the reasons behind the Harrying of the North and then we'll look at the features of the Harrying of the North, before finally looking at the consequences of the Harrying of the North.

Let's start today's lesson learning about why did William enact the Harrying of the North? Ever since his contentious claim to the English throne and his victory at the Battle of Hastings, William was challenged by a hostile Anglo-Saxon population.

Especially between 1068 to 1071, William's royal power and authority were persistently threatened by uprisings across the kingdom.

If you have a look at the map, it shows the uprisings taking place across England.

We can see that the Danes had been raiding the east coast and joined the rebellions in the north, and there were multiple rebellions in the southwest and along the Welsh border.

William must have felt his enemies were taking the opportunity to shake off his kingship.

They did not accept him as their legitimate ruler.

However, it was often the case that as soon as he arrived to confront them, the rebels scattered and only reemerged once William had left.

The final trigger was the rebellion in 1069, which was led by an allied group that offered a real threat to Williams control of the North.

Have a look at the diagram on the left, it shows the main leaders of a 1069 Northern Rebellion.

Edgar Aetheling at the top of the diagram had a legitimate claim to the throne.

Many rebels claimed he was the rightful King of England.

He also had the backing of the Scottish King.

Harold Godwinson's mother Gytha, at the bottom left of the diagram had endured the death of her four sons in 1066 and she'd been plotting at Godwinson's return to power.

Gytha had convinced the Danish King, Swein Estridsson, the bottom right of the diagram to join the rebellion.

The Danish were a threat to William, as there were many English that might welcome the return of Viking rule, especially in the Danelaw North.

Okay let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Williams control of Northern England was threatened by rebellion in 1069.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a go at the task and then come right back.

Okay welcome back.

Yes, that is true.

But why is that true? I want you to justify your answer.

Is it true because A: The main threat was the return to England of Harold Godwinson's sons who allied with Edwin and Morcar; Or B: The main threat was an alliance between Edgar the Aethling and King Swein of Denmark? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay welcome back and well done if you knew that the real threat to William was an alliance between Edgar the Aethling and King Swein of Denmark.

Okay let's continue.

In order to tackle the rebellion in the North and prevent it happening again, William paid the Danes to leave England and ordered what became known as the Harrying of the North.

If you have a look at the map, we can see the Danes in their ships on the east coast of England receiving their money and exiting England.

And we can see the fires spread across Yorkshire and these represent the most notorious act of Williams reign, a large scale harrying, the Harrying of the North.

The Harrying of the North aimed to systematically destroy food supplies in Yorkshire to ensure no further rebellions reoccurred.

If you have a look at the image on the left, it's a detail from the Bayeux Tapestry showing Norman's harrying, burning down an English house in this example.

William wanted to make an example of the local population to destroy the spirit of the rebellion and to ensure that no future rebel army would be able to support itself in the North.

Okay let's have a check for understanding, which event triggered the Harrying of the North? A: The rebellions in the North in 1069; B: The crowning of William in 1070; C: The rebellions in East Anglia in 1070.

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

Okay welcome back and well done if you knew it was the rebellions in the North in 1069, which act as a trigger to the Harrying of the North.

What were the aims of the Harrying of the North? Select two correct answers.

A: To build castles across Yorkshire and secure the area; B: To destroy the spirit of the rebellion across the country; C: To ensure that no future rebel army could support itself in the North; D: To negotiate peace with the rebels and end all the rebellions.

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

Okay welcome back and well done if you knew the two correct answers were B: To destroy the spirit of the rebellion across the country; And C: To ensure that no future rebel army could support itself in the North.

Okay let's move onto task A.

And for this task, you can see that students are discussing the reasons for the Harrying of the North.

And we can see that Laura has said, "William was worried by the threats to his control in the north and decided to break any spirit of rebellion there".

And Lucas has contributed to the discussion by saying, "William was frustrated that the rebels in the north would not meet him in battle, so decided to use scorched-earth tactics against them".

So we can see there from Laura and Lucas that have given two different reasons for the Harrying of the North.

What I want you to do is choose who you agree with more and explain why.

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

Okay welcome back.

So you may have something slightly different from what I have here, but have a look what I've got for an answer which agrees with Laura and explains why.

"The rebellion in 1069 was a major threat to Williams control in the north because Edgar had a legitimate claim to the throne and was allied to the King of Scotland, while Swein Estrithson had military power and plenty of support in the Danelaw region.

William had to destroy the spirit of rebellion in the North".

And let's see how you could have answered an agreement with Lucas and explaining why.

"Wherever Williams army went, the rebels would disappear and then pop up again when he had left.

The Harrying of the North was designed to make it impossible for the rebels to continue by using scorched-earth tactics to destroy their food and shelter".

Okay that's great.

So hopefully you can see there are multiple reasons for the Harrying of the North and we can use different explanations for the Harrying of the North.

Okay great.

So we now understand why the Harrying of the North occurred.

Let's delve a little deeper and look at the features of the Harrying of the North.

So the rebels of the North knew better than to take on William's army when it's arrived again in York.

Whenever the army appeared, the rebels would disappear among the local population who gave them food and shelter.

Then when the army had moved on, the rebels would reappear.

So William divided his army into small bands and sent them out to scour 100 miles of countryside across Yorkshire, flushing out the rebels.

Have a look at the map.

It shows the region north of the Humber, from York to Durham.

The Humber refers to the river Humber, which you can see at the bottom of the map.

And we can see Durham towards the top of the map.

And this was where the Harrying of the North mostly took place.

Williams' bands hunted down rebels, destroyed homes and looted property.

Not only did these squads systematically kill rebels and destroy property, William ordered that all crops, livestock and food be burned to the ground.

This was a scorched-earth policy.

This was so that rebels would no longer be able to get supplies and shelter.

Even the seeds that were planted to grow more food were destroyed.

The image on the left is an illustration of the Harrying of the North, and we can see the devastation caused by the Harrying.

At the height of winter, the region north of the Humber had its life support stripped away.

Thousands of people died of starvation waiting for crops to grow again, or froze to death after their homes were burned down.

Okay let's have a check for understanding.

Fill in the blank with the correct key word.

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

Okay welcome back.

Let's check the correct answer.

William ordered that all crops, livestock and food be burned to the ground.

This was a scorched-earth policy.

Okay let's have another check.

What did the Harrying of the North involve? Select two correct answers.

A: Crops, livestock and food were burned; B: Land was offered to the rebels for peace; C: The Danes were paid to leave England; D: Soldiers systematically hunted and killed rebels.

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

Okay welcome back, and well done if you knew that the Harrying of the North involved crops, livestock, and food being burned and soldiers systematically hunted and killed rebels.

Okay let's move on to task B.

What I want you to do here is study this illustration of the Harrying of the North.

Identify features of the Harrying of the North and describe the features using your knowledge of the Harrying.

And to help you to do that, I'll give you a tip, the Normans shaved the backs of their heads and this gave them a distinctive hairstyle.

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

Okay welcome back.

So check your answers with what I have here.

So the first feature you may have identified from the illustration was that you can see bands of Norman soldiers carrying out the Harrying, scouring a hundred miles of countryside across Yorkshire.

And we can see here that a band of Norman soldiers had arrived at a village and we can identify them by the fact that they've shaved the back of their heads, holding swords and threatening the villagers.

Another feature we can identify here is that Norman troops burned houses and crops and looted their supplies and possessions.

This was a scorched-earth policy.

We can see flames in the background and people being forced to hand over their possessions.

Another feature was that the Harrying took place in winter and there was no chance to grow more food and no way for rebels to survive without shelter.

And in the illustration we can see that there's snow on the roots and the grounds, indicating that it's wintertime.

Another feature was that we can see that suspected rebels were executed by the bands of soldiers.

And if you look closely, we can see two rebels hanging from the tree in the background after being executed.

Another feature we can see are Normans showing no mercy.

The innocence suffered along with anyone involved in rebellion.

So we can see here elderly people, we can see women and children all being harried, all being harassed, treated as rebels, and this gives us a really insightful picture of what the Harrying of the North may have looked like.

Okay excellent.

Let's move on to the final part of the lesson, what was the impact of the Harrying of the North? The Harrying of the North caused a devastating famine.

More than 100,000 people perished of starvation.

Many people were so desperate they were forced to eat human flesh, horses, cats, and dogs.

Others sold themselves into to slavery to save their lives.

It was said that human corpses rotted in the streets with no survivors to bury them.

Thousands of refugees fled their homes and headed south to escape the destruction and desperately find food and shelter.

Okay let's check for understanding.

Fill in the blank with the correct key word.

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

Okay welcome back.

Let's check the answer.

The Harrying of the North caused a devastating famine with many people resorting to extreme measures to survive.

So after the Harrying of the North, large areas of the Northeast became deserted wastelands.

Historians think as many as 100,000 people may have died in the Harrying of the North and the famine that followed it.

Have a look at the image on the left, it's a photo of a page from the Domesday survey of 1086.

This survey showed that almost 20 years later, the Harrying of the North was still having an impact.

For example, 60% of land was recorded as waste, meaning the land was ruined, no one lived or farmed there and no tax could be collected.

The survey also showed that up to 75% of the population had vanished from records, presumably dead or they had fled the area.

And the value of land in Yorkshire had also decreased by over 65%.

And this was very different from the value of land from many other parts of Norman England.

Another longer term impact of the Harrying was that it affected William's reputation throughout Europe.

People thought his brutality had been excessive.

The chronicler, Orderic Vitalis, who was born in England to a Norman father and an English mother, wrote about the Harrying of the North 50 years after the event.

Perhaps surprisingly, he did not hold back from criticising William.

"In the past, I have frequently praised William, but this act has caused the innocent and guilty alike to die by slow starvation.

Such brutal slaughter cannot go unpunished.

He will be judged by the almighty".

Orderic was not alone.

The Harrying of the North symbolised the level of violence which had become too much for some of William's supporters who left England and returned home.

In 1070, William decided to have another coronation to remind his subjects who was the legitimate king.

William increased his castle building in the North and the region never again posed any real threat to Norman rule.

The story goes that William is said to have regretted the Harrying of the North on his deathbed.

Okay let's have a check for understanding.

What happened to the population in Yorkshire after the Harrying of the North? A: The population continued to rebel against the Normans with support from Denmark; B: There was a decrease in population by as much as 75%, because of famine and refugees fleeing; C: Norman settlers moved in and the population increased by as much as 75%.

Pause video, have a think and come right back.

Okay welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was B: There was a decrease in population by as much as 75%, because of famine and refugees fleeing.

True or false? The Harrying of the North was admired throughout Europe as the act of a strong king.

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

Okay welcome back.

Well done if you knew that was false.

But why is that false? I want you to justify your answer.

Is it false because William faced criticism for his brutality and regretted the Harrying of the North for the rest of his life, or B: William never again used violence against threats to his control of either England or Normandy? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was A: William faced criticism for his brutality and regretted the Harrying of the North for the rest of his life.

Okay let's move on to the final task, task C.

The immediate killing and the burning of the villages was the most important impact of the Harrying of the North.

Explain why you disagree with this statement.

Use evidence from the Domesday Survey of Yorkshire to support your answer.

So you can see there, I've given you a definite statement, stating that it's the immediate killing and burning of the villages, which was the most important impact of the Harrying of the North.

And of course, you will have other impacts in your mind, which you can use to disagree with this statement.

And the Domesday survey will definitely help you to do that.

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

Okay welcome back.

There's many ways you could have written this paragraph, but compare what you have with what I have here.

"The longer term impacts were even more important than the short term impacts of the Harrying of the North.

Many people were forced into cannibalism or fleeing their homes by the famine in the winter of 1069 to 1070.

Large areas of the north-east became deserted wastelands.

The 1086 Domesday survey recorded that a third of Yorkshire was still waste, not producing anything, 16 years after the Harrying of the North took place.

Up to 75% of Yorkshire's population disappeared from records.

It is thought that as many as 100,000 people died.

Okay let's summarise today's lesson, The Harrying of the North.

William's control was threatened by rebellions in the North.

William aimed to destroy the rebellion's spirits and ensure that no future rebellion could support itself there.

Norman soldiers systematically killed rebels, destroyed property and food across Yorkshire and this was later known as the Harrying of the North.

The resulting famine and the people fleeing the region as refugees caused an estimated 75% of Yorkshire's population to vanish from the records.

There were no further uprisings in the North, but Williams' reputation was damaged among some of his supporters as a result of his actions.

Well done on a brilliant lesson and thank you for joining me as we learned about one of William's most notorious decisions, to enact the Harrying of the North.

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

See you in the next lesson.