A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

Receives the crown at Berkhampstead.

Coronation of William.

Meanwhile William, disappointed in his hopes, proceeded with his own foreign forces to make good his conquest. He determined to subdue the South-eastern counties before he advanced against London. He marched eastward, took Romney, and captured the castle and town of Dover, and had reached Canterbury, when he was seized with an illness which kept him inactive during the whole month of November. Thence he sent an embassy which secured the great town of Winchester, and thence in December he moved to attack the capital, but contented himself with burning the suburb of Southwark, and passed on westward on the southern side of the Thames, which he did not cross till he reached Wallingford, intending to pass northward and thus cut the city off from the unconquered country. With this view he marched to Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire. But his progress had broken the spirit of the Londoners, and he was there met by Eadgar, Ealdred the Archbishop of York, and others, who submitted to him, and offered him the crown. After a feigned rejection of it, till he had further secured the kingdom, he accepted it at the earnest request of his followers, and marching into London, was crowned at Christmas. The ceremony was performed by Ealdred of York in the place of Stigand of Canterbury, whose appointment to the See had not been strictly canonical; it was impossible that William, one of whose professed objects was the reform of the uncanonical Church of England, should receive his crown from the hands of a schismatic. Stigand’s importance as the chief official of the English prevented William from taking immediate steps against him. He was therefore present at the ceremony, but though William thus, and for some time afterwards, temporized with him, his ruin was already determined. The coronation was performed with the usual English ceremonies; the name of the King was proposed for election to those who were present, and the shout of acquiescence excited the alarm of the Norman troops outside the church. They proceeded to set fire to buildings in the neighbourhood; the assembled multitude rushed from the church to extinguish the flames, and William was left almost alone with the officiating ecclesiastics. But the ceremony was completed in the midst of fears and misgivings of those within the Cathedral, and of uproar and confusion without.

William’s position as king.

William was thus crowned King of England, having received the crown from the hands of the Witan, and having been nominally elected by the popular voice. His position was in strict accordance with the claims he had raised, and he proceeded to pursue a policy in harmony with it. He had come to claim his rights against a usurper, he had obtained those rights, and would henceforth make them good while strictly following the forms of law. As crowned King of England, opposition to him was treasonable, and the property of traitors legally confiscated. It is clear that this position gave him great advantages, and would induce many a weak-hearted or peaceful Englishman to accept without opposition the de facto king, while it enabled William to hide the harsh character of the conqueror under the milder form of a monarch at war with rebellious subjects.

In pursuance of this policy, no sudden change was made in the constitution or social arrangements of the country. In the first period of his rule, William merely stepped into the place and exercised the rights of his predecessor; but those rights he found sufficient to secure his own position and to reward his followers. For these purposes it was necessary for him to give to Normans much of the conquered land, by which means he would spread as it were a garrison throughout the country, and at the same time gratify his adherents.

Transfer of property. The form of law retained.

Castles built.

He started from the legal fiction that the whole of the land, as the land of traitors, was confiscated. The folcland he made crown property, thus completing a change which had been long in progress. The large domains of the House of Godwine were by the destruction of that house naturally at his disposal, as was also the property of those who had fallen in arms against him at Hastings or been prominent in opposition. The land thus gained he granted to his followers, not making a new partition of it, but putting a Norman in the place of the dead or outlawed Englishman who was legally regarded as his ancestor. To complete this process, and appropriate all the conquered land, would obviously have been impolitic; and very shortly after his coronation he appears to have allowed a general redemption of property. Proprietors submitted, paid a sum of money, and received their lands back as fresh grants from the Conqueror. In addition to this, many of the smaller Thegns and free Ceorls were too insignificant to be disturbed, and in many instances some little fragment of their dead husband’s property was given in contemptuous pity to the widows, saddled frequently with some ignoble tenure. Still further to complete the subjection of the country, in every conquered town of importance a castle was erected.

Appointment of Earls.