Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. Like other larger than life figures from world history,
Speaker 1: William the Conqueror was a man of paradoxes. While personally
Speaker 1: pious and deeply faithful to his church and his wife,
Speaker 1: he was also a ruthless political aggressor, capable of brutal
Speaker 1: acts of violence to preserve his power, whether or not
Speaker 1: he was a good man. The French born William left
Speaker 1: an indelible mark on the English speaking world by spearheading
Speaker 1: the Norman conquest of England in ten sixty six. William's
Speaker 1: victory at the Battle of Hastings ended six centuries of
Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon rule in England and imposed French and Latin
Speaker 1: words into Old English, creating the quirkily blended language we
Speaker 1: speak today. Every English monarch since William is considered a
Speaker 1: descendant of him. But how exactly did this illegitimate son
Speaker 1: of a Norman duke rise to become the King of
Speaker 1: England and one of the most fearsome figures of the
Speaker 1: eleventh century. William was born around ten twenty seven in
Speaker 1: the Normandy region of what's now France. His parents were
Speaker 1: Duke Robert, the first of Normandy, and the daughter of
Speaker 1: a Tanner, a woman whose name has been recorded as
Speaker 1: Arlev or Arlette. Robert and Arlette weren't married, but they
Speaker 1: weren't exactly illicit lovers either. Arlette was Robert's longtime partner,
Speaker 1: a relationship that wasn't uncommon at the time. For the
Speaker 1: article of this episode is based on how Stuffwork spoke
Speaker 1: with David Bates, the author of the Yale University Press
Speaker 1: biography William the Conqueror. Bates explained what constituted a Christian
Speaker 1: marriage wasn't actually made clear in canon law until the
Speaker 1: early thirteenth century. Their relationship was a bit unusual, but
Speaker 1: not dramatically so. What is clear is that Robert, who
Speaker 1: didn't have any other children, saw William as his legitimate heir,
Speaker 1: an unusual step at the time, and when Robert died
Speaker 1: during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, eight year old William became
Speaker 1: Duke of Normandy. The young Duke's enemies, who tried unsuccessfully
Speaker 1: to steal his land and title, insultingly called him William
Speaker 1: the Bastard. By the time William was in his early twenties,
Speaker 1: he had quashed several internal rebellions and even captured neighboring territories.
Speaker 1: A formidable fighter and political leader, he had a reputation
Speaker 1: as no one to mess with, so much so that
Speaker 1: he had no trouble recruiting thousands of men from Normandy
Speaker 1: and other territories to sail with him on an incredibly
Speaker 1: risky venture, the ten sixty six invasion of England to
Speaker 1: claim its throne for the Normans. But okay, who were
Speaker 1: the Normans? A Norman means men from the north, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly who they were. Viking invaders who settled in
Speaker 1: what's now northern France in the nine hundred CE. Over time,
Speaker 1: they converted to Christianity and started speaking French, but they
Speaker 1: thought of themselves as a distinct group. What's now known
Speaker 1: as England, meanwhile, had been ruled by Anglo Saxon kings
Speaker 1: since the first Germanic tribes had conquered the area in
Speaker 1: the four hundreds and five hundred CE. The Anglo Saxons
Speaker 1: spoke what we now call Old English and lived in
Speaker 1: shires ruled by aristocratic lords loyal to the king. William
Speaker 1: attested that he was hand picked to become the next
Speaker 1: King of England by Edward the Confessor, who died without
Speaker 1: an heir in ten sixty six. But William was not
Speaker 1: the only pretender to the throne. Various distant relatives claimed
Speaker 1: that they were the rightful heirs, including Harold Godwinson, a
Speaker 1: member of a Power family, who said that Edward had
Speaker 1: chosen him as successor on the late king's deathbed. Bates
Speaker 1: said it would have made for a good soap opera.
Speaker 1: Since Edward was childless, everyone knew some terrible crisis was
Speaker 1: going to come. They had an awful long time to prepare,
Speaker 1: without knowing exactly what form it was going to take.
Speaker 1: Harold was crowned king on January sixth of ten sixty six,
Speaker 1: but his reign would last just nine months and end
Speaker 1: with his death by Norman's sword. The Norman invasion of
Speaker 1: England wasn't some rash whim. William took seven months to
Speaker 1: plan his campaign, eventually transporting some seven thousand men and
Speaker 1: three thousand horses across the English Channel on six hundred
Speaker 1: Viking style longboats. His timing, it turned out, was perfect.
Speaker 1: His adversary, and now dubbed King Harold the Second, was
Speaker 1: distracted by a Norwegian invasion of northern England, allowing the
Speaker 1: Normans to land unchallenged in southern England. After Harold fought
Speaker 1: off the Norwegians, he marched his weary soldiers straight to
Speaker 1: the aforementioned Hastings for battle against William's veteran cavalry and archers.
Speaker 1: The English, who had the upper ground, formed a shield
Speaker 1: line and repelled countless uphill attacks by the Norman cavalry.
Speaker 1: William himself had three horses killed under him. When a
Speaker 1: rumor spread that William was dead, he famously took off
Speaker 1: his helmet and rode through the ranks to rally his troops,
Speaker 1: a scene that was captured in the historic Bayeux Tapestry,
Speaker 1: a massive embroideries that some two hundred and thirty feet long,
Speaker 1: which is seventy meters. Then, in a brilliant move, the
Speaker 1: Normans feigned retreat, which tricked some of the less experienced
Speaker 1: English soldiers in two, breaking ranks and exposing holes in
Speaker 1: their defense. Hastuffworks also spoke with Hugh Thomas, a history
Speaker 1: professor at the University of Miami. He said, it's not
Speaker 1: very bright chasing on foot people who are on horseback.
Speaker 1: The Normans circled back and broke through the English line,
Speaker 1: killing Harold and his two brothers. The then kingless English
Speaker 1: scattered in a panic, and the grueling day long Battle
Speaker 1: of Hastings went to William, who was crowned King of
Speaker 1: England on Christmas Day of ten sixty six. As expected,
Speaker 1: Harold's supporters didn't roll over and accept William the Conqueror
Speaker 1: as their king. During the first years of William's reign,
Speaker 1: his enemies mounted numerous rebellions and uprisings, but none so
Speaker 1: sustained as those in northern England, centered around the Shire
Speaker 1: of York. To put an end to the fighting, William
Speaker 1: resorted to a scorched earth tactic known as harrying, that
Speaker 1: was not uncommon in medieval times, but perhaps never executed
Speaker 1: with such severity. To harry is to burn and destroy
Speaker 1: the land and its real versus so completely that nothing
Speaker 1: is left to sustain a rebellion. According to one chronicle
Speaker 1: from the eleven hundreds, as many as one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: peasants died from the famine that followed William's destruction of
Speaker 1: the North. Bates said this episode shows William being capable
Speaker 1: of extreme violence to achieve his ends. It's his ruthlessness
Speaker 1: taken to extremes. When William took the throne, he left
Speaker 1: much of the Anglo Saxon government in place, since it
Speaker 1: already had a sophisticated bureaucracy that included coinage and taxation,
Speaker 1: but he eventually took the dramatic step of dispossessing most
Speaker 1: of the Anglo Saxon nobles and handing their lands over
Speaker 1: to loyal Norman elites. Latin became the official language of
Speaker 1: English government because it was a language that both English
Speaker 1: and Norman bureaucrats could understand. A while the lower social
Speaker 1: classes continued to speak Old English, the English elites and
Speaker 1: their hangars on started speaking French, and that remained the
Speaker 1: language of the upper classes well into the twelve hundreds
Speaker 1: as a result of the Norman invasion. Modern English contains
Speaker 1: roughly ten thousand French words, and estimated fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: of English words are derived from French or Latin. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: Williams spoke no English and was illiterate, like many noblemen
Speaker 1: of the day. Once William installed loyal Normans as feudal lords,
Speaker 1: he wanted to determine exactly how many resources were under
Speaker 1: his control, so he ordered a nationwide survey of every shire, farm,
Speaker 1: shop and household, down to the number of sheep in
Speaker 1: a yard and bushels of grain in a storehouse. Thomas said,
Speaker 1: it's this massive undertaking by the standards of the time.
Speaker 1: The local people compared it to the Last Judgment, when
Speaker 1: every single sin and good deed would be counted. Later,
Speaker 1: when this huge collection of demographic and economic information was published,
Speaker 1: it was dubbed the Doomsday Book. Thomas said, there's nothing
Speaker 1: else before or after that survives like that. It's this
Speaker 1: incredible snapshot of England's economy. Despite having installed himself as
Speaker 1: the King of England, William mostly ruled from Normandy, where
Speaker 1: he was also besieged by rebellions. In ten eighty seven,
Speaker 1: a year after the completion of The Doomsday Book, William
Speaker 1: fell from a horse while leading an attack and died
Speaker 1: from his injuries. He was buried in what's now known
Speaker 1: as the Abbey of Saint Etienne in Coln, Normandy, a
Speaker 1: building that William constructed in ten seventy seven as a
Speaker 1: favor of sorts to the church. Pope Leo the ninth
Speaker 1: had opposed William's marriage to his close cousin Matilda in
Speaker 1: ten fifty so William promised to build a pair of
Speaker 1: abbeys Inkln if the Pope agreed to bless the union,
Speaker 1: which he did. A simple stone laid in the abbey
Speaker 1: is etched with this epitaph. Here lies the invincible William
Speaker 1: the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England. William
Speaker 1: and Matilda had ten children, including William the Second, who
Speaker 1: succeeded his father as King of England. The current royal
Speaker 1: family of the United Kingdom is related to William by
Speaker 1: way of a complicated and twisting pedigree. There have been
Speaker 1: four English kings named William so far, and there will
Speaker 1: be a fifth if the heir apparent, Prince William, assumes
Speaker 1: the throne as expected. Generally speaking, you can thank the
Speaker 1: Normans for popularizing some of the most common names in
Speaker 1: the English language, including William, Robert, Henry, and Alice. Before
Speaker 1: the Norman invasion, babies were given good Anglo Saxon names
Speaker 1: like Ethelred, Eadric and Leophran. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article from William the Bastard to William the Conqueror,
Speaker 1: the King who transformed England on HowStuffWorks dot Com written
Speaker 1: by Dave Ruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
Speaker 1: partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler
Speaker 1: klang A. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit
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