WEBVTT - William the Conqueror, Christmas King 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:10.480 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. Hey, this 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:13.720 is Dana Schwartz, host of the podcast Noble Blood, just 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.239 checking in before the episode to do a little bit 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.639 of housekeeping. First of all, thank you for being a listener. 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.480 But if you want to contribute and support the show, 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:26.119 I put episode scripts and additional reading materials up on 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.639 our patreon, which is patreon dot com slash Noble Blood Tales. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.120 There's a link in the episode description and over on 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:36.839 the patreon. 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Thanks so much. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.880 When Edward the Confessor, King of England died childless on 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:16.280 January fifth, ten sixty six, the Council had already determined 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.640 that his successor would be his brother in law, a 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.680 man named Harold Godwinson, the most powerful noble in the country. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:30.440 Harold was crowned the very next day, January sixth, ten 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:36.000 sixty six. Holding a coronation so quickly after the last 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:41.479 king's death seems frankly a little suspicious. It's the sort 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.560 of thing that a historian might look back on and 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:49.320 double check the dates about smelling something akin to a coup. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.440 There is a perfectly reasonable explanation that all of the 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.200 nobles in England were already at Westminster for the feast 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.120 of the Epiphany. But we would be naive to imagine 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:07.480 that Harold wasn't interested in securing his throne as officially 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:12.280 as he could, as quickly as he possibly could, because 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.600 even though the English nobles supported him, his claim to 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:21.440 the throne of England wasn't particularly air tight. He was 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:25.320 the brother of the dead king's wife, and the dead King, 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.720 Edward had allegedly chosen him as his successor on his deathbed. 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.639 But there were other men who wanted the throne of England. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.600 In the north there was Harold Hadrada, Viking, King of Norway, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:46.000 and in the south in Normandy there was William Harold 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.520 Godwinson knew that William was planning on invading England with 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.520 a fleet of ships, and so in the spring of 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:57.640 ten sixty six, Harold posted a standing army at the 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.840 southern coast of England. He and his men would be 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.920 ready when William, Duke of Normandy finally sailed across the 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:10.480 Channel to fight for England. But there was one problem. 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:16.640 William just wasn't coming. He was ready, don't be mistaken, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:21.919 and he wanted to invade England. The problem was the weather. 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.360 For months, William and his large force of men and 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:31.520 mercenary soldiers, thousands of them, just sat in a field 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:36.560 in Normandy, waiting for the winds to change. William was 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.560 a strong and ambitious leader, ready to fight for a 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.560 throne that he believed was rightfully his, a claim that 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:50.040 the Pope himself backed up incidentally. But instead William had 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:54.120 to watch day by day and week by week as 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:59.440 his stores of supplies diminished gradually, and as his soldiers 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:04.040 began fighting illness and the loss of morale that came 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:09.320 from doing nothing. William didn't want to be worrying about 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.000 food supplies or sanitation in a Norman field. He wanted 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:18.839 to be winning battles, conquering a country, becoming a king. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.599 But fate had other ideas, and as the soldiers began 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.279 to mumble to themselves as the weeks turned into months, 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:34.680 maybe Fate did not want William conquering England. In the 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:39.200 middle of September, William finally led his Norman fleet north 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.720 from the River Deef in Normandy, but rather than making 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.240 it across the Channel, the winds blew them east across 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.400 the French coast to Poitier, where they were forced to 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:54.440 spend another two weeks in terrible weather, trying to suppress 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:59.119 the growing certainty that the universe was sending them some 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:04.440 sort of sn But fate is tricky, and even trickier 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:09.080 when we're looking back on events a thousand years ago 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:14.280 through the narrative of propaganda and folklore. While William was 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.360 waiting with his rain soaked and weakened fleet in Poitier, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.800 watching the weather vein every day, he could not have 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.080 known that the rain was protecting him, that the delay 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.440 in crossing the channel would prove to be a strategic 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.520 coup when it came to his ultimate battle with King 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:39.760 Harold at a place called Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.560 is sometimes referred to as William the Bastard because of 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:48.600 his illegitimate birth, but he has another more famous nickname, 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.320 William the Conqueror. I hope it's not a spoiler, then, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.120 to tell you that when William and his fleet ultimately 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:02.159 did make it to England, they would defeat Harold inarguably 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:07.000 the most famous and influential battle in all of English history. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.560 But the journey to cross the Channel was not the 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:15.640 only challenge William faced. In fact, even after his victory 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.359 at the Battle of Hastings, his future as King of 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:25.000 England was far from secure. Like his predecessor, William would 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.640 put together a coronation as quickly as possibly. William knelt 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:34.800 in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day ten sixty six, where 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:39.920 he was anointed with oil and proclaimed King William the First. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.400 He had won the Battle of Hastings, but William's battle 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:49.000 for the future of England was far from over. I'm 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:59.640 Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. Before William the Conqueror, 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.040 King of England was William the Conqueror, King of England. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:06.680 He was the Duke of Normandy. And if you'll indulge me. 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.520 I think it's worth just a momentary detour to explain 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:16.679 historically exactly who the Normans were, because the Normans weren't French, 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:21.160 at least now. At the beginning the ninth century was 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.360 a time that pagan vikings from Denmark, Norway and Iceland 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.000 enjoyed plundering across the British Isles and France, and they 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:34.680 did so fairly successfully. So successfully in fact, that in 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.560 nine hundred and eleven, the King of the Franks, Charles 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.120 the Third, also given the unfortunate nickname Charles the Simple, 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.960 made a deal with the Viking king Rolo to give 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.040 him the land that eventually would become the Duchy of Normandy. 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.800 You can think of it as a take this land 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.960 and leave us alone deal, with the added bonus that 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.880 the Vikings or Northmen on the north coast of France 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:06.640 would protect the Franks from other Vikings, and so those 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:13.280 Vikings or Northmen became Normans. Over the next one hundred years, 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.440 the Normans converted to Christianity and intermarried with the French, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.960 adopting the French language, but always remaining their own unique people, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:29.119 known for their reputations as cunning and ruthless fighters, particularly 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:34.720 fast and brutal in war. William was probably born around 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:40.120 ten twenty seven, a direct descendant of the legendary Rollo himself. 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.360 William was the son of the Duke of Normandy, a 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.360 man given the pretty great nickname of Robert the Magnificent. 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.600 As you might have guessed by the fact that I 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.320 couldn't give you an accurate birthday for William, we don't 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.960 know a ton of details about his early life. We 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.920 do know, though, that his parents were not married. William's 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.040 father was the Duke of Normandy, but his mother was 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:10.360 usually identified as the daughter of a tanner, though that 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.360 sort of partnership out of wedlock wasn't uncommon in Normandy, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:20.440 even among the noble class. William was, as everyone knew, illegitimate, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.840 which brought about his first nickname, a nickname given by 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.640 his enemies that would appear in chronicles and history books 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:34.840 for centuries, William the Bastard. But illegitimate as he was, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:39.000 William was his father's only son, and so he was 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:43.960 officially recognized as Robert's heir in ten thirty five, when 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.720 William was about eight years old. It was a designation 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:51.360 complete with a swearing in ceremony and the approval of 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.560 the French king. And it was a good move on 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.680 the part of William's father, because Robert the Magnificent died 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.280 before William ten years old. Even though it had been 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.960 established that William was his father's heir and he was 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.960 now Duke of Normandy, it didn't prevent the chaos and 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.440 breakdown of order that sometimes happens when a child becomes 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.640 a ruler. It would be generous to call William's early 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:24.640 years as Duke tumultuous. He was constantly surrounded by murder 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:29.520 and war, under constant threat of assassination. His tutor was murdered, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:34.199 three of his guardians died violently. It's hard to try 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:38.200 to unpack the psychology of a historical figure, and even 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.720 more challenging when that figure lived a thousand years ago. 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.280 But we know that when William will grow up, when 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.000 he conquers England, he will rule with an iron fist. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.400 He will build great towers that stand as monuments to 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.640 his power and control. He will crush his kingdom within 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.280 a vice of order and hierarchy. And so maybe it's 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.320 not too great of a leap to imagine that that 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.800 instinct might have been a perfectly natural response to a 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:16.680 childhood spent understanding viscerally the discomfort of anarchy, living in 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:26.439 a duchy tearing itself apart without a strong leader. At 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.400 fifteen years old, William was knighted and he finally began 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.040 his campaign as a young adult to bring order to 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.839 the anarchic lands he ruled over. He grew into a 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.520 striking figure, not tall, but taller than average and broad, 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:47.040 with red hair and a reputation as an incredibly level 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.000 headed leader who understood when to take risks in battle 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.520 and when to play defensively. And so, now, with a 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:59.600 young William squarely on the throne of the Duchy of Normandy, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:03.600 let's pop back up across the channel over to England. 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:08.720 The King Edward the Confessor had no sons. Edward was 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:14.880 William's cousin. Edward's father had been married to William's grandfather's sister. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.760 Not close cousins, but cousins, and Edward had been dealing 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:24.240 with his own challenges as a leader in England. Danish 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.440 vikings had invaded and taken the throne, and so for 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:32.240 a time Edward was actually in exile in Normandy. That 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.640 was still when William was a young man, but according 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:41.120 to Norman sources, the two cousins really connected. Edward knew 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.959 that soon he would return to England and become king, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.360 and he promised young William that if he died without 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.440 a son, he would be his heir to the English throne. 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.760 At least that's the way William and the Normans tell it. 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.840 As an adult, William had his eyes set on England, 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.840 but a passing comment that an exiled king had made 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.599 to him back when William was a child wouldn't be 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.560 enough to claim the throne, and so when William was 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.720 in his early twenties, he married the daughter of the 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:17.640 Count of Flanders, which gave him more strength and firepower, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.080 enough allegedly that he was able to strong arm the 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:27.360 still airless Edward into officially making William his heir in 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.640 ten fifty one. At least that's how the Normans tell it. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.479 But over in England there were other nobles vying for control, 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:41.800 especially as King Edward began to weaken. The most powerful 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.120 nobleman in England at the time was a man named 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:50.000 Harold Godwinson, whose sister was married to King Edward. The 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:55.679 Confessor consider Harold like the English hometown hero. Earlier in 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.000 Edward's rule, when England lost some popularity for seemingly showing 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.600 owing favoritism to Normans, it was Godwin and his sons 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.640 who were able to rally forces and use the situation 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:13.400 to their advantage. Harold had fought campaigns subjugating Wales and 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:18.600 dealing with rebellious Northumbrians. He seemed like the natural choice 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.800 for a successor for the King of England, because well, 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:26.600 he was already sort of handling the job. The problem, 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.000 of course, was that he wasn't yet King Edward was, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:35.040 and Edward was using his childlessness to his advantage as 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.480 a diplomatic tool, leading other people on, so no one 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:45.360 attacked him. Around ten sixty five, Edward sent Harold on 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.120 an embassy to Normandy. According to the Normans, the purpose 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.840 of that journey was for Harold to confirm that Edward 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.080 was naming William as heir to the throne of England. 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.040 But on the way to Normandy, Harold was captured off 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.040 the coast and ransomed. While he was being held as 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.600 something between a hostage and a guest, Harold was made 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.280 to swear on holy relics to promise that he would 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:18.560 uphold William as Edward's heir, and Harold did swear it, 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.080 at least according to the Normans. Whether it was under 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.080 duress or because they were threatening him is another question. 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.320 It was probably around a year later, January of ten 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.520 sixty six, that Edward the Confessor, still without a son 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:46.880 and having caused so much trouble, finally died. According to England, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.800 on his deathbed, he turned to his brother in law 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.920 Harold and declared that he would be his heir. Harold 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.360 did not need to be told twice. The English written 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:02.000 or Council officially supported him, as did all the other nobles, 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.080 and so Harold quickly held a coronation at Westminster Abbey, 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.880 knowing probably that he would have to deal with William eventually, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.960 but also probably correctly thinking that it would be easier 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.600 to deal with William from a secure place atop the 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:24.440 throne of England. William in Normandy was of course furious, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:30.600 especially considering that Harold had sworn on holy relics that 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.360 he would respect William's claim to the throne. And so 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:39.600 William did the medieval European equivalent of going to the manager. 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:44.400 He petitioned the Pope. He told the Pope that Harold 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.960 had forsaken his oath, an oath sworn on holy relics, 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.480 and the Pope agreed with him and gave William his 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:56.920 blessing to invade England. Harold actually made the decision not 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.880 to send an emissary to the Pope to plead his case, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:04.479 probably thinking that because he had already been coronated and 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:10.159 was a consecrated king, his position was secure and so 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:15.119 God was on William's side, even if the wind wasn't. 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.680 William assembled his fleet and soldiers on the northern coast, 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.359 ready to set sail and battle Harold in England. But 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.959 as I talked about in the introduction to this episode, 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:32.080 the weather was not cooperating. The wind wasn't right, and 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:37.080 so William had to wait, managing sanitation and food for 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:41.800 thousands of soldiers, doing nothing but losing morale by the day. 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.880 It might seem like this might have put William at 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:50.240 a disadvantage, but as luck would have it, he wasn't 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.399 the only person trying to conquer England. In the north 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:59.360 of England, Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, was invading, and Harold, 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.479 King of England had to march as soldiers up to 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.840 take care of that, and all the while, Harold, King 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.040 of England, had been funding a standing army on the 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.639 southern coast of England, just waiting for William and the 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.359 Normans to arrive. Well mid September, after months of paying 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:22.560 them to do nothing, Harold had to finally release the 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.520 men and dissolve the force, which meant that when William 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.480 and his men were finally able to sail up to England, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:36.720 they faced surprisingly little resistance until they reached Hastings. How 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.960 many men did William have, simply put, we do not know. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.119 One chronicle gives the number at fourteen thousand men, but 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.200 another says the force numbered one hundred and fifty thousand. 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:54.320 I've also seen fifty and sixty thousand. Like so many 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.879 things about William the Conqueror's famous invasion of England, the 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:07.400 stories have become a little distorted into legend. There are 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.560 a handful of legends specifically about William's crossing. As the 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.920 fleet set out from Saint Valerie. The ship that William 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.879 was on was of course the fastest and the sleekest, 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.240 and in the darkness of the night crossing the channel, 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.920 that ship accidentally sped ahead of its fellows, which meant 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.919 that the next morning William and his ship awoke to 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.520 find the rest of their fleet entirely out of sight. 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:39.520 According to a chaplain William of Poitier, who is biased 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.800 because he was so close to William the Conqueror, but 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.240 an incredibly useful source. While other lesser leaders might have 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:50.560 panicked in that situation, quote, like all great generals, William 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.440 apparently displayed nothing but sang froid in that period of stress, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.480 and were told he just sat down to a hearty breakfast, 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:04.760 washed down with some spiced wine. End quote. One more legend, 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.520 too cute, in my opinion, to be anything but apocryphal. 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:13.639 When the ships finally reconnected and landed on the English shore, 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:18.240 William apparently tripped and broke his fall. With his poems, 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.879 the Norman poet Robert was wrote that William was quote 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:29.280 grabbing England with both hands. Meanwhile, King Harold had defeated 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.879 the Norwegian king in a particularly brutal battle at Samford Bridge, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:39.320 but with William's invasion, Harold had only two weeks to 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:44.240 march his troops back down to counter the Normans. Harold 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.359 and his men arrived on October thirteenth and were able 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.639 to get themselves into a defensive position for William when 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:57.879 the Normans attacked the very next morning. The Normans had 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.400 archers and a cavalry, but the English had a shield 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.440 wall and the advantage of a position on a hill. 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.200 William sent charge after charge of cavalry riders up the hill, 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.920 but no matter how fearsome his Viking descended soldiers were, 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:17.480 the English shield wall did not break, and then after 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:22.560 several unsuccessful charges, a rumor spread among the Normans that 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.680 their leader, William was dead, killed in the fighting. One 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.080 of the flanks of the Norman cavalry retreated down the 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.800 hill in the confusion, and the English gleefully broke their 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:38.600 ranks to follow them, assuming that victory was all but inevitable. 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.840 But William wasn't dead, and according to the most common 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:48.040 narrative of the battle, the narrative that was embroidered onto 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:54.000 the famous Bayou tapestry, afterwards, William pulled off his helmet 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:57.199 to show his face to his men. Now with the 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.560 English wall broken, the Normans were able to turn their 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:05.000 cavalry around to surround the English and begin their slaughter. 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:10.200 King Harold was killed supposedly by an arrow through the eye, 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.080 and that was that the Battle of Hastings was over 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:19.240 and William, Duke of Normandy, had become William the Conqueror. 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.679 But winning a battle wasn't going to make William the 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:32.680 King of England just yet. He had helpfully reverse engineered 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.800 his claim to the throne by having had appealed to 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.760 the Pope and by reminding everyone that he was the 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.439 dead king Edward's second cousin. The idea was that he 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:46.600 was simply succeeding Edward rightfully, as opposed to how it 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:49.600 might look, which was that he was a duke from 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.960 Normandy who had led an invading force to conquer a 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:58.080 different country. After Hastings, William knew that he needed to 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:03.040 take London. His troops surround the city so that he 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.760 would be prepared in case he needed to starve it 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:10.720 into a surrender. But to his surprise, when he crossed 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:14.359 the Thames into the city, he found that London's most 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:18.200 powerful bishops and the next in the Saxon line, Edward's 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:22.879 great nephew, were already ready to submit to him. No 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:26.760 one was left to challenge William with any meaningful claim 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.000 to the throne, and so William made the same decision 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:35.520 that his predecessor Harold had made a quick coronation to 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.199 secure his claim while he could, rather than wait for 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.080 his wife Matilda to arrive in England to be crowned 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.680 alongside him, or rather than waiting to campaign around England 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.120 to secure the rest of the country first, William had 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:54.360 his coronation as soon as he could, at Westminster Abbey 0:23:54.760 --> 0:24:00.080 on Christmas Day ten sixty six. The coronation was a 0:24:00.160 --> 0:24:05.120 conscious hybrid of both Anglo Saxon and Norman traditions, read 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:09.800 in both English and French, with traditions lifted from both, 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.320 but the event didn't go as smoothly as William probably hoped. 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:18.919 He had posted knights outside of Westminster Abbey, probably to 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:21.960 deal with anyone who thought they would take the opportunity 0:24:22.280 --> 0:24:26.439 to be an open rebel, but during the coronation itself, 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:30.000 when the people inside the abbey were loudly proclaiming and 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:34.600 celebrating William, the guards thought that some sort of assault 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:39.120 was underway. Their response was to set the local houses 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:44.560 around the abbey on fire. Because the Norman soldiers couldn't 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:49.240 understand the local Anglo Saxons and vice versa. The scene 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:54.280 became like something out of a grisly comedy. Almost everyone 0:24:54.320 --> 0:24:57.080 who had been at the coronation in the abbey raced 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:00.400 outside to see what all the fuss was about. William 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:05.320 finished the ceremony with a skeleton crew inside. The chronicler 0:25:05.480 --> 0:25:10.200 Orderic Vitalis wrote, as the fire spread rapidly through the houses, 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:13.160 the people who had been rejoicing in the church were 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:16.720 thrown into confusion, and a crowd of men and women 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:21.040 of every rank and status, compelled by this disaster, rushed 0:25:21.080 --> 0:25:24.800 out of the church. Only the bishop and clergy, along 0:25:24.840 --> 0:25:28.399 with the monks, stayed terrified in front of the altar, 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:33.520 and only just managed to complete the consecration rite over 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:38.160 the king, who was trembling violently. Nearly everyone else ran 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:42.320 toward the raging fire, some to fight bravely against the 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:45.720 force of the flames, but more hoping to grab loot 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:51.040 for themselves. Amid such great confusion, The English, believing there 0:25:51.080 --> 0:25:55.320 was a plot behind something so completely unlooked for, were 0:25:55.440 --> 0:26:01.160 extremely angry and afterward held the Normans in suspense, judging 0:26:01.160 --> 0:26:06.560 them treacherous. End quote. It was a grim omen for 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:10.040 what the next few months of William's reign would look like. 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:14.600 His goal was complete and utter submission, and to that 0:26:14.800 --> 0:26:18.200 end he constructed the central white tower of the Tower 0:26:18.240 --> 0:26:22.520 of London, meant to project strength and domination to the city. 0:26:23.200 --> 0:26:27.240 Williams spent the next few years dealing with rebels throughout England, 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:32.800 crushing them with a destructive violence that shocked contemporary chroniclers. 0:26:33.440 --> 0:26:36.960 He undid the English aristocracy at the time and replaced 0:26:37.000 --> 0:26:40.920 them with Normans, and they brought with them new systems 0:26:40.920 --> 0:26:44.000 that we can identify today as the foundation for some 0:26:44.119 --> 0:26:49.000 basic government practices. Even the English language itself is a 0:26:49.119 --> 0:26:53.480 testament to William's power. Take the words we use for 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:57.840 animals and the words we use when those animals become meat. 0:26:58.520 --> 0:27:02.560 There's swine, but there's all so pork. There's sheep, and 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:06.840 then there's mutton. There's cows, and then there's beef. The 0:27:06.880 --> 0:27:12.360 former words swine, sheep, cow are Germanic Anglo Saxon words. 0:27:12.960 --> 0:27:18.159 The latter pork, mutton, beef are Norman French words. It 0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:21.680 was the Anglo Saxon who were the lower class farmers 0:27:22.000 --> 0:27:25.680 taking care of livestock, and the new class of Norman 0:27:25.960 --> 0:27:32.760 aristocracy who were enjoying delicacies at their table. William had 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:37.400 not just conquered Land, he conquered the future of what 0:27:37.560 --> 0:27:42.879 England would become, remaking it in his image, clenched in 0:27:42.960 --> 0:27:53.640 his fist. That's the story of William the conquerors, well conquering. 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.400 But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear 0:27:57.560 --> 0:28:10.919 a little bit about his slightly gruesome ending. If William's 0:28:10.920 --> 0:28:16.280 coronation was a minor disaster, his funeral was a catastrophe. 0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:21.400 Even conquerors are humbled in death. And after William died 0:28:21.520 --> 0:28:25.120 in ten eighty seven while on a campaign outside Normandy, 0:28:25.720 --> 0:28:28.840 his body was looted and he was left bare and 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:33.320 naked until a passing night brought his body to monks 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:37.840 in Cayenne for burial, in an eerie echo of his coronation. 0:28:38.480 --> 0:28:42.800 Before William's body was prepared, a fire broke out nearby 0:28:42.880 --> 0:28:47.200 in town. Because of the delay in his burial, William's 0:28:47.200 --> 0:28:52.440 body became bloated and decomposed. There was a stone sarcophagus 0:28:52.520 --> 0:28:55.920 that had been commissioned for him, but William's body was 0:28:56.120 --> 0:29:01.400 simply too big. In the words of our favorite chronicler, Orderic, 0:29:01.800 --> 0:29:04.640 as they tried to, for lack of a better word, 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:10.120 stuff him into the sarcophagus quote, the swollen bowels burst, 0:29:10.320 --> 0:29:15.280 and an intolerable stench assailed the nostrils of the bystanders 0:29:15.400 --> 0:29:21.080 and the whole crowd. An appropriately gross ending for an 0:29:21.080 --> 0:29:35.360 episode of a podcast called Noble Blood. Noble Blood is 0:29:35.400 --> 0:29:40.360 a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. 0:29:41.000 --> 0:29:44.760 Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:49.920 with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, 0:29:50.360 --> 0:29:54.760 Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is 0:29:54.960 --> 0:29:59.280 edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, 0:29:59.720 --> 0:30:05.000 with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, 0:30:05.440 --> 0:30:10.360 Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, 0:30:10.880 --> 0:30:15.400 visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:30:15.440 --> 0:30:17.040 to your favorite shows.