A History–1066 & All That

Brunanburh fought in Little Weighton or not? Confusion so typical of the times; but what about Rowley folks? The site of a battle or not life had to go on–what might it have been like? How far would outside events reach us and affect us? Clearly the struggle with nature must have been an everyday priority, but the warring and politics were seldom that far away.

Were this Newsletter the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles it would have carried headlines such as:- “740–York raided and burned”; “800–Moon eclipsed, King Bertric and Earl Worr died”; “867–East Angles cross Humber; immense slaughter, 2 kings dead”; “897–Diseases of cattle weakened the army over three years so that many of the mightiest king’s Thanes have died; Danes raiding east coast”; “961–A great pestilence (i.e. plague) in London, many dead”; “975–A comet seen high in the heavens during harvest; famine scours the hills”; “976–Great famine; very great and very manifold commotions amongst the English peoples with much ungodliness and evil deeds”; “1005–Great famine, no man ere remembers such”; “1013–King Sweyne (of Denmark) raids Humber beyond Gainsborough”; “1014–King Sweyne (now of England) dies, followed by great sea flood on St Michael’s Day overwhelming many towns and innumerable multitude of people”; “1032–Drought, causes extensive wild fires doing great damage in many places”; “1039–Terrible wind, great damage”; “1040–Famine, price of wheat severely increased, to 55 pence per sester (variously given as one pint up to four gallons)”; “1041–Very poor year for fruits of the earth, so many cattle perished as no man remembers, through disease as through tempest (murrain – our foot and mouth disease)”; “1046–Extremely severe winter from Candlemas, much loss of men cattle fowl and fishes”; “1049–Earthquake in many places, many dead and murrain of cattle”; “1053 to 1060–Severe winters, much loss of men and cattle, and (in 1060) another great earthquake”. Hardly beer and skittles down at the Black Horse or the Blacksmith’s Arms.

Kings Athelstan and Alfred had left us with a sound legal, administrative and social structure, but we could not possibly have been immune from the almost constant attacks by the ‘Danes’, (a convenient name for Norse Swedes, Jutes, etc.). The east coast rivers–Tyne, Humber, Thames, and along the south coast, and even France and the Low Countries were subject to summer ‘vikings’ (raids) and plunder, burnings, slaughter. Rowley would be just too handy for such raids and with the malignity of nature our part of Yorkshire life must have been very precarious.
Finally the Danes won and Knut (Canute) became king, to be succeeded by Edward and then Harold in 1065. But Northumbria’s governor Tostig, Harold’s brother, outlawed by the Thanes fled to Normandy, then an English (Norse) region, but returned on 20th September in 1066 with King Harald ‘Fair-Hair’ of Norway to the Tyne, (having vikinged the Humber en route), and fought his way with his fleet to to reclaim York. Demanding hostages from the whole shire he went to Stamford Bridge, where a distinctly hurried Harold caught up with them on the 25th September. The fighting about the bridge was exceptionally long and fierce, and the outcome in question until a single Norseman defending the bridge was killed by a spear from below. Harald and Tostig were killed, and the residue of the army pursued to boats on the Ouse and Humber. Of 300 boats brought by Harald only 24 left.

Meanwhile on the 28th September William Duke of Normandy landed in Kent claiming the English Crown. Harold gathered what army he could and rushed to Hastings for battle on 14th October. Unsurprisingly it went badly and left Harold dead after a reign of just over 40 weeks.

William was accepted over all England until 1069 when Danes sailed 240 boats up the Humber and the Ouse to York with a fresh claim on Northumbria. They stormed and demolished the castle, slew many hundreds of Frenchmen (Normans!), and burned and plundered the Minster. William had had enough and his army ‘Harried the North’ in reprisal, killing men, (estimates of 150,000), clearing stock and crops and was pretty final. It is recorded that Rowley was not immune as revealed by the Domesday Book (see next part).


Big Thank You to Barrie Heaton for his historical articles.

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