ANST - FW: Musing on September 9th -- William the ...?

[j'lynn yeates]

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- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2000 19:27
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on September 9th -- William the ...?


Dear Folk,

On September 9, 1087 died the first of a long line of kings of
England,
William the Conqueror or William the Bastard. Take your pick.

William was born in France on October 14, 1028, an illegitimate son
to
Robert, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva (the daughter of a tanner.)
Robert on some religious impulse went to the Holy Land in 1035.
Before
he left, he brought seven year old William up in front of the nobles
and demanded that they swear allegiance to his young son. "Oh, he is
little but he will grow, and if God please, he will mend."  Robert
was
wise in his pronouncement and his designation for the rigors of the
pilgrimage proved deadly. Robert never returned home.

The power vacuum around William was terrifying. Three of his
guardians
were murderered and several kidnap attempts were thwarted. After a
period of apparent anarchy, William became Duke of Normandy for real.
He was able to show that in 1047 when the nobles became openly
rebellious. William along with King Henry of France won a great
battle
at Val-es-Dunes, near Caen. We shall return to Caen later. In 1048
William captured two strong castles of Alencon and Dombront. Those
became his base of operations and the young Duke (only 20) took the
province of Maine as well. This made him the most powerful man (next
to
the king) in all of France. He became stronger still when he married
Matilda, daughter of the Earl of Flanders, in 1053.  Matilda was a
direct descendant of Alfred the Great which made a strong connection
to
the throne of England.

In 1051 William visited England. It was a fateful visit.

There had been many northern European attacks over the course of
English history. In 1016 CE, the ruler of England, Aethelred  "the
Unready", died. In his place stepped his son, Harthecnut.  After
Harthecnut died, his half-brother Edward "the Confessor" took the
throne in 1042. Now these folks were truly Norman, that is to say
"Norse men," guys who loved to go out viking (which I am sure you
remember is a verb not a noun) which entailed much pillaging, raping,
and generally not folk you would invite into your parlor for tea.
Edward had been living over in Normandy, France, while brother
Harthecnut was ruling. Safer that way. When Edward came back to "That
Sceptred Isle," he mostly hung out with his buddies he had brought
back
with him from Normandy. Edward split England into Earldoms. The only
strong military force was led by Earl Godwin of Wessex. Wessex was
the
last remnant of the Saxons in Britain.  Godwin died in 1053 and left
command pretty much to his son, Harold (born around 1022.)

So William was from the old country and got in tight with Edward.
Some
folks say that Edward promised that William could take over for him
when Edward died. You see Edward was so pious that he never had time
to
have any kids. Prayer sort of got in the way. Oh, there is a story
that
when Harold was over in Normandy and got himself in a scrape, he
promised William that he would recognize William’s claim to the
throne.
I think he had his fingers crossed when he said that. When Edward
went
off to take the next step to becoming a saint (died) in 1065, Harold
thought that he should be king and had himself crowned the first week
of January in 1066. Harold was evidently pretty acceptable as a king.
He led his troops to a great victory at Stamford Bride on September
25,
1066 against the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada.

I think we will save the discussion of the Battle of Hastings
(October
14, 1066) until October. We all know William’s side won. Harold was
killed. Then what?

"The Norman Conquest," says H. C. Davis, "raised the English to that
level of culture which the continental people had already reached and
left it for the Plantagenets of Anjou to make England in her turn 'a
leader among nations'." Isn’t that smurfy? Really good for everyone,
especially the Normans who trooped over with William.

Things were not over in 1066 when William was crowned on Christmas
Day.
The next year when William went back home to Normandy, rebellion
broke
out in the southwest (Exeter being the rallying point), the Welsh
border, then Northumbria, then up north aided by some friendly Danes.
William came home mad and was not exactly slack about this. In
Northumbria, after a second inssurrection, he laid the whole country
from York to Durham to waste.  In the district of Amunderness, where
there had been sixty-two villages in Edward’s time, there were left
only sixteen and with many fewer folk.  Mutilation, blinding, fire
and
sword were some of William’s ultimate persuaders. The rebellions and
their being put down continued until at least 1075.

Having at last whooped the country into submission, William went
about
rearranging things to become such a wonderful place. He divided the
land amongst his followers, the Norman French. He made sure that no
follower had enough land to be a power in and by himself. The king
would reign supreme. In the Domesday Survey 20 per cent of the land
belonged to the King, 25 per cent to the church, 50 per cent to the
Norman Barons and only the remaining 5 per cent to the Anglo-Saxons.
French was made the official language of the country which made stock
in Berlitz Language Schools go through the thatched roof.

Heavy taxation was levied against the folk (probably less than we pay
now) and square stone forts were constructed all over the place. Hey,
invaders could be on their way anytime. Large tracts of land were set
aside for raising the King’s deer. So what if other folks had lived
there? And no one had better be caught poaching, roasting, or frying
any of those Bambis either. This shows that William may have been a
progenitor of PETA or at least the EPA.

William was a good Catholic and did homage to Pope Gregory VII. In
fact
when the Church had objected to William and Matilda’s marriage, they
built a nice church and nunnery at Caen as a gift to the Church. None
of this Saxon "Old Religion," thank you very much!

William and Matilda did their matrimonial duty also. They had ten
kids,
though not all of them lived. The list goes: Robert (b. 1054),
Richard
Duke of Brittany (b about 1055), Adeliza (b 1055), Cecilia of the
Holy
Trinity, Abbess of Caen, (b 1056), William II Rufus (b. between
1056-1060, d. 1100), Constance (b about 1066), Adela - Countess of
Blois (b. about 1067), Henry I (b about Sept 1068 & d. 1135), Agatha
(b
1064), and Matilda (?). So two of his sons, William Rufus and Henry
succeeded him.

In the last years of William's reign a great deal of his attention
was
absorbed by the political complications which threatened his
Continental dominions and by the undutiful attitude of his sons, in
particular Robert "Curthouse.". It was in avenging a gibe leveled
against him by the King of France that the Conqueror met with an
accident on horseback, which terminated fatally on September 9,1087.
He
was buried at the abbey in Caen.

The Saxon chronicler summed up William's character well when he
wrote:
"He was mild to good men who loved God, and stark beyond all bounds
to
those who withsaid his will."

What have we learned from this? It takes a bastard to really grab a
country? Sometimes kids grow up to be just like their fathers, much
to
the horror of everyone? In order to improve a land it is necessary to
burn it and kill its folks? How about always designate your
replacement
loud and clear before you leave the room?

Hello to you folk out there who are burning a district, putting out
folks’ eyes, or just getting yourself crowned. If you have a yen to
forward these missives to others while you are out viking, please do
so
only leave my name and sig. attached.

Remembering John Saxon and his luck with ladies,
Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


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