Norman Conquest Timeline

NORMAN ATROCITIES REPORTED

East Sussex, 1 October 1066

Atrocities have been report across a large swathe of East Sussex - though the Normans claim they are merely foraging. Many of the Norman soldiers had brought inadequate rations with them from Normandy.

Despite English protests, foraging is recognised as normal practice in warfare. English troops, as well as Norman, take food from farmers to feed themselves. However, it has been pointed out that, when William of Normandy mustered his troops on the other side of the Channel, he banned foraging there to keep the support of local people. In England though, he does not seem to mind alienating the people he claims as his new subjects.

People in the area round Hastings say the Normans have been particularly brutal. Much of the Norman army is made up of mercenaries and adventurers, eager for booty. They are encouraged to pillage freely. Numerous incidents of looting, rape and murder are being reported. Anything the pillagers cannot carry, they vandalise. Houses are burned down. Livestock are slaughtered and grainstores destroyed. Many Saxons have fled. Those who remain behind face starvation in the coming winter. Resistance is futile and the people of East Sussex face the stark choice between the precarious life of a refugee and death. Many villages will take generations to recover. But the harrying of the people of East Sussex is more than just the thoughtless action of marauding soldiers. It is a deliberate policy, sanctioned by William himself. King Harold is also Earl of Wessex and Sussex has been part of Wessex since 825. By attacking his people, William is goading Harold in action. Harold's personal possessions in the area - particularly those at Steyning which Harold seized from the Norman abbot of Fécamp - have also come in for concerted attack.

The Norman strategy is to provoke Harold into an early fight. William has everything to gain from this. Although Hastings is an easy place to defend, if Harold besieged the peninsula, he could keep the Normans bottled up and starve them out. But with his earldom under attack, honour demands that Harold retaliate immediately. If he cannot defend own his vassals, how can he claim to protect the people of England?

The ravaging of the countryside is also part of a scorched earth policy. The land to the north - the direction from which any English army must come - is now completely laid waste. Robert fitz Wimarc, an English landowner of Norman parentage and courtier to Edward the Confessor, has visited the Norman camp to urge William to return home, or at least to avoid bloodshed by remaining within his fortifications. How can he hope to defeat the army that has just smashed superior Viking forces at Stamford Bridge?

William's response has been to crank up the Norman propaganda machine. The Normans are now saying that the invasion is a righteous act to avenge their Viking brothers slaughtered at Stamford Bridge. Harold himself is denounced as a fratricide, having killed his brother, the Vikings' ally Tostig in the battle. The story is circulating that Harold personally beheaded his brother's corpse.

Article by Nigel Cawthorne