Why was William successful in defeating the rebellions against him 1067 - 1072?

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James Sandberg        Hist – RTM        13/1/2003

Why was William successful in defeating the rebellions against him 1067 – 1072?

When William was crowned King of England he had actually only captured the Southeast. The rest of England was all still ‘Anglo-Saxon’. In 1066/1067 William, according to the Normans was the legitimate King of England. He had got Edward the Confessor’s promise that he would be King. He also had a kinship with Edward, which made it that much easier to become King. It didn’t hurt Williams cause when Harold apparently usurped the throne and took it for him self – it gave William a legitimate reason for invading. Then after William had gained control of the Southeast the rulers of England submitted to him at Little Berkhamstead. Then they allowed him to be crowned King of England with an Anglo-Saxon Service. This shows their acceptance of William as their King. BUT William had made a mistake. He assumed that once he had been crowned King everyone would follow him as their King. William had not gone West of Faringdon and North of Bedford. It just so happened that the remainder of Harold’s family was in the West and Edwin and Morcar (the Northern Earls) who were in the North. Both of these groups had not really submitted to William as their king and were willing to start a rebellion to stop William becoming even more powerful.

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The rebellions started because when William went back to Normandy. He had to leave regents in his place to rule for him. He chose Bishop Odo and William fitzOsbern. These two people were kinsmen of Williams and so he knew that he could trust tem. But according to Oderic Vitalis: ‘… behaved in a violent and cruel fashion…’ and so because of the violent and cruel fashion in which they behaved rebellions started to spring up. The first rebellion was in Exeter and involved Harold’s family. This is the first time that William shows his policies for rebelling against ...

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