To what extent was William Is conquest and rule of England due to force?

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To what extent was William I’s conquest and rule of England due to force?

Due to the Norman nationality of William I and the nature of his conquest, William had to be tough throughout his conquer and rule. When necessary he used force; though it is debatable whether all of this was in fact needed. Through the most part, however, William used political and military skill in order to establish his reign; through altering the church and government, and, collaborating Norman and Anglo-Saxon methods of lifestyle and management, William secured strong authority. His use of force was merely to confirm his rule and dynasty and deny all of objection, which though arguable about the morality of this, it suceeded.

The definition of the verb conquer is ‘To defeat or subdue by force, especially by force of arms’, therefore quite obviously the conquest of England was entirely due to force, without which, there would be no conquest. However, an enormous amount of skill was exhibited by William too in his ways of making his conquer justly: William sent one of his trusted friends (Lanfranc) to Rome in order to portray Anglo-Saxon England as a sink of corruption; succeeding greatly, William had now transformed a power-struggle in North-West Europe into a Holy war- increasing his support and army and growing the likelihood of English acceptance.

As well as his skill displayed in his finding of a cause, his conquest was by in large due to luck. Harold Godwinson had to fight two battles and this greatly weakened his army and reduced his ability to fight against Williams army; for William, the wind changed at the right time allowing him to cross onto an unguarded south coast, A false rumour of his death tricked the Anglo-Saxons and resulted in a breaking of the ‘shield wall’ and, most importantly, victory.

Therefore, in ways the conquest was not due to force and was due to luck and skill, however there had been no conquest without the use of military control and force, and, the Norman conquest was not about to break this tradition.

The Norman takeover of Britain killed an estimated 5,000 soldiers, and many southern English suffered due to the consumption and wastage of the Norman forces occupation, and these, were not optional and were entirely forced upon the public of England.  However, it was these very areas where control was established early after his coronation, showing a strong correlation between the level of control and the amount of force used. This correlation influenced William greatly, almost too greatly, as it lead to the Harrowing of the North and the killing of thousands of innocent sibilinas.

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One of the major threats to his stronghold was the Viking invasion which resulted in widespread revolts in the north due to collaboration between the Vikings and the rebelling Saxon nobles and caused the capturing of York. William was under threat to losing Northumbria to the Scandinavians completely and to prevent this, William used an excessive amount of force and ‘fell on the English of the northern shires like a ravening lion’ (part of Williams deathbed confession). William stormed north to eradicate the Vikings and after William had beaten the challengers, he systematically harried Yorkshire and other parts of Northumbria and ...

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