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"Legends states the young Duke Robert I of Normandy was on the walkway of his castle at Falaise looking down at the river and discovered a beautiful young girl washing clothes. He asked to see her and she became his mistress. She would become the mother of William the Conqueror."

The Harrying (or Harrowing) of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror[1] in the winter of 1069-1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England. It effectively ended the quasi-independence of the region through large-scale destruction that resulted in the relative "pacification" of the local population and the replacement of local Anglo-Danish lords with Normans. The death toll is believed to be over 100,000, with substantial social, cultural, and economic damage.[2][3] Because of the scorched earth policy, much of the land was laid waste and depopulated, a fact to which Domesday Book, written almost two decades later, readily attests.[4]

The two armies met at Senlac Hill outside of Hastings with William setting out his army with the archers at the front, then the infantry and the cavalry at the rear. Harold meanwhile had taken up a position on higher ground on a narrow 800 yard long ridge but this was a bad mistake as it restricted his troops movement and made it almost easy for an experienced campaigner like William.

The Conqueror and His Sons For the next four lectures, I will diverge from my usual chronological plan. I will be talking about the policies of William and the two sons who followed him as king of England in a topical manner. The first of these lectures concerns the relations that obtained between England and Normandy under these Norman kings.