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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 85, Danish and Norman Kings:
November 8, 2004:
In 1016, after some double dealing and trickery Canute the Dane (about 995- 1035) was elected king of England by some members of the English council. The election did not quite wash because some other members had elected Edmund so they had to share the kingdom for a while. A few weeks later, Edmund died and Canute took over the whole show.
With full power, this guy behaved arrogantly. He stole the estates of Englishmen and turned them over to his Danish cronies. He also had some of his prominent English critics killed or outlawed. On the plus side, he did bring peace to England and the country prospered. Later he began to mellow and restored most of the former order of things. This was not altogether altruistic. He needed support. He used the English military to take the throne of Denmark. He also used some of his more regular underhanded methods including assassination to take charge of Norway. In all, he ruled England for 19 years until his death in 1035.
Upon Canute's death, the throne fell to his illegitimate son Harold I until his death in 1040. Following that, Hardecanute, Canute's legitimate son took the throne. Neither of these guys had the moxie of Canute. Hardecanute was really bad news for England. He had Harold dug up from his grave and dumped in a swamp. He also sent his army to burn the city of Worcester because a couple officials we killed there. Needless to say, he was not a popular king.
After Hardecanute messed things up, the Englishmen decided to go back to a Saxon king and Saint Edward The Confessor got the crown. He was the son of another Saxon King, namely Ethelred II the Unready. As a king, Edward was not much, but he was pious. The real ruler of England was the Earl of Wessex, Godwine. After eleven years, Edward got tired of that and outlawed Godwine and his family. Then he began to give English lands and positions of power to his Norman friends. That made Godwine and a few others angry. They confronted the king and forced him to restore the English lands and boot some of his cronies out of the country.
Godwine died in 1053 and his son Harold became the power behind the throne. He is the guy who first established English power in Wales. This was not the act of union, but a militry take over. The act of union occurred much later in 1536. Edward was so taken by Harold that he named him successor to the throne. When Edward died, Harold did take over, but that only lasted a short time.
It seems Edward's cousin William The Duke of Normandy had also been promised the throne by Edward. William did not take Edward's change of heart lying down. He though a war was in order. There were some setbacks and delays and it took some time, but he did gather an army and set sail for England. He landed at Hastings and got into one heck of a day long battle with Harold and his troops. Finally, after repeated determine assaults by William, Harold was killed in battle and his troops, after a short scrimmage, gave up and dispersed. In December of 1066 William was crowned King of England in Westminster Abby.
Harold was the last Saxon king of England. William, called William the Conqueror, became the first Norman king of England. He established the House of Normandy and ruled for 21 years. He did not keep things completely in hand during that time. Some rebellions that began in 1067 had to be put down. They were brought to an end in 1071, but the cost to the aristocracy was ruinous.
William also had other problems in Normandy. It seems his power was almost continuously threatened by powers in France and Denmark among others. These kept him away much of the time and he allowed Lanfranc, the archbishop of Canterbury to act in his name. Allowing the English to keep their own laws and courts worked in is favor. Occasionally he had to return to England to put down a rebellion or heave someone in the clink. His main problems were not in England however but remained on the continent. He finally tried to regain some lost ground in Mantes in 1087. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury while burning the town. He never recovered and died on September of the same year. He had lived to be 60 years old and had ruled England for 21 years. That is quite long for a monarch.
William II or William Rufus succeeded his father to the throne of England. the first thing he had to face was a conspiracy to overthrow his rule and bring in his brother Robert, the eldest son of William I. Robert had inherited the Duchy of Normandy, but many powerful people wanted a single ruler for England and Normandy. By promising tax cuts, Rufus got the support of the people and put down the rebellion. He reneged on his promise however and that caused another revolt.
Putting down the second revolt caused him to get mean. He punished the ringleaders brutally and took over their lands. When St. Anselm the archbishop of Canterbury insisted that the church was independent of the King's rule the archbishop was exiled. Then Rufus took over the churches property. He then invaded and took over Scotland killing their king, Malcolm III. Not satisfied, he also invaded Wales.
Rufus also went after his brother Robert in Normandy. When Robert needed financing to go off on the first crusade Rufus taxed the heck out of his subjects and anted-up. In exchange he got a mortgage on Normandy which effectively made him the ruler. He immediately began expanding the kingdom by taking over Maine.
Now, a guy like this does make a few enemies. One of those was his own younger brother Henry. Somehow or other in August of 1100, Rufus got shot in the back by an arrow while on a hunting trip in Hampshire. Of course, he died. Strangely enough, brother Henry was also hunting in that area at the time. What a coincidence! A guy named Walter Tirel, lord of Poix in Ponthieu took the rap for the kings death. Whatever else happened, Henry grabbed the English throne and became King Henry I of England. Such goings on! This king business has always been a dangerous occupation.
King Henry I (1069 - 1135) was better at the job than either of his older brothers but trouble was still brewing. The actual legitimate claimant to the English throne was the eldest brother Robert who was off on his crusade. Sure enough, when Robert returned he though he should have the crown. Henry was no dummy. He issued a Charter of Liberties promising to end the capricious taxes, confiscations of church revenues, and other abuses of his older brother William Rufus. He also made peace with the Scots and recalled the old archbishop St. Anselm. These were all clever political moves designed to undercut Robert's claim to the throne.
Robert invaded, but it looked like a tough go for both of these guys. Though they both had support the outcome for either was iffy, so they made a deal. Robert gave up his claim to the English throne and Henry ceded all of Normandy plus and unspecified annuity to Robert. A war was averted for the time. Henry was biding his time.
Sure enough, Robert proved to be a rather inept ruler and in 1106, with support of the Norman clerics, Henry moved in and soundly beat Robert's army. A few bribes and underhanded agreements helped Henry's cause. Robert did not have much support. As a reward for opposing Henry, Robert got thrown in Henry's slammer for life. He died in Cardiff castle in 1134.
In Henry's rule there were ups and downs including a great deal of bickering with the church over who was in charge. Anselm was exiled again. After a lot of snorting involving the Pope they compromised and Anselm returned, but he had to pay homage to Henry. In return Henry gave up on appointing churchmen.
There were more wars and goings on with relatives of Robert.
There were threats and assaults from France and parts of Normandy
but peace was reached. Meanwhile, Henry's son William was killed
in a shipwreck. Without a successor Henry had to scramble. He
ended up naming the empress Matilda his heir. Henry I died at
the age of 67 in 1135. He had ruled an incredible 35 years.
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