William I Quotes

“We do not have to indulge in too much psychological guesswork to see where Edward’s true affections lay. As a child he had seen his father and elder brothers die fighting against a Danish invader. His mother had abandoned him in order to marry that invader and become Cnut’s queen. His father-in-law had collaborated with Cnut to become the Danish king’s right-hand man, and had murdered Edward’s only remaining brother. It should hardly surprise us that, when he thought about the succession, the childless king should want to thwart his Anglo-Danish in-laws and advance the fortunes of the family that had sheltered and raised him.6”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror

“The Normans had first arrived in Gaul (the former Roman province roughly equivalent to modern France) in the ninth century as Viking raiders – their name, given to them by their enemies, signified ‘men of the North’. Around the start of the tenth century some of them started to settle in the area around Rouen and colonized the ancient Roman region of Neustria, so that over time it came to be known by the new name of ‘Normandy’. In the century that followed they ditched most of their Viking ways and adopted the manners and customs of their new neighbours, learning to speak French, giving their children French names, embracing Christianity, and refounding some of the churches and monasteries that their not-too-distant ancestors had looted and destroyed. And yet, as Ralph Glaber’s comment shows, people who lived in other parts of France still felt that the Normans had some distance to travel before they could be regarded as fully civilized.”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror

“Some people were evidently scandalized at the accession of a child who had not been conceived within the bounds of holy matrimony. In another part of France, the Burgundian chronicler Ralph Glaber wrote that Robert’s lack of a legitimate son had been a cause of great distress to his people, and suggested that some thought it abominable that the duke had been succeeded by a bastard. In the same breath, however, Glaber conceded that the dukes of Normandy had always been happy to honour the offspring of their concubines and accept them as their heirs. ‘This had been the custom of this people’, the chronicler admitted, ‘ever since they first appeared in Gaul.”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror

“Several of these plots involved gaining control of the young duke. William’s father had taken the precaution of naming several guardians for his son, but one by one they were assassinated. Count”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror

“At the end of his career, when William attempted to assess the scale of this transformation by launching a great survey, his subjects compared it to the Last Judgement of God. Thanks to the Domesday Book, we know more about eleventh-century England than any other medieval society anywhere in the world. Accurate”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror

“William’s reign did indeed prove to be long, but it was far from peaceful. While he wore the crown, England experienced greater and more seismic change than at any point before or since. The years immediately after his coronation were ones of almost constant violence, filled with English rebellion, Norman repression and even Viking invasion. Huge areas of the country were laid waste with fire and sword, especially the North, which was harried into submission without mercy during the winter of 1069–70. The old ruling elite of England were swept away in their thousands and replaced by continental newcomers, who spoke a different language and had very different views about the way society should be ordered. Hundreds of castles were constructed all over the kingdom to enforce Norman rule, and every major abbey and cathedral was ripped down and rebuilt. The”
― Marc Morris, William I: England's Conqueror