return in December. The year 1068 was spent in military expeditions against Exeter and York, in both of which the adherents of Harold had found a welcome. In 1069 Robert of Comines, a Norman to whom William had given the earldom of Northumberland, was murdered by the English at Durham; the north declared for Edgar Atheling, the last male representative of the West-Saxon dynasty; and Sweyn Estrithson of Denmark sent a fleet to aid the rebels. Joining forces, the Danes and English captured York, although it was defended by two Norman castles. The position seemed critical; but, fortunately for the king, the south and west gave no effective support to the rebellion. Marching rapidly on York he drove the Danes to their ships; and the city was then reduced by a blockade. The king ravaged the country as far north as Durham with such completeness that traces of devastation were still to be seen sixty years later. But the English leaders were treated with politic clemency, and the Danish leader, Jarl Osbiorn, was bribed to withdraw his fleet. Early in 1070 the reduction of the north was completed by a march over the moors to Chester, which had not hitherto submitted but was now placed under an earl of William's choice. From this point we hear no more of general rebellions against the foreign rule. In 1071 a local rising in the fens caused some trouble. An outlawed Englishman, Hereward by name, fortified the Isle of Ely and attracted a number of desperate spirits to his side; amongst others came Morcar, formerly earl of Northumbria, who had been disappointed in the hopes which he based on William's personal favour. The king in person undertook the siege of Ely, which proved unexpectedly difficult. But the failure of the insurgents was a foregone conclusion.
Of the measures which William took to consolidate his authority we have many details; but the chronological order of his proceedings is obscure. The redistribution of land appears to have proceeded pari passu with the reduction of the country; and at every stage of the conquest each important follower received a new reward. Thus were formed the vast but straggling fiefs which are recorded in Domesday. The great earldoms of the West-Saxon period were allowed to lapse; the new earls, for the most part closely connected with William by the ties of blood or friendship, were lords of single shires; and only on the marches of the kingdom was the whole of the royal jurisdiction delegated to such feudatories. William's writs show not only that he kept intact the old system of governing through the sheriffs and the courts of shire and hundred, but also that he found it highly serviceable. Those whom he enfeoffed with land held it according to the law of Norman feudalism, which was already becoming precise. They were thus brought into close personal relations with the king. But he forced the most powerful of them to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the ancient local courts; and the old fyrd-system was maintained in order that the crown might not be wholly dependent on feudal levies. Though his forest-laws and his heavy taxation caused bitter complaints, William soon won the respect of his English subjects. They appear to have accepted him as the lawful heir of the Confessor; and they regarded him as their natural protector against feudal oppression. This is to be explained by his regard for legal forms, by his confirmation of the “laws of Edward” and by the support which he received from the church. Domesday Book shows that in his confiscations he can have paid little attention to abstract justice. Almost every English landholder of importance was dispossessed, though only those who had actually borne arms against William should have been so treated. As far as possible Englishmen were excluded from all responsible positions both in church and state. After 1071 our accounts of William's doings become jejune and disconnected. Much of his attention must have been engrossed by the work of administration, carried on without the help of those elaborate institutions, judicial and financial, which were perfected by Henry I. and Henry II. William had few ministers of note. William Fitz Osbern, earl of Hereford, who had been his right-hand man in Normandy, fell in the civil wars of Flanders (1071). Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, lost favour and was finally thrown into prison on a charge of disloyalty (1082). Another half-brother, Robert of Mortain, earl of Cornwall, showed little capacity. Of the king's sons Robert, though titular count of Maine, was kept in leading strings; and even William Rufus, who was in constant attendance on his father, never held a public office. The Conqueror reposed much confidence in two prelates, Lanfranc of Canterbury and Geoffrey of Coutances. They took an active part in the civil no less than the ecclesiastical government. But the king himself worked hard in hearing lawsuits, in holding councils and ceremonious courts, in travelling between England and Normandy, and finally in conducting military operations.
In 1072 he undertook a campaign against Malcolm, king of Scots, who had married Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, and was inclined to promote English rebellions. When William reached the Forth his adversary submitted, did homage as a vassal, and consented to expel Edgar Atheling, who was subsequently endowed with an English estate and admitted to William's favour. From Scotland the king turned to Maine, which had profited by the troubles of 1069 to expel the Norman garrisons. Since then the Manceaux had fallen out among themselves. The barons supported Azo of Liguria, the lawful successor of Herbert II.; the citizens of Le Mans set up a commune, expelled Azo's representatives and made war on the barons. William had therefore no difficulty in reducing the country, even though Le Mans was assisted by Fulk of Anjou (1073). In 1075 the king's attention was claimed by a conspiracy of the earls of Hereford and Norfolk, in which the Englishman Waltheof, earl of Northampton, was implicated to some degree. The rebels were defeated by Lanfranc in the king's absence; but William returned to settle the difficult question of their punishment, and to stamp out the last sparks of disaffection. The execution of Waltheof, though strictly in accordance with the English law of treason, was a measure which he sanctioned after long hesitation, and probably from considerations of expediency rather than justice. This severity to a man who was generally thought innocent, is one of the dark stains on his career. In 1076 he invaded Brittany to get possession of the fugitive earl of Norfolk; but Philip of France came to the aid of the Bretons, and William gave way before his suzerain. The next few years were troubled by a quarrel between the king and his eldest son. Robert fled from Normandy and after aimless wanderings obtained from King Philip the castle of Gerberoi, in the Beauvaisis, from which he harassed the Norman marches. William besieged Gerberoi in 1079, and was wounded in single combat by his son. A little later they were reconciled; but the reconciliation was short-lived; to the end of the reign Robert was a source of trouble. In the years 1083–1085 there was a second rising in Maine which was not laid to rest until William had granted liberal terms to the leader, Hubert of Beaumont. In 1085 news arrived that Cnut the Saint, king of Denmark, was preparing to assert the claims of his house in England. The project fell through, but gave occasion for the famous moot at Salisbury in which William took an oath of direct allegiance from “all the land-sitting men that were in England” (1086). While the danger was still impending he took in hand the compilation of Domesday Book. The necessary inquiries were ordered at the Christmas Council of 1085, and carried out in the following year. It is probable that William never saw the Domesday Book as we possess it, since he left England in the summer of 1086 and never returned. In 1087 he invaded the French Vexin to retaliate on the garrison of Mantes for raids committed on his territory. He sacked and burned the town. But as he rode out to view the ruins his horse plunged on the burning cinders and inflicted on him an internal injury. He was carried in great suffering to Rouen and there died on the 9th of September 1087. He was buried in St Stephen's at Caen. A plain slab still marks the place of his tomb, before the high altar; but his bones were scattered by the Huguenots in 1562.
In a profligate age William was distinguished by the purity of his married life, by temperate habits and by a sincere piety. His most severe measures were taken in cold blood, as part of
