2. Rebellion from the Norman barons (mainly on 1088)
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 13-06-17 09:30
View mindmap
- 2. Rebellion from the Norman barons (focus on 1088)
- Main reasons of rebellions
- 1088
- Friends of Robert had been disappointed by settlement of 1087
- 1095
- stemmed from more specific grievances held by noble Robert of Mowbray
- 1088
- 1088
- 'the most powerful Frenchmen in the land' (England) rebelled
- 6/10 of most important baronial landowners listed in Domesday book formed leadership of rebellion (although limited evidence about extent they planned and coordinated)
- The course of the rebellion
- During Lent of 1088
- Rebel leaders launched recruitment drive to swell their ranks
- From Easter onwards, hostilities began
- Rebel court held at Winchester
- There decided by rebel leaders and followers to have a strategy of plundering on a wide-scale (and simultaneously)
- Designed to start after plotters had reinforced their own defences (castles)
- There decided by rebel leaders and followers to have a strategy of plundering on a wide-scale (and simultaneously)
- Rebel court held at Winchester
- Rufus alerted to what was happening by William of Saint-Calais
- William of Saint-Calais deserted King.
- Rufus gathered forces to target ringleader of rebellion, Bishop Odo of Bayeux
- Odo fled from base in Rochester, Kent to go into hiding in Pevensey, Sussex
- Rufus tracked Odo down and from late May through to June King's army besieged castle at Pevensey
- Siege successful
- Odo was captured and taken back to Rochester
- Siege successful
- Odo's escape
- With aid of followers inside Rochester Castle, Odo managed to shut himself in fortress
- Encouraged Rufus to launch another siege which he was again successful in.
- By end of summer
- Odo had surrendered and rebellion was over.
- During Lent of 1088
- Rebel's actions mainly took form:
- Setting fire to land and property which belonged to King and his supporters
- Involved ransacking of valuables including food stocks.
- Rebels using their own castles
- Such as Bigod
- Castles used as bases from which to launch military action against William II
- To sustain castles they would indeed have to stock up on supplies within castles
- Hence raiding of properties for provision and use of castles went hand in hand
- Course of events probably precursor to far more sinister events of classic 'feudal anarchy'
- If William had not acted decisively he may have found himself in situation whereby England was divided up into a number of regions, each ruled autonomously by Norman lords
- Four strands of William II's response to 1088 rebellion
- 1. Rufus created divisions within ranks of rebel leaders by making promises to them and also reminding them of how they had reached their positions of wealth and power
- 2. King 'assembled the English people, and restored them their rights of hunting and forests and promised them desirable laws'.
- Thus, he used same tactic he used with leaders of rebellion against ordinary people in his kingdom to ensure their loyalty remained intact
- 3. He encouraged Bishop Wulfstan, of Worcester:
- to maintain his resistance to onslaught he and his fellow royalist supporters were experiencing
- 'excommunicate the insurgents' - bar them from Christian Church
- William was trying to appeal to religious beliefs of rebels to scare them into surrendering
- 4. William got directly involved in conflict and targeted main ringleader, Odo of Bayeux
- Main reasons of rebellions
Comments
No comments have yet been made