The Harrying of the North

Winter 1069 – 1070 · Northern England Theater

Winter 1069 – 1070

After repeated northern revolts — backed by Danish fleets and the surviving English nobility — William resolved to end resistance in the north for good. Through the winter of 1069–70 his forces systematically burned villages, slaughtered livestock, destroyed food stores and seed grain, and laid waste a swath of Yorkshire and beyond. Famine and exposure killed far more than the sword; chroniclers describe corpses rotting on the roads and survivors selling themselves into slavery.

• ●The Harrying of the North