Robert de Commines | The History Jar

Northumbria was not a peaceful location in 1069. For a start Edgar the Athling and Gospatric were over the border in Scotland awaiting an opportunity to make William the Conqueror’s life difficult. Gospatric was descended from Aethelred the Unready and was made Earl of Northumbria by William the Conqueror after a string of earls beginning with Copsi in 1067 were killed. A large sum of money changed hands for the title but Gospatric rebelled against William in 1068 and was forced into exile.

William the Conqueror decided that it was better to appoint someone who was not homegrown to the job and to this end Robert Cumin or de Comines was now made Earl of Northumbria. He is thought to have come to England at the time of the Conquest with a party of Flemings but beyond that not much is known about Cumin. The new earl set off to claim his territory with between 500 and 900 men according to Morris.

Simeon of Durham chronicles the resulting mayhem. Cumin and his men seem to have been intent on rape, pillage and destruction. They had under estimated the northerners.

The inhabitants beyond the Tyne prepared to flee when they heard news of Cumin’s activities but were prevented by severe snow falls. At which point they decided that since they couldn’t flee they would kill Cumin. The Bishop of Durham who hadn’t been above a spot of plotting himself now hurried off and warned Cumin of his intended fate. It is said that Cumin was warned not to go to Durham but ignored the advice. Cumin took himself to Durham where his men continued their campaign to win hearts and minds with a spot of looting and murder.

Inevitably the Northumbrians got into the city and killed Cumin’s men presumably assisted by the disgruntled locals. Cumin who was staying in the bishop’s house was trapped but well defended by his men. The Northumbrians dealt with this conundrum by setting the house on fire. And so ended 31st January 1069 with the death yet another Earl of Northumbria. The Orderic Vitallis now wrote that the English “gained confidence in resisting the Normans, whom they saw as oppressors of their friends and allies.”

Once the north had risen in rebellion it wasn’t long before it spread south in the general direction of Yorkshire. The governor of York castle and his men were put to the sword – presumably they were away from home -and the exiles in the Scottish court now took their opportunity to return. The sheriff in York managed to get a message to William telling him of the rebellion and stating that unless he received reinforcements he would have to surrender. The Orderic Vitallis and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle agree that William virtually destroyed York amidst the ensuing slaughter and after that sent men into Northumbria to exact vengeance for the death of Robert Cumin.

Meanwhile many of the magnates who had taken shelter in Scotland had managed to evade capture or death. These earls and powerful men sent envoys to Denmark and King Swein – who saw an opportunity. The summer of 1069 was not pleasant. A Danish fleet that may have numbered up to 300 vessels arrived in the Humber. William packed his wife off to Normandy and decided what to do next. He ultimately bought off the Danes and set upon the harrying of the North. Simeon of Durham described people eating cats and dogs. The Orderic Vitallis was “moved to pity” the people.

Morris, Marc. (2013) The Norman Conquest. London: Windmill Books

William faced a rebellion each year for the first five years after his conquest of England in 1066. The problem for the Saxons was that their uprisings from the West Country to Northumbria via Herefordshire were localised. There was no one central figure to unify and organise resistance.

Earls Morcar of Northumbria and Edwin of Mercia were powerful and politically dangerous men. In part their failure to march south to support King Harold in 1066 had led to his defeat. They’d submitted to William along with Edgar the Atheling in late 1066 at Berkhamstead but they swiftly became dissatisfied with their new lord and rebelled against him in 1068. It couldn’t have come as much of a surprise to William given that he’d taken them with him to Normandy in 1067 amongst the hostages he demanded. Perhaps it was his suspicions about the northern earls that led to him not promoting a marriage between Edwin and one of his daughters and perhaps (that’s many perhaps’s) it was for this reason that Edwin and Morcar decided to revolt, although it could have been William’s new taxes that did the trick.

In any event, William marched north via Warwick and Nottingham. Resistance crumbled and the two earls submitted again. There is no evidence that the two men took part in any further uprising in the north. Edwin managed to get himself killed by his own men in 1071 when he left William’s court once more and headed off towards Scotland. Morcar took part in the uprising in Ely and ended his days a prisoner of the Normans.

The inhabitants of York seeing which way the wind was blowing in 1068 sent hostages and the keys to the city before William could arrive to express his irritation. William did what he always did when he wanted to stamp his authority on an area. He built a motte and bailey castle in York and left a garrison of five hundred men to guard it.

The north did not remain at peace for long. In January 1069 William’s man Robert de Commines was burned to death in the Bishop of Durham’s house by an angry mob who had already slaughtered his men according to the Orderic Vitalis. The people of York were not slow in getting in on the act. The garrison withstood the attack. The Victoria County History for York records, “Edgar and his supporters began an attack on the castle, whence the sheriff William Malet reported to the king that in default of assistance he would be driven to surrender.”

If one castle is good then two must be better! William had a second castle built (Bailes Hill) which he gave into the care of William Fitz Osbern (the Earl of Hereford) before heading back south to Winchester.

There was a brief third uprising that was swiftly suppressed by Fitz Osbern.

At this point you’d think that the citizens of York would have had enough but in August 1069 King Sweyn of Denmark, who had formed an alliance with Earl Waltheof of Northumbria, anchored his fleet of 240 vessels on the Humber. This was a much more sustained and serious attack upon William’s rule.

The Normans facing the combined forces of the Danes and the northerners took refuge in their two new castles. They attempted to clear a field around the castles by burning the nearby houses. It has to be said that it doesn’t seem wildly clever to believe that in a city of wood and straw that fire can be controlled. It certainly wasn’t in this case. Even the Minster found itself being scorched. According to Florence of Worcester the town was still burning two days after the initial conflagration.

But then again the Normans knew that they were fighting for their lives. One of the castles sheltered the sheriff’s wife and children. The slaughter was terrible. Waltheof was remembered by later generations in song for slaying Normans one after another with his battle-axe. William of Malmesbury’s account is according to the Cambridge History of English Literature taken from a ‘ballad’ or rather from a professionally worked song written by a Scandinavian scald or storyteller. William’s nice new castles were both destroyed.

Quite what the alliance of Danes and Saxons expected William to do next is unclear. The Danes took themselves back to their boats with their booty and then set about a spot of ‘viking’ – William found one party of them plundering Lindsey but sent them scuttling back across the Humber.

What followed next wasn’t particularly pleasant if the chroniclers are to be believed and although William kept Christmas on 1069 in York there was little cause for celebration amongst the locals. However, the North had been put in its place.

Not that their problems were over, far from it. Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland, took the opportunity to do a spot of his own harrying in the summer of 1070 and would return several times more before his death at the Battle of Alnwick.

For a chronology, which remains ongoing – I add dates as I come across them- double click on the picture.