Chapter 438: Salisbury Oath
The revolts against the Normans continued year after year, and the flames of war burned almost all of England.
William himself led a large army to the East Anglia counties in the east, where the resistance was most violent, and the villages were burned and the people were slaughtered so much that it remained uninhabited ten years later.
East Anglia used to be Harold. Godwinson's territory, because it was not under William's rule, and because it had not experienced the baptism of war, the East Anglian counties had the largest number of pro-Godwinians in the Kingdom of England, even the counties of the Duchy of Wessex.
In order to completely purge the Godwin family of influence in the Kingdom of England, William used his army to launch a purge of the pro-Godwin nobles in the Kingdom of England.
Any nobles suspected of being associated with Godwin were repossessed of their titles, domains, and possessions by William, and subsequently executed on this ground.
William's brutality caused a fierce revolt among the English aristocracy, and a large number of nobles who had been hesitant or rather riding the wall for sightseeing threw themselves into Tostig. Godwinson's command.
However, these stupid aristocrats were also carried away by hatred, and Tostig. Godwinson did not dare to confront William's army, and whenever William's army arrived, Tostig led his army back into the North Sea, ignoring the English nobles who had joined him.
The Normans, who had nowhere to vent their desire to fight, took these pathetic rebellious nobles as the targets of their attacks.
During this period, the Normans may have been more brutal, and some civilians were inevitably involved in the war and died, but William's invasion of the English nobility had a very good effect.
William ordered the confiscation of the land and property of the English nobility, depriving them of the ability to rebel against the new ruler.
In order to consolidate his rule, William gradually appointed the Norman nobles who had crossed the sea with him, and gave them the lands that had been recovered from the rebellious nobles.
William introduced feudalism to England on the Continent, declaring that the king was the sole and ultimate owner of all land, and turning this nominal possession into de facto possession.
He took all the forests and minerals of the country into the royal family, and at the same time kept for himself most of the fertile arable land in the south of England and large tracts of arable land in York and Mercia, which accounted for about half of the arable land in the kingdom of England, and even more than two-thirds of the grain production.
As for the remaining barren, marginal territories. Or less important territories, which William gave to his men, and some of which he donated to local churches and monasteries.
There were 1,200 direct vassals who received land directly from William I, and these vassals of different ranks were collectively referred to as nobles.
Those who received the land had various obligations, the main of which was to provide a corresponding number of cavalry according to the size of the land to serve the king.
The royal family owns a large amount of land, which is an important foundation for stability and expansion of royal power, so a strong central power appeared in England earlier, and the society was relatively stable.
Layers of feudalism formed a feudal hierarchical relationship with the land as the link and the king as the supreme lord, and cultivated a large number of new nobles loyal to the king. This move accelerated the process of developing and establishing the feudal system in England.
William also formed the original central administrative body, the Crown, to replace the Council of the Magi, which he had abolished.
Although William did not respect Wang Tang's opinion very much, Wang Tang still had some authority.
Within the court, William set up a secretariat, which was responsible for drafting important documents, and the king's seal and the sending and receiving of documents were under the control of the superintendent.
The fiscal system was the same, and the revenue mainly came from the royal domains, the money paid by various localities, and fines. At the local level, the original district and county administrative organs will continue to be used to assist the central government in allocating and collecting taxes, and in investigating and adjudicating cases.
There was no hurry to fully implement the administrative and bureaucratic systems of the Norman kingdom, and now William's immediate priority was to stabilize the turbulent situation in the country and put down the rebellion as soon as possible, so he was reluctant to change too much, lest he further provoke the English revolt.
Militarily, William formed the Fourth Legion, a standing army of 12,000 men to be stationed in the Kingdom of England, under the command of the Duke of Richard.
In addition to serving as knights, William retained a civilian army of peasants as a supplementary force.
In terms of justice, the royal court was the highest judicial body, and the jury system was used in trials, all of which facilitated William's control over the whole of England.
With a series of political reforms, William's control over the Kingdom of England was further strengthened, and the Kingdom of England was now largely at peace, with the exception of a few counties in East Anglia and Mercia in the west near Wales, and rebellions in the districts and counties had been quelled.
Nearly two years later, William used the superiority of the Army and the North Sea Fleet with Tostig. Godwinson fought, but the other side was too slippery, as soon as he heard the news of the approach of the Norman army or fleet, Tostig would immediately lead the fleet to sail out into the vast North Sea.
In the summer of 1047, William never heard another warning from the East Anglian coast. Godwinson's army never showed up again.
Most of Tostig's fleet was consumed by William during the fierce war of nearly two years, and the remnants of less than 5,000 men were left to hide in the North Sea, where they disappeared without a trace.
It is possible that this army will fall apart due to successive defeats.
In the past two years, William has added another earl, and one is Earl Otto, Earl of Kent. Morality. Contwell, one is the Earl of Norfolk Robert Brown. Morality. Contwell, both of whom are William's half-brothers, are his closest people.
They received the title and territory of the earl given by William, and naturally they had the military exploits that matched the earl.
Needless to say, Robert's performance had won the approval of most of the Norman nobility and he was canonized as the Earl of Norfolk.
Otto joined the counterinsurgency war later, relinquishing his position as Bishop of Bayeux to join William's service, and was named Earl of Kent for his feats on the battlefields of East Anglia and the heavy defeat of Tostig's fleet in Kent.
The remaining two earls were Russell, Earl of Suffolk. Morality. Bayolle and Roger. Morality. Beaumont.
Russell. Morality. Count Bayol's merits need not be repeated, he was not only an excellent general, but also his chief of military intelligence, and he played a great role in several wars.
Although it took William two years to quell the rebellion, Tostig was nowhere to be found, and both Edric and Grufiz were executed, William's fear of the local English remained, and he stayed awake at night, thinking day and night that he finally came up with a creative new way to consolidate his power.
The feudal fiefdom system in continental Western Europe is characterized by "my vassal's vassal, not my vassal", and what William wanted to implement in England was that all vassals at all levels were all vassals of the king, and the nobles and knights only had the right to occupy and use the fief, but not ownership.