William the Conqueror and Wessex

Abstract

This article is written in honour of a scholar whose many distinguished contributions include a history of Wessex that is the indispensable foundation for this analysis of how William the Conqueror (1066-87) shaped his Wessex inheritance.1While adopting the standard definition of Wessex as consisting of the six historic counties of Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and Hampshire, I only occasionally refer to Devon, since, although the Domesday record of that shire does contain typically 'Wessex' features, as far as we know William did not visit it after early 1068 when he besieged Exeter and then marched his army into Cornwall, before returning to Winchester to celebrate Easter.2The article is also intended as a contribution to how different regions of England experienced the so-called Norman Conquest.3Wessex's place in the English monarchy's history was entertainingly illuminated by the late James Campbell's comment that Wessex, the Thames Valley, and western Mercia largely remained the residential and governmental centre of the English kings and queens from the 10th century until the time of Queen Victoria.4This continuum was, however, one with many fluctuations both before and after 1066.From Æthelred the Unready's time (978-1016), kings had tended to concentrate their attention on the eastern Wessex shires, with Edward the Confessor's itinerary even suggesting a move away from Wessex and a preference for Westminster and Gloucester over Winchester.5 On the other hand, Winchester had been especially favoured by the Danish kings Cnut (1016-35) and Harthacnut (1040-42), both of whom were buried in the 1 Barbara Yorke, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1995).I am grateful to Bob Higham and Ryan Lavelle for their comments on an earlier version of this article and to Sophie Rixon for her assistance during its preparation.2 For the definition, Yorke, Wessex, p.1.For Devon, Robert Higham, Making Anglo-Saxon Devon:Emergence of a Shire (Exeter, 2008), pp.150-52, 167-91, and 226-27.3 For an important recent essay, Aleksandra McClain, "Rewriting the Narrative: Regional Dimensions of the Norman Conquest," in The Archaeology of the Eleventh Century: Continuities and Transformations, ed.Dawn M.

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