The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans

by Peter Rex

In 1066 the English were conquered by the infamous invader, William the Conqueror. However, this is not the whole story. The English did not roll over and die before their suppressors—far from it. Peter Rex brings to life the resistance, from those who allied themselves with the new regime to those who went “underground” to subvert it such as Hereward the Wake and Edric the Wild. Rex examines William’s pacification attempts, alongside his notorious “harrying” of the north.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Medieval, Anglo Saxon, War, Medieval History

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Born in in 1930, Peter Rex attended St Brendan’s and Bristol University prior to earning an MA at Coventry. He taught at Huddersfield and Princethorpe College until his retirement in 1994.

Reviews

[Graham Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of interesting plot in here, showing that William's victory at Hastings did not conclusively give him the crown and that English, Scots and Danes conspired against him but ultimately didn't follow through. Unfortunately it's told in a confusing and loosely edited fashion, which makes it hard to follow (in addition to most French people of 1070 being named William).

The author makes many allusions to the Vichy government and Nazi occupation of France, and compares Hereward the Outlaw's gang to the maquis. Sadly I don't know WW2 in enough detail for that to be enlightening, unless Hereward owned a little café in Nouviens and tried to steal Van Klomp artworks concealed in sausages.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of two books on this topic by Rex. I love the Anglo-Saxon period of history. Here is covered the resistance by the Aetheling and northern earls Edwin & Morcar and the original true Robin Hood, Hereward. The second book "Hereward the last Englishman" is even better.

[Stephen]

I was scandalized to learn, in seventh grade, that once ages ago, England was conquered. Already I had acquired the mythic conception of England as an indomitable island redoubt, safe from whatever Continental mischief was carrying on. But there, in my book, in 1066, William of Normandy lands, kills the Witan-endorsed successor to the English throne, and installs himself as monarch, with a line that officially lives on today. Peter Rex argues in The English Resistance that William's assault at Hastings accomplished less than is popularly believed, only giving him the title of king and command of southern England, and that historians have heretofore been too pro-Norman to give the feisty Saxons their due.

1066 was a brutal year for Anglo-Saxon England, with no less than three battles culling its stock of leaders. The depletion of ranks went a long way towards making southern England putty in William's hands, especially as he burned down villages that resisted. Bearing as he did a banner blessed by the Pope, the church hierarchy in England favored his cause as well...and considering their lands and knights, the bishops were no small allies. (The lower levels of the church, like the abbeys, were far more resistant to the Norman intrusion.) In the north, however, the barons were unscathed, and several rebellions against William would erupt from it directly or with its support. Intriguingly, one of the rebellions had the intent of routing William and establishing an Anglo-Danish state, with an English client-king. The same death-and-fire approach William used to intimidate the south was leveled against the north with greater ferocity after the Bastard* concluded a siege of the rebels' marshy stronghold. Much of the north was 'wasted', the fields ruined for cultivation.

The English Resistance has more spell in its title than it its execution, because Rex assembles the boot in a very odd way. It opens with commentary on the long-term consequences of the resistance, leading William to abandon his pretense of an Anglo-Norman state with continuity to the old line, devotes a few chapters to different rebellions mixed with extensive discussion of one rebel's genealogy, and then to end...introduces the characters of the drama? Reverse order would seem more appropriate, with the many pages devoted to Hereward. the Wake's forefathers and descendants left to the book Rex has written on Hereward the Wake. The book tends toward the scholarly, with much discussion of source interpretation, but there are pockets of drama. I might read one more book by Rex to see how it compares: he has written biographies of Edwin the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, Hereward the Wake, and other figures associated with the conquest. That sort of devoted study promises insights to be had.

Related:
The Fall of Saxon England, Richard Humble
Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England, Sally Crawford


* A far more entertaining title than "William the Conqueror", and much less pompous.

[Betawolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1066 William the Conqueror beat Harold Godwinson at Hastings, and thus became King of England. Except it doesn't end there. In this book, Peter Rex details the aftermath of Hastings, in which the Norman invader sets about trying to maintain his hold on the English.

History is complex. It's not right to paint the aftermath as a plucky England refusing to be cowed, because for a large part that is what happened -- collaborators went over to William, hostages were exchanged, and most people south of the Humber just accepted the atrocities carried out by the Norman troops and tried to get on, even as they were ousted from their lands and titles to reward William's army. Yet at the same time, William's rule was by no means assured. Rex points out how even William seemed to consider the country won only after putting down a threatening rebellion aimed at raising the princeling Edgar the Aetheling to the throne many considered his right and managing to buy off a Danish invasion invited by the local population, both of which were real threats to him retaining his power. William's harsh punishment of the north -- what we would term a genocide -- can be informed by this.

While the content of the book is interesting, and it manages to be informative, the writing leaves a great deal to be desired. The chronology of events Rex presents is confused by his habit of talking suddenly of things which he has not yet reached, and by his diving back to revisit earlier points, a sloshing motion meaning that the story does not grip you. A _dramatis personae_ is most welcome in a text dealing with many similar and confusing persons, but Rex inexplicably put this section right at the end of the book, where it is all but useless.

The book also suffers somewhat from what appears to be a prevailing bias in the source material. The first half of the book covers the majority of the actual events of the resistance, while the second half covers what seems to be a reasonably small event regarding a rebel named Hereward, a figure who has been inflated to legend (even gaining an invented name, 'the Wake', which Rex stresses is nowhere in the oldest sources). While his inclusion certainly adds some specific flavour to the book, Herewald does not merit the treatment he gets -- two chapters are devoted entirely to his lineage and non-descendants.

Certainly not the best-presented book, but the only one I've come across on this topic, _The English Resistance_ provides some useful post-conquest context for the interested.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most comprehensive book one is likely to find on the period of resistance and rebellion in England following 1066. The book's only real shortcoming (and the only reason it doesn't earn a 5 star rating from me) is that Rex's attempts to reconcile the (admittedly numerous and fragmentary) sources sometimes results in a muddled narrative that makes it hard to piece together a precise chronology of events. That said, anyone looking to get a sense of the English resistance during William the Bastard's early reign as England's Norman Conqueror won't do any better than this book.

I would highly suggest following this book up with Rex's Hereward: The Last Englishman, which is superior in its clarity and detail, though focusing primarily on Hereward's role late in the resistance movement in and around Ely.

[Marco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting reading, but quite disappointing.
The parallelism with occupied France during ww2 is useless, but I was most bored by :
- little added value compared to what we can read in Augustin Thierry, history of the conquest of England by the normands, despite having been written almost 2 centuries later
- some very interesting details about english society, about baronial system and land value, but very scattered around and with no organization
- as a whole, the book misses a coherent structure making easy to go from general do detailled story and to cross society information with chronicles.
- maps and pictures are useless

[Carla Nayland]

William of Normandy didn’t conquer England overnight after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Several years of revolt and reprisal followed, during which William gradually consolidated his grip on his new territory. Peter Rex’s book is a valuable study of this fascinating and comparatively neglected period in history. Review: http://www.carlanayland.org/reviews/e...

[Jason Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief but good overview of a forgotten rebellion

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put this book on my TBR list as a consequence of reading Paul Kingsnorth's The Wake. This book tells of the real English resistance to Norman invaders in the first five years after the Battle of Hastings. Peter Rex, the author, tells us that the transition to a new King, William, went as smoothly as it did because much of the administrative body of the kingdom accepted William as ruler. But people lower down in the hierarchy resisted, in part because many of them stood to lose property and livelihood.

Two chapters near the end are devoted to Hereward "the Wake," the legendary resistance fighter against the Normans. Rex examines the historical records to see what support there is for the commonly accepted parts of Hereward's story and to try to determine where he lived and who his family was. This is the aspect of history of that is fascinating to me: when authors are explicit about what can be known and what can only be suspected or speculated about, given what is left to us in the historical record. Throughout the book, Rex references the Domesday Book, Orderic Vitalis' Ecclesiastical History, and other sources from the period. He gives reasons for his interpretations, which I'm not really in a position to evaluate, but it is the method of building a picture of what happened long ago from scant surviving evidence that fascinates me.

The last real chapter of the book is called "the protagonists," and it would have been more helpful to have it at the beginning of the book. It names the main characters in the conflict, the names of the well known resisters and collaborators, as well as officials and royal household members. There is a large cast of characters to keep straight, and I had difficulty knowing my Aethelwigs from my Aethelhelms, so I appreciated the help.

There are also maps and genealogies, a bibliography and index, and a few pages of black and white photo plates.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much-overlooked facet of the Norman invasion of England is given a thorough airing by Peter Rex in this very readable book. William the Bastard's usurpation of the English Crown did not go anything like as smoothly as later historians would have you believe. The English fought him for years, in open battle and in ways we would recognise today as an underground resistance movement.

Against the Wildmen ('silvatici' as the Normans called them) of the forests through to Eadric the Wild and Hereward (later and incorrectly called 'the Wake'), William's bunch of thugs had to fight for every inch of the kingdom. This of course led to the most appalling reprisals, especially the infamous 'harrying of the north', when vast swathes of northern England were swept clean of life - human, animal and crops - by William in an act that still affects us to this day.

This book highlights the struggle against what, from our perspective, seems the inevitable. An essential book for the understanding of this terrible period.

[Tom Fordham · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some good moments in this book that really interested me but it's a bit all over the place chapter wise. Rex throws names at you throughout the book and then explains them at the end when it should have been at the beginning to help people who are less well versed on Norman history, such as myself, to be able to access it better. In some areas it was quite hard to follow and it seemed like Rex was assuming that I knew these things, thankfully my prior knowledge helped me prevail. Even so, it has furthered my interest in Eadric the Wild and Hereward the Wake and the rebellions to the Norman invasion as it feels less clear cut than I previously thought. So in a way it's a good-ish intro but the book definitely needs some rearranging in future additions.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An occupied land often brings resistance and rebellion. When the Normans under Duke William invaded England in 1066 some of the indigenous people were not happy. Pockets of resistance sprang up in the north and the Fens with leaders such as Edgar the Aetheling and Hereward the Wake. This book is a decent introduction to what happened after the conquest and how a year of battles led to the longterm occupation of an island.

[Rod Flint · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gives a very good insight into post-conquest Norman England and quite rightly counters the still too popular myth that the Normans civilised Saxon England.
It has proved a very useful reference book, assisting me in writing my 'Harrying of The North' series of historical fiction stories that are set in the northern dales and Cumbria in the decades after 1070.

[Sb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admirable effort to show the other side of the Norman conquest

This book is an admirable effort to displace the Conquest as a great event. As the author acknowledges, this is seminal and not definitive: far more research could and should be done But bravo to him for showing the other side of history. More historians should challenge the dominant narrative in this way.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have struggled with this book. It is full of amazing facts and great detail of the constant rebellions faced my King William however I felt so much focused on Hereward the wake. I wanted more information on other characters. Maybe that's my issue. An important book if you are studying Normans.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

IF you want to know what happened in England between 1066-1080, this is your book. Just... don't read it while tired.

[Chance Tolman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this time in history and this account of the end of Anglo-Saxon England is fun and informative.

[Gayla Bassham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of good information here, but the book was poorly organized and didn't really live up to its potential.

[Eileen Brasington · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating snapshot of English history, and Rex has decoded the sources to tell that tale.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looks at the 5 years following 1066 and all that, when William the Conqueror faced off against the remnants of Anglo-Saxon nationalism. This is a period I know very little about, so this book added somewhat to my store. However the writing is frequently muddled and frankly rather poor in places, and while there is undoubted knowledge in the author, he struggles to get it out in a coherent fashion. Rated G. 2.5/5

[Regan Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great history book by this author. Well-written, easily understandable yet steeped in deep research. I've used it in researching my own books.

[Thomas Ayre · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the face of it, it should be a really interesting read. But the writing style made it painful to read.

[George Foord · Rating 3 out of 5]

the book takes 100 pages to get into the main subject and even it's storytelling is fair but it does have sone interesting facts