Succession Crisis
Tostig and Northumbria - answer these questions in your own words
Why was Northumbria an obvious target for Viking invasions?
Why did people in the Danelaw pay lower tax rates than others?
Why was Northumbria an important earldom?
What was the 'trigger' for the rising in 1065?`
When had Tostig Godwinson become Earl of Northumbria?
After the death of Earl Siward, Tostig Godwinson became the Earl of Northumbria in 1055.
Northumbria was an important earldom because it was very large, it guarded the border with Scotland and had a long association with the Vikings.
The Godwin Family
Summarise the power of the Godwin family in these three categories
Military
Political
Economic
The Godwin's had made political marriages: Edith Godwin to King Edward, Harold to the wife of Llewelyn and to Edith the Fair of Mercia, Tostig to Judith of Flanders. The Danelaw permitted a man to have two wives, though some historians say Edith the Fair was Harold's mistress, not his wife.
The only significant rival to the Godwin's left in England by the 1060's was Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia. The Godwin's were lords to many hundreds of thegns, making them powerful war-leaders.
Extensive landholdings made the Godwin's very rich: almost equal to the king in wealth.
How much power did the Godwin family have? Explain your answer
What was the biggest cause of the uprising in Northumbria against Tostig? Rank the cause 1-5. 1= most important 5 = least important. Add a reason for your decisions.
Research the following and summarize each point in your own words
Causes of 1065 rebellion
Consequences of rebellion
Cause 3:
Cause 4:
Cause 2:
Cause 5:
Cause 1:
Tostig taxed Northumbria too heavily. Danelaw areas were not used to heavy taxation, so the Northumbrians resented this greatly.
Rank
Reason
Tostig had ordered the assassination of high-born Northumbrian rivals while they were his guests.
Rank
Reason
Tostig had been unjust, imposing new laws (from the south) and abusing his power to get rid of his rivals. Tostig's enemies complained that he falsely accused people of crimes in order to take money and land form them.
Rank
Reason
Tostig's friendships with Malcolm III, King of Scotland, meant he didn't defend Northumbria from Scottish attacks. while Tostig was away in 1061, Malcolm invaded and caused much destruction. Tostig didn't retaliate, instead he agreed peace terms.
Rank
Reason
Tostig was a southerner. Northumbrian had always been governed by the Northerners. The Anglo-Saxon kings had generally left the north to govern itself.
Rank
Reason
Northumbria was an obvious target for Viking invasions because it was had had a long association with the Vikings, and was a long way away from the powerbase of the Anglo-Saxon king in the south.
Because the geld tax had originally been used to pay Vikings no to attack England, the northern Danegeld regions paid taxes at a much lower rate than other parts of the country.
The rising of 1065 began with rebels marching on York, the city from which Northumbria was governed. There, the rebels killed as many of Tostig's housecarls and servants as they could find, and declared Tostig an outlaw. They invited Morcar, the brother of the Earl of Mercia to be king instead of Tostig.
Laws and Danelaw
Taxation
Tostig's background
Malcolm of Scotland
Tostig's reaction
Why Harold dealt with it like that.
Powers of the king
How Harold dealt with it.
It was very significant that the earls, led by Harold, failed to obey the King Edward's command. Earls were bound by oaths of loyalty to their king and they were supposed to act as his military leaders.
The refusal to lead an army against the rebels therefore shows that the power of the king could sometimes be challenged: if the king was weak and if it was in the interests of all the major earls act together.
When Tostig became Earl of Northumbria in 1055 he raised the tax the Northumbrians had to pay. This called much resentment and hatred for Tostig, especially in the Danelaw regions, because they were used to paying lower taxes compared to everybody else, this is because the geld tax had originally been used to pay Vikings not to attack England.
4
I ranked this as 4 because it is not the least or the most important but it is less important than the middle one.
2
I ranked this as a 2 because it is very important thing to remember what a terrible thing he did, but there are more important things to think about.
1
I think this is the most important because an earl should not act like that and it would just make more people dis-like him because of what he has done to other people.
3
I ranked this at a 3 because it is in the middle of both. He should have been defending Northumbria whether he had a good relationship with the King of Scotland or not.
5
I thought this would be the least important because it doesn't really tell you much about what Tostig did himself. It is just a fact.
King Edward held a conference to decide what to do about the rising. The outcome was surprising. Instead of raising an army to march north and defeat the rebels, Harold instead met with them and passed on King Edward's agreement to their terms.
Harold, like the king's other advisers, agreed that Tostig had pushed Northumbria too far: Tostig was to blame for the rising.
Furious that Harold had not backed him, Tostig angrily accused Harold of having conspired against him, saying that rising was a plot to replace him.
Because Tostig had a relationship with Malcolm III, King of Scotland, he thought that he wouldn't have to stay in Northumbria and defend it from Scottish attacks. So when he did leave Northumbria unguarded, Malcom invaded and caused much destruction.
Because Tostig came from down south they had a lot of different laws and regulations to abide by. This is why Tostig made such bad mistakes, such as the raise in tax for the Northumbrians.
The Danelaw and the general law were different, this made it very hard for Tostig to remember and not to punish the wrong people for the wrong thing. Danelaw had it's similarities and it's differences, somethings meant the same thing but just had a different name, for example: the hundred was called wapentake and a hide was called a carucate.