The North Laid Waste
Those who are sceptical about "the harrying of the north" are doubting the medieval chroniclers. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entries for 1069 and 1070; Orderic Vitalis in Books IV and VII on what he thought was the darkest of the Conqueror's crimes; John of Worcester on the ravages of the Normans in the winter of 1069-70 and the severity of the famine that followed; the appalling detail of Simeon of Durham 's local reports; and the cool assessment by William of Malmesbury ; are virtually unanimous in their despair. The damage inflicted on Yorkshire and Northumbria would take generations to repair. THE HONOUR OF RICHMOND Sometime between the horrific winter slaughter of inhabitants and the death of their former earls Morcar and Eadwine, King William I transferred most of the the north of England to his "French" barons. One of these new "tenants-in-chief" was Alan the Red from Brittany, who received a large parcel of consolidated lands in North Yor