AthelingThe Danes and the north take York
Sweyn’s fleet in the Humber joins Edgar, Waltheof, and the Northumbrians against the Norman garrison.
What the record says
The garrison fired the city to deny cover to the attackers and was overwhelmed. It was the most dangerous moment of the reign: a foreign fleet, a native claimant, and a rising province acting together.
Certainty
| Fact | Value | Certainty |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 20 September 1069 | Exact |
| How sure we are | High | Of this record as a whole |
People
Related events
- The harrying of the north
William winters in Yorkshire and destroys the means of life across the north.
- Papal legates depose Stigand
The council at Winchester strips the old archbishop of Canterbury and Winchester.
- Robert de Comines is burned at Durham
The new Norman earl of Northumbria dies with his men in a single night.
- Lanfranc becomes archbishop
The abbot of Caen takes Canterbury and begins remaking the English church.
- Edgar flees to Scotland
The ætheling leaves court with his mother and sisters and finds shelter with Malcolm.
Sources
Where this is recorded
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Avalon Project)
- Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, trans. Thomas Forester
- Symeon of Durham, Historia Regum, in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia, ed. Thomas Arnold, Rolls Series, 1882 to 1885
- The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, trans. Thomas Forester
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