give lands in somewhat the same fashion to their thanes or immediate followers.
3. Risings Against the Normans.—It took William more than three years to become master of all England. Shortly after his coronation he had to return to Normandy, and while he was absent the English in the West and North, aided by the Scots and Danes, rose against their oppressors. A massacre of Normans took place at York, and William hastened to take a terrible revenge. York was retaken from the English, and then William, to put a barrier between himself and the Scots, laid desolate the whole country between York and Durham. Everything was destroyed—towns, villages, crops, and cattle—and the poor inhabitants were left to starve, or were driven into Scotland. More than 100,000 innocent people lost their lives, and the land ceased to be cultivated for many years.
The only persons who now held out against William were a few hundred English outlaws under the leadership of Morkere and Hereward-the-Wake. This brave little band of patriots for nearly a year kept William at bay, by taking refuge in the Isle of Ely, where they were protected from attack by streams and fens. But in 1071 William built a causeway across the Fen, and the patriots were either killed, scattered, or forced to make their submission.
4. New Forest and Domesday Book.—There was now a forced peace in the land, and William made many changes, some of which were good, and some very bad. Among many cruel things which William did the worst was the laying waste of 90,000 acres of land in Hampshire to make a forest in which he could keep game and hunt. Much of this land was barren, but some of it was fertile, and the poor people living on it were driven out. William loved the “high deer,” and any man found killing his game was sentenced to have his eyes put out. To William a deer was more valuable than a man.
Another change of a different kind was the surveying of all England to find out how much land was cultivated, and how much forest, bog, and fen. In this way William was able to tell what taxes each person should pay. All these facts were written in a
