HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY 37 



of the name York itself. To the Danish conquest we probably owe 

 the civil division of Yorkshire into the three Ridings, with York, the seat 

 of the Danish jarl, at the point where they meet. It is interesting to notice, 

 however — a point which has been generally overlooked — that until within 

 the last hundred years the wapentake of Ouse and Derwent in the East 

 Riding, which lies south of York between the two rivers, was included for 

 ecclesiastical purposes with the parishes of the North Riding archdeaconry 

 of Cleveland. Although there is no evidence for the division of the 

 diocese of York into archdeaconries before the Norman Conquest, yet 

 the archdeaconries, when they came, followed the civil limits of the 

 Ridings pretty closely ; and this exception seems to point to an early 

 arrangement by which the North Riding originally extended further 

 south. 



In the events of the Norman Conquest York played a conspicuous part. 

 While the Conqueror was preparing for his invasion of England, Harold's 

 brother, Tostig, who had been dispossessed of his earldom of Northumbria, 

 joined with the Norwegian king Harold Hardrada in an attack upon York 

 from the Humber. The brother earls Edwin and Morcar were defeated 

 by the invaders at Fulford on the outskirts of the city, and the imminent 

 danger of York compelled Harold to abandon his preparations for defence 

 in the south and march in haste northward. He entered York from the 

 west and won a victory over the Northmen at Stamford Bridge, on the 

 Derwent, where Harold Hardrada fell. But this swift campaign enabled 

 William to land in England unopposed, and, a fortnight after Stamford 

 Bridge, Harold, unable to recover lost ground with a tired and straggling 

 army, was defeated and slain at Hastings. 



During the three years that followed, York was the danger point of the 

 North of England to the foreign conqueror. The Anglo-Danish popula- 

 tion of the city, so recently saved from one invader, now prepared to resist 

 another and uphold the claims of the English prince, Edgar the TEtheling, 

 to the throne. In 1068 William came from the siege of Exeter to York 

 and quelled the revolt temporarily. But the garrisons of the castles 

 which he founded on either bank of the Ouse were unable to hold them 

 in his absence against the rebels, who allied themselves with a band of 

 Danish marauders. York was set on fire by the Norman soldiers, and for 

 the slaughter which ensued William took condign vengeance by laying 

 waste the whole country from York to the Tees and Tyne. It was long 

 before Yorkshire recovered from this visitation, and the extent of William's 

 punitive operations is seen in the record of wasted land which, sixteen 

 years later, appeared in Domesday Book. 



The foundation of castles at York was part of the strategic plan by 

 which the Conqueror imposed his dominion upon his English subjects. 

 The castle, the symbol of feudal lordship, was imported into England from 

 Normandy, and was intended at once to protect and to overawe the town 

 in its vicinity. Castles of earthwork with timber defences rose in the 

 neighbourhood of towns, especially at the crossings of rivers, which had 

 come into importance during the Danish wars. At York, William's 

 first castle, the mound of which remains close to Skeldergate Bridge, 

 was founded on the right bank of the river ; but shortly afterwards was 



