ABSTRACT
On leaving England in March 1067, William took with him Archbishop Stigand, Edgar aetheling, and Earls Edwin, Morcar and Waltheof. These men had been allowed to keep their lands, but they were the obvious focal points for English resistance. They were also spoils of victory, and William displayed them along with his other looted treasures when he processed solemnly and victoriously through Rouen and Fécamp on his return to his duchy. Whilst the king was away from England, his halfbrother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, was left in charge at Dover, and another of his closest followers, William FitzOsbern, oversaw affairs from Winchester. William of Poitiers’ view was that Odo and FitzOsbern ‘laudably performed their respective stewardships in the kingdom . . . But neither fear nor favour could so subdue the English as to prefer peace and tranquillity to rebellions and disorders.’ Orderic Vitalis, by contrast, blamed the growing English discontent of 1067 on Odo’s and William’s shoulders, and on other oppressive lords who ignored royal orders.2
