The Pope and the Norman Invasion
Pope Alexander II's Role in the Conquest of England
Jul 22, 2008 John Edward Fahey
Papal interference with secular affairs was a common occurrence during the Middle Ages. Pope Alexander II played a significant role in one of the most important events in English history-William the Conqueror’s invasion of England in 1066. The support of the Pope gave William a moral imperative he would not have had otherwise, making it possible to build his army and robbing King Harold of his will to fight.
William’s legal right to the English throne was questionable at best. He accused King Harold of, among other things, murdering King Alfred (Harold would have been ten years old at the time of the murder) and usurping the English crown (Harold was, in fact, chosen by the Witan gemoot, in accordance with English law at the time). The dubious claims of William, combined with the poor chances of success made it extremely difficult for William to build an army, or transport fleet, capable of subduing England. Surrounding noblemen even made plans to invade Normandy while William was gone.[1]
Lanfranc of Bec was key in attaining papal sanction for the invasion. Lanfranc was a brilliant scholar who rose to become prior of Bec only three years after entering the monastery. One of Lanfranc’s students at Bec was Anselm who later became bishop of Lucca and in 1066 sat as Pope Alexander II. Soon after William decided to invade England, Lanfranc sent an emissary to Rome to ask the Church to support the invasion. Lanfranc’s emissary focused on the deplorable state of the English church and promised that victory by William would enable an extensive reform of the church. Despite the lack of English representation at Rome, Pope Alexander declared that William’s invasion was a legitimate crusade, and gave Lanfranc’s emessary a papal banner and a ring bearing a hair of St. Peter.[2] Alexander also excommunicated Harold.
Once Gilbert was successful in obtaining the Pope’s sanction, the situation immediately changed. William was then able to raise the large amounts of soldiers necessary. William of Poitiers describes the soldiers who poured in from outside of Normandy who “arrived to offer their help, partially motivated by the famed generosity of the duke, but all fully confident in the justice of his cause.”[3] Regardless of William of Poitiers’ kindly description of Duke William and his army, papal sanction for an invasion greatly increased the probability of the venture’s success. Mercenaries are much more interested in the profitability of a venture, and likelihood of survival, than in its justice. The size of William’s army at Hastings was a direct result of papal support for the invasion.
Just as importantly, the Pope’s decision to excommunicate Harold came as a complete shock to him, and decisively broke his self confidence and reduced him to a less than effective leader. Harold was probably informed of the excommunication a few days before the battle by a messenger from William. The Carmen describes Harold in a state of shock at the news of the invasion, and likely the excommunication, and saying “Tomorrow with the Lord as arbiter of the kingdom, the rightful claimant will appear. The holy hand of the Lord will deal justly.”[4]
Harold fought at the Battle of Hastings as a disinterested observer. There is no indication that he made any command decisions or led his soldiers in any way after making the initial deployments on 14 October 1066. In the weeks previous, he had marched his men over 500 miles, defeated a Viking invasion and displayed dynamic leadership that was not present at Hastings. It is likely that his excommunication robbed him of his will to act.
In legitimizing William’s attempts to build an army, and simply by destroying Harold’s ability to lead, Pope Alexander II made a significant, perhaps decisive, contribution to the success of the Norman invasion.
[1] Benton Rain Patterson, Harold and William: The Battle for England A.D. 1064-1066 (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001), 92-93.
[2] Benton Rain Patterson, Harold and William: The Battle for England A.D. 1064-1066 (New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001), 87-90. While generally accepted, a few scholars have tried to argue that the Pope didn’t really send a banner. Catherine Morton in “Pope Alexander II and the Norman Conquest,” Latomus: Revue d’etudes latines,” xxxiv (1975), 362-82 is the chief proponent of this view. David Bates in points to the good relations between the reform popes and William the Conqueror and allusions to the effect in some of Gregory VII’s writings to support the traditional view. See: David Bates, Normandy Before 1066 (New York: Longman Inc., 1982), 202, 230-231.
[3] William of Poitiers, “Gesta Willelmi” in The Battle of Hastings: Sources and Interpretations, ed. Stephen Morillo (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1996), 7.
[4] Bishop Guy of Amiens, The Carmen De Hastingae Porelio of Guy Bishop of Amiens, trans. and ed. Catherine Morton and Hope Muntz (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1972), 21.
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