We learn from the "History of Northumbria," that Edwin, Earl of Mercia,
brother to the Northumbrian Earl Morcar, was promised one of the
daughters of William as his bride; and, blinded by this promise, he was
induced to render important services to William at this critical
juncture. A little time, however, passed away, in which William and
the south-western Saxons, coming to open war, and the Norman arms being
victorious, William refused to give the promised bride to Earl Edwin,
and accompanied the refusal with insult to the suitor. Fired with
indignation, both of the young Saxon nobles departed immediately for
Northumbria, and joined heart and hand with their countrymen against
the foreigners.

Terrible battles were fought, in one of which the Saxons slew three
thousand of the Normans at York, for which the infuriated William
punished Northumbria with a horrible slaughter. "From York to Durham
not an inhabited village remained; fire, slaughter, and desolation,
made a vast wilderness there. . . . . From Durham right on to Hexham,
from the banks of the winding Wear to those of the Tyne, Jarrow,
Monkchester, with all the dwellings, homesteads, and happy places, were
deluged with the people's blood; even the monasteries and religious
houses shared the same fate as the common dwellings."

William Rufus was not liked better in Northumbria than his father had
been, and Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, had especial reason to
dislike him, on account of his appropriation of the forest lands. He
was a powerful chief, possessing two hundred and eighty manors, but he
did not attend the Court. This displeased William, who sent forth a
decree that every baron who did not attend the festival at Whitsuntide
should be outlawed. The Earl paid no attention to this; and as he was
engaged with other nobles in a conspiracy to dethrone William, the
monarch brought his army into Northumbria, besieged and took the
fortress at Newcastle, went on to Tynemouth, and then to Bamborough
Castle, to which the Earl had escaped. This castle was impregnable,
but the Earl was decoyed from it, and after going again to Tynemouth,
he was wounded and taken prisoner. But William coveted the Castle of
Bamborough, which was still held by the wife of the Earl. He, Mowbray,
was taken to an eminence in front of the castle, while the Normans
demanded parley with the Countess. She, to save her husband from
having his eyes put out before her face, sur