those who had not
resisted were regarded as having legally forfeited their title and had
to submit to a re-grant on less advantageous terms. In March, 1067,
William returned to Normandy, taking with him as hostages the Earls
Eadwine, Morkere, and Waltheof.

The revolts which broke out in the north and southwest compelled him
to return to England in December. Early in 1068 he marched on Exeter,
as the centre of the western revolt. He took the town and built a
castle, after which he subdued Cornwall, and then marching northward
forced Bristol to submit. In the summer of 1068 there was a general
rising of the North, of which Eadgar was the nominal head; but Eadwine
and Morkere were the moving spirits. The insurgents were aided by
Malcolm, King of Scotland. William had, however, only to show himself
in order to put down the insurrection. He journeyed northward, by way
of Warwick and Nottingham, to York, received the submission of
Eadwine, Morkere, and Malcolm, and returned by way of Lincoln and
Cambridge. His march was accompanied by heavy confiscations, and great
castles, rising in places of vantage, rendered the Norman power at
once visible and secure.

In the spring of 1069 a fresh revolt broke out. Robert of Comines, the
newly appointed Earl of Northumberland, was slain at Durham; a Danish
fleet entered the Humber, and a Danish army, joined by Eadgar and
Waltheof, seized and burned York. The sons of Harold attacked Devon,
while other isolated outbreaks took place in the west. These were
speedily put down by William's lieutenants; and in the autumn the king
himself, going northward a second time, recovered York, and harried
Northumberland with ruthless deliberation. Returning to keep Christmas
at York, he set out again in January, 1070, to oppose Malcolm, who had
crossed the border in aid of the insurgents. He forced Waltheof to
submit, and drove the Scottish king back into his own country; then,
marching over pathless fells in the depth of winter, he reached
Chester, took the town, and founded another castle.

[Illustration: William at Hastings.]

Northumbria, exhausted and ruined, gave up the struggle, and the
omission of the northern counties from the Domesday survey throws a
grim light on the completeness of the Conquest. In one district only,
the fens of Cambridgeshire, where Hereward still held out, the spirit
of resistance survived. In April, 1071, William arrived at Cambridge
and commenced a regular blockad