Historic%20Yorkshire

86
THE STORY OF YORK CASTLE.
and yet the North of England was unsubdued. Then,
1068, William, fearing the result of the increasingopposition
if unchecked, put Robert, Earl of Northumbria, in
Durham with 700 men. His oppressive conduct caused
the smouldering embers of revolt to kindle into a flame;
the peoplerose and massacredhim with allhis Normans.
The Northumbrian forcesthen marched upon York,where
they werejoinedby Earl Morcar. But the conqueror, by
proceeding northward with great rapidity, defeated their
projects, and seeing that resistance was useless, they
surrendered themselves and the cityinto his hands, and
the city was apparently received by him into great favour,
with, however, certain reservations of his opinion, which
was clearly evinced by his preventative measures for the
future. He at once set about erectinga castleto overlook
and control the disaffected city. He selected as the site
an elevation whose position suggested that it had been
used for a like purposein earlier days. This was on the
ground which ran peninsula-wise between the Ouse and
the Foss, on the heights upon which now stands the
erection known as Clifford's Tower. This was on the
left bank of the Ouse, but held to be within the bounds of
the city, and was probably on the identical spot where
stood the castle razed by Athelstan. A guard of 500
picked knights was appointed under Robert Fitz-Richard
Gilbert of Ghent and William Malet, the latterof which
was made sheriff. Another castle was erected on the
right bank the followingyear. In the Septemberof1069,
the Danes, under Osborn, brother of the Danish king,
with two sons of Harold, and the English under Earl
Waltheof, the son of Siward,Earl of Northumbria,sailed
up the Humber, and thence up the Ouse, for the purpose
of making an attack upon York. Malet, who seems to
have taken the chief commandof the city,probably very
much underjudged the strength of the assailants, who
must have had a really considerable force of English,
Scots, and Danes. The preparations whichMalet made
were eventuallyhis greatest disadvantage,for in order to