Ancient_and_modern_York_a_guide

MODERN YORK. 15
bore the message, " Would Harold make any grant of
land to Harfager ?" " Seven feet of land for a grave."
" Hide back again," exclaimed Tostig, " and desire King
Harold to gird himself for the fight." The armies met at
Stamford Bridge ; when, after a bloody struggle, Harfager
and Tostig were slain, and their troops, nearly to a man,
cut to pieces. Harold returned in triumph to York, and
while seated at a royal banquet, here received the disasterous
news that William of Normandy had landed on the
Susses coast. He hastened to the south, and fell, together
with the power of the Anglo-Saxons, at the battle of
Hastings.
York was now destined to endure new calamities. Earl
Morcar instigated the citizens to resist the Normans.
But the insurrection had only the effect of inducing the
conqueror to order the erection of two fortified castles in
this city ; the one on Baile Hill, the other Clifford's
Tower, which still stands. The sons of Harold, in Sep
tember, 1069, aided by the Danes, sailed up the Humber
with 250 ships ; and advanced towards York. The city
was defended by the Norman garrison ; who, to admit of a
better defence, fired the suburbs. The flames, however,
spread, and both "the holyMinster of St. Peter," the library,
and several fine buildings were burnt or greatly injured.
The Danes, in the confusion, entered and slew the whole of
the Normans. William exasperated by these events, went
northward, as the Saxon Chronicle relates, " with all the
force he could collect, despoiling and laying waste the
shire withal." The city, commanded by Waltheof, the
son of the Earl Siward, resisted William for six months ;
and so maddened was he at the stand made against him
in this district, that, William of Malmesbury, who lived
60 years after the events, assures us, in the exaggerating
style of the time, " From York to Durham not an inha
bited village remained ; for slaughter and desolation made
it a vast wilderness ; which," he added, " continued to
his day." Some historians say, that William utterly