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The poor often hated their Norman rulers and, in the early years of King William I’s rule, there were several rebellions which were put down violently.

The Anglo-Danish lords who had lost their land and property to William's Norman lords posed a threat to William's rule. Some of them joined King Sweyn of Denmark when he invaded England in 1069, without success. In what is known as the Harrying of the North, William’s forces destroyed the countryside around York, starving out the remaining rebels, killing animals and burning crops.

When a landholder called Hereward led a rebellion in the Isle of Ely in eastern England, the Normans dealt with the uprising by using a law called murdrum. If a Norman was murdered and the killer was not found, everyone in the area had to pay a fine.

Although Hereward and other forest fighters, known at the time as the ‘green men’, caused difficulties for the Normans, they were eventually defeated.

The Norman lords successfully imposed their rule on England. The main threat to Norman kings would be their own relatives and other lords who challenged their position. Over the centuries there were many battles for power which resulted in civil wars.