What did William do after the Battle of Hastings?

Answer 1

Have himself crowned king. Michael Montagne

built loads of motte and bailey castles and killed the british.

William set up his tent at the site where Harold had died (his body was contained within a heap of corpses) and gave thanks to God for his victory. William then spent the night on the battle field. Some Norman soldiers did pursue the routing remains of the English army but were killed in an ambush at Malfosse.

The next day the Normans buried their dead but left the English scattered in the open. The wife of Harold II came to identify his body to end any rumours that he had escaped (although these rumours persisted). Harold's body was then buried.

The stragglers of the English army made it to London where they informed Archbishop Stigand and the Witan that they had been defeated. The Witan proceeded to select Edgar the Ætheling, the great nephew of Edward the Confessor, to reign as King Edgar II of England (he was only 15). Meanwhile the Norman army waited at Hastings for the English lords to submit...which they didn't do. A peeved William then marched on Kent ravaging the countryside as he went forcing Romney and Dover Castle to surrender. He then took Canterbury after the Men of Kent made a deal with him. William got dysentery in Canterbury and nearly died. If he had things would be very different.

Some weeks later William recovered and marched on London but was blocked at London Bridge by the townsfolk led by Edgar II (the northern earls, Edwin and Morcar who could have defeated William had left London and returned home). A frustrated William then burnt Southwark and proceeded to march on Winchester, which promptly surrendered. There he captured Queen Edith (the wife of Edward the Confessor, the king before King Harold II) and the royal treasury. Reinforcements from Normandy arrived. After this William crossed the Thames at Wallingford and was met by Archbishop Stigand who pledged him his allegiance.

Next, William marched to Berkhamstead in Hertfordshire destroying everything along the way. London became full of desperate refugees. William eventually placed London under siege and captured Winchester Abbey and the Great Hall.

Edgar went to meet William to discuss terms but was handed over by his own side to avert further bloodshed. William ordered fortifications to be built and then made a base at Barking. On Christmas Day he was crowned King William I of England.

William left England leaving administrators in his place and triumphantly returned to Normandy with Edgar as his captive. In 1067 William returned to England but Edgar (who was with him) managed to escape and fled to Scotland where he went on to lead a revolt in the north of England against the Normans until 1075 when he came to terms with William and was sent back to Normandy.

William almost conquered Wales and later commissioned the Domesday Book (completed in 1086). He then fell off his horse and died in 1087. Edgar the Ætheling, who was king for two months in 1066, would go on to live a long and glorious life as a crusader, eventually dying in England in 1126. Almost all the other English lords were dispossessed or murdered.

Answer 2

He arranged to have himself crowned King of England on Christmas day 1066, and then proceeded to gain control of all the outlying districts of England until in 1070 he had total control of the whole country.