Oh là là, the Harrying of le North was a très brutal campaign zis William the Conqueror conducted in the winter of 1069‑1070, oui. Ze northern counties of England—Northumbria and Yorkshire—had rebelled, encouraged by Edgar Ætheling and ze Danes et Scots. William paid off ze Danes to leave, but ze remaining rebels refused to fight. So what did ze King do? He decided to starve them out, non? He sent his Norman troops to burn le crops, homes, livestock—everything! Orderic Vitalis writes zat he ‘made no effort to restrain his fury… brought together all crops and herds and burned them to ashes’—so zat ze inhabitants north of ze Humber had no food at all.
historyextra.com
Ze outcome was horrific: possibly tens of thousands died of famine, maybe up to 100,000 according to medieval accounts. Entire villages vanished, people reportedly resorted to eating dogs, cats—even human flesh—and some sold themselves into slavery to survive.
By ze time of Domesday in 1086, up to one-third—or more—of Yorkshire was listed as 'waste', meaning uncultivated and uninhabited. Norman aristocrats had replaced Anglo-Saxon lords, and ze conquest of ze North was complete. Recovery took decades.
Et voilà, c’est l’Histoire: William demonstrated ruthless authority and permanently changed le North of England, leaving un traumatised memory among ze people. Sacré guerre, sacré roi!”