Orderic Vitalis wrote a series of accounts of William I and the Conquest. He was firmly pro-Norman, but even he was appalled at the level of human suffering  as as result of William’s Harrowing of the North in 1069-70. He wrote,

In consequence so serious a scarcity

was felt in England and so terrible a

famine fell upon the humble and

defenceless populace that more than

100,000 Christian folk of both sexes,

young and old alike, perished of

hunger. My narrative has frequently had

occasion to praise William, but for this

act which condemned the innocent and

guilty alike to die by slow starvation I

cannot commend him. …l am so moved

to pity that I would rather lament the

griefs and sufferings of the wretched

people than make a vain attempt to flatter

the perpetrator of such infamy.