After Ralph de Gael fled to Brittany following his defeat at Fagadun, his wife Emma held Norwich Castle for several months against Archbishop Lanfranc's besieging forces. The siege was notable for the determined defence mounted by a female commander and for Lanfranc's management of the English counter-revolt in William's absence in Normandy. The eventual surrender ended East Anglian resistance to the Conquest and earned Emma honourable terms to join her husband.
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