While William's victory at Hastings in 1066 created a significant reconfiguration of Anglo-Saxon religious tradition, that tradition was by no means totally broken with. Undoubtedly, William cut a punitive swathe through both English landscape and institutions over a period of months and years, placing Normans in positions of power throughout the country; the desolation that he and his army left behind is well-documented. Nevertheless, the Normans had a huge investment in legitimizing William's claim to the Anglo-Saxon throne; if William wished to rule as Edward's rightful heir, he needed the co-operation of both ecclesiastical and secular leaders in England. William replaced key positions selectively, and perhaps more benignly than tradition has held: Stenton tells us that William ‘made a serious attempt to govern England through men who had held high office in King Edward's day’. In particular, the new Norman rulers of England skilfully retained the native religious tradition and put it to work towards their own purposes. William maintained a relatively conciliatory attitude toward the English ecclesiastical hierarchy, at least in the first few years following the Conquest; Gibson writes that ‘[William's] principle is clear. The only bishops who were deposed were those involved in the recent revolts; otherwise William was content to wait for the death of an incumbent and then replace him with his own candidate’. She asserts that, at least at first, the Anglo-Saxon establishment accepted William, seeing, according to Stenton, little to be gained by overt disobedience.