1000 Years Ago
The end of the so called Dark Ages and the commencement of the Medieval period or Middle
Ages. (1066 to 1485)All the Kings are speaking French and are ruling simultaneously in
England, parts of France (and Ireland).
1000 years ago saw an end of rule by Saxon and Viking Kings and the commencement of rule by
Normans. Normans came from Normandy in France and spoke French, not English but in
essence they were also Vikings who had settled there two hundred years previously, that is at the
same time as they started settling in England.
The Norman Kings
William the Conqueror invaded in 1066 a date known to every pupil at school. William ruled
through a network of friends (Barons) that he enticed into England from France. Each was
recommended to build a castle in a strategic location for his own area and had the vital task of
collecting taxes. William himself also built a castle in London now called the Tower of London.
English kings were resident in this fortress/palace for almost 500 years. (Until Henry 7th.)
William should also be remembered for the Domesday Book. William being new to England
wanted an audit (a count) of the assets he now owned so that he could calculate how much he
could raise in taxes from his new subjects. The Domesday book which still exists showed
England as 65% farmland and about 15% woodland and listed 13,000 human settlements.
William can be remembered for encouraging the financially astute Jews to settle in England from
France to help boost the economy. Jews at that time were well ahead with schooling, science and
mathematics and most importantly were not forbidden by their religion to lend money to finance
a new trade.
There followed a succession of Norman Kings none of them speaking English and all of them
also ruling in France. Not all of France as we know today but for example in the reign of Henry
2nd (1154 to 1189) his territory stretched from the southern borders of Cumbria in the north of
England down to Tours some 1/3 of the way down modern France.
By 1172 with the help of his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine who came from the Bordeaux area
and one of his Baron henchmen Strongbow in Ireland, Henry 2nd was ruling land stretching from
the borders of Spain in the south all the way up through the fertile west coast of France across to
the fertile east coast of Ireland in the west. In Ireland this involved ousting the Vikings whose
largest overseas colony Dublin was still in their hands. England ruled Ireland (generally brutally)
for the next 850 years (until 1922).
During Henry's time he did not conquer and rule Wales or Cumbria in the north of England and
had no chance at all in subduing those superb fighting men in Scotland. The quality of life
improved in England during this period through increased trade and as Henry also reconstructed
and enforced a new and fairer legal system.
Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest Nottingham
There is no evidence that Robin Hood existed although the legend is so strong that it is thought
that somebody like him must have. He features in a series of songs circa 1300. The legend refers
to the time of Norman King Richard 1st 1189 - 1199 who during his 10 year reign was hardly
ever in England as he preferred wider "Crusading" duties organised by the Pope in Rome,
attempting to regain Jerusalem for Christians from the Arab Islamic Egyptian/Syrian rulers
notably Saladin. They failed. These Crusades cost a fortune and were financed by taxes collected
from ordinary country folk.
Robin Hood was the Gangster Hero who robbed the tax collectors and local Barons and returned
the money to the poor. Robin Hood and his followers are depicted as being extraordinarily good
with the English Long Bow. This part of the story rings true as the English were supreme with
this beautifully produced weapon for more than 250 years. (The Long Bow was a hand crafted
laminate of wood from various parts of the Yew tree.)
Normans[edit]
By the 9th century, the Normans had overrun England and begun the annexation of Wales.
St Osmund, bishop of Salisbury, codified the Sarum Rite and, by the time of his successor,
Roger, a system of endowed prebends had been developed that left ecclesiastical positions
independent of the bishop. Tolerance of commendatory benefices permitted the well-connected
to hold multiple offices simply for their spiritual and temporal revenues, subcontracting the
position's duties to lower clerics or simply treating them as sinecures. The importance of such
revenues prompted the Investiture Crisis, which erupted in Britain over the fight occasioned by
King John's refusal to accept Pope Innocent III's nominee as archbishop of Canterbury. England
was placed under interdict in 1208 and John excommunicated the following year; he enjoyed the
seizure of the church's revenues but finally relented owing to domestic and foreign rivals
strengthened by papal opposition.[15] Although John quickly reneged on his payments,[15]
Innocent thereafter took his side and roundly condemned the Magna Carta, calling it "not only
shameful and demeaning but illegal and unjust".[16] A major reform movement or heresy of the
14th century was Lollardy, led by John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English.
Posthumously condemned, his body was exhumed and burnt and its ashes thrown into the River
Swift.
Even before the Conquest, Edward the Confessor had returned from Normandy with masons who
constructed Westminster Abbey (1042) in the Romanesque style. The cruciform churches of
Norman architecture often had deep chancels and a square crossing tower, which has remained a
feature of English ecclesiastical architecture. England has many early cathedrals, most notably
York Minster (1080), Durham Cathedral (1093), and (New) Salisbury Cathedral (1220). After a
fire damaged Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, Norman masons introduced the Gothic style, which
developed into the English Gothic at Wells and Lincoln Cathedrals around 1191. Oxford and
Cambridge began as religious schools in the 11th and 13th centuries, respectively.
