History

8.1
Prince Edgar was the king's nearest blood relative, He was Edward's nephew's
son. On his deathbed he named Harold Godwin, Earl of Wessex as the new king. The
leading Saxon nobles Rathered in the Witan, the king's council, and agreed the
king's choice. Harold had been the leader of the king's army.He had already stopped
an invasion by the King of Wales in 1063.Harold made a sacred oath to Duke
William, But Duke William of Normandy was angry. He had visited England in 1051
and he said that King Edward had promised him the throne. Also, Harold had been
shipwrecked and captured in Normandy in 1064. Hardrada said that, if there was no
obvious successor, then the next king should be a Viking like him.Hardrada had the
support of a large army and of Harold Godwin's brother Tostig.Hardrada was first to
invade. On 18 September 1066 he landed in the Humber Estuary with a fleet of 300
ships. King Harold's earls in the north were Morcar, Earl of Mercia, and his brother
Edwin, Earl of Northumbria. The English army was defeated at the Battle of Fulford
on 20 September.
Hardrada controlled the north. King Harold hurried north with his housecarls, a
highly trained guarda espallas bodyguard. King Harold had defeated one enemy.

8.2
He had 696 ships and about 7,000 soldiers, including many archers and
horsemen. The crossing was risky so late into the year Bad weather could have
wrecked the fleet. He quickly marched his army the 250 miles back to the south
coast. Harold arrived with about 7,000 soldiers too, but only about 2,000 of these
were his highly trained housecarls.He had few archers or horsemen. When darkness
fell on the evening of 13 October, the English army was still seven miles short of the
Normans. While the Saxons rested overnight, William's scouts found their position
and William prepared his army. Harold also prepared carefully.The Saxons defended
themselves behind a wall of shields at the top of the hill. By dusk, the Saxons were
in full retreat. Harold lay dead behind them. William was the Conqueror.

8.3
After the Battle of Hastings, William set out to conquer the rest of the country. He
marched towards Dover His men stole food, burned houses and killed any Saxons
who stood in their way. Prince Edgar, Earl Edwin and Earl Morcar came out and
surrendered to him at Berkhamsted. He was crowned William I on Christmas Day
1066.Saxon resistance But it soon became clear that the Saxons would not like his
rule. The Saxons wanted their land back and they wanted a Saxon king, Prince
Edgar came back from exile in Scotland and led a rebellion. The Saxons burned to
the ground William's castle in York and massacred his soldiers. Then William
marched north and put down the rebellion.Even though Edgar escaped, William took
savage revenge . But still the Saxons fought against him. In the Fens of East
Anglia, Saxon rebels were led by Hereward the Wake. William twice failed to defeat
them with raids.

8.4
William would not be safe unless he could call on a large number of mounted
knights. One way of getting knights was to have them live as part of his
household. The problem was that William would then be responsible for feeding them
and providing all the equipment and horses the knights would use. Not even the king
could afford to pay for knights sitting around all the time when he didn't need an
army, just to make sure that he would have an army when he did need one.The feudal
system was the way that William and the later Norman kings solved this
problem. Because William had become king by conquering England, he was able to
claim that the whole country belonged to him. William kept a great deal of land
himself. The rest of the land was divided up among his followers.Each of William's
most important followers became a tenant-in- chief . This meant the man got his
land directly from the king. In return for land, each baron owed the king military
service. The baron would have to provide a number of knights to guard royal castles
for a set number of days each year.The baron would also have to provide knights for
40 days if William wished to raise an army and go to war. The tenants-in-chief could
raise the number of knights they owed the king either by having them live in their
household and paying for them, or by having sub-tenants. A sub-tenant was a knight
who in return for part of the baron's land would agree to be one of that baron's
knights for a set number of days in the year. As well as being used by the baron to
'pay his debts to the king, the knight would also be used to guard the baron's castle
and be part of his escort on important journeys.In 1086 King William ordered a survey
of all of his land. A picture of England The book shows a population of 1.5 10 2
million. This left the most wealthy 3 per cent, the king, his barons and the
church, holding 30 per cent of the land. Some parts of England seem to have been
prospering Over 6,000 flour mills are recorded.

8.5
The first castles which the Normans built and lived in were not the large stone
castles surviving today. The Normans built their first castles out of materials which
were easy to get, cheap and quick to use. So most early castles were made from
wood and earth. They are called motte and bailey castles. The motte was a big
mound of earth - a man-made hill. There are no motte and bailey castles left today.
Most were replaced by later stone-built castles. Weaknesses of motte and bailey
castlesSource D gives a clue about the most important weakness of a motte and
bailey castle when it was altacked. It was made from wood, so it could be set on fire.
There was usually only a small space on top of the motte. Because of these
weaknesses the Normans gradually replaced motte and bailey castles with stone-
built ones.

8.6
The Normans built some square keep castles when they first arrived in England. They
cost much more to build, and took much longer, so at first there were very few. They
were built to guard the most important places.When was time to replace the motte
and bailey castles, square keeps became much more common.Castles were made of
stone and that solve the problem of attack with fire.The secret of the square keep
castle was its wall., the walls of a square were as thick and strong as possible,
sometimes as thick as 7 metres.Castles were not just used for fighting. They had to
be lived in during peacetime. The most important primary sources for historians
studying square keep castles are the remains of the castles themselves.

9.1
They had to pay an extra tax , but the Muslims were usually tolerant towards them.
They allowed Christian pilgrims from Europe to visit the Holy Lands. Jerusalem was
the most holy city for Christians.How the Crusades beganPilgrims on their way to
Jerusalem were stopped and robbed. Then the Turks began to attack the Christians
who lived outside the Muslim Empire. So in 1095 Pope Urban II made a speech asking
all Christians to travel to the Holy Lands to capture Jerusalem and stop the spread of
Islam. Muhammad is said to have visited heaven from Jerusalem. The Muslims had
ruled the Holy Lands for 500 years, and to them the Crusaders were invaders violating
their holy places.

9.2
The first organized Crusade set out in 1096. It was led by a number of noblemen from
Europe: Godfrey of Bouillon and his younger brother Baldwin; Raymond of Toulouse;
Robert of Normandy ; and Bohemund from Sicily. Victory at JerusalemThe Muslims
were divided at this time. The caliph in Baghdad was weak. The Mustim world had
been split up among groups of Turks who fought against each other for land. There
was no strong ruler to oppose the invaders. Anyway, the Muslims' weapons were light
compared to those of the Crusaders. After their victory at Jerusalem, the Crusaders
captured large areas of the Holy Lands. Bohemund became leader in Antioch, Baldwin
in Edessa, Godfrey in Jerusalem and Raymond in Tripoli.But they only survived until
the Muslims found a leader strong enough to take back the land they believed was
theirs.

9.3
This was Salah ad-Din, known in the West as Saladin.Saladin regains JerusalemIn
1187, at the Battle of Hattin, Saladin defeated the entire army of the Franks . Saladin
let all of the people inside free for a small ransom. The fall of Jerusalem led to a Third
Crusade. It was led by King Philip I of France and King Richard I of England. In 1192
Richard made peace with Saladin. Jerusalem stayed in Muslim hands. There were
later Crusades, but none recovered Jerusalem.

9.4
Long before the Crusades started, the Muslims had been in contact with Christians
from Europe. They had conquered Spain in the 7th century. They had traded with the
Italians. The Muslims and their Greek neighbours in the Byzantine Empire had respect
for each other. But the Muslims knew little abour the people of northern Europe.
Learning from the EastBut during the Crusades the two sides mixed .The Christians
learned most. They marvelled at the foods, the silks and jewellery, the libraries, the
baths and the hospitals in the Muslim towns. They learned about medicine,
geography, mathematics and castle building. They took goods and knowledge back
home with them.

10.4
Winchester was an important town during the Middle Ages. In 1986 Winchester City
Council decided to build a new shopping centre on the site of the Brooks Car Park.
Medieval documents such as leases and court records suggested that there were
remains of houses underneath the car park. Before the shopping centre was built,
archaeologists were allowed to excavate the site on a large scale. Their findings
were very exciting.

10.5
Trade is the buying and selling of goods. During the Dark Ages there was hardly any
trade going on in Europe.During the Middle Ages trade and industry increased
because governments were stronger and the population increased.In England the
wool trade was very imporlant. In the lowns of England workers were organized into
guilds Traders sold their goods at weekly markets. Some towns were granted a
charter by the king which gave them permission to hold an annual fair.Merchants
gathered at these fairs from all over Europe to sell their goods. The most famous lairs
were lield at Boston, Winchester, Sturbridge and St Ives.

10.6
The most important thing in most peasants lives was the manor.This was the land
owned by the local landlord. It usually included a village, some farming land and the
lord's house or castle.The lord of the manor had special rights in law over the people
who lived on his land.Each manor had its own court where rules were enforced.The
steward organized the farming of the lord's land and kept records of what each
peasant owed for his or her land.The peasants who lived on a manor could not leave it
without their lord's permission. The peasants lived in a village which had farming land
around it. There were usually three fields for growing crops.Each field was divided up
into small strips which belonged to different people. The richer peasants had several
strips, the poorer peasants had only one or two. The lord of the manor had the most
strips, and these usually included the best land.If the same crops are grown on the
same land year after year; the yield gets poorer and poorer. To avoid this, the crops in
the three fields were rotated every year. One was used for wheat, a second was used
for barley, and the third was left fallow, with nothing growing on 1.All villagers were
allowed to keep animals on the common land, and also to collect fuel there.
Farming was hard physical work at the time. There was no source of power other
than muscle power, supplied either by animals or by people.

10.7
Religion played an important part in the lives of medieval people.Everyone attended
church on Sunday to listen to the service given by the local priestsThe life of a priest
was hard. They were often very poor: As well as carrying out their duties in church
they also acted as 'social workers'. They visted the old and the sick and gave alms to
the poor. Every parish priest had to farm the slebe (church) land and carry out repairs
to the church.People believed if they lived honest lives they would go to
heaven.People thought that sinners went to hell where they would suffer for their
sins. This is the reason why people attended church regularly to pray to God.
Everyone had to pay a tithe to the church.People who wanted to dedicate their lives
completely to God became monks or nuns. The monks prayed eight limes during the
day as well as carrying out other duties. Monasteries were mainly self-sufficient and
the lav brothers grew the food.
Monks were educated and spent many hours copying out religious books.

10.8
Medieval towns were not clean places.Few houses had piped water. Most people
relied on wells, standpipes in the street, water companies selling from carls or river
water. Houses were not clean.
Influenza, malaria, typhoid and smallpox were common infectious diseases. Skin
complaints like scabies, scrofula and impetigo were also common.Physicians were
scholars, whereas Surgeons were less skilled and often had other jobs, like barbers
or butchers.Only the rich could afford physicians.Doctors had various treatments
depending on what they thought caused the illness. Many surgeons got praclical
experience treating wounds in the army.By trial and error they found that old wine
and fresh egg whites helped wounds heal.They used opium to make their patients
sleep while they operated. Operations were always done in normal clothes in a
normal room. Hospitals were provided by the church or by charities. There may have
been 400 hospitals in Britain in 1200. Most people were trealed at home.

10.9
In the early Middle Ages, Scotland was ruled by its own kings and was a separate
country from England. In 1286 Alexander III was killed in a riding accident. The only
heir to the throne of Scotland was Margaret, his 3-year-old granddaughter. Margaret,
however, died almost immediately, leaving the throne vacant. The Scots asked
Edward I. King of England, to choose the new king from a list of several claimants. He
chose John Balliol but also said that the Scots had to accept the English king as their
overlord (protector). Balliol did not like following Edward's orders, so he rebelled. In
1296 Edward I went north and beat Balliol at Dunbar.. Edward Lannounced that he
was now the King of Scotland.
William Wallace led a revolt against the English but was beaten at the Battle of
Falkirk in 1298. In 1306 Robert Bruce claimed he was the rightful King of Scotland
and had himself crowned at Scone. In 1307 Edward I, who had become known as the
'hammer of the Scots', died. The new king, Edward II, was not interested in war, and
in seven years Bruce captured most of the Scottish
castles back from the English. Only Stirling remained in English hands. But
nowEdward II acted. He marched north with a large army but was defeated at the
Battleof Bannockburn in 1314.Few surviving documents.Many historians claim that 'in
a single day' Bannockburn stopped English interference in Scotland's affairs. Our
knowledge of events in medieval Scottish history is limited by a lack of primary
source material. Little was written down, and few documents from before 1296 have
survived. It is thought that Edward I destroyed many documents.

10.10
In 1066 Wales was completely separate from England. As time went on, the Marcher
Lords captured a lot of good farming land in south Wales, North Wales remained
firmly in the hands of the Welsh. The most powerful part of north Wales was the
principality of Gwynedd. In the early 13th century, under the leadership of Llywelyn
the Great, Gwynedd took control of large chunks of Wales.
When Llywelyn died in 1240, he was followed by his grandson, Llywelyn ap
Gruffyd. In 1267 Henry III agreed to Llywelyn being called Prince of Wales as long as
he paid homage to the English crown.
He wanted to rule not only England but also Wales and Scotland. In 1274 Llywelyn
failed to attend Edward's coronation. He decided that it was time for Llywelyn and
the Welsh to be brought under English control. In 1277 Edward sent a fleet of ships
and a large army to Wales.
The ships cut off Llywelyn's food supplies, which came from Anglesey. Llywelyn had
little choice but to surrender. Wales was divided up into counties , each with a
sheriff to make sure that the law was kept. This time they were led by
David, Llywelyn's brother.

Llywelyn was captured by an English knight and brutally murdered. All of Wales came
under English rule. Edward gave his eldest son the title of Prince of Wales.

10.11
The bubonic plague swept through England during the second half of the 14th
century. The worst epidemic was between 1348 and 1350. 531 manors. Their lives
were controlled by the local lord. The peasants had to do three days' work each
week on the lord's land. The peasants were tied to the manor and could not leave
without the permission of the lord. Many lords enforced these rules very strictly and
made life very hard for the peasants.

10.12
The Black Death brought a better standard of living for some peasants. The peasants
hated the Statute of Labourers. It was a law by the rich to keep peasants' wages low
and to keep them tied to one lord. Many peasants who tried to improve their lives
took no notice of this law.If the peasants were caught, they were taken back to their
own village and punished. From about 1360 some of the poorer priests began to
complain about the rich leaders of the church. The peasants flocked to hear Ball
preach. By 1375 King Edward III had run out of money to pay for the long-running war
against France.
This tax was very unpopular with the peasants, who were expected to pay the same
amount as the rich. Many peasants refused to pay the tax. The rioting spread quickly
from Essex into Kent. On 6 June the Kent rebels captured Rochester Castle.
The rebels were now under the leadership of Wat Tyler. By 12 June the Kent rebels
had reached London and made camp at Blackheath.The new 14-year-old
king. Richard II, set out to meet the rebels at Rotherhithe. The rebels went on the
rampage, raiding and looting the houses of the rich. On 14 June Richard II met the
rebels at Mile End.Tyler asked the king to grant all villeins their freedom and to
pardon the rebels for their actions. After this, however, the rebels entered
London. On 15 June Richard II met the rebels again at Smithfield. Tyler rode forward
to the king and repeated the demands of the peasants.The Lord Mayor of
London, William Walworth, then lunged at Tyler and wounded him. Tyler tried to
escape but was struck down and killed by a royal knight. The peasants were
bewildered. Richard II now set about punishing the rebels, breaking the promises he
had made.Another 150 peasants were hanged. Fifty years after the Peasants'
Revolt, all villeins had become freemen.

10.13
In 1483 Edward IV died, leaving his 12-year-old son, Edward V, to be the new
king. He was too young to rule, so his uncle, Richard of Gloucester, said he would
run the country. But soon Gloucester was crowned King Richard III, and then
Edward and his younger brother mysteriously disappeared. Richard III has always
been charged with murdering the two boys, but it has never been proved.

Richard hoped to have the support of the Stanley family, who had a large army of
4,000 men.