Law and Order issued by William. William I was succeeded by his red-haired son, William Rufus. He levied high taxes from the barons; helped himself to money that belonged to the monasteries. Nobody liked him; most people hated him; and everybody was delighted when he was killed in 1100 while hunting in the New Forest. […]
The Domesday Book. Twenty years after he had conquered England, William decided he needed a complete list of his possesions on this side of the Channel. It was to be a detailed account of the royal estates and those of his tenants-in-chief. Since nearly all the country was involved, the result was rather like a present […]
History of Britain, A Plan for Britain. On Christmas Day 1066, Duke William of Normandy was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. A few hours of bitter fighting near Hastings had given him a new kingdom. They had not, however, rewarded him with the devotion and obedience of his new subjects. The Saxons had been […]
The Norman Conguest. When Edward the Confessor died in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, asserted that he had been promised the throne of England. He also said that Harold, who had visitor Normandy in 1058, had pledged himself to support this claim. Harold did nothing of the kind. Forgetting whatever promises he may have made, […]
History of Britain, The World of Saxon England. Despite all the intrigues and killings at court, life in the Saxon countryside went on quietly and industriously. A village was still composed of small huts-each about six metres long-with the floors sunk beneath the ground. Heavy ploughs drawn by teams of oxen were used for turning […]
The lands given to or taken by the Danes were known as Danelaw, just as the money spent in attempts to buy them off was known as Danegold. For the next few years, peace settled on England. The Danes tilled their new soil. Alfred went about his business, much of it concerned with precautions against […]
History of Britain, Betrayal. In Scotland, the Vikings, the Picts and the Scots were all at war with one another. At last, in the same years as Turgeis founded Dublin, there was a decisive battle. After the fighting had stopped, a Scot named kenned was able to proclaim himself first King of Scotland. Down in England, […]
History of Britain, Warriors of the north. They came from the cold, harsh lands of the north, like creatures of prey. Their own countries had little to offer them. To prosper, they had to travel; to be utterly ruthless, to kill and to rob without the smallest twinge of conscience. They were the Norsemen; the […]
History of Britain, History of christianity. The Romans had brought their own religious customs with them to Britain, and built temples in which to whorship their gods. Apart from their loathing of the Druids, they were tolerant of the islander’s beliefs. As in so many other things, the men of Rome and the people of Britain […]
King Arthur – History of Britain, King Arthur and Seven Kingdoms. The populer picture of King Arthur and his knights is of a band of vhivalrous gentlemen clad in shining armour. This is far from the truth. So far as we know, Arthur was a general serving a British king named Ambrosius Aurchanus. When the monarch died, he […]
