Medieval Britain 1066–1509

1066

HintThe Battle of Hastings was fought in this year, the most famous date in English history.

The whyWilliam of Normandy beat Harold at Hastings in October and was crowned on Christmas Day. Within a generation almost every great English landholder had been replaced by a Norman.

Edward the Confessor

HintHe was known for his piety and for founding Westminster Abbey, and his nickname reflects that devotion.

The whyHe left no heir, and rival accounts claim he promised the throne to more than one man. That is exactly why three claimants could each argue they were the rightful successor.

Retreat

HintIf your enemy holds the high ground, tempt them to leave it by looking beaten.

The whyThe feigned flight drew English soldiers out of the shield wall and down the slope, where Norman horsemen could turn and cut them down in the open.

A motte-and-bailey castle

HintA wooden tower on a raised mound, with a fenced yard below, thrown up in days rather than years.

The whySpeed was the point: a few thousand Normans held a country of about two million partly by planting strongholds everywhere at once. The important ones were later rebuilt in stone.

1086

HintTwenty years after the conquest, William wanted to know exactly what his new kingdom was worth.

The whyIt recorded landholders, ploughs, mills and livestock so the king could tax accurately and settle arguments about who owned what. People called it Domesday because there was no appealing against it.

military service

HintLand was never a free gift; the king expected armed men whenever he called for them.

The whyEvery level of the pyramid owed something upwards. Barons owed the king soldiers, knights owed their baron time in armour, and peasants owed their knight labour on his land.

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury

HintHe had been the king's close friend and chancellor before taking the top post in the English church and turning against him.

The whyHenry II is said to have asked who would rid him of this troublesome priest, and four knights took him at his word. The murdered man became a saint and the king had to do public penance.

King John

HintHe had lost Normandy, taxed his barons heavily and quarrelled with the Pope, until they finally rebelled.

The whyMagna Carta mattered less for what it settled in 1215, since it collapsed within months, than for the principle it wrote down: the ruler is under the law, not above it.

Simon de Montfort

HintA rebel earl who had beaten Henry III in battle and needed wider support to hold on to power.

The whyInviting burgesses from the towns was the novelty, which is why his assembly is often called an early parliament, even though he was ruling by force after a civil war.

About half

HintSo many died that whole villages were abandoned and there were not enough workers left to bring in the harvest.

The whyEstimates run between a third and a half. Losing so many people so fast made surviving labourers scarce and valuable, which shook the whole feudal arrangement.

The poll tax

HintIt charged every adult the same flat amount, whether they were rich or poor.

The whyA flat charge per head hits the poorest hardest, and it landed on top of laws holding wages down after the plague. Rebels from Kent and Essex marched on London and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Battle of Bosworth

HintIt was fought in Leicestershire, and the loser's remains were found under a Leicester car park in 2012.

The whyHenry Tudor became Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York, joining the rival houses. The Tudor rose puts the white rose of York inside the red rose of Lancaster.