Having conquered England, William set about creating a new ruling class of Norman noblemen. William seized the land from England’s Anglo-Saxon noblemen, many of whom had died fighting at Hastings, and transferred its ownership to his loyal Norman knights. Norman noblemen were given titles as Earls and Barons, and in the centre of their land they built large, intimidating castles to confirm their power. A strict social hierarchy (sometimes called the feudal system) was created, with Norman noblemen at the top, and their Anglo-Saxon vassals below.
To keep a record of this enormous transfer in land ownership, William the Conqueror ordered the Domesday Book to be written. For two years, Norman commissioners travelled the length and breadth of England, recording what this new kingdom contained down to the last pig, plough and beehive. Completed in 1086, it details the contents of over 13,000 different towns and villages. It is one of England’s most valuable historical documents, providing an extraordinary picture of life in the 11th century. For example, in 1085 Birmingham was a small village with just nine families and two ploughs. Today, it is England’s second largest city.
Granger Historical Picture Archive
1170 | Murder of Thomas Becket
Henry II was an energetic king, who rebuilt the power of the English monarchy after nineteen years of bloody civil war. But he is chiefly remembered for English history’s most famous murder. As king, Henry II wanted to gain more power over the English Church, so in 1161 he made his loyal friend Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury (leader of the English Church). However, on becoming archbishop, Becket transformed into a pious defender of Church independence.
Becket refused to take orders from Henry II, and their friendship transformed into bitter hatred. During a particularly foul dispute in 1170, Henry II allegedly screamed ‘will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest!’ Four knights interpreted Henry II’s outburst as an order, and rode to Canterbury Cathedral. They killed the Archbishop with a blow to the head by a sword, and smeared his brains across the Cathedral floor.
Henry II insisted that the murder of Thomas Becket was a tragic mistake, and did penance by walking barefoot to Canterbury where he was whipped by the Cathedral monks. Becket meanwhile was celebrated as a martyr for defending Church freedom, and made a Saint. His shrine became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in medieval Europe.
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Henry II’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was a remarkable Queen. In 1137, aged only fifteen, she married the King of France, Louis VII. However, Louis could not tolerate Eleanor’s independent mindedness, and they divorced in 1152. Eight weeks later, Eleanor shocked medieval Europe by marrying the heir to the English throne, the future Henry II. Henry II and Eleanor’s marriage started well having seven children together, but they began to quarrel. In 1174, Eleanor was arrested for plotting against her husband, and thrown in prison for sixteen years. When Henry II died, Eleanor’s favourite son Richard the Lionheart became King of England, and freed his mother from imprisonment.
Richard the Lionheart, whose statue stands outside the Houses of Parliament, is one of England’s most famous kings. However, he spent as little as six months actually in England during his ten-year reign. For most of the time, he was fighting on crusade in the Holy Land. Whilst Richard was fighting foreign wars, it was his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who ruled England. She died in 1204 at the astonishing age of 82, having become one of the most powerful and respected figures, male or female, in all of Europe.
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1215 | King John and the Magna Carta
No medieval King of England has as bad a reputation as King John. John was Henry II’s youngest son, and became king in 1199 after the death of his older brother Richard the Lionheart. Many believed John’s nephew Arthur had a better claim to the throne. Before long, rumours began to circulate that to secure his hold on power, John had drowned his own nephew in the River Seine.
John was ruthless in punishing those who opposed his rule, often starving his enemies to death in castle dungeons. He repeatedly argued with the Catholic Church, and was excommunicated by the Pope. Worst of all, John was a hopeless warrior, and lost much of England’s territory in France, including his ancestral homeland in Normandy. To fight these unsuccessful wars, John taxed his Barons dry. But John’s tyrannical rule did leave a positive legacy. In 1215, the Barons united against King John, and forced him to sign a series of promises known as the Magna Carta. These promises included the right to a fair trial, independence of the church, and the need to gain the Barons’ consent before raising taxes. Today, the Magna Carta is seen as the birth of political rights in England.
The image opposite shows a memorial in Runnymede, the meadow beside the River Thames where King John agreed to the Magna Carta.
Paul Daniels
Did Robin Hood even exist? Probably not. However, the legend of Robin Hood was popular in England from the 15th century onwards, and tells us a lot about medieval attitudes towards tyrannical royal power. Robin Hood is the outlaw of Sherwood Forest, who steals from the rich to give to the poor. A skilled archer, Robin terrorises the Sheriff of Nottingham and his master, Prince John, who has taken the throne from his brother Richard the Lionheart. Robin Hood is helped by his band of ‘merry men’, including Little John (who is actually very tall), Much the Millar’s son, and the rather less-than-pious Friar Tuck.
In later years, Robin Hood was depicted as a deposed Saxon nobleman, fighting back against oppressive Norman overlords. Woodlands such as Sherwood Forest were kept as royal hunting grounds by the royal kings, and those caught poaching on these grounds were cruelly punished. Today, you can visit the ‘Major Oak’, a hollow oak tree in Sherwood Forest where, according to legend, Robin and his merry men once hid. Sadly, Major Oak was not even an acorn during the reign of King John.
WDG Photo
King John’s son Henry III was forced to reaffirm the Magna Carta (see here) in 1225, setting a precedent for all future English monarchs. Henry III had great military ambitions, wanting to reconquer the land lost by his father in France, go on a crusade to the Holy Land, and even make his son the king of Sicily. However, all of these foreign wars meant increases in taxation.
In 1264, a group of rebel barons led by the Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort rose up against Henry III. At the Battle of Lewes, de Montfort defeated Henry III and took him prisoner. De Montfort then summoned all England’s bishops