History
Medieval England 🏰
William the Conqueror 👑
Battle of Hastings ⚔
14th October 1066
Castles 🏰
Feudal System
Domesday book
Women in Medieval times
Built to control the people and defend the kings land
Born in Normandy France 🗼
Harrying of the North 🔥
1069-1070
All land owned by the king 👑
Burnt villages, slaughtered animals
& crops were destroyed
the Domesday Book shows the population in the North decreased by 75%. People were either killed, died of starvation or moved away
Williams army pretend to retreat
Biggest rebellion in York in 1069
William defeated Harold Godwinson
Nobleman who were loyal to the king were rewarded with land
Peasants
Nobleman employed knights to defend them
Villiens
Defending castles
Portcullis
Drawbridge
Arrow Slits 🏹
Murder holes
Moats
Defenders developed lots of ways to make it difficult to get through the doorways/gate
Concentric
Stone Keep
Stone castles had a ‘keep’
or main tower, with an
outer gate called a barbican.
Villeins were peasants who were legally tied to land owned by a local lord
If they wanted to move, or even get married, they needed the permission
These peasants were able to move round from one village to another and did not have the same restrictions on them as villeins did.
Carefully positioned
near rivers & towns 🏘
Motte & Bailey
Wooden
Quick to build
protected by a palisade, which was a tall wooden fence, and they usually had a ditch or moat around them.
built on a earth mound called the motte,
with an outer stockade called the bailey
home to the lord
Better at defence
because they had a lookout!
Imposing and intimidating on hills
500 built in 2 years after Norman Conquest
Replaced Motte & Bailey castles as they were stronger and more difficult to attack
However, stone keep castles could be attacked by mining underneath them to cause a corner to collapse
have two or more stone
outer walls for protection
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Square towers started to be replaced with round ones. These gave a greater field of vision and were more difficult to attack by mining.
Attacked with fire 🔥
Attacking castles
Trebuchet (Catapault)
Siege
Attackers would surround a castle so no one could get out and the inhabitants would eventually run out of food
towers were developed to try and scale the walls
battering rams were made to break through drawbridges
William hoped the building of castles across England would intimidate people into accepting the Norman conquest.
more equality between women and men
before the Norman Conquest
Before 1066, Anglo-Saxon women were allowed to own and inherit land
Many Anglo-Saxon women inherited the land they lived on after their husbands and fathers died at the Battle of Hastings
Only allowed to keep the land if they married a Norman
forced marriages were designed to help the Normans control of England by taking ownership of their new wives’ land
if they refused to obey and marry a Norman, they would also be considered traitors
avoided forced marriages by seeking refuge in nunneries
Other women led a quiet rebellion by teaching their Anglo-Norman children English to keep the language alive, instead of the French spoken by the Normans
led by Edgar the Atheling
joined by Danish & Scottish armies
Paid the Danes to leave
William defeated them but did not trust the English
Crowned King of England
Christmas Day 1066
Godwinson defeated Harold Hardrada
Stamford Bridge
25th September 1066
Harolds army follows them down
the hill breaking up the shield wall
Williams army turn around & attack
Harold is killed
Bayeaux Tapestry depicts the
Norman Invasion of England
Book shows that:
William directly controlled about 20% of the land
Norman nobility controlled about 50% of the land (which was ultimately owned by William)
The Church controlled about 25% of the land
English nobility controlled about 5% of the land
Tax
Census
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Married King Henry II
Had children with
King Henry II
King Richard I
King John
She had lots of power because...
She was married to King Louis VII of France
Heir to lots of land in France
She had a big influence on the French court
When Henry II died Richard
became King
He released Eleanor from prison
and made her Regent of England
Succeeded King Richard I when he was killed by an infected crossbow wound 🏹
Accepted by the English but
the French preferred his nephew Arthur
Their marriage meant King Henry ruled over most of France as well as England
Eleanor led her sons to rebel against King Henry II
King Henry then imprisoned her in Salisbury in England until his death.
Eleanor supported King Richard I while
he was away on the crusades
although anulled, she went on to marry King Henry II
She became Regent of England
when Richard was king
Harold was tired from fighting at Stamford Bridge
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Edward the confessor died 5 January 1066
Harold Godwinson (English Nobleman)
claimed successor to throne
WHY
WHO