Medieval+England

Medieval England.  Introduction. I’ve been focusing on England during the middle Ages. Since the middle Ages covers almost a thousand years, I have selected a couple of important episodes during the whole Middle Ages. I basically want to know what happened to England then. Were they powerful? I like to know things that affected England as a country.

Some words that is good to know: Descendant - ättling Heir - arvtagare/arvinge Successor - efterträdare UN (united nations) - FN  England.   England was called Britain by the Romans during the time when the Romans invaded the country. The Romans were very powerful during that time and they ruled a lot of countries including present England. When the Roman Empire got attacked, the Romans had to leave England to go to Rome to defend their empire. This meant that England was left without having someone in the position of power. That led to the invasions of the Anglo-Saxons. The Saxons were a German tribe from the north of present Germany. The Angles came from the border between Germany and Denmark, even Jutes, from Denmark came along the invasion. The Anglo-Saxons as they are called invaded the country and divided into small kingdoms. Each kingdom had its own king. They were five kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxons didn’t conquer Wales, Scotland and Cornwall. picture from []

The Anglo-Saxons made some changes in the country, they replaces the buildings that the Romans had built with buildings made out of wood. They even spoke their own language, which has its influences in the English language today. Some historians believe that the reason why the Anglo-Saxon invaded England was because it was difficult for them to grow crops, so they needed new places in order to continue with their farming.

England was under the ruling of the Anglo-Saxons until about the 8th century when the Vikings came to England. Big raids began and the Vikings took control over a big part of England. Their part of the land was called Danelaw. The Danelaw contained whole England except Wessex, which remained Anglo-Saxon with King Alfred of Wessex as their king. He had defeated the Vikings in a battle which made Wessex to remain to the Anglo-Saxons. However the descendants of King Alfred took back the land from the Vikings gradually. The Anglo-Saxons were once again ruling the country. picture from : []

They were in the lead until 1066. That year their king Edward the Confessor died and he didn’t leave any heir behind but he appointed Harold Godwinson as his successor.

On October 14th, the Normans invaded Sussex, on the English coast. The Normans, Breton, Burgundian, Flemish and the French army fought against the Saxon army with King Harold as their leader. The Norman army had soldiers from France, Europe and some from southern Italy. The Normans with William the conqueror as their leader won the battle and he gave the land to the French nobles from the Normans. The same year, in 1066, the English king had died, without leaving any heir. However he appointed Harold Godwinson as his successor. It was Harold Godwinson that led the Saxon army. The Saxons were about 5000 men against the Normans who were almost 15 000! The Normans didn’t only have more men they also had a better tactic. The Saxons just stood behind a wall and the Normans did win the battle pretty easy. The Battle in Hastings 1066.

**MAGNA CARTA**. At 1215 the king of England, King John of England wrote Magna Carta. Magna Carta is a settlement between the king, the ministers and the nobles. Magna Carta contains rules about the forests, cities, laws about the court, trading and more. Even the king himself could be judged if he broke the laws of Magna Carta. Magna Carta has influenced a lot of the laws today, for example some rules by the UN and some of the laws in England of course.

The 100-years war lasted 116 years, from 1337 to 1453. It was a war between France and England. It started with The French king’s dead. He left the power to one of his nephew; the English king didn’t like that because the successor was the cousin to the English king, Edward. England had for a long time controlled a lot of places in France. A war broke out, and since the fought for over 100 years both countries made small victories, but in the end it was the French who won the battle. You can read more about the war from Rasmus page, http://spa08.wikispaces.com/The+Hundred+Years%27+War
 * 100-years war **

** The language **. The English language has its influences from a lot of different languages. It started from the time when the Romans conquered the country. For example words like : cheese, fork, and anchor are coming from the Latin language. But the language also has it roots from the Germanic languages from the Anglo-Saxons, such as Dutch and German. When the Normans conquered the country in1066 the French language had an impact in the English language. William, who was the leader of the Normans, came from France and when the Normans conquered the country the French language impacted the English language.



Like I said, the Anglo-Saxon period affected how England is today; a lot of places still have their name left from The Saxons. The English language has a lot of influence, for example faether - father. A lot of the laws that was being used during the Anglo-Saxon time are quite the same as the present English laws. Plus, Magna Carta who gave inspiration the some freedom laws in the UN. Even the name”England” came from Anglo.

The life in England during both the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman episode was the same. They both have roots in Scandinavia.

Here are some things you should remember : The Anglo- Saxons conquered the land after the Romans. In the battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans fought the Anglo-Saxons and took control over the country. Magna Carta was written with rules that still has an impact on the rules in England today and some of the rules in UN. The hundered years war. Was a battle about the throne between France and England. The english language has alot if influences from the Latin language, the German language and the French.

My Sources. I’ve found the most of my information at the BBC’s website. I think that the site is pretty trustworthy because some of the texts are written by historic professors. I have also found the same information on other sites which makes me trust those sources. There was a lot of information on BBC’s website, so I used a lot of their information which I confirmed on other sites as well.

__ [] __ __ [] __ __ [] __ [] About the 100years war, the site is in Swedish, but if you have a problem with understanding the war you can take a look at the National Encyclopedia.

[] If you have a trouble with understanding the texts, here is a site for the children (but it is in English) the site is more pedagogical too ;) __ [] __

If you want to dig deeper into the medieval life in England, here is a very good site that contains information about their weapons, the castles, troops and more. You can even make crosswords here. []