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The six and a half centuries between the end of Roman rule and the Norman Conquest are among the most important in English history. This long period is also one of the most challenging to understand - which is why it has traditionally been labelled the 'Dark Ages'. Yet a kingdom of England emerged in these centuries, and with it a new 'English' identity and language.

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An Introduction to Early Medieval England

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The six and a half centuries between the end of Roman rule and the Norman Conquest are among the most important in English history. But the period is also one of the most challenging to understand.

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The term 'The Dark Ages' refers to the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance: the 5th - 14th centuries. It has been suggested that this period saw little scientific and cultural advancement. However, the term doesn't stand up to much scrutiny - and many medieval historians have dismissed it.

The coining of 'the Dark Ages'

The first person to coin the term 'Dark Ages' was believed to be Francesco Petrarca (known as Petrarch), an Italian scholar of the 14th century. He bestowed this label upon the period in which he lived as he was dismayed at the lack of good literature at that time.

The classical era was rich with apparent cultural advancement. Both Roman and Greek civilisations had provided the world with contributions to art, science, philosophy, architecture and political systems.

Granted, there were aspects of Roman and Greek society and culture that were very unsavoury (Gladiatorial combat and slavery to name a few), but after Rome's fall and subsequent withdrawal from power, European history is portrayed as taking a 'wrong turn'.

After Petrarch's disparagement of the 'dark age' of literature, other thinkers of the time expanded this term to encompass this perceived dearth of culture in general across Europe between 500 to 1400. These dates are under constant scrutiny by historians as there is a degree of overlap in dates, cultural and regional variations and many other factors. The time is often referred to with terms like the Middle-Ages or Feudal Period (another term that is now contentious amongst medievalists).

Later on, as more evidence came to light after the 18th century, scholars started to restrict the term 'Dark Ages' to the period between the 5th and 10th centuries. This period came to be referred to as the Early Middle Ages.

Busting the 'Dark Ages' myth

Labelling this large period of history as a time of little cultural advancement and its peoples as unsophisticated is, however, a sweeping generalisation and regularly considered to be incorrect. Indeed, many argue that 'the Dark Ages' never truly happened.

In a time epitomised by extensive increases in Christian missionary activity, it appears Early Middle Age kingdoms lived in a very interconnected world.

The early English Church for instance relied heavily on priests and bishops who had trained abroad. In the late 7th century, the archbishop Theodore founded a school at Canterbury that would go on to become a key centre of scholarly learning in Anglo-Saxon England. Theodore himself had originated from Tarsus in south-eastern Asia Minor (now south-central Turkey) and had trained in Constantinople.

People were not just travelling to Anglo-Saxon England however. Anglo-Saxon men and women were also regular sights in mainland Europe. Nobles and commoners went on frequent and often perilous pilgrimages to Rome and even further afield. A record even survives of Frankish observers complaining about a monastery in Charlemagne's kingdom that was run by an English abbot called Alcuin:

"O God, deliver this monastery from these Britons who come swarming around this countryman of theirs like bees returning to their queen."

International trade

Trade too reached far and wide during the Early Middle Ages. Certain Anglo-Saxon coins have European influences, visible in two gold Mercian coins. One coin dates to the reign of King Offa (r. 757-796). It is inscribed with both Latin and Arabic and is a direct copy of coinage minted by the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate based in Baghdad.

The other coin portrays Coenwulf (r. 796-821), Offa's successor, as a Roman emperor. Mediterranean-influenced gold coins such as these probably reflect extensive international trade.

The early Middle Age kingdoms thus lived in a very interconnected world and from this sprung many cultural, religious and economic developments.

The Early Middle Age renaissance of literature and learning

Developments in learning and literature did not disappear during the Early Middle Ages. In fact, it appears it was quite the opposite: literature and learning was highly valued and encouraged in many Early Middle Age kingdoms.

During the late eighth and early ninth centuries for instance, the Emperor Charlemagne's court became the centre for a renaissance of learning that ensured the survival of many classical Latin texts as well as generating much that was new and distinctive.

Across the Channel in England, around 1300 manuscripts survive dating to before 1100. These manuscripts focus on a wide array of topics: religious texts, medicinal remedies, estate management, scientific discoveries, travels to the continent, prose texts and verse texts to name a few.

Monasteries were centres of production for most of these manuscripts during the Early Middle Ages. They were created by either priests, abbots, archbishops, monks, nuns or abbesses.

It is notable that women had a significant role in literature and learning at this time. An eighth century abbess of Minster-in-Thanet called Eadburh taught and produced poetry in her own verse, while an English nun called Hygeburg recorded a pilgrimage to Jerusalem made by a West-Saxon monk called Willibald at the beginning of the eighth century.

Many well-off women who were not members of a religious community also had well-documented interests in literature, such as Queen Emma of Normandy, the wife of King Cnut.

It appears literature and learning did suffer upon the arrival of the Vikings during the ninth century (something which King Alfred the Great famously bemoaned). But this lull was temporary and it was followed by a resurgence in learning.

The painstaking work required to create these manuscripts meant that they were highly-cherished by the elite class in Early Middle Age Christian Europe; owning literature became a symbol of power and wealth.

There is plenty of evidence to negate Petrarch's view that the Early Middle Ages was a dark age of literature and learning. In fact, it was a time where literature was encouraged and highly-valued, especially by the upper-echelons of Early Middle Age society.

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Why Was 900 Years of European History Labelled 'the Dark Ages'?

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The term 'The Dark Ages' refers to the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance: the 5th - 14th centuries. It has been suggested that this period saw little scientific and cultural advancement. However, the term doesn't stand up to much scrutiny - and many medieval historians have dismissed it.

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Kids learn about the events and timeline of the Middle Ages and Medieval times in history. Articles for teachers, students, and schools including the feudal system, knights, castles, daily life during the Middle Ages, art, entertainment, and people.

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Medieval History Quiz | Test Your Knowledge | HistoryExtra

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It is one of the most turbulent periods of history, popularised by Chaucer, Magna Carta and the Black Death. Test your knowledge of the Middle Ages with this quiz written by Dr Catherine Rider, a senior history lecturer at the University of Exeter

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In 1348 - 49, the Black Death swept across Europe, killing up to half of the population.

There were two main types of plague: bubonic and pneumonic.

Treatments and cures were based on both natural and supernatural theories about the cause of the disease.

Video about the Black Death

Video Transcript Video Transcript

Narrator:
I've been caring for patients of this horrible plague these last few months. Many other doctors have fled the city for fear of catching the disease, but it seems it is everywhere. A French doctor, Guy de Chauliac, has identified two types of the disease. Bubonic, which makes the glands in the neck, armpits and groin swell and ooze pus and blood. It usually kills the patient within five days.

Pneumonic, which infects the lungs, making people cough up blood. This usually kills within three days. The disease is so contagious that people think you can catch it just by looking at someone who is afflicted. People are scared and look to religion or other explanations for its causes. Some say it's a punishment from God. Some say it is caused by planetary movement.

Some say the wells are being poisoned. People have been trying lots of different things to try and cure themselves of this terrible disease. People rub themselves with onions and herbs. I even saw a young man rubbing himself with a dead pigeon he had cut up. They sometimes drink poisons or vinegars to try and kill the illness. They sit near fires trying to sweat the disease out. I truly hope that some of the people I've been trying to help will soon recover.

I think that clean air, a healthy diet and letting blood flow from the patient will help. I pray to God every night that we will soon find out what causes this deadly disease.

How did the Black Death get its name?

Show more Show less

The term 'Black Death' was first used in English in the 1700s. At the time of the epidemic, most people would have called the disease 'the pestilence' or 'the Great Mortality'.

The term 'Black Death' specifically refers to the outbreak of the plague disease in the mid-1300s. Later outbreaks, like the one in London in 1665, have been referred to as 'the Plague'.

The Black Death originated in Asia in 1346. It was spread to Europe by fleas on rats living on trade ships. In medieval times there was trade between Europe and Asia. The Crusades increased awareness of goods and produce that could be imported from abroad. This trade helped bubonic plague to spread from Asia to European countries.

Bubonic plague is believed to have arrived in the country on a ship landing on the Dorset coast from Gascony in France. The disease quickly spread throughout the country. The first recorded case of the Black Death in England was in June 1348.

Bubonic plague
Bubonic plague was spread by rats, which were commonly found in homes, villages and towns due to poor hygiene conditions such as raw sewage being routinely dumped in streets. If a flea that had bitten an infected rat jumped onto a person and bit them, it would transmit bubonic plague.

The symptoms of bubonic plague were:

Swellings under the armpits and on the groin, known as buboes

Fever

Vomiting

Diarrhoea

Fingers toes and parts of the skin sometimes turned black

Pneumonic plague
Pneumonic plague was spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing which spread air droplets containing plague bacteria, affecting the victim's lungs.

Pneumonic plague had a near 100% mortality rate.

The main symptoms of pneumonic plague were:

Cough

Fever

Headaches

Breathlessness

Natural causes
Medieval doctors believed that illnesses, including the Black Death, were caused by an imbalance in the . These were black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. A patient diagnosed with excess blood would undergo treatments such as , which attempted to rebalance the humours by removing excess blood.

To try and stop the spread of Black Death, fines were introduced for people caught dumping waste in the streets. The idea was to deal with the bad smells, or miasma. This may have helped a little in that dealing with waste in the streets may have helped limit the number of the rats that were actually spreading the disease.

New jobs were created in London to try and clean up towns. Muckrakers were employed to remove the waste from the streets. often emptied into pits in the ground. These would often fill up and cause awful smells, so emptied cesspits. Surveyors of the payment collected rubbish.

There are various estimates of how many people died during the 1348-49 outbreak. Most historians believe between a third and half of the population were killed by the Black Death. The population of England at the time of the Black Death is estimated to have been around 6 million, so that means approximately 2 to 3 million people died.

Despite the scale of the fatalities, there is evidence that there was some sort of organised response from local government. Mass graves of victims have been found from the Middle Ages. The way the bodies are carefully laid in side by side suggests bodies were treated respectfully and in a dignified way.

A result of the high was a shortage of workers. This led to rapid wage rises as landowners had to compete for workers by paying more. In 1351 a law was introduced to force wages to go back to the levels they had been at before the Black Death. This was one of the causes of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

As no one knew exactly what caused the Black Death, they could do little to stop future outbreaks. There were further Black Death cases throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. There was another significant outbreak in 1665, particularly affecting London. This outbreak shows there had been no real increase in understanding about what was really causing the disease or how to prevent it.

It wasn't until the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in the 1800s that it was discovered germs are the cause of disease. The plague bacteria was finally discovered by Alexandre Yersin in 1894. The bacteria was named after him; 'Yersinia pestis.'

What do you think the response to the Black Death tells us about medical knowledge in the Middle Ages?

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Although doctors in the Middle Ages did not know about germs, there were some attempts to treat or prevent the disease based on observation and natural remedies.

The four humours theory would not correctly diagnose or treat the Black Death, but it was an attempt to treat the disease by understanding how the physical body worked, which is the basis of modern medicine.

The belief that miasma was responsible for the Black Death meant there were efforts to clean up towns by employing gong farmers and muckrakers, which showed that the government was willing to try and address poor public health conditions.

Many people, including doctors, attributed disease to supernatural or religious causes in this period.

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Causes and effects of the Black Death - Medieval medicine - KS3 History - homework help for year 7, 8 and 9.

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Find out about the the Black Death with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

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An overview of the Black Death - causes and consequences.

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An overview of the Black Death - causes and consequences.

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Introduction
Between 1347 and 1351 a great outbreak of disease known as the Black Death ravaged Europe. This pandemic took a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known epidemic or war up to that time. The Black Death is widely believed to have been the result of plague that was caused by infection with the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Most scientists think that this bacterium was first passed from infected rodents to humans through the bite of fleas. Then it spread quickly from one person to another.

The Disease
Plague is an infectious fever that takes three forms in humans: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. The bubonic type is the mildest, accounting today for virtually no deaths and in the past killing about half of its victims. It is named for one of the disease's characteristics, the formation of buboes, or inflamed lymph glands. Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs and is often fatal in three or four days without treatment. In septicemic plague, bacteria overwhelm the bloodstream and often cause death within 24 hours, before other symptoms have a chance to develop. The pandemic was called the Black Death because of the black spots that appeared on the skin of many victims.

It is believed that the Black Death was a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague does not pass directly from person to person. The bacteria are carried from rodent to person or from person to person by infected fleas. Pneumonic plague, however, is highly infectious. The bacteria can be passed from person to person in droplets from coughs or sneezes. The living conditions in medieval cities and towns encouraged the spread of the disease. Poor sanitation in cities such as London and Bristol, England, created breeding grounds for rats that carried the disease. In addition, overcrowded housing in the cities encouraged the spread of plague from person to person.

Reach of the Black Death
Plague is an ancient disease that has been verified as occurring as early as the 6th century ad. The epidemic of the 14th century originated in China and Central Asia. It was transmitted to Europe in 1347, when a Eurasian army besieged the Genoese trading post of Kaffa in the Crimean Peninsula. The army catapulted plague-infested corpses into the town in an effort to infect the enemy. From Kaffa, Genoese ships carried the disease westward to Mediterranean ports, and from there it spread inland. Plague reached Sicily in 1347; North Africa, mainland Italy, Spain, England, and France in 1348; Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries in 1349; and Scandinavia and the Baltic lands in 1350. There were recurrences of plague in 1361-63, 1369-71, 1374-75, 1390, and 1400.

Death rates from the Black Death varied from place to place. The rate of contagion was greater in the more populated towns than in the countryside. Even the great and powerful, who were more capable of flight, were struck down. Eleanor, queen of Peter IV of Aragon, and King Alfonso XI of Castile succumbed. Joan, daughter of the English king Edward III, died at Bordeaux on the way to her wedding with Alfonso's son. Canterbury lost two successive archbishops, John de Stratford and Thomas Bradwardine. The writer Petrarch lost not only Laura, who inspired so many of his poems, but also his patron, Giovanni Cardinal Colonna. The papal court at Avignon was reduced by one-fourth. Whole communities and families were annihilated.

J. Paul Getty Museum (object no. 86.PC.463); digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program

The death rate was especially high in monastic communities. Plague spread rapidly through monasteries because monks lived in close contact with one another. Monasteries received many visitors ranging from royal delegations to poor pilgrims, offering many chances for disease to enter the community. Although monks took good care of the sick, they could only do so much to combat an illness as contagious as plague. The Black Death wiped out whole monasteries. Others, with only a few survivors, shut their doors. Historians have estimated that monasteries in England lost about half of their residents during the epidemic. Priests who cared for the sick and administered last rites to the dying were also very vulnerable. As the disease took the lives of clergy, there were not enough priests to tend to the dying. Pope Clement VI responded by granting remission (forgiveness) of sins to everyone who died of the Black Death. He also declared that the dying could make their final confessions to anyone and still achieve salvation. Before that, only clergy could perform last rites.

Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

The study of contemporary archives suggests that the death rates varied in the different regions between one-eighth and two-thirds of the population. The French chronicler Jean Froissart 's statement that about one-third of Europe's population died in the epidemic may be fairly accurate. The population in England in 1400 was perhaps half what it had been 100 years earlier. In that country alone, the Black Death certainly caused the depopulation or total disappearance of about 1,000 villages. A rough estimate is that 25 million people in Europe died from plague during the Black Death. The overwhelming number of victims led to the development of a grim ritual in which the dead were collected each night and hauled off to mass graves known as "plague pits."

Responses to the Black Death
The people of the time struggled to understand the catastrophe they faced. Medieval medicine was not advanced enough to determine the causes of the Black Death or to prevent it. In keeping with prevailing theories of the Middle Ages, doctors turned to astrology and superstition in their attempts to explain the disease. They could provide only ineffective treatments such as herbs and bloodletting.

Some people considered the disease to be an expression of God's wrath. In an effort to appease God, people known as flagellants held processions throughout Europe in which they whipped themselves while praying for forgiveness. Other people devised conspiracy theories in which the Jews were poisoning wells to harm Christians. Such anti-Semitism led to deadly attacks on Jewish communities in Europe.

Effects of the Epidemic
The Black Death was an unprecedented epidemic that brought about many consequences. In the short term, wars stopped and trade slumped. A more lasting consequence was the drastic reduction of the labor force. The shortage of labor proved to be the ruin of many landowners. Hired laborers began to demand higher wages and better food. Peasant tenants, also fewer in number, asked for better conditions of tenure when they took up land. These changes began to blur the lines between the social classes. The English government's attempt to set maximum wages during the labor shortage led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Another lasting consequence of the Black Death was a decline in the status of the Roman Catholic Church. Disillusioned by the church's inability to stop the epidemic, people increasingly turned to heretical movements or mysticism to save their souls.

In some areas the psychological effects of the Black Death were reflected by a preoccupation with death and the afterlife, as displayed in poetry, sculpture, and painting. The most famous literary work to use the Black Death as a backdrop is Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. This collection of tales begins with the flight of a group of young people from plague-stricken Florence in 1348.

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Between 1347 and 1351 a great outbreak of disease known as the Black Death ravaged Europe. This pandemic took a proportionately greater toll of life than any other known...

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England underwent huge changes during the reigns of three generations of Tudor monarchs. Henry VIII ushered in a new state religion, and the increasing confidence of the state coincided with the growth of a distinctively English culture.

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England underwent huge changes during the reigns of three generations of Tudor monarchs. Henry VIII ushered in a new state religion, and the increasing confidence of the state coincided with the growth of a distinctively English culture.

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Fascinating Tudor Facts for Children & Teachers

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Find out some fascinating Tudor facts about the Tudor royal family and what life was like in Tudor times with this Tudor Facts blog from PlanBee.

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The Tudors

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5 learner guides

Who was Henry VIII?

Henry VIII is remembered for his six wives and his military success. His decision to break from the Catholic Church kickstarted the English Reformation.

The Reformation and its impact

In 1534, Henry VIII declared that he was the head of the Church in England, not the Pope. This was the beginning of the English Reformation.

Who was Elizabeth I?

Elizabeth I ruled England for 45 years. The country saw lots of change during her reign, with religion, trade and international exploration all very different by the time she died.

Elizabethan rule

Elizabeth I's reign has often been described as a ‘Golden Age’ of culture, wealth and exploration. Some historians, however, have begun to question just how accurate this is.

Africans and their lives in Tudor England

Around 200 people of African origin lived in Tudor England. They arrived in England in different ways, some as ambassadors, others via the empires of Spain and Portugal.

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KS3 History The Tudors learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.

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Marrying Mum and Dad - Quiz: Do you know your Tudor trivia?

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Get ready to play the original game of thrones! Take the Marrying Mum and Dad Tudors quiz and see if you can seize the crown!

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Henry VIII's Big Fat Tudor Wedding | Rotten Rulers | Horrible Histories

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Tudors and Stuarts - KS3 History (Environment and society) - BBC Bitesize

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KS3 History (Environment and society) Tudors and Stuarts learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.

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The first queen to rule England in her own right, she was known as 'Bloody Mary' for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Catholicism in England.

Mary was born at Greenwich on 18 February 1516, the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Her life was radically altered when Henry divorced Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn. He claimed that the marriage was incestuous and illegal, as Catherine had been married to his dead brother, Arthur. The pope disagreed, resulting in Henry's break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England.

Henry's allegations of incest effectively bastardised Mary. After Anne Boleyn bore Henry another daughter, Elizabeth, Mary was forbidden access to her parents and stripped of her title of princess. Mary never saw her mother again. With Anne Boleyn's fall, there was a chance of reconciliation between father and daughter, but Mary refused to recognise her father as head of the church. She eventually agreed to submit to her father and Mary returned to court and was given a household suitable to her position. She was named as heir to the throne after her younger brother Edward, born in 1537.

Edward VI succeeded his father in 1547 and, under the protectorate of the Duke of Northumberland, zealously promoted Protestantism. Mary, however, remained a devout Catholic. When it became clear that Edward was dying, Northumberland made plans for his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, to take the throne in Mary's place.

On Edward's death in 1553, Jane was briefly acclaimed queen. But Mary had widespread popular support and within days made a triumphal entry into London. Once queen, she was determined to re-impose Catholicism and marry Philip II of Spain. Neither policy was popular. Philip was Spanish and therefore distrusted, and many in England now had a vested interest in the prosperity of the Protestant church, having received church lands and money after Henry dissolved the monasteries.

In 1554, Mary crushed a rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Making the most of her advantage, she married Philip, pressed on with the restoration of Catholicism and revived the laws against heresy. Over the next three years, hundreds of Protestants were burned at the stake. This provoked disillusionment with Mary, deepened by an unsuccessful war against France which led to the loss of Calais, England's last possession in France, in January 1558. Childless, sick and deserted by Philip, Mary died on 17 November 1558. Her hopes for a Catholic England died with her.

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The first queen to rule England in her own right, she was known as 'Bloody Mary' for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Catholicism in England. Mary was born at Greenwich on 18 February 1516, the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

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Edward VI was the son of England's King Henry VIII. He came to the throne when he was only nine years old. His youth meant that he was largely controlled by powerful men at...

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Henry VIII's father, Henry VII, was the founder of the Tudor dynasty. He took the throne in 1485.

Henry VII married Elizabeth of York and had a large family with her. Henry VII was succeeded by his son, Henry VIII, and then by his grandchildren, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors ruled from 1485 to 1603.

What were the Wars of the Roses?

The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars that were fought over the right to the English throne. The conflict was between the House of York and the House of Lancaster; it began in 1455 and lasted a little over 30 years. The House of Lancaster was represented by a red rose, and York by a white rose. Henry VII was distantly related to the royal House of Lancaster.

In 1455, Richard, Duke of York, took King Henry VI captive during a battle, and was appointed Lord Protector by Parliament. After around 4 years of relative peace, the fighting resumed, and many more battles took place. In 1485, the Lancastrian Henry Tudor won the throne from the Yorkist Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. While some have seen this as the end of the conflict, other historians have suggested that the Battle of Stoke Field, which was fought between Yorkists and Lancastrians in 1487, was the actual end of the fighting between the two houses.

The future Henry VIII was the second son of Henry VII. This meant that Henry's older brother Prince Arthur was raised as a future ruler, because it was expected that, as the eldest, he would be king. Prince Henry was brought up in a separate palace, alongside his mother and sisters.

In 1502, Henry's brother Arthur died, followed a year later by their mother, Elizabeth of York. Following their deaths, Henry was made to live with his father. This was difficult for the young Henry. We know that, during these years, the prince rarely appeared in public and was supervised constantly.

Following the death of his father in 1509, Henry VIII became King of England. He had big ambitions. He quickly set about establishing a glittering court with his new wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had previously been married to his older brother, Arthur.

What was the young Henry VIII's court like?

The court is a name given to the group of people who were members of the monarch's household. Courtiers, as they were known, were noble men and women who served the king and queen, and also supported the monarch in running the country.

The court lived in the palace alongside Henry. Henry owned many palaces, and every couple of weeks the court would move to a new palace while the last was cleaned.

The young Henry VIII wanted to create a magnificent court. He and his wife Catherine wore fine clothes, employed talented musicians and threw elaborate jousts and parties.

There is still much debate among historians about how Henry VIII governed the country and the amount of power he allowed his ministers and advisors.

At the start of his reign, Henry would spend his days hunting, jousting and attending parties. He wrote a song about his lifestyle, called Pastyme with Good Companye. He would spend some time on the running of the country after Mass each day.At the start of Henry VIII's reign, a council advised the young king. Henry then began to rely on key men such as Thomas Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. They were known as ministers, and they helped Henry with the day-to-day running of the country.

Although he had Wolsey and Cromwell to assist him, Henry still had the final say. When his ministers failed him, they faced real danger. Wolsey died on his way to prison, after failing to get Henry his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Cromwell was beheaded in 1540, having been declared a traitor. The list of charges brought against Cromwell was long and mostly focused on his support of religious radicals, though Henry's failed marriage to Anne of Cleves, which was encouraged by Cromwell, could also have played a role. The downfall of both men came about because Henry was prepared to listen to their enemies at court.

As a result of the Reformation, Henry gained more power. Firstly, he became the Supreme Head of the Church of England, which was significant as so many people throughout the country were deeply religious. Secondly, he began to use Parliament to get what he wanted. In 1539, Henry passed an act called the Statute of Proclamations, which allowed him to make changes to how England was run simply by reading out orders instead of passing laws in the traditional way.

Find out more by working through a topic

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Who was Henry VIII? - The Tudors - KS3 History - homework help for year 7, 8 and 9. - BBC Bitesize

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Find out about Henry VIII with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

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(1457-1509). The founder of England's Tudor monarchy was Henry VII. He defeated his rival Richard III to become king in 1485 and held the crown until 1509. He earned the respect of his people and left the country more prosperous and stable than it had been for 50 years.

Henry was born at Pembroke Castle in Wales on January 28, 1457. Before he became king, he was called Henry Tudor. He was a descendant of Edward III and John of Gaunt through his mother, Margaret Beaufort. His father, Edmund Tudor, was the son of Owen Tudor, a Welsh squire, and Catherine of Valois, the widow of King Henry V, and thus a half brother of King Henry VI.

The murders of Henry VI and his son, Prince Edward, in 1471 left Henry Tudor head of the house of Lancaster. At the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, he defeated and killed Richard III, the last Yorkist king. Then Henry became king. He united the houses of Lancaster and York by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. The Wars of the Roses were ended.

Henry's throne, however, was far from secure. Many influential Yorkists were determined to take back the crown, and Henry VII faced conspiracies until nearly the end of his reign. The first serious Yorkist plot centered on Lambert Simnel in 1487. He claimed to be Edward, earl of Warwick, a young Yorkist and nephew of Richard III. He had the support of John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, who was a genuine Yorkist claimant, and of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Richard III's sister Margaret, duchess of Burgundy. The rebels were defeated in a hard-fought Battle of Stoke in Nottinghamshire, England.

An even more serious threat appeared in 1491: Perkin Warbeck, coached by Margaret to impersonate Richard, the younger son of Edward IV. Supported by various European powers, Perkin invaded England three times before he was captured in 1497. Henry was also worried by the treason of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, the eldest surviving son of Edward IV's sister Elizabeth. It was not until 1506, when he imprisoned Suffolk in the Tower of London, that Henry could at last feel safe.

Henry was the first modern king of England. He established order and security and so gained the support of the rising middle class. He compelled the great nobles to obey the laws by means of his famous Court of Star Chamber. An efficient system of taxation was introduced, and foreign trade expanded. John Cabot, sailing under the flag of Henry VII, laid the foundation of England's claim to the mainland of North America.

Henry secured his aims abroad not by war but by treaties and through the marriage alliances of his children. In 1501 his eldest son, Arthur, married the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Spain had recently sprung into the first rank of European powers, so a marriage alliance with that country enhanced the prestige of the Tudor dynasty. After Arthur's death in 1502, Henry was able to arrange the marriage of Catherine to his surviving son, Henry, the future King Henry VIII. Henry died on April 21, 1509, before the marriage took place.

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(1457-1509). The founder of England's Tudor monarchy was Henry VII. He defeated his rival Richard III to become king in 1485 and held the crown until 1509. He earned the...

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The Norman conquest of England, led by William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE) was achieved over a five-year period from 1066 CE to 1071 CE. Hard-fought battles, castle building, land redistribution, and scorched earth tactics ensured that the Normans were here to stay. The conquest saw the Norman elite replace that of the Anglo- Saxons and take over the country's lands, the Church was restructured, a new architecture was introduced in the form of motte and bailey castles and Romanesque cathedrals, feudalism became much more widespread, and the English language absorbed thousands of new French words, amongst a host of many other lasting changes which all combine to make the Norman invasion a momentous watershed in English history.

Conquest: Hastings to Ely

The conquest of England by the Normans started with the 1066 CE Battle of Hastings when King Harold Godwinson (aka Harold II, r. Jan-Oct 1066 CE) was killed and ended with William the Conqueror's defeat of Anglo- Saxon rebels at Ely Abbey in East Anglia in 1071 CE. In between, William had to more or less constantly defend his borders with Wales and Scotland, repel two invasions from Ireland by Harold's sons, and put down three rebellions at York.

The consequences of the Norman conquest were many and varied. Further, some effects were much longer-lasting than others. It is also true that society in England was already developing along its own path of history before William the Conqueror arrived and so it is not always so clear-cut which of the sometimes momentous political, social, and economic changes of the Middle Ages had their roots in the Norman invasion and which may well have developed under a continued Anglo-Saxon regime. Still, the following list summarises what most historians agree on as some of the most important changes the Norman conquest brought in England:

the Anglo-Saxon landowning elite was almost totally replaced by Normans.

the ruling apparatus was made much more centralised with power and wealth being held in much fewer hands.

the majority of Anglo-Saxon bishops were replaced with Norman ones and many dioceses' headquarters were relocated to urban centres.

Norman motte and bailey castles were introduced which reshaped warfare in England, reducing the necessity for and risk of large-scale field engagements.

the system of feudalism developed as William gave out lands in return for military service (either in person or a force of knights paid for by the landowner).

manorialism developed and spread further where labourers worked on their lord's estate for his benefit.

the north of England was devastated for a long time following William's harrying of 1069-70 CE.

Domesday Book, a detailed and systematic catalogue of the land and wealth in England was compiled in 1086-7 CE.

the contact and especially trade between England and Continental Europe greatly increased.

the two countries of France and England became historically intertwined, initially due to the crossover of land ownership, i.e. Norman nobles holding lands in both countries.

the syntax and vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon Germanic language were significantly influenced by the French language.

The Ruling Elite

The Norman conquest of England was not a case of one population invading the lands of another but rather the wresting of power from one ruling elite by another. There was no significant population movement of Norman peasants crossing the channel to resettle in England, then a country with a population of 1.5-2 million people. Although, in the other direction, many Anglo-Saxon warriors fled to Scandinavia after Hastings, and some even ended up in the elite Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors.

The lack of an influx of tens of thousands of Normans was no consolation for the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, of course, as 20 years after Hastings there were only two powerful Anglo-Saxon landowners in England. Some 200 Norman nobles and 100 bishops and monasteries were given estates which had been distributed amongst 4,000 Anglo-Saxon landowners prior to 1066 CE. To ensure the Norman nobles did not abuse their power (and so threaten William himself), many of the old Anglo-Saxon tools of governance were kept in place, notably the sheriffs who governed in the king's name the districts or shires into which England had traditionally been divided. The sheriffs were also replaced with Normans but they did provide a balance to Norman landowners in their jurisdiction.

The royal court & government became more centralised - more so than in any other kingdom in Europe, thanks to the holding of land & resources by only a relatively few Norman families.

The Church was similarly restructured with the appointment of Norman bishops - including in 1070 CE, the key archbishops of Canterbury (to Lanfranc) and York (to Thomas) - so that by 1087 CE there were only two Anglo-Saxon bishops left. Another significant change was the move of many dioceses' headquarters - the main church or cathedral - to urban locations (Dorchester to Lincoln, Lichfield to Chester, and Sherborne to Salisbury being just some examples). This move gave William much greater administrative and military control of the Church across England but also benefitted the Church itself by bringing bishops closer to the relatively new urban populations.

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The royal court and government became more centralised, indeed, more so than in any other kingdom in Europe thanks to the holding of land and resources by only a relatively few Norman families. Although William distributed land to loyal supporters, they did not typically receive any political power with their land. In a physical sense, the government was not centralised because William still did not have a permanent residence, preferring to move around his kingdom and regularly visit Normandy. The Treasury did, though, remain at Winchester and it was filled as a result of William imposing heavy taxes throughout his reign.

Motte & Bailey Castles

The Normans were hugely successful warriors and the importance they gave to cavalry and archers would affect English armies thereafter. Perhaps even more significant was the construction of garrisoned forts and castles across England. Castles were not entirely unknown in England prior to the conquest but they were then used only as defensive redoubts rather than a tool to control a geographical area. William embarked on a castle-building spree immediately after Hastings as he well knew that a protected garrison of cavalry could be the most effective method of military and administrative control over his new kingdom. From Cornwall to Northumbria, the Normans would build over 65 major castles and another 500 lesser ones in the decades after Hastings.

The Normans not only introduced a new concept of castle use but also military architecture to the British Isles: the motte and bailey castle. The motte was a raised mound upon which a fortified tower was built and the bailey was a courtyard surrounded by a wooden palisade which occupied an area around part of the base of the mound. The whole structure was further protected by an encircling ditch or moat. These castles were built in both rural and urban settings and, in many cases, would be converted into stone versions in the early 12th century CE. A good surviving example is the Castle Rising in Norfolk, but other, more famous castles still standing today which were originally Norman constructions include the Tower of London, Dover Castle in Kent, and Clifford's Tower in York. Norman Romanesque cathedrals were also built (for example, at York, Durham, Canterbury, Winchester, and Lincoln), with the white stone of Caen being an especially popular choice of material, one used, too, for the Tower of London.

Domesday, Feudalism & the Peasantry

There was no particular feeling of outraged nationalism following the conquest - the concept is a much more modern construct - and so peasants would not have felt their country had somehow been lost. Neither was there any specific hatred of the Normans as the English grouped all William's allies together as a single group - Bretons and Angevins were simply 'French speakers'. In the Middle Ages, visitors to an area that came from a distant town were regarded just as 'foreign' as someone from another country. Peasants really only felt loyalty to their own local communities and lords, although this may well have resulted in some ill-feeling when a lord was replaced by a Norman noble in cases where the Anglo-Saxon lord was held with any affection. The Normans would certainly have seemed like outsiders, a feeling only strengthened by language barriers, and the king, at least initially, did ensure loyalties by imposing harsh penalties on any dissent. For example, if a Norman were found murdered, then the nearest village was burnt - a policy hardly likely to win over any affection.

At the same time, there were new laws to ensure the Normans did not abuse their power, such as the crime of murder being applied to the unjustified killing of non-rebels or for personal gain and the introduction of trial by battle to defend one's innocence. In essence, citizens were required to swear an oath of loyalty to the king, in return for which they received legal protection if they were wronged. Some of the new laws would be long-lasting, such as the favouring of the firstborn in inheritance claims, while others were deeply unpopular, such as William's withdrawal of hunting rights in certain areas, notably the New Forest. Poachers were severely dealt with and could expect to be blinded or mutilated if caught. Another important change due to new laws regarded slavery, which was essentially eliminated from England by 1130 CE, just as it had been in Normandy.

Perhaps one area where hatred of all-things Norman was prevalent was the north of England. Following the rebellions against William's rule there in 1067 and 1068 CE, the king spent the winter of 1069-70 CE 'harrying' the entire northern part of his kingdom from the west to east coast. This involved hunting down rebels, murders and mutilations amongst the peasantry, and the burning of crops, livestock, and farming equipment, which resulted in a devastating famine. As Domesday Book (see below) revealed, much of the northern lands were devastated and catalogued as worthless. It would take over a century for the region to recover.

Domesday Book was compiled on William's orders in 1086-7 CE, probably to find out for tax purposes exactly who owned what in England following the deaths of many Anglo-Saxon nobles over the course of the conquest and the giving out of new estates and titles by the king to his loyal followers. Indeed, Domesday Book reveals William's total reshaping of land ownership and power in England. It was the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken in any medieval kingdom and is full of juicy statistics for modern historians to study such as the revelation that 90% of the population lived in the countryside and 75% of the people were serfs (unfree labourers).

A consequence of William's land policies was the development (but not the origin of) feudalism. That is, William, who considered all the land in England his own personal property, gave out parcels of land (fiefs) to nobles (vassals) who in return had to give military service when required, such as during a war or to garrison castles and forts. Not necessarily giving service in person, a noble had to provide a number of knights depending on the size of the fief. The noble could have free peasants or serfs (aka villeins) work his lands, and he kept the proceeds of that labour. If a noble had a large estate, he could rent it out to a lesser noble who, in turn, had peasants work that land for him, thus creating an elaborate hierarchy of land ownership. Under the Normans, ecclesiastical landowners such as monasteries were similarly required to provide knights for military service.

The manorial system developed from its early Anglo-Saxon form under the Normans. Manorialism derives its name from the 'manor', the smallest piece of land which could support a single family. For administrative purposes, estates were divided into these units. Naturally, a powerful lord could own many hundreds of manors, either in the same place or in different locations. Each manor had free and/or unfree labour which worked on the land. The profits of that labour went to the landowner while the labourers sustained themselves by also working a small plot of land loaned to them by their lord. Following William's policy of carving up estates and redistributing them, manorialism became much more widespread in England.

Trade & International Relations

The histories and even the cultures to some extent of France and England became much more intertwined in the decades after the conquest. Even as the King of England, William remained the Duke of Normandy (and so he had to pay homage to the King of France). The royal houses became even more interconnected following the reigns of William's two sons (William II Rufus, r. 1087-1100 CE and Henry I, r. 1100-1135 CE) and the civil wars which broke out between rivals for the English throne from 1135 CE onwards. A side effect of this close contact was the significant modification over time of the Anglo-Saxon Germanic language, both the syntax and vocabulary being influenced by the French language. That this change occurred even amongst the illiterate peasantry is testimony to the fact that French was commonly heard spoken everywhere.

One specific area of international relations which greatly increased was trade. Before the conquest, England had had limited trade with Scandinavia, but as this region went into decline from the 11th century CE and because the Normans had extensive contacts across Europe (England was not the only place they conquered), then trade with the Continent greatly increased. Traders also relocated from the Continent, notably to places where they were given favourable customs arrangements. Thus places like London, Southampton, and Nottingham attracted many French merchant settlers, and this movement included other groups such as Jewish merchants from Rouen. Goods thus came and went across the English Channel, for example, huge quantities of English wool were exported to Flanders and wine was imported from France (although there is evidence it was not the best wine that country had to offer).

Conclusion

The Norman conquest of England, then, resulted in long-lasting and significant changes for both the conquered and the conquerors. The fate of the two countries of England and France would become inexorably linked over the following centuries as England became a much stronger and united kingdom within the British Isles and an influential participant in European politics and warfare thereafter. Even today, names of people and places throughout England remind of the lasting influence the Normans brought with them from 1066 CE onwards.

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The Impact of the Norman Conquest of England

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The Norman conquest of England, led by William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE) was achieved over a five-year period from 1066 CE to 1071 CE. Hard-fought battles, castle building, land redistribution...

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In 1066 William, duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and seized the kingdom for himself.

Some of the troops who fought for him were foreign mercenaries and adventurers. The rest were Norman nobles and the war bands they had raised from their tenantry to support the duke's daring enterprise.

Most of the surviving mercenaries eventually returned home with jangling purses, but the Normans came to stay.

Here are 5 of the biggest changes they wrought on the nation they conquered.

1. A new tenurial system

When William vanquished the Anglo-Saxons, he confiscated their estates and introduced a new tenurial system under which he owned all the land.

He kept some of it for himself, gave some to the Church and granted the rest to his barons on condition that they swore an oath of loyalty to him and supplied him with men for his armies.

The barons, in turn, granted part of the land they held to a select group of knights, who likewise pledged their loyalty. The knights then granted little strips of ground to large numbers of peasants, who worked their lord's fields and gave him a share of their produce.

The tenurial system the king adopted had two consequences: it created a new ruling class, and tethered power to the possession of real estate because many of the invaders owed their social standing to the lands they held, rather than their lineage.

2. A new ruling class

The Domesday Book - the result of a huge property survey that William commissioned in late 1085 - reveals the scale of the Norman land grab.

The aggregate value of the area covered by the survey was about £73,000. The Church held some 26 per cent of this territory, but almost everything else was in Norman hands.

The king headed the nation's "rich list", with estates covering 17 per cent of England, while roughly 150-200 barons held another 54 per cent between them.

However, there was an elite within the elite. Some 70 men held lands worth £100 to £650, and the 10 greatest magnates controlled enormous fiefdoms worth £650 to £3,240.

The remaining 7,800-odd landholders possessed relatively modest estates. In fact, more than 80 per cent of the secular (as distinct from clerical) subtenants named in Great Domesday held lands worth £5 or less. Most of these people were also Normans.

Native subtenants, by contrast, held only 5 per cent of the country - and the majority of them held just one manor. Some were survivors who had managed to cling to their ancestral estates. Others had supported William and prospered under the new regime.

3. A new pattern of inheritance

In addition to redistributing England's landed wealth, William altered the basis on which that wealth cascaded down the generations.

In Anglo-Saxon society, when a man died, his lands were usually shared out among his sons under the principle of "partible inheritance". In Normandy, however, there was a dual pattern of inheritance.

An ordinary landholder could divide his estate among his chosen heirs. Conversely, a noble was required to pass all his inherited property to his first-born son.

William adhered to Norman custom. But when he himself died, he bequeathed Normandy (which he had inherited) to his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and England (which he had acquired) to his second son, William Rufus. He left no land for his youngest son, Henry, who simply received 5,000 lbs. of silver.

Most of the barons copied the king's example. If they had more than one son, the inherited lands generally went to the first-born and the acquired lands to the second-born, while any other sons had to make their own way in life.

This practice soon spread to the lesser ranks. Within a century of the Conquest, male primogeniture applied to even the lowliest military tenancy.

4. The seeds for a two-tier parliamentary system

The roots of the new Anglo-Norman nobility lay in mainland Europe, but they diverged from their neighbours. While every medieval European nation had a patrician elite, it was typically a single broad caste.

In England, by contrast, the nobility formed two cohorts: the small coterie of titled magnates who held vast tracts of territory directly from the king, and the much larger group of lesser landowners - the gentry - who held land from the barons they served.

The former enjoyed greater privileges than the latter. The law of male primogeniture also ensured that the English aristocracy as a whole gradually became less numerous but financially stronger than their continental counterparts.

The magnates attended the royal councils that William established to replace the Anglo-Saxon Witan. But over time England's middling landholders also became involved in the running of the country.

Thus the Conquest sowed the seeds for a two-tier parliamentary system in which titled magnates sat, by right, in the House of Lords, while the gentry were only eligible for election to the House of Commons as emissaries of the counties in which they resided.

A modified version of this structure remains even now.

5. A new architectural landscape

When William reached England, he made his base at Hastings, where he immediately built a wooden keep on a large mound of earth, inside a courtyard enclosed by a palisade and protective ditch.

It was the first of many such "motte-and-bailey" castles. By 1100 more than 500 motte-and-bailey castles had been constructed.

The Normans erected castles to subdue the native populace, and erected monasteries and churches to make their peace with God.

In 1066 there were some 45 Benedictine monasteries in England. By 1150 another 95 religious houses had been founded.

Buildings for public worship were also springing up all around. In Anglo-Saxon times a fairly small network of minster churches served large territories. By the mid-12th century there were numerous little parish churches, many of which still exist, resting on the foundations of a Norman predecessor.

A bidirectional process

The Conquest left an indelible mark on the nation. Yet just as the Normans transformed England, so England transformed them.

The descendants of the men who had crossed the Channel in 1066 slowly shed their Norman heritage as immigrants married indigenes, administrators of native origin entered noble service and the English language displaced French.

By 1362, when Edward III passed a law making English the "tongue of the country", the Normans had become wholly English.

Dr Helen Kay is the author of The 1066 Norman Bruisers, published by Pen & Sword in February 2020. Her book conjures up the vanished world of medieval England through the lens of one family - the Boydells of Dodleston Castle - and shows how a bunch of Norman thugs evolved into the quintessentially English gentry.

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5 Ways the Norman Conquest Changed England

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In 1066 William, duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings and seized the kingdom for himself. Some of the troops who fought for him were foreign mercenaries and adventurers. The rest were Norman nobles and the war bands they had raised from their tenantry to support the duke's daring enterprise.

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The impact of the Norman Conquest - Impact of immigration in the Medieval era - OCR A - GCSE History Revision - OCR A - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about and revise the impact of immigration between 1000-1500 with this BBC Bitesize History (OCR A) study guide.

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How did the Normans change England? - Twinkl Homework Help

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Instantly access Twinkl’s printable and digital K-12 teaching resources, including worksheets, eBooks, games, PowerPoints, Google Slides, and more!