1.
King of the English
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This list of kings and queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, one of the petty kingdoms to rule a portion of modern England. While Alfred was not the first king to lay claim to all of the English, his rule represents the first unbroken line of Kings to rule the whole of England. The last monarch of a kingdom of England was Queen Anne. For monarchs after Queen Anne, see List of British monarchs, arguments are made for a few different kings deemed to control enough of the ancient kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons to be deemed the first King of England. For example, Offa, king of Mercia, and Egbert, king of Wessex, are described as kings of England by popular writers. In the late eighth century Offa achieved a dominance over southern England that did not survive his death in 796, in 829 Egbert conquered Mercia, but he soon lost control of it. By the late ninth century Wessex was the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom and its king, Alfred the Great, was overlord of western Mercia and used the title King of the Angles and Saxons, but he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then the Danelaw. Since that time, except for King Edward III, the eldest sons of all English monarchs have borne this title. After the death of Queen Elizabeth I without issue, in 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland were joined in personal union under King James VI of Scotland, however, this is not accepted by all historians. Also, it is unclear whether Ælfweard was declared king of the kingdom or of Wessex only, there is evidence that when Edward died, Ælfweard was declared king in Wessex. England came under the control of Sweyn Forkbeard, a Danish king, after an invasion in 1013, during which Æthelred abandoned the throne, following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard, Æthelred the Unready returned from exile and was again proclaimed king on 3 February 1014. His son succeeded him after being chosen king by the citizens of London, following the decisive Battle of Assandun on 18 October 1016, King Edmund signed a treaty with Cnut in which all of England except for Wessex would be controlled by Cnut. Upon Edmunds death on 30 November, Cnut ruled the kingdom as its sole king. After Harthacnut, there was a brief Saxon Restoration between 1042 and 1066, in 1066, several rival claimants to the English throne emerged. Harald and William both invaded separately in 1066, godwinson successfully repelled the invasion by Hardrada, but ultimately lost the throne of England in the Norman conquest of England. After the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror made permanent the recent removal of the capital from Winchester to London. William was crowned King William I of England on Christmas Day 1066, in Westminster Abbey, Henry I left no legitimate male heirs, his son William Adelin having died in the White Ship disaster. This ended the direct Norman line of kings in England, Henry named his eldest daughter, the dowager Empress Matilda as his heir
2.
Edward the Martyr
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Edward the Martyr was King of England from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceful but was not his fathers acknowledged heir, Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, the archbishops Dunstan and Oswald of Worcester. The great nobles of the kingdom, ealdormen Ælfhere and Æthelwine, quarrelled, Edwards short reign was brought to an end by his murder at Corfe Castle in 978 in circumstances that are not altogether clear. His body was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 979, in 1001 Edwards remains were moved to a more prominent place in the abbey, probably with the blessing of his half-brother King Æthelred. Edward was already reckoned a saint by this time, a number of lives of Edward were written in the centuries following his death in which he was portrayed as a martyr, generally seen as a victim of the Queen Dowager Ælfthryth, mother of Æthelred. He is today recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Edwards date of birth is unknown, but he was the eldest of Edgars three children. He was likely in his teens when he succeeded his father, Edward was known to be King Edgars son, but he was not the son of Queen Ælfthryth, the third wife of Edgar. This much and no more is known from contemporary charters, later sources of questionable reliability address the identity of Edwards mother. The earliest such source is a life of Dunstan by Osbern of Canterbury, Osbern writes that Edwards mother was a nun at Wilton Abbey whom the king seduced. When Eadmer wrote a life of Dunstan some decades later, he included an account of Edwards parentage obtained from Nicholas of Worcester. Additional accounts are offered by Goscelin in his life of Edgars daughter Saint Edith of Wilton and in the histories of John of Worcester, together these various accounts suggest that Edwards mother was probably a noblewoman named Æthelflæd, surnamed Candida or Eneda—the White or White Duck. A charter of 966 describes Ælfthryth, whom Edgar had married in 964, as the lawful wife. Edward is noted as the kings son, Ælfthryth was the widow of Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia and perhaps Edgars third wife. However, Barbara Yorke thinks that Æthelflæd was Edgars wife, but Ælfthryth was a consecrated queen when she gave birth to her sons, Æthelwold denied that Edward was legitimate, but Yorke considers this opportunist special pleading. Edmunds full brother Æthelred may have inherited his position as heir, on a charter to the New Minster at Winchester, the names of Ælfthryth and her son Æthelred appear ahead of Edwards name. When Edgar died on 8 July 975, Æthelred was probably nine, secular clergy, many of whom would have been members of the nobility, had been expelled from the new monasteries. While Edgar lived, he supported the reformers, but following his death. The leading figures had all been supporters of the reform, relations between Archbishop Dunstan and Bishop Æthelwold may have been strained
3.
Sweyn Forkbeard
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Sweyn Forkbeard was king of Denmark, England, and parts of Norway. His name appears as Swegen in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and he was the son of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, and the father of Cnut the Great. In the mid-980s, Sweyn revolted against his father and seized the throne, Harald was driven into exile and died shortly afterwards in November 986 or 987. In 1000, with the allegiance of Trondejarl, Eric of Lade, in 1013, shortly before his death, he became the first Danish king of England after a long effort. Many details about Sweyns life are contested, Adam of Bremen identifies his mother as Gunhild while the Dictionary of National Biography states that his mothers name is unknown. The Danish encyclopedia Den Store Danske on the other hand identifies her as Tove from the Western Wendland, many negative accounts build on Adam of Bremens writings, Adam is said to have watched Sweyn and Scandinavia in general with an unsympathetic and intolerant eye, according to some scholars. Adam accused Forkbeard of being a pagan who persecuted Christians, betrayed his father and expelled German bishops from Scania. According to Adam, Sweyn was sent into exile by his fathers German friends and deposed in favour of king Eric the Victorious of Sweden, whom Adam wrote ruled Denmark until his death in 994 or 995. Historians generally have problems with Adams claims, such as that Sweyn was driven into exile in Scotland for a period as long as fourteen years. As many scholars point out, he built churches in Denmark throughout this period, such as Lund and Roskilde, Sweyn was believed to have had a personal interest in the atrocities, with his sister Gunhilde and her husband possibly amongst the victims. Sweyn campaigned in Wessex and East Anglia in 1003–1004, but a famine forced him to return to Denmark in 1005, further raids took place in 1006–1007, and in 1009–1012 Thorkell the Tall led a Viking invasion into England. Simon Keynes regards it as uncertain whether Sweyn supported these invasions, some scholars have argued that Sweyns participation may have been prompted by his state of impoverishment after having been forced to pay a hefty ransom. He needed revenue from the raids and he acquired massive sums of Danegeld through the raids. In 1013, he is reported to have led his forces in a full-scale invasion of England. The contemporary Peterborough Chronicle, one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, states and he went very quickly about East Anglia into the Humbers mouth, and so upward along the Trent till he came to Gainsborough. Earl Uchtred and all Northumbria quickly bowed to him, as did all the people of the Kingdom of Lindsey and he was given hostages from each shire. After he came over Watling Street, they went to Oxford, and the town-dwellers soon bowed to him, from there they went to Winchester, and the people did the same, then eastward to London. But the Londoners put up a resistance, because King Æthelred and Thorkell the Tall
4.
Edmund Ironside
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Edmund II, usually known as Edmund Ironside, was King of England from 23 April to 30 November 1016. He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Edmunds reign was marred by a war he had inherited from his father, his cognomen Ironside was given to him because of his valour in resisting the Danish invasion led by Cnut the Great. Edmund was not expected to be King of England, however, in the process they forced Sweyns son, Cnut, back to Denmark, where he assembled an invasion force to re-conquer England. It would not arrive for another year, after regaining the throne, the royal family set about strengthening its hold on the country with the assistance of Eadric Streona. People who had sided with the Danes in 1014 were punished, in one case, two brothers, Morcar and Sigeferth, were killed and their possessions, along with Sigferths wife, were taken by Edmund. Edmund unofficially became the Earl of the East Midlands, however, Cnut returned to England in August 1015. Over the next few months, Cnut conquered most of England, and Edmund joined Æthelred to defend London, Edmund died shortly afterwards on 30 November, leaving two sons called Edward and Edmund, however, Cnut became the king of all England. The exact date of Edmunds birth is unclear, but it could have no later than 993 when he was a signatory to charters along with his two elder brothers. He was the third of the six sons of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu and his elder brothers were Æthelstan and Egbert, and younger ones, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar. He had four sisters, Eadgyth, Ælfgifu, Wulfhilda, and his mother died around 1000, after which his father remarried, this time to Emma of Normandy, who had two sons, Edward the Confessor and Alfred and a daughter Goda. Æthelstan and Edmund were close, and they felt threatened by Emmas ambitions for her sons. The Life of Edward the Confessor, written fifty years later, claimed that when Emma was pregnant with him, however that claim may just be propaganda. When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the throne at the end of 1013 and Æthelred fled to Normandy, the brothers do not appear to have followed him, Æthelstan died in June 1014 and left Edmund a sword which had belonged to king Offa of Mercia. His will also reflected the relationship between the brothers and the nobility of the east midlands. Sweyn died in February 1014, and the Five Boroughs accepted his son Cnut, however, Æthelred returned to England and launched a surprise attack which defeated the Vikings and forced Cnut to flee England. In 1015 Sigeferth and Morcar came to an assembly in Oxford, probably hoping for a royal pardon and he then received the submission of the people of the Five Boroughs. At the same time, Cnut launched a new invasion of England, in early 1016 the army assembled by Edmund dispersed when Æthelred did not appear to lead it, probably due to illness. Æthelred died on 23 April 1016, and the citizens and councillors in London chose Edmund as king and he then mounted a last-ditch effort to revive the defence of England
5.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
6.
Kingdom of England
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In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period. The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
7.
Old St Paul's Cathedral
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Old St Pauls Cathedral was the medieval cathedral of the City of London that, until 1666, stood on the site of the present St Pauls Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, the cathedral was the church on the site at Ludgate Hill. Work on the cathedral began during the reign of William the Conqueror after a fire in 1087 that destroyed much of the city, Work took more than 200 years, and construction was delayed by another fire in 1135. The church was consecrated in 1240 and enlarged again in 1256, at its completion in the middle of the 14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world and had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass. The presence of the shrine of Saint Erkenwald made the cathedral a pilgrimage site during the Medieval period, after the Reformation, the open-air pulpit in the churchyard, St Pauls Cross, became the stage for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling. The cathedral was already in severe structural decline by the 17th century, Restoration work by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was halted by the English Civil War. Sir Christopher Wren was attempting another restoration in 1666 when the cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, after demolition of the old structure, the present, domed cathedral was erected on the site, with an English Baroque design by Wren. The cathedral could be the church on the site at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul. A devastating fire in 1087, detailed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, destroyed much of the city, Bishop Maurice oversaw early preparations, although it was primarily under his successor, Richard de Beaumis, that construction work fully commenced. Beaumis was assisted by King Henry I, who gave the bishop stone, to fund the cathedral, Henry gave Beamis rights to all fish caught within the cathedral neighbourhood and tithes on venison taken in the County of Essex. Beaumis also gave a site for the foundation of St Pauls School. After Henry Is death, a war known as The Anarchy broke out. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to administer the affairs of St Pauls, almost immediately, he had to deal with the aftermath of a fire at London Bridge in 1135. It spread over much of the city, damaging the cathedral, during this period, the style of the building was changed from heavy Romanesque into Early English Gothic. Although the base Norman columns were left alone, lancet pointed arches were placed over them in the triforium, the steeple was erected in 1221 and the cathedral was rededicated by Bishop Roger Niger in 1240. After a succession of storms, in 1255 Bishop Fulk Basset appealed for funds to repair the damaged roof, the roof was once more rebuilt in wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. At this time, the east end of the church was lengthened, enclosing the parish church of St Faith. The eastward addition was always referred to as The New Work, after complaints from the dispossessed parishioners of St Faiths, the east end of the west crypt was allotted to them as their parish church
8.
Emma of Normandy
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Emma of Normandy was a queen consort of England, Denmark and Norway. She was the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, through her marriages to Æthelred the Unready and Cnut the Great, she became the Queen Consort of England, Denmark, and Norway. She was the mother of three sons, Edward the Confessor, Alfred, and Harthacnut, as well as two daughters, Goda of England, and Gunhilda of Denmark, even after her husbands deaths Emma remained in the public eye, and continued to participate actively in politics. She is the figure within the Encomium Emmae Reginae, a critical source for the history of early 11th-century English politics. As Catherine Karkov notes, Emma is one of the most visually represented early medieval queens, in an attempt to pacify Normandy, King Æthelred of England married Emma in 1002. Viking raids on England were often based in Normandy in the late 10th century, upon their marriage, Emma was given the Anglo-Saxon name of Ælfgifu, which was used for formal and official matters, and became Queen of England. She received properties of her own in Winchester, Rutland, Devonshire, Suffolk, Æthelred and Emma had two sons, Edward the Confessor and Alfred, and a daughter, Goda of England. When King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded and conquered England in 1013, Emma and her children were sent to Normandy and they returned to England after Sweyn’s death in 1014. Emma and Æthelred’s marriage ended with death in London in 1016. Æthelred’s oldest son from his first marriage, Æthelstan, had been heir apparent until his death in June 1014, Emma’s sons had been ranked after all of the sons from his first wife, the oldest surviving of whom was Edmund Ironside. Emma made an attempt to get her oldest son, Edward, in 1015, Cnut, the son of Sweyn Forkbeard, invaded England. He was held out of London until the deaths of Æthelred and Edmund in April and November 1016, Queen Emma attempted to maintain Anglo-Saxon control of London until her marriage to Cnut was arranged. Some scholars believe that the marriage saved her sons lives, as Cnut tried to rid himself of rival claimants, Edmund died shortly afterwards on 30 November, and Cnut became the king of all England. At the time of their marriage, Emmas sons from her marriage to Æthelred were sent to live in Normandy under the tutelage of her brother, at this time Emma became Queen of England, and later of Denmark, and Norway. Emma was not particularly active in the first years of Cnuts reign, however, she became more active in 1020, when she began to befriend clergy on the European continent, as well as taking the role of patroness to the church. She developed a relationship with Ælfsige of Peterborough, who advised her on many spiritual matters throughout her life. Her close relationship with clergy and the church strengthened her husbands claim to the throne as a Christian king, the Encomium Emmae Reginae suggests in its second book that Emma and Cnuts marriage, though begun as a political strategy, became an affectionate marriage. During their marriage, Emma and Cnut had a son, Harthacnut, in 1036, Alfred Aetheling and Edward the Confessor, Emmas sons with Æthelred, returned to England from their exile in Normandy in order to visit their mother
9.
Edward the Confessor
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Edward the Confessor, also known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England, and usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066. When Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, Edgar the Ætheling, who was of the House of Wessex, was proclaimed king after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, but never ruled and was deposed after about eight weeks. As discussed below, historians disagree about Edwards fairly long reign and his nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom, some portray this kings reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, because of the infighting after his heirless death. About a century later, in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the late king, Saint Edward was one of Englands national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George as the national patron saint c. His feast day is 13 October, celebrated by both the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Edward was the seventh son of Æthelred the Unready, and the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy. Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire, and is first recorded as a witness to two charters in 1005 and he had one full brother, Alfred, and a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers, showing that he ranked behind them, during his childhood England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn Forkbeard and his son, Cnut. Following Sweyns seizure of the throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, Sweyn died in February 1014, and leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule more justly than before. Æthelred agreed, sending Edward back with his ambassadors, Æthelred died in April 1016, and he was succeeded by Edwards older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyns son, Cnut. According to Scandinavian tradition, Edward fought alongside Edmund, as Edward was at most thirteen years old at the time, Edmund died in November 1016, and Cnut became undisputed king. Edward then again went into exile with his brother and sister, in the same year Cnut had Edwards last surviving elder half-brother, Eadwig, executed, leaving Edward as the leading Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne. Edward spent a quarter of a century in exile, probably mainly in Normandy and he probably received support from his sister Godgifu, who married Drogo of Mantes, count of Vexin in about 1024. In the early 1030s Edward witnessed four charters in Normandy, signing two of them as king of England, Edward was said to have developed an intense personal piety during this period, but modern historians regard this as a product of the later medieval campaign for his canonisation. In Frank Barlows view in his lifestyle would seem to have been that of a member of the rustic nobility. He appeared to have a slim prospect of acceding to the English throne during this period, Cnut died in 1035, and Harthacnut succeeded him as king of Denmark. It is unclear whether he was intended to have England as well and it was therefore decided that his elder half-brother Harold Harefoot should act as regent, while Emma held Wessex on Harthacnuts behalf. In 1036 Edward and his brother Alfred separately came to England, Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex who turned him over to Harold Harefoot
10.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
11.
House of Wessex
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The House became rulers of a unified English nation after the descendants of Alfred the Great down to Edward the Confessor in 1066. Edward the Elder Alfreds son united under his rule, by conquering the Viking occupied areas, Mercia and East Anglia with Wessex. Then his son, Æthelstan, extended his authority into the north, Northumbria, above the Mersey and Humber, sweyn, his son Canute and his successors ruled until 1042. After the Battle of Hastings, a point in English history. Edgars niece Matilda of Scotland later married Williams son Henry I, Henry II was a descendant of the House of Wessex in the female line, something that contemporary English commentators noted with approval. These arms appear in a manuscript of the century, and are blazoned as Azure. The assigning of arms to the West Saxon kings is prochronistic as heraldry did not develop until the twelfth century and these arms continued to be used to represent the kingdom for centuries after their invention. List of monarchs of Wessex Wessex List of English monarchs Stephen Friar and John Ferguson, Basic Heraldry, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-03463-9 Naismith, the Origins of the Line of Egbert, King of the West Saxons, 802–839
12.
Edgar the Peaceful
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Edgar I, known as Edgar the Peaceful or the Peaceable, was King of England from 959 to 975. He was the son of King Edmund I and his Queen. Edgar was the son of Edmund I and Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, upon the death of King Edmund in 946, Edgars uncle, Eadred, ruled until 955. Eadred was succeeded by his nephew, Eadwig, the son of Edmund, Eadwig was not a popular king, and his reign was marked by conflict with nobles and the Church, primarily St Dunstan and Archbishop Oda. In 957, the thanes of Mercia and Northumbria changed their allegiance to Edgar, a conclave of nobles declared Edgar as king of the territory north of the Thames. Edgar became King of England upon Eadwigs death in October 959, Dunstan remained Edgars advisor throughout his reign. While Edgar may not have been a particularly peaceable man, his reign was peaceful, the Kingdom of England was well established, and Edgar consolidated the political unity achieved by his predecessors. By the end of his reign, England was sufficiently unified in that it was unlikely to back to a state of division among rival kingships. Blackstone mentions that King Edgar standardised measure throughout the realm, the Monastic Reform Movement that introduced the Benedictine Rule to Englands monastic communities peaked during the era of Dunstan, Æthelwold, and Oswald. In 963, Edgar allegedly killed Earl Æthelwald, his rival in love, near present-day Longparish, the event was commemorated by the Dead Mans Plack, erected in 1825. Edgar was crowned at Bath and anointed with his wife Ælfthryth, Edgars coronation did not happen until 973, in an imperial ceremony planned not as the initiation, but as the culmination of his reign. This service, devised by Dunstan himself and celebrated with a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the symbolic coronation was an important step, other kings of Britain came and gave their allegiance to Edgar shortly afterwards at Chester. Six kings in Britain, including the King of Scots and the King of Strathclyde, pledged their faith that they would be the kings liege-men on sea, later chroniclers made the kings into eight, all plying the oars of Edgars state barge on the River Dee. Such embellishments may not be factual, and what happened is unclear. Edgar died on 8 July 975 at Winchester, Hampshire and he left behind Edward, who was probably his illegitimate son by Æthelflæd, and Æthelred, the younger, the child of his wife Ælfthryth. Edgar also had an illegitimate daughter by Wulfthryth, who later became abbess of Wilton. She was joined there by her daughter, Edith of Wilton, both women were later regarded as saints. Some see Edgars death as the beginning of the end of Anglo-Saxon England, E was extremely small both in stature and bulk
13.
Anglo-Saxon Christianity
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The first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine took office in 597 AD. In 601, he baptized the first Christian Anglo-Saxon king, Æthelberht of Kent, the last pagan Anglo-Saxon/Jutish king, Arwald, died in 686. Æthelberht of Kents wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert, one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, had brought a chaplain with her. Bertha had restored a church from Roman times to the east of Canterbury and dedicated it to Saint Martin of Tours, Æthelberht himself, though a pagan, allowed his wife to worship her God. Probably under influence of his wife, Æthelberht asked Pope Gregory I to send missionaries, Augustine had served as praepositus of the monastery of Saint Andrew in Rome, founded by Gregory. His party lost heart on the way and Augustine went back to Rome from Provence, the pope, however, commanded and encouraged continuation, and Augustine and his followers landed on the Island of Thanet in the spring of 597. Æthelberht permitted the missionaries to settle and preach in his town of Canterbury, by the end of the year he himself had converted, and Augustine received consecration as a bishop at Arles. At Christmas 10,000 of the kings subjects underwent baptism, Augustine sent a report of his success to Pope Gregory with certain questions concerning his work. In 601 Mellitus, Justus and others brought the popes replies, with the pallium for Augustine and a present of sacred vessels, vestments, relics, books, and the like. Gregory directed the new archbishop to ordain as soon as possible twelve suffragan bishops and to send a bishop to York, Augustine did not carry out this papal plan, nor did he establish the primatial see at London as Gregory intended, as the Londoners remained heathen. Augustine did consecrate Mellitus as bishop of London and Justus as bishop of Rochester, Augustine reconsecrated and rebuilt an old church at Canterbury as his cathedral and founded a monastery in connection with it. He also restored a church and founded the monastery of St. Peter and he died before completing the monastery, but now lies buried in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. In 616 Æthelberht of Kent died, the kingdom of Kent and the associated Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which Kent had had influence over relapsed into heathenism for several decades. The Synod of Whitby in 664 forms a significant watershed in that King Oswiu of Northumbria decided to follow Roman rather than Celtic practices. Using subsidiary arguments about Easter and the tonsure, Wilfrid established the model of the Church as not ultimately answerable to the king but to the Archbishop. It became a tradition for each Archbishop of Canterbury to receive the pallium from the Pope in Rome and this issue was to be frequently revisited until the Reformation. The Anglo-Saxon mission on the continent took off in the 8th century, the Benedictine reform was led by St. Dunstan over the latter half of the 10th century. On the death of Edgar, his son Edward the Martyr was assassinated by the faction and their candidate
14.
Old English
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Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
15.
Battle of Maldon
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The Battle of Maldon took place three weeks before Whitsun on 10 August 991 CE near Maldon beside the River Blackwater in Essex, England, during the reign of Æthelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion, the battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat. After the battle Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury and the aldermen of the south-western provinces advised King Æthelred to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the armed struggle, the result was a payment of 10,000 Roman pounds of silver, the first example of Danegeld in England. An account of the battle, embellished with many speeches attributed to the warriors, a modern embroidery created for the millennium celebration in 1991 and, in part, depicting the battle, can be seen at the Maeldune Centre in Maldon. Not all sources indicate such a disparity in numbers, the Battle of Maldon is the name conventionally given to a surviving 325-line fragment of Old English poetry. It is fortuitous that this was attached at a date to a very notable manuscript, Assers Life of King Alfred. The manuscript, by now detached, was burned in the Cotton library fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, as a result, vital clues about the purpose of the poem and perhaps its date have been lost. At the time of battle, English royal policy of responding to Viking incursions was split, some favoured paying off the Viking invaders with land and wealth, while others favoured fighting to the last man. The poem suggests that Byrhtnoth held this latter attitude, hence his moving speeches of patriotism, the Vikings sailed up the Blackwater, and Byrhtnoth called out his levy. The poem begins with him ordering his men to stand and to hold weapons and his troops, except for personal household guards, were local farmers and villagers of the Essex Fyrd militia. He ordered them to send steed away and stride forwards, they arrived on horses, the Vikings sailed up to a small island in the river. At low tide, the leaves a land bridge from this island to the shore. This would place the site of the battle two miles southeast of Maldon. Olaf addressed the Saxons, promising to sail away if he was paid with gold, Byrhtnoth replied, We will pay you with spear tips and sword blades. With the ebb of the tide, Olafs forces began an assault across the land bridge. Three Anglo-Saxon warriors, Wulfstan, Aelfhere and Maccus blocked the bridge, the Viking commander requested that Byrhtnoth allow his troops onto the shore for formal battle. Byrhtnoth, for his ofermōde, let the force cross to the mainland. Battle was joined, but an Englishman called Godrīc fled riding Byrhtnoths horse, godrīcs brothers Godwine and Godwīg followed him
16.
Danegeld
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The Danegeld was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was called the geld or gafol in eleventh-century sources, the term Danegeld did not appear until the early twelfth century. In Anglo-Saxon England tribute payments to the Danes was known as gafol, in England, a hide was an area of land sufficient to support one family. It was a measurement of value and was the basis for the land-tax that became known as Danegeld, initially it was levied as a tribute to buy off the Danes but when the Viking threat diminished it was retained as a permanent land-tax to pay for the realms defence. The Viking expeditions to England were usually led by the Danish kings, but they were composed of warriors all over Scandinavia. Following Æthelred the kings of England used the tax collection method to fund their own standing armies. Heregeld was abolished by Edward the Confessor in 1051 and it was actually the Norman administration who referred to the tax as Danegeld. One manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle said Olav Tryggvason led the Viking forces, in 994 the Danes, under King Sweyn Forkbeard and Olav Tryggvason, returned and laid siege to London. Further payments were made in 1002, and in 1007 Æthelred bought two years peace with the Danes for 36,000 troy pounds of silver. In 1012, following the capture and murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the sack of Canterbury, in 1016 Sweyn Forkbeards son, Canute, became King of England. This kind of extorted tribute was not unique to England, according to Snorri Sturluson and Rimbert, Finland, in fact, the Primary Chronicle relates that the regions paying protection money extended east towards Moscow, until the Finnish and Slavic tribes rebelled and drove the Varangians overseas. Similarly, the Sami peoples were forced to pay tribute in the form of pelts. A similar procedure existed in Iberia, where the contemporary Christian states were largely supported on tribute gold from the taifa kingdoms. It is estimated that the amount of money paid by the Anglo-Saxons amounted to some sixty million pence. Everywhere the tax was farmed by local sheriffs, records of assessment and income pre-date the Norman conquest, indicating a system which James Campbell describes as old, but not unchanging. Judith Green states that from 1110, war and the White Ship calamity led to increases in taxation efforts. By 1130 Henry I was taxing the danegeld annually, at two shillings on the hide. That year, according to the chronicle of John of Worcester the king promised to suspend the danegeld for seven years, Henry II revived the danegeld in 1155–56, but 1161–62 marks the last year the danegeld was recorded on a pipe roll, and the tax fell into disuse
17.
Normandy
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Normandy is one of the regions of France, roughly corresponding to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Administratively, Normandy is divided into five departments, Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne and it covers 30,627 km², forming roughly 5% of the territory of France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France, Normans is the name given to the inhabitants of Normandy, and the region is the homeland of the Norman language. The historical region of Normandy comprised the region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the départements, or departments of Mayenne. For a century and a following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman. Archaeological finds, such as paintings, prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Celts invaded Normandy in successive waves from the 4th to the 3rd century BC, when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, there were nine different Celtic tribes living in Normandy. The Romanisation of Normandy was achieved by the methods, Roman roads. Classicists have knowledge of many Gallo-Roman villas in Normandy, in the late 3rd century, barbarian raids devastated Normandy. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates, Christianity also began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, while the Saxons subjugated the Norman coast, the Roman Emperor withdrew from most of Normandy. As early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis, the Vikings started to raid the Seine Valley during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, after attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagnes empire to take northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Norwegian Viking leader Hrólfr Ragnvaldsson, Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks, Charles the Simple, through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte. In exchange for his homage and fealty, Rollo legally gained the territory which he, the name Normandy reflects Rollos Viking origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and they became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Saxons and indigenous Franks and Celts. Besides the Norman conquest of England and the subsequent conquests of Wales and Ireland, Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Crusades. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor, the 14th century Norman explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands
18.
Henry III of England
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Henry III, also known as Henry of Winchester, was King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death. The son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, Henry assumed the throne when he was nine in the middle of the First Barons War. Cardinal Guala declared the war against the barons to be a religious crusade and Henrys forces, led by William Marshal, defeated the rebels at the battles of Lincoln. Henry promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, which limited royal power and his early rule was dominated first by Hubert de Burgh and then Peter des Roches, who re-established royal authority after the war. In 1230 the King attempted to reconquer the provinces of France that had belonged to his father. A revolt led by William Marshals son, Richard, broke out in 1232, following the revolt, Henry ruled England personally, rather than governing through senior ministers. He travelled less than previous monarchs, investing heavily in a handful of his palaces and castles. He married Eleanor of Provence, with whom he had five children, in a fresh attempt to reclaim his familys lands in France, he invaded Poitou in 1242, leading to the disastrous Battle of Taillebourg. After this, Henry relied on diplomacy, cultivating an alliance with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Henry supported his brother Richard in his bid to become King of the Romans in 1256 and he planned to go on crusade to the Levant, but was prevented from doing so by rebellions in Gascony. The baronial regime collapsed but Henry was unable to reform a stable government, in 1263 one of the more radical barons, Simon de Montfort, seized power, resulting in the Second Barons War. Henry persuaded Louis to support his cause and mobilised an army, the Battle of Lewes occurred in 1264, where Henry was defeated and taken prisoner. Henrys eldest son, Edward, escaped captivity to defeat de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham the following year. Henry initially enacted a harsh revenge on the rebels, but was persuaded by the Church to mollify his policies through the Dictum of Kenilworth. Reconstruction was slow and Henry had to acquiesce to various measures, including suppression of the Jews, to maintain baronial. Henry died in 1272, leaving Edward as his successor and he was buried in Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt in the second half of his reign, and was moved to his current tomb in 1290. Some miracles were declared after his death but he was not canonised, Henry was born in Winchester Castle on 1 October 1207. He was the eldest son of King John and Isabella of Angoulême, little is known of Henrys early life
19.
Cnut the Great
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King Cnut the Great, also known as Canute, was King of Denmark, England, and Norway, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. After his death, the deaths of his heirs within a decade, the medieval historian Norman Cantor said he was the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history, though he was Danish and not a Briton or Anglo-Saxon. Cnuts father was Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, the identity of his mother is uncertain, although medieval tradition makes her a daughter of Mieszko I. As a Danish prince, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe and his accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut maintained his power by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, after a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna was held by Cnut and he had coins struck there that called him king, but there is no narrative record of his occupation. Cnut attempted to gain concessions on the tolls his people had to pay on the way to Rome from other magnates of medieval Christendom, the Anglo-Saxon kings used the title king of the English. Cnut was ealles Engla landes cyning—king of all England, Cnut was a son of the Danish Prince Sweyn Forkbeard, who was the son and heir to King Harald Bluetooth from a line of Scandinavian rulers central to the unification of Denmark. Neither the place nor the date of his birth are known, Harthacnut was the semi-legendary founder of the Danish royal house at the beginning of the 10th century, and his son, Gorm the Old, was the first in the official line. Harald Bluetooth, Gorms son and Cnuts grandfather, was the Danish king at the time of the Christianization of Denmark, Cnut was two years old when his grandfather, Harald Bluetooth, died, and his father, Sweyn Forkbeard, assumed the throne. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg and the Encomium Emmae report Cnuts mother as having been a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland, since in the Norse sagas the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko. Different theories regarding the number and ancestry of Sweyns wives have been brought forward, Cnuts brother Harald was the first born and crown prince. His date of birth, like his mothers name, is unknown, contemporary works such as the Chronicon and the Encomium Emmae, do not mention this. Even so, in a Knútsdrápa by the skald Óttarr svarti and it also mentions a battle identifiable with Sweyn Forkbeards invasion of England and attack on the city of Norwich, in 1003/04, after the St. Brices Day massacre of Danes by the English, in 1002. If it is the case that Cnut was part of this, his birthdate may be near 990, if not, and the skalds poetic verse envisages another assault, such as Forkbeards conquest of England in 1013/14, it may even suggest a birth date nearer 1000. There is a passage of the Encomiast with a reference to the force Cnut led in his English conquest of 1015/16, here it says all the Vikings were of mature age under Cnut the king. He had a fair complexion none-the-less, and a fine, thick head of hair and his eyes were better than those of other men, both the handsomer and the keener of their sight. Hardly anything is known for sure of Cnuts life until the year he was part of a Scandinavian force under his father, King Sweyn and it was the climax to a succession of Viking raids spread over a number of decades
20.
Alfred the Great
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Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest and he is one of only two English monarchs to be given the epithet the Great, the other being the Scandinavian Cnut the Great. He was also the first King of the West Saxons to style himself King of the Anglo-Saxons, details of Alfreds life are described in a work by the 10th-century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. In 2002, Alfred was ranked number 14 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, historically in Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex by his first wife, Osburh. In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is reported by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to have sent to Rome, where he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV. Victorian writers later interpreted this as a coronation in preparation for his eventual succession to the throne of Wessex. This is unlikely, his succession could not have foreseen at the time. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a consul and it may also be based on Alfreds later having accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854–855. On their return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald, with civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires, and Æthelwulf would rule in the east, when King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfreds brothers in succession, Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred. Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won as a prize a book of Saxon poems, legend also has it that the young Alfred spent time in Ireland seeking healing. Alfred was troubled by health problems throughout his life and it is thought that he may have suffered from Crohns disease. Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him as a great warrior, evidence suggests he was not physically strong, and though not lacking in courage, he was noted more for his intellect than as a warlike character. During the short reigns of the two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald of Wessex and Æthelberht of Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. This arrangement may have been sanctioned by Alfreds father, or by the Witan, the arrangement of crowning a successor as royal prince and military commander is well known among other Germanic tribes, such as the Swedes and Franks, to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely related. In 868, Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in an attempt to keep the Great Heathen Army, led by Ivar the Boneless. At the end of 870, the Danes arrived in his homeland, the year which followed has been called Alfreds year of battles
21.
Fall of man
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The fall of man, or the fall, is a term used in Christianity to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience. Although not named in the Bible, the doctrine of the fall comes from an interpretation of Genesis chapter 3. At first, Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden, but the serpent tempted them into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden. After doing so, they became ashamed of their nakedness and God expelled them from the Garden to prevent them from eating from the tree of life, for many Christian denominations, the doctrine of the fall is closely related to that of original sin. Calvinist Protestants believe that Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for the elect, judaism does not have a concept of the fall or original sin and has varying other interpretations of the Eden narrative. Lapsarianism, the order of Gods decrees in relation to the Fall, is the distinction, by some Calvinists. The story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man represents a tradition among the Abrahamic peoples, with a more or less symbolical of certain moral. The doctrine of the fall of man is extrapolated from Christian exegesis of Genesis 3, according to the narrative, God creates Adam and Eve, the first man and woman. God places them in the Garden of Eden and forbids them to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good, the serpent tempts Eve to eat fruit from the forbidden tree, which she shares with Adam and they immediately become ashamed of their nakedness. Subsequently, God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and it also states that they were removed from the Garden on the new moon of the 4th month of that year. Christian exegetes of Genesis 2,17 have applied the principle to explain how Adam died within a day. Psalms 90,4,2 Peter 3,8 and Jubilees 4, 29–31 explained that, to God, one day is equivalent to a thousand years, the Greek Septuagint, on the other hand, has day translated into the Greek word for a twenty-four-hour period. According to the Genesis narrative, during the age, human longevity approached a millennium. Thus, to die has been interpreted as to become mortal, however, the grammar does not support this reading, nor does the narrative, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden lest they eat of the second tree, the tree of life, and gain immortality. Catholic exegesis of Genesis 3 claims that the fall of man was a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. This first sin was transmitted by Adam and Eve to all of their descendants as original sin, causing humans to be subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin. Baptism is considered to erase original sin, though the effects on human nature remain, even children partake in the guilt or sin of Adam, but not in the responsibility of original sin, as sin is always a personal act. Traditionally, the fall of Adam and Eve is said to have brought “four wounds” to human nature and these are enumerated by St Bede and others, especially St Thomas Aquinas They are Original sin, Concupiscence, Physical frailty and death, and a darkened intellect and ignorance
22.
Mancus
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Mancus was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4. 25g, or a unit of account of thirty silver pence. This made it worth about a months wages for a skilled worker, the origin of the word mancus has long been a cause of debate. One suggested interpretation linked it to the Latin adjective mancus, meaning defective, however, it has become clear that the earliest references to payments in mancuses, which occur in north-eastern Italy in the 770s, specifically refer to Islamic gold dinars. Consequently, a theory has appeared, that mancus derives from the Arabic word منقوش manqūsh. After its first appearance in the 770s, use of the term mancus quickly spread across northern and central Italy, and leapfrogged over Gaul to reach England by the 780s. A letter written in 798 to King Coenwulf of the Mercians by Pope Leo III mentions a promise made in 786 by King Offa to send 365 mancuses to Rome every year. Use of the term mancus was at a peak between the ninth and eleventh centuries, and was restricted to very specific locations and contexts thereafter. The number of gold coins circulating in the west that would have been termed mancuses is difficult to calculate. In many cases they had associations with specific issuing authorities such as a king. On the other hand, they might not reference any king at all, some gold pieces were simply struck from regular silver dies. In addition to these pieces with meaningful inscriptions issued in the west, there circulated some genuine Arabic dinars. Substantial and regular production of gold coinage only resumed in the thirteenth century, Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe Blackburn, M. A. S. Gold in England During the Age of Silver, in The Silver Economy of the Viking Age, ed. J. Graham-Campbell & Gareth Williams Walnut Creek, CA, Left Coast Press, pp. 55–95 Duplessy, J. La circulation des monnaies arabes en Europe occidentale du VIIIe au XIIIe siècle, the Gold Solidus of Louis the Pious and its Imitations, Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 38, 1–41, repr. in his Dark Age Economics, no. Arabische Goldmünzen der Karolingerzeit’, in Fundamenta Historiae, geschichte im Spiegel der Numismatik und ihrer Nachbarwissenschaften. Festschrift für Niklot Klüssendorf zum 60, februar 2004, ed. R. Cunz, pp. 91–106 Linder-Welin, Ulla S. Some rare Samanid Dirhams and the Origin of the Word Mancusus, in Congresso internazionale de numismatica, II. 499–508 McCormick, M. Origins of the European Economy, communications and commerce AD 300-900, ch.11 The will of King Eadred
23.
Frank Stenton
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Sir Frank Merry Stenton was a 20th-century historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society. He was the author of Anglo-Saxon England, a volume of the Oxford History of England, first published in 1943 and he delivered the Ford Lectures at Oxford University in 1929. Stenton was a professor of history at the University of Reading, in November 2008, it was announced that a new hall of residence to be constructed on that campus would be named Stenton Hall, in his honour. She was an historian in her own right, producing English Society in the Early Middle Ages for the Pelican History of England and he was educated at Keble College, Oxford, and was elected an Honorary Fellow in 1947. He was knighted in the 1948 New Year Honours, and received the accolade from King George VI at Buckingham Palace on 10 February 1948. Stentons papers, together with those of his wife Lady Doris Stenton, their library, works by or about Frank Stenton at Internet Archive Stenton Papers Stenton Library Stenton Coin Collection Stenton
24.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
25.
Dunstan
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Dunstan was an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, a Bishop of Worcester, a Bishop of London, and an Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church and his 11th-century biographer, Osbern, himself an artist and scribe, states that Dunstan was skilled in making a picture and forming letters, as were other clergy of his age who reached senior rank. Dunstan served as an important minister of state to several English kings, Dunstan was born in Baltonsborough, Somerset. He was the son of Heorstan, a noble of Wessex, Heorstan was the brother of Athelm the bishop of Wells and of the Bishop of Winchester. It is recorded that his mother, Cynethryth, was a pious woman, the anonymous author of the earliest Life places Dunstans birth during the reign of Athelstan, while Osbern fixed it at the first year of the reign of King Æthelstan,924 or 925. This date, however, cannot be reconciled with other dates of Dunstans life. Historians therefore assume that Dunstan was born around 910 or earlier, as a young boy, Dunstan studied under the Irish monks who then occupied the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. Accounts tell of his optimism and of his vision of the abbey being restored. While still a boy, Dunstan was stricken with a near-fatal illness, even as a child, he was noted for his devotion to learning and for his mastery of many kinds of artistic craftsmanship. With his parents consent he was tonsured, received minor orders and he became so well known for his devotion to learning that he is said to have been summoned by his uncle Athelm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to enter his service. He was later appointed to the court of King Athelstan, Dunstan soon became a favourite of the king and was the envy of other members of the court. A plot was hatched to disgrace him and Dunstan was accused of being involved with witchcraft, the king ordered him to leave the court and as Dunstan was leaving the palace his enemies physically attacked him, beat him severely, bound him, and threw him into a cesspool. He managed to out and make his way to the house of a friend. From there, he journeyed to Winchester and entered the service of his uncle, Ælfheah, the bishop tried to persuade him to become a monk, but Dunstan was doubtful whether he had a vocation to a celibate life. The answer came in the form of an attack of swelling tumours all over Dunstans body and this ailment was so severe that it was thought to be leprosy. It was more probably some form of poisoning caused by being beaten. Whatever the cause, it changed Dunstans mind and he took Holy Orders in 943, in the presence of Ælfheah, and returned to live the life of a hermit at Glastonbury. Against the old church of St Mary he built a small cell five feet long and it was there that Dunstan studied, worked at his handicrafts, and played on his harp
26.
Archbishop of Canterbury
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The current archbishop is Justin Welby. His enthronement took place at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013, Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the Apostle to the English, sent from Rome in the year 597. From the time of Augustine in the 6th until the 16th century, during the English Reformation the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. In the Middle Ages there was variation in the methods of nomination of the Archbishop of Canterbury. At various times the choice was made by the canons of Canterbury Cathedral, today the archbishop fills four main roles, He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, which covers the eastern parts of the County of Kent. Founded in 597, it is the oldest see in the English church and he is the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Canterbury, which covers the southern two-thirds of England. He is the primate and chief religious figure of the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury plays a part in national ceremonies such as coronations, due to his high public profile. As spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop, although without legal authority outside England, is recognised by convention as primus inter pares of all Anglican primates worldwide, since 1867 he has convened more or less decennial meetings of worldwide Anglican bishops, the Lambeth Conferences. In the last two of these functions he has an important ecumenical and interfaith role, speaking on behalf of Anglicans in England, the archbishops main residence is Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth. He also has lodgings in the Old Palace, Canterbury, located beside Canterbury Cathedral, as holder of one of the five great sees, the Archbishop of Canterbury is ex officio one of the Lords Spiritual of the House of Lords. He is one of the men in England and the highest ranking non-royal in the United Kingdoms order of precedence. Since Henry VIII broke with Rome, the Archbishops of Canterbury have been selected by the English monarch, today the choice is made in the name of the monarch by the prime minister, from a shortlist of two selected by an ad-hoc committee called the Crown Nominations Commission. Since the 20th century, the appointment of Archbishops of Canterbury conventionally alternates between more moderate Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals, the current archbishop, Justin Welby, the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 4 February 2013. As archbishop he signs himself as + Justin Cantuar and his predecessor, Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 27 February 2003. Immediately prior to his appointment to Canterbury, Williams was the Bishop of Monmouth, on 18 March 2012, Williams announced he would be stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of 2012 to become Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. In addition to his office, the archbishop also holds a number of positions, for example, he is Joint President of the Council of Christians. Some positions he formally holds ex officio and others virtually so, geoffrey Fisher, 99th Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first since 1397 to visit Rome, where he held private talks with Pope John XXIII in 1960
27.
Oswald of Worcester
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Oswald of Worcester was Archbishop of York from 972 to his death in 992. He was of Danish ancestry, but brought up by his uncle, Oda, after a number of years at Fleury, Oswald returned to England at the request of his uncle, who died before Oswald returned. With his uncles death, Oswald needed a patron and turned to another kinsman, Oskytel and his activity for Oskytel attracted the notice of Archbishop Dunstan who had Oswald consecrated as Bishop of Worcester in 961. In 972, Oswald was promoted to the see of York, as bishop and archbishop, Oswald was a supporter and one of the leading promoters of Dunstans reforms of the church, including monastic reforms. Oswald founded a number of monasteries, including Ramsey Abbey, and reformed other seven, including Winchcombe in Gloucestershire and Pershore, Oswald also switched the cathedral chapter of Worcester from secular clergy to monks. While archbishop, he brought the scholar Abbo of Fleury to teach, Oswald died in 992, while washing the feet of the poor. A hagiographical life was shortly after his death, and he was quickly hailed as a saint. Oswald, of Danish parentage, was brought up by his uncle Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury and he was also related to the cniht Osulf, who received land while Oswald was bishop of Worcester. Oswald was instructed by a Frankish scholar Frithegod and he held the office of dean of Winchester, but he was sent by his uncle to France and entered the monastery of Fleury about 950, where he was ordained in 959. While at Fleury he met Osgar of Abingdon and Germanus of Winchester, the influence of Fleury was to be evident later in Oswalds life, when it was one of the inspirations for the Regularis Concordia, the English code of monastic conduct agreed to in 970. Oswald returned to England in 958 at the behest of his uncle, lacking a patron, Oswald turned to Oskytel, recently named Archbishop of York. It is possible that Oswald along with Oskytel travelled to Rome for Oskytels pallium, even if he did not travel to Rome, Oswald was active in ecclesiastical affairs at York until Dunstan obtained Oswalds appointment to the see, or bishopric, of Worcester. He was consecrated as Bishop of Worcester in 961, soon after his consecration, he persuaded Germanus to come back to England and made him head of a small religious community near Westbury-on-Trym. This foundation at Ramsey went on to become Ramsey Abbey, Ramsey was Oswalds most famous foundation, with its church dedicated in 974. Later, Oswald invited Abbo of Fleury to come and teach at Ramsey, Oswald directed the affairs of Ramsey Abbey until his death, when the dean Eadnoth became the first abbot. He gave a magnificent Bible to Ramsey, which was important enough to merit a mention in Oswalds Life, alongside the gift of the book, Oswald also contributed wall hangings and other textiles to the abbey. Oswald supported Dunstan and Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, in their efforts to purify the Church from secularism, aided by King Edgar, he took a prominent part in the revival of monastic discipline along the precepts of the Rule of Saint Benedict. His methods differed from Æthelwolds, who often violently ejected secular clergy from churches, Oswald also organised the estates of his see into administrative hundreds known as the Oswaldslow, which helped stabilise the ecclesiastical revenues
28.
Archbishop of York
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The Archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York. The Archbishop of York is an ex member of the House of Lords and is styled Primate of England. The archbishops throne is in York Minster in central York and his residence is Bishopthorpe Palace in the village of Bishopthorpe outside of York. The incumbent, from 5 October 2005, is John Sentamu who signs as +Sentamu Ebor, there was a bishop in Eboracum from very early times, during the Middle Ages, it was thought to have been one of the dioceses established by the legendary King Lucius. Bishops of York are known to have been present at the Councils of Arles, however, this early Christian community was later destroyed by the pagan Anglo-Saxons and there is no direct succession from these bishops to the post-Augustinian ones. The diocese was refounded by Paulinus in the 7th century, notable among these early bishops is Wilfrid. Until the Danish invasion the archbishops of Canterbury occasionally exercised authority, at the time of the Norman invasion York had jurisdiction over Worcester, Lichfield, and Lincoln, as well as the dioceses in the Northern Isles and Scotland. But the first three sees just mentioned were taken from York in 1072, of these, Durham was practically independent, for the palatine bishops of that see were little short of sovereigns in their own jurisdiction. Sodor and Man were returned to York during the fourteenth century, several of the archbishops of York held the ministerial office of Lord Chancellor of England and played some parts in affairs of state. The bishoprics role was complicated by continued conflict over primacy with the see of Canterbury. Until the mid 1530s the bishops and archbishops were in communion with the pope in Rome and this is no longer the case, as the Archbishop of York, together with the rest of the Church of England, is a member of the Anglican Communion. Walter de Grey purchased York Place as his London residence, which after the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was renamed the Palace of Whitehall. The Archbishop of York is the bishop of the Province of York and is the junior of the two archbishops of the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since 5 October 2005, the incumbent is the Most Reverend John Sentamu who is also an ex member of the House of Lords. Bede, Willibrord and the Letters of Pope Honorius I on the Genesis of the Archbishopric of York
29.
Byrhtnoth
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Byrhtnoth was Ealdorman of Essex who died 10 August 991 at the Battle of Maldon. His name is composed of the Old English beorht and noth and he is the subject of an ancient poem, and more recently a statue. His death, while leading the Anglo-Saxon forces against the Vikings in 991, is the subject of the famous Old English poem The Battle of Maldon. As presented there, his decision to allow the Vikings to move to a position was heroic but fatal. He was said to stand well over six feet in height, although it is believed that he fell early in the battle, some say that it took three men to kill him, one of them almost severing Byrhtnoths arm in the process. He had previously had several successes, presumably also against Viking raiders. Byrhtnoth was a patron of Ely Abbey, giving it many villages and he was buried there alongside Archbishop Wulfstan the homilist. The Liber Eliensis records that his widow gave the Abbey a tapestry or hanging celebrating his deeds, presumably in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry and this was given immediately after his death, so had probably been hanging in his home previously. After his burial, his remains, along six other Saxon benefactors of Ely Church have been moved and reburied three times. All the clerics were estimated to be over 6 feet tall, Byrhtnoth was married to Ælfflæd, sister of the dowager Queen Æthelflæd of Damerham, making Byrhtnoth a kinsman of King Edgar by marriage. Byrhtnoth may have had a daughter called Leofflæd, however she is not mentioned in any pre-Conquest source, recently, a statue created by John Doubleday has been placed at the end of the Maldon Promenade Walk, facing the battle site of Northey Island and the Causeway. The battle site itself has a National Trust plaque recording his heroic defeat, as well as the Anglo-Saxon poem, The Battle of Maldon, J. R. R. Tolkiens short play in verse, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelms Son takes place on the battlefield of Maldon and deals with Byrhtnoths death. Maldon Battle and Campaign, Report compiled by Glenn Foard,2003, for The UK Battlefields Resource Centre, Provided by The Battlefields Trust Byrhtnoth 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
30.
Essex
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Essex /ˈɛsᵻks/ is a county in England immediately north-east of London. It borders the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, the county town is Chelmsford, which is the only city in the county. Essex occupies the part of the old Kingdom of Essex, before this. As well as areas, the county also includes London Stansted Airport, the new towns of Basildon and Harlow, Lakeside Shopping Centre, the port of Tilbury. Originally recorded in AD527, Essex occupied territory to the north of the River Thames, incorporating all of what later became Middlesex and its territory was later restricted to lands east of the River Lea. In changes before the Norman conquest the East Saxons were subsumed into the Kingdom of England and, following the Norman conquest, Essex became a county. During the medieval period, much of the area was designated a Royal forest, including the county in a period to 1204. Gradually, the subject to forest law diminished, but at various times included the forests of Becontree, Chelmsford, Epping, Hatfield, Ongar. County-wide administration Essex County Council was formed in 1889, however County Boroughs of West Ham, Southend-on-Sea and East Ham formed part of the county but were unitary authorities. 12 boroughs and districts provide more localised services such as rubbish and recycling collections, leisure and planning, parish-level administration – changes A few Essex parishes have been transferred to other counties. Before 1889, small areas were transferred to Hertfordshire near Bishops Stortford, Essex became part of the East of England Government Office Region in 1994 and was statistically counted as part of that region from 1999, having previously been part of the South East England region. Two unitary authorities In 1998 the boroughs of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock were granted autonomy from the county of Essex after successful requests to become unitary authorities. Essex Police covers the county and the two unitary authorities. The county council chamber and main headquarters is at the County Hall in Chelmsford, before 1938 the council regularly met in London near Moorgate, which with significant parts closer to that point and the dominance of railways had been more convenient than any place in the county. It currently has 75 elected councillors, before 1965, the number of councillors reached over 100. The highest point of the county of Essex is Chrishall Common near the village of Langley, close to the Hertfordshire border, the pattern of settlement in the county is diverse. Epping Forest also acts as a barrier to the further spread of London. Part of the southeast of the county, already containing the population centres of Basildon, Southend and Thurrock, is within the Thames Gateway
31.
Kingston upon Thames
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Kingston upon Thames, also known as Kingston, is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned, Kingston is situated 10 miles southwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Kingston lies approximately 33 feet above sea level, Kingston was part of a large ancient parish in the county of Surrey and the town was an ancient borough, reformed in 1835. It has been the location of Surrey County Hall from 1893, most of the town centre is part of the KT1 postcode area, but some areas north of Kingston railway station have the postcode KT2 instead. The population of the town itself, comprising the four wards of Canbury, Grove, Norbiton, Kingston was called Cyninges tun in 838, Chingestune in 1086, Kingeston in 1164, Kyngeston super Tamisiam in 1321 and Kingestowne upon Thames in 1589. The name means the manor or estate from the Old English words cyning. It belonged to the king in Saxon times and was the earliest royal borough and it was first mentioned in 838 as the site of a meeting between King Egbert of Wessex and Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury. Kingston lay on the boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, until in the tenth century when King Athelstan united both to create the kingdom of England. Probably because of the symbolic location, several tenth-century kings were crowned in Kingston, Æthelstan in 925, Eadred in 946. Other kings who may have been crowned there are Edward the Elder in 902, Edmund in 939, Eadwig in 956, Edgar in about 960 and Edward the Martyr in 975. It was initially used as a block, but in 1850 it was moved to a more dignified place in the market before finally being moved to its current location in the grounds of the guildhall. Well known aviation personalities Sydney Camm, Harry Hawker and Tommy Sopwith were responsible for much of Kingstons achievements in aviation. British Aerospace finally closed its Lower Ham Road factory in 1992, part of the site was redeveloped for housing but the riverside part houses a community centre. The growth and development of Kingston Polytechnic and its transformation into Kingston University has made Kingston a university town, Kingston upon Thames formed an ancient parish in the Kingston hundred of Surrey. The parish of Kingston upon Thames covered an area including Hook, Kew, New Malden, Petersham, Richmond, Surbiton, Thames Ditton. The town of Kingston was granted a charter by King John in 1200, but the oldest one to survive is from 1208, other charters were issued by later kings, including Edward IVs charter that gave the town the status of a borough in 1481. The borough covered a smaller area than the ancient parish, although as new parishes were split off the borough. The borough was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, becoming the Municipal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames and it had been known as a Royal borough through custom and the right to the title was confirmed by George V in 1927
32.
Corfe Castle
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Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the dates back to the 11th century. The first phase was one of the earliest castles in England to be built at least partly using stone when the majority were built with earth, Corfe Castle underwent major structural changes in the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1572, Corfe Castle left the Crowns control when Elizabeth I sold it to Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir John Bankes bought the castle in 1635, and was the owner during the English Civil War. His wife, Lady Mary Bankes, led the defence of the castle when it was besieged by Parliamentarian forces. The first siege, in 1643, was unsuccessful, but by 1645 Corfe was one of the last remaining royalist strongholds in southern England, in March that year Corfe Castle was demolished on Parliaments orders. Owned by the National Trust, the castle is open to the public and it is protected as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Corfe Castle was built on a hill in a gap in a long line of chalk hills. The name Corfe derives from the Old English ceorfan, meaning a cutting, referring to the gap, the construction of the medieval castle means that little is known about previous activity on the hill. However, there are postholes belonging to a Saxon hall on the site, the hall may be where Edward the Martyr was assassinated in 978. A castle was founded at Corfe on Englands south coast soon after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the royal forest of Purbeck, where William the Conqueror enjoyed hunting, was established in the area. Between 1066 and 1087, William established 36 such castles in England, sitting as it does on a hill top, Corfe Castle is one of the classic images of a medieval castle. However, despite popular imagination, occupying the highest point in the landscape was not the position of a medieval castle. In England, a minority are located on hilltops, but most are in valleys, unusually for castles built in the 11th century, Corfe was partially constructed from stone indicating it was of particularly high status. A stone wall was built around the top, creating an inner ward or enclosure. There were two enclosures, one to the west, and one that extended south, in contrast to the inner bailey. At the time, the vast majority of castles in England were built using earth and timber, there are 48 castles directly mentioned in the Domesday Book, although not all those in existence at the time were recorded. In the early 12th century, Henry I began the construction of a keep at Corfe
33.
Dorset
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Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
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Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Edward the Martyr". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
