1.
Illuminated manuscript
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An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders and miniature illustrations. Comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted, islamic manuscripts may be referred to as illuminated, illustrated or painted, though using essentially the same techniques as Western works. This article covers the technical, social and economic history of the subject, for an art-historical account, the earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period 400 to 600, produced in the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire. The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent artistic and historical value, had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have perished in Europe. As it was, the patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians, the majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. The majority of manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, a number of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, which had superseded scrolls, a very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, which does not last nearly as long as vellum or parchment. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment, beginning in the late Middle Ages manuscripts began to be produced on paper. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century, Manuscripts are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages, many thousands survive. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting. There are a few examples from later periods, the type of book that was most often heavily and richly illuminated, sometimes known as a display book, varied between periods. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be Gospel Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Romanesque period saw the creation of many huge illuminated complete Bibles – one in Sweden requires three librarians to lift it. Many Psalters were also illuminated in both this and the Gothic period. Finally, the Book of Hours, very commonly the personal book of a wealthy layperson, was often richly illuminated in the Gothic period. Other books, both liturgical and not, continued to be illuminated at all periods, the Byzantine world also continued to produce manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. See Medieval art for other regions, periods and types, reusing parchments by scraping the surface and reusing them was a common practice, the traces often left behind of the original text are known as palimpsests. The Gothic period, which saw an increase in the production of these beautiful artifacts, also saw more secular works such as chronicles
2.
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
3.
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
4.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
5.
Harold Godwinson
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Harold Godwinson, often called Harold II, was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October and his death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. Harold was an earl and member of a prominent Anglo-Saxon family with ties to Cnut the Great. Upon the death of Edward the Confessor in January 1066, the Witenagemot convened and chose Harold to succeed, he was crowned in Westminster Abbey. In late September, he repelled an invasion by rival claimant Harald Hardrada of Norway before marching his army back south to meet William the Conqueror at Hastings some two weeks later. Harold was a son of Godwin, the powerful Earl of Wessex, gythas brother was Ulf the Earl, who married Cnuts sister Estrith. This made Ulf the son-in-law of King Sweyn Forkbeard, Ulf, Godwin was the son of Wulfnoth, probably a thegn and a native of Sussex. Godwin began his career by supporting King Edmund Ironside, but switched to supporting King Cnut by 1018. Godwin remained an earl throughout the remainder of Cnuts reign, one of two earls to survive to the end of that reign. Harthacnuts death in 1042 probably involved Godwin in a role as kingmaker, in 1045 Godwin reached the height of his power when the new king married Godwins daughter Edith. Godwin and Gytha had several children – six sons, Sweyn, Harold, Tostig, Gyrth, Leofwine and Wulfnoth, the birthdates of the children are unknown, but Sweyn was the eldest and Harold was the second son. Harold was aged about 25 in 1045, which makes his birth year around 1020, Edith married Edward on 23 January 1045 and, around that time, Harold became Earl of East Anglia. Harold is called earl when he appears as a witness in a will that may date to 1044, one reason for his appointment to East Anglia may have been a need to defend against the threat from King Magnus the Good of Norway. It is possible that Harold led some of the ships from his earldom that were sent to Sandwich in 1045 against Magnus, Sweyn, Harolds elder brother, had been named an earl in 1043. The relationship was a form of marriage that was not blessed or sanctioned by the Church, known as more Danico, or in the Danish manner, any children of such a union were considered legitimate. Harold probably entered the relationship in part to support in his new earldom. Harolds elder brother Sweyn was exiled in 1047 after abducting the abbess of Leominster, sweyns lands were divided between Harold and a cousin, Beorn. In 1049, Harold was in command of a ship or ships that were sent with a fleet to aid the German Emperor Henry III against Baldwin V, Count of Flanders, who was in revolt against Henry
6.
William the Conqueror
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William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward, after a long struggle to establish his power, by 1060 his hold on Normandy was secure, and he launched the Norman conquest of England six years later. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, William was the son of the unmarried Robert I, Duke of Normandy, by Roberts mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and his youth caused some difficulties for him after he succeeded his father, during his childhood and adolescence, members of the Norman aristocracy battled each other, both for control of the child duke and for their own ends. In 1047 William was able to quash a rebellion and begin to establish his authority over the duchy and his marriage in the 1050s to Matilda of Flanders provided him with a powerful ally in the neighbouring county of Flanders. By the time of his marriage, William was able to arrange the appointments of his supporters as bishops and his consolidation of power allowed him to expand his horizons, and by 1062 William was able to secure control of the neighbouring county of Maine. In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by the childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were other claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwinson. William argued that Edward had previously promised the throne to him, William built a large fleet and invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After further military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066 and he made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. Several unsuccessful rebellions followed, but by 1075 Williams hold on England was mostly secure, Williams final years were marked by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his eldest son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes. In 1086 William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France and his reign in England was marked by the construction of castles, the settling of a new Norman nobility on the land, and change in the composition of the English clergy. He did not try to integrate his various domains into one empire, Williams lands were divided after his death, Normandy went to his eldest son, Robert Curthose, and his second surviving son, William Rufus, received England. Norsemen first began raiding in what became Normandy in the late 8th century, permanent Scandinavian settlement occurred before 911, when Rollo, one of the Viking leaders, and King Charles the Simple of France reached an agreement surrendering the county of Rouen to Rollo. The lands around Rouen became the core of the duchy of Normandy. Normandy may have used as a base when Scandinavian attacks on England were renewed at the end of the 10th century. In an effort to improve matters, King Æthelred the Unready took Emma of Normandy, sister of Duke Richard II, as his second wife in 1002
7.
Kingdom of Hungary
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The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Edward the Exile
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Edward the Exile, also called Edward Ætheling, was the son of King Edmund Ironside and of Ealdgyth. He spent most of his life in exile following the defeat of his father by Canute the Great, instead, the two boys were secretly sent either to Kiev, where Olofs daughter Ingigerd was the Queen, or to Poland, where Canutes uncle Bolesław I Chrobry was duke. Later Edward made his way to Hungary, probably in the retinue of Ingigerds son-in-law, András in 1046, on hearing the news of his being alive, Edward the Confessor recalled him to England in 1056 and made him his heir. Edward offered the last chance of an undisputed succession within the Saxon royal house, news of Edwards existence came at a time when the old Anglo-Saxon Monarchy, restored after a long period of Danish domination, was heading for catastrophe. From across the Channel William, Duke of Normandy, also had an eye on the succession, Edward the Exile appeared at just the right time. Edward, who had been in the custody of Henry III, but he died within two days of his arrival. The exact cause of Edwards death remains unclear, but he had powerful enemies. This turn of events left the throne of England to be disputed by Earl Harold and Duke William and he was buried in Old St Pauls Cathedral. Edwards wife was named Agatha, whose origins are disputed and their children were, Edgar Ætheling - Elected King of England after the Battle of Hastings but submitted to William the Conqueror. Saint Margaret of Scotland - Married King Malcolm III of Scotland, cristina - Abbess at Romsey Abbey. Edwards grandchild Edith of Scotland, also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England, of his more immediate ancestors, all four of Edwards male-line ancestors shown in the diagram below were Kings of England before Cnut the Great took the crown and sent Edward into exile. House of Wessex family tree Castle Réka Ronay, Gabriel, the lost King of England, the East European adventures of Edward the Exile. Edward 18 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England Marek, Miroslav
11.
Agatha, wife of Edward the Exile
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Agatha was the wife of Edward the Exile and mother of Edgar Ætheling, Saint Margaret of Scotland and Cristina of England. Her antecedents are unclear and the subject of much speculation, nothing is known of Agathas early life, and what speculation has appeared is inextricably linked to the contentious issue of Agathas paternity, one of the unresolved questions of medieval genealogy. As the birth of her children is placed at around the year 1045. She came to England with her husband and children in 1057, following the Norman conquest of England, in 1067 she fled with her children to Scotland, finding refuge under her future son-in-law Malcolm III. Agathas origin is alluded to in numerous surviving medieval sources, but the information they provide is sometimes imprecise, often contradictory, onomastic analysis has also been brought to bear on the question. The name Agatha itself is rare in western Europe at this time, there is speculation that the latter derive from Agathas eastern European ancestry. Specifically, her own name, the names of her daughters Cristina and Margaret, and those of her grandchildren Alexander, David, and Mary, have been used as possible indicators of her origins. The description of Agatha as a relative of Emperor Henry may be applicable to a niece of either Henry II or Henry III. Early attempts at reconstructing the relationship focused on the former and this solution remained popular among scholars through a good part of twentieth century. As tempting as it may be to thus view St, if St. Stephen and Giselle were indeed Agathas parents, her offspring would have had a strong claim to the Hungarian crown. Actually, there is no indication in Hungarian sources that any of Stephens children outlived him. Likewise, all of the solutions involving Henry II would seem to make Agatha much older than her husband, De Vajay reevaluated the chronology of the marriages and children of Gisela and concluded that Agatha was the daughter of Henry IIIs elder half-brother, Liudolf, Margrave of Frisia. This theory saw broad acceptance for thirty years until René Jetté resurrected a Kievan solution to the problem, Jetté pointed out that William of Malmesbury in De Gestis Regis Anglorum and several later chronicles unambiguously state that Agathas sister was a Queen of Hungary. From what we know about the biography of Edward the Exile, he loyally supported Andrew I of Hungary, following him from Kiev to Hungary in 1046, andrews wife and queen was Anastasia, a daughter of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev by Ingigerd of Sweden. Following Jettés logic, Edwards wife was daughter of Yaroslav. Onomastics have been seen as supporting Jettés and Hlawitschkas theory, among medieval royalty, Agathas rare Greek name is first recorded in the Macedonian dynasty of Byzantium, it was also one of the most frequent feminine names in the Kievan Rurikid dynasty. Agatha could have one of these. The names of Agathas immediate descendants — Margaret, Cristina, David and they may provide a clue to Agathas origin
12.
Cerdic of Wessex
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See also Ceretic for two kings with a similar name. Cerdic is cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Saxon Wessex, subsequent kings of Wessex all had some level of descent claimed in the Chronicle from Cerdic. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cerdic landed in what is today Hampshire in 495 with his son Cynric in five ships and he is said to have fought a Brittonic king named Natanleod at Natanleaga and killed him thirteen years later, and to have fought at Cerdicesleag in 519. Natanleaga is commonly identified as Netley Marsh in Hampshire and Cerdicesleag as Charford, the conquest of the Isle of Wight is also mentioned among his campaigns, and it was later given to his kinsmen, Stuf and Wihtgar. Cerdic is said to have died in 534 and was succeeded by his son Cynric, the early history of Wessex in the Chronicle has been considered unreliable, with duplicate reports of events and seemingly contradictory information. David Dumville has suggested that Cerdics true regnal dates are 538–554, some scholars suggest that Cerdic was the Saxon leader defeated by the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon, which was probably fought in 490. Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Cerdic is purely a legendary figure, and had no actual existence, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides a pedigree tracing Cerdics ancestry back to Wōden and the antediluvian patriarchs. Curiously, the name Cerdic is thought by scholars to be Brittonic – a form of the name Ceretic - rather than Germanic in origin. The name derives, ultimately, from the British name *Caraticos and this may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became Anglicised over time. This view is supported by the potentially non-Germanic names of some of his descendants including Ceawlin, Cedda, Cerdics father, Elesa, has been identified by some scholars with the Romano-Briton Elasius, the chief of the region, met by Germanus of Auxerre. Myres noted that when Cerdic and Cynric first appear in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in s. a.495 they are described as ealdormen, which at that point in time was a fairly junior rank. Myres remarks that, It is thus odd to find it used here to describe the leaders of what purports to be an independent band of invaders, whose origins, summing up, Myres believed that, It is thus possible. To think of Cerdic as the head of a partly British noble family with extensive territorial interests at the end of the Litus Saxonicum. As such he may well have been entrusted in the last days of Roman and he would then be what in later Anglo-Saxon terminology could be described as an ealdorman. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Cerdic 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which says he and his son arrived in Hampshire, at Cerdices Ore
13.
King of England
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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
14.
Witenagemot
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The Witenaġemot, also known as the Witan was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century. The institution is thought to represent a development of the ancient Germanic general assemblies. The terms Witan and Witenagemot are increasingly avoided by historians, although few would go as far as Geoffrey Hindley. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England prefers Kings Council, but adds that it was known in Old English as the witan, for these reasons, in his study of the origins of the English parliament, he generally preferred the more neutral word assembly. He described witena gemot as an eleventh century usage, with only nine pre-Conquest examples. Patrick Wormald was also sceptical, describing witena-gemot as a word always rare, despite historians best efforts to find in it some permanence of character, the exact nature of the witenagemot remains essentially vague, fluctuating, and incoherent. Nevertheless, there is direct evidence of the witans various activities. Knowledge about who made up the witan and who was present at their meetings is provided mainly by lists of witnesses to charters, or grants of land, reference to the witans acta or official decisions are also preserved in law codes. The first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca,600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose, however, the witan was certainly in existence long before this time. Altogether, about 2000 charters and 40 law codes survive which attest to the workings of the meetings of the witan. These documents clearly indicate that the witan was composed of the nations highest echelon of both ecclesiastical and secular officers, present on the ecclesiastical side were archbishops, bishops, and abbots, and occasionally also abbesses and priests, on the secular side ealdormen and thegns. Members of the family were also present, and the king presided over the entire body. In his investigation into Anglo-Saxon institutions, H. M. Chadwick wrote, I have not thought it necessary to discuss at length the nature of the powers possessed by the council, there can be little hope of arriving at any definite conclusions on this subject. Indeed it seems at least doubtful whether the functions of the council were ever properly defined, similarly, in his study of the witenagemots, Felix Liebermann stated that its functions and power differ. Still, he was able to give a detailed description of its constitution. The king, generally indeed advised by the nobility, conferred prelatures and ealdormanries. Members of the family, ladies not excepted, were present at many gemots. The witan was noted by contemporary sources as having the power to ceosan to cyninge
15.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
16.
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
17.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
18.
Saint Margaret of Scotland
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Saint Margaret of Scotland, also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Margaret was sometimes called The Pearl of Scotland, born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the shortly reigned and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Margaret and her returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057. In 1070 Margaret married King Malcolm III of Scotland, becoming Queen of Scots. Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland, or four, if Edmund of Scotland, who ruled with his uncle, Donald III, is counted, and of a queen consort of England. In 1250 Pope Innocent IV canonized her, and her remains were reinterred in a shrine in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife and her relics were dispersed after the Scottish Reformation and subsequently lost. Mary, Queen of Scots at one time owned her head, Margaret was the daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, king of England. After the Danish conquest of England in 1016, King Canute the Great had the infant Edward exiled to the continent and he was taken first to the court of the Swedish king, Olof Skötkonung, and then to Kiev. As an adult, he travelled to Hungary, where in 1046 he supported the bid of King Andrew I for the Hungarian crown. King Andrew I was then known as Andrew the Catholic for his extreme aversion to pagans. The provenance of Margarets mother, Agatha, is legally disputed and her brother Edgar the Ætheling and sister Cristina were also born in Hungary around this time. Margaret grew up in a religious environment in the Hungarian court. When Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, Harold Godwinson was selected as king, according to tradition, the widowed Agatha decided to leave Northumbria, England with her children and return to the continent. However, a storm drove their ship north to the Kingdom of Scotland in 1068, the locus where it is believed that they landed is known today as St Margarets Hope, near the village of North Queensferry, Fife, Scotland. King Malcolm III was a widower with two sons, Donald and Duncan and he would have been attracted to marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret occurred in 1070, subsequently, Malcolm executed several invasions of Northumberland to support the claim of his new brother-in-law Edgar and to increase his own power. These, however, had little effect save the devastation of the County, Andrews, credits her with having a civilizing influence on her husband Malcolm by reading him narratives from the Bible. She instigated religious reform, striving to conform the worship and practices of the Church in Scotland to those of Rome and this she did on the inspiration and with the guidance of Lanfranc, a future Archbishop of Canterbury
19.
Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile
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Cristina, daughter of Edward the Exile and Agatha, was the sister of Edgar Ætheling and Saint Margaret of Scotland, born in the 1040s. Cristinas nieces Edith and Mary were sent to Romsey Abbey, near Southampton, Cristina came to the Kingdom of England with her family in 1057, from Hungary. Along with her siblings, she went into exile in the Kingdom of Scotland, at the court of Malcolm III, at some time before 1086, Cristina returned to England, and entered the nunnery at Romsey Abbey, where she tutored her nieces Edith and Mary. Edith gave testimony to a conclave of bishops summoned by Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury to determine whether Edith could lawfully marry Henry I of England, Edith claimed she had pulled the veil off and stamped on it, and that Cristina had beaten and scolded her for it. Cristinas land-holdings in Ulverley, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire are recorded in the Domesday Book, the date of her death is not known, but she does not appear to have given evidence to the conclave, suggesting she died sometime before 1100. Additional evidence of her death includes the transfer before 1093 of her nieces to Wilton Abbey for further education, dunlop, Eileen, Queen Margaret of Scotland. National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh,2005, ISBN 1-901663-92-2 Henson, Donald, The English Elite in 1066. Christina 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
20.
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
21.
Earl of Wessex
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Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created three times in British history, twice in the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The region of Wessex, in the south and southwest of England, had one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Wessex was one of the four earldoms of Anglo-Danish England, in this period, the earldom of Wessex covered the lands of the old kingdom of Wessex, covering the counties of the south of England, and extending west to the Welsh border. During the reign of King Cnut, the earldom was conferred on Godwin at some time after 1020, thereafter, Godwin rose to become, in King Edwards time, the most powerful man in the kingdom. Upon Godwins death in 1053, the passed to his son. Following the Norman conquest in the winter of 1066, King William bestowed the earldom on William FitzOsbern, FitzOsbern continued to help William consolidate his new realm until his death in Flanders in 1071. Following this, the earldom was reduced in power and regional jurisdiction, instead, the Palace announced that Prince Edward would eventually succeed to the title of Duke of Edinburgh, currently held by his father. His wife Sophie became The Countess of Wessex, the current Earl of Wessex is also Viscount Severn. This subsidiary title is used as a title by the Earls son. The family seat is Bagshot Park, near Bagshot, Surrey, the heir apparent is the present holders son James, Viscount Severn. The Earls son is currently the only person in the line of succession to the titles of Earl of Wessex, david Crouch, The Normans ISBN 1-85285-387-5 Emma Mason The House of Godwine ISBN 1-85285-389-1
22.
Sweyn II of Denmark
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Sweyn II Estridsson was King of Denmark from 1047 until his death in 1076. He was the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter and he was married three times, and fathered 20 children or more out of wedlock, including the five future kings Harald III Hen, Canute IV the Saint, Oluf I Hunger, Eric I Evergood, and Niels. He was courageous in battle, but did not have success as a military commander. His skeleton reveals that he was a tall, powerfully built man who walked with a limp, Sweyn was born in England, as the son of Ulf Jarl and Estrid Svendsdatter, the daughter of king Sweyn I of Denmark and sister of king Canute the Great. Sweyn grew up a military leader, and served under king Anund Jacob of Sweden for a time and he pillaged the Elbe-Weser area in 1040, but was caught by the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, who released him shortly thereafter. Svend was made jarl under Danish king Harthacnut, and led a campaign for him against Norway, when Harthacnut died in 1042, Magnus claimed the Danish throne and made Svend his jarl of Jutland. In 1043, Sweyn fought for Magnus at the Battle of Lyrskov Heath at Hedeby, near the border of Denmark. Sweyn won great reputation at Lyrskov Heath, and had the Danish nobles crown him king in Viborg in Jutland and he was defeated by Magnus on several occasions, and had to flee to Sweden. Eventually he managed to return and establish a foothold in Scania, the war between Magnus and Sweyn lasted until 1045, when Magnus uncle Harald Hardrada returned to Norway from exile. Harald and Sweyn joined forces, and Magnus decided to share the Norwegian throne with Harald, in 1047 Magnus died, having stated on his deathbed that his kingdom would be divided, Harald would get the throne of Norway, while Sweyn would be king of Denmark. Upon hearing of Magnus death Sweyn said, Now so help me God, Harald, unwilling to relinquish Denmark, attacked Sweyn and fought a long war. Harald sacked Hedeby in 1050, and also sacked Aarhus, Sweyn almost captured Harald in 1050, when Harald attacked the coast of Jutland and loaded his ships with goods and captives. Sweyns flotilla caught up with the Norwegians and Harald ordered his men to throw out the captured goods, Sweyn ordered his men to leave the goods and go after Harald. Harald then ordered his men to throw the captives overboard, for them Sweyn was willing to let Harald slip away. Sweyn came close to losing his life at the naval Battle of Niså off the coast of Halland in 1062, according to the sagas Harald urged Sweyn to meet him in a final and decisive battle at Elv in the spring of 1062. When Sweyn and the Danish army did not show up, Harald sent home a part of his army. When Sweyn finally came to meet Harald, his fleet numbered 300 ships to Haralds 150, the fleets met at night and the battle lasted until morning, when the Danes started to flee. In the sagas the Norwegian victory is credited to earl Haakon Ivarsson
23.
Harald Hardrada
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Harald Sigurdsson, given the epithet Hardrada in the sagas, was King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. In addition, he claimed the Danish throne until 1064. Prior to becoming king, Harald had spent around fifteen years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus, when he was fifteen years old, in 1030, Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad together with his half-brother Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to the Danish king Cnut the Great two years prior, in the battle, Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus. He thereafter spent some time in the army of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, eventually obtaining rank as a captain, Harald amassed considerable wealth during his time in the Byzantine Empire, which he shipped to Yaroslav in Kievan Rus for safekeeping. He finally left the Byzantines in 1042, and arrived back in Kievan Rus in order to prepare his campaign of reclaiming the Norwegian throne, possibly to Haralds knowledge, in his absence the Norwegian throne had been restored from the Danes to Olafs illegitimate son Magnus the Good. In 1046, Harald joined forces with Magnuss rival in Denmark, the pretender Sweyn II of Denmark, Magnus, unwilling to fight his uncle, agreed to share the kingship with Harald, since Harald in turn would share his wealth with him. The co-rule ended abruptly the next year as Magnus died, domestically, Harald crushed all local and regional opposition, and outlined the territorial unification of Norway under a national governance. Haralds reign was one of relative peace and stability, and he instituted a viable coin economy. Probably seeking to restore Cnuts North Sea Empire, Harald also claimed the Danish throne, although the campaigns were successful, he was never able to conquer Denmark. Harald went along and entered Northern England in September 1066, raided the coast, although initially successful, Harald was defeated and killed in an attack by Harold Godwinsons forces in the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Modern historians have often considered Haralds death at Stamford Bridge, which brought an end to his invasion, Harald is also commonly held to have been the last great Viking king, or even the last great Viking. Through his mother Åsta, Harald was the youngest of King Olaf Haraldssons three half-brothers, in his youth, Harald displayed traits of a typical rebel with big ambitions, and admired Olaf as his role model. He thus differed from his two brothers, who were more similar to their father, down-to-earth and mostly concerned with maintaining the farm. The Icelandic sagas, in particular Snorri Sturluson in Heimskringla, claim that Sigurd, following a revolt in 1028, Haralds brother Olaf was forced into exile until he returned to Norway in early 1030. On hearing news of Olafs planned return, Harald gathered 600 men from the Uplands to meet Olaf and his men upon their arrival in the east of Norway. After a friendly welcome, Olaf went on to gather an army and eventually fight in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030, the battle was part of an attempt to restore Olaf to the Norwegian throne, which had been captured by the Danish king Cnut the Great. The battle resulted in defeat for the brothers at the hands of those Norwegians who were loyal to Cnut, Harald was nonetheless remarked to have shown considerable military talent during the battle
24.
Eadwig
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Eadwig, also spelled Edwy, usually called the All-Fair, was King of England from 955 until his premature death in 959. The elder son of King Edmund I and his Queen Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, Eadwigs short reign was tarnished by disputes with nobles and men of the church, including Dunstan and Archbishop Oda. Eadwig died in 959, having ruled less than four years and he was buried in the capital Winchester. His brother Edgar the Peaceful succeeded him, according to one legend, the feud with Dunstan began on the day of Eadwigs consecration, when he failed to attend a meeting of nobles. When Dunstan eventually found the young monarch, he was cavorting with a noblewoman named Æthelgifu, infuriated by this, Dunstan dragged Eadwig back and forced him to renounce the girl as a strumpet. Later realizing that he had provoked the king, Dunstan fled to the apparent sanctuary of his cloister, though Dunstan managed to escape, he refused to return to England until after Eadwigs death. The contemporary record of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports Eadwigs accession and Dunstan fleeing England, the cavorting in question consisted of Eadwig being away from the feast with Ælfgifu and her mother Æthelgifu. He later married Ælfgifu, who seems to have been the sister of Æthelweard the Chronicler, Æthelweard describes himself as the grandsons grandson of King Æthelred I. Eadwig was the son of King Edmund the Magnificent, grandson of King Edward the Elder, great-grandson of King Alfred the Great, Eadwig and Ælfgifu were therefore third cousins once removed. The annulment of the marriage of Eadwig and Ælfgifu is unusual in that it was against their will, the Church at the time regarded any union within seven degrees of consanguinity as incestuous. At the time, degree was reached by counting up to the ancestor and back. Dunstan, whilst in exile, became influenced by the Benedictines of Flanders, a pro-Dunstan, pro-Benedictine party began to form around Athelstan Half-Kings domain of East Anglia and supporting Eadwigs younger brother Edgar. Frustrated by the impositions and supported by Archbishop Oda of Canterbury. In 957, rather than see the country descend into civil war, Eadwig is known for his remarkable generosity in giving away land. In 956 alone, his sixty odd gifts of land make up around 5% of all genuine Anglo-Saxon charters, no known ruler in Europe matched that yearly total before the twelfth century, and his cessions are plausibly attributed to political insecurity. Eadwig died at an age in 959, in circumstances which remain unknown. He was succeeded by his brother Edgar the Peaceful, who reunited the kingdom, the history of Eadwigs reign caught the British imagination in the later 18th century, and was represented in paintings and drama, in particular, by numerous works to 1850. Artists who tackled the subjects it suggested included William Bromley, William Hamilton, William Dyce, Richard Dadd, literary works were written by Thomas Sedgwick Whalley, Thomas Warwick and Frances Burney
25.
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
26.
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
27.
Battle of Hastings
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It took place approximately 7 miles northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. The background to the battle was the death of the childless King Edward the Confessor in January 1066, Harold was crowned king shortly after Edwards death, but faced invasions by William, his own brother Tostig and the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada. Hardrada and Tostig defeated a hastily gathered army of Englishmen at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September 1066, the deaths of Tostig and Hardrada at Stamford Bridge left William as Harolds only serious opponent. While Harold and his forces were recovering, William landed his forces in the south of England at Pevensey on 28 September 1066. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went, the exact numbers present at the battle are unknown, modern estimates are around 10,000 for William and about 7,000 for Harold. Harold appears to have tried to surprise William, but scouts found his army and reported its arrival to William, the battle lasted from about 9 am to dusk. Early efforts of the invaders to break the English battle lines had little effect, therefore, Harolds death, probably near the end of the battle, led to the retreat and defeat of most of his army. After further marching and some skirmishes, William was crowned as king on Christmas Day 1066, there continued to be rebellions and resistance to Williams rule, but Hastings effectively marked the culmination of Williams conquest of England. Casualty figures are hard to come by, but some estimate that 2,000 invaders died along with about twice that number of Englishmen. William founded a monastery at the site of the battle, the altar of the abbey church supposedly placed at the spot where Harold died. In 911, French Carolingian ruler Charles the Simple allowed a group of Vikings to settle in Normandy under their leader Rollo and their settlement proved successful, and they quickly adapted to the indigenous culture, renouncing paganism, converting to Christianity, and intermarrying with the local population. Over time, the frontiers of the duchy expanded to the west, in 1002, King Æthelred II of England married Emma, the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy. Their son Edward the Confessor spent many years in exile in Normandy, Edward was childless and embroiled in conflict with the formidable Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his sons, and he may also have encouraged Duke William of Normandys ambitions for the English throne. Following King Edwards death on 5 January 1066, the lack of a clear heir led to a succession in which several contenders laid claim to the throne of England. Edwards immediate successor was the Earl of Wessex, Harold Godwinson, Harold was at once challenged by two powerful neighbouring rulers. Duke William claimed that he had promised the throne by King Edward. Harald III of Norway, commonly known as Harald Hardrada, also contested the succession, William and Harald Hardrada immediately set about assembling troops and ships for separate invasions. In early 1066, Harolds exiled brother Tostig Godwinson raided south-eastern England with a fleet he had recruited in Flanders, threatened by Harolds fleet, Tostig moved north and raided in East Anglia and Lincolnshire
28.
Normans
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The Normans were the people who, in the 10th and 11th centuries, gave their name to Normandy, a region in France. They were descended from Norse raiders and pirates from Denmark, Iceland and Norway who, under their leader Rollo, through generations of assimilation and mixing with the native Frankish and Gallo-Roman populations, their descendants gradually adopted the Carolingian-based cultures of West Francia. The distinct cultural and ethnic identity of the Normans emerged initially in the first half of the 10th century, the Norman dynasty had a major political, cultural and military impact on medieval Europe and even the Near East. The Normans were famed for their spirit and eventually for their Christian piety. They adopted the Gallo-Romance language of the Frankish land they settled, their becoming known as Norman, Normaund or Norman French. The Normans are noted both for their culture, such as their unique Romanesque architecture and musical traditions, and for their significant military accomplishments and their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report. They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the boys were orators. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war. The treaty offered Rollo and his men the French lands between the river Epte and the Atlantic coast in exchange for their protection against further Viking incursions. The area corresponded to the part of present-day Upper Normandy down to the river Seine. The territory was equivalent to the old province of Rouen. Before Rollos arrival, its populations did not differ from Picardy or the Île-de-France, the Norman language was forged by the adoption of the indigenous langue doïl branch of Romance by a Norse-speaking ruling class, and it developed into the regional language that survives today. The Normans thereafter adopted the growing feudal doctrines of the rest of France, the new Norman rulers were culturally and ethnically distinct from the old French aristocracy, most of whom traced their lineage to Franks of the Carolingian dynasty. Most Norman knights remained poor and land-hungry, and by 1066 Normandy had been exporting fighting horsemen for more than a generation, many Normans of Italy, France and England eventually served as avid Crusaders under the Italo-Norman prince Bohemund I and the Anglo-Norman king Richard the Lion-Heart. Opportunistic bands of Normans successfully established a foothold in Southern Italy, probably as the result of returning pilgrims stories, the Normans entered Southern Italy as warriors in 1017 at the latest. In 999, according to Amatus of Montecassino, Norman pilgrims returning from Jerusalem called in at the port of Salerno when a Saracen attack occurred. The Normans fought so valiantly that Prince Guaimar III begged them to stay, the Hauteville family achieved princely rank by proclaiming prince Guaimar IV of Salerno Duke of Apulia and Calabria. He promptly awarded their elected leader, William Iron Arm, with the title of count in his capital of Melfi
29.
Stigand
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Stigand was an Anglo-Saxon churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England who became Archbishop of Canterbury. His birth date is unknown, but by 1020 he was serving as a royal chaplain and he was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and was later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury. Stigand was as an advisor to members of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman English royal dynasties. Stigand was imprisoned at Winchester, where he died without regaining his liberty, Stigand served King Cnut as a chaplain at a royal foundation at Ashingdon in 1020, and as an advisor then and later. He continued in his role of advisor during the reigns of Cnuts sons, Harold Harefoot, when Cnuts stepson Edward the Confessor succeeded Harthacnut, Stigand in all probability became Englands main administrator. Monastic writers of the time accused Stigand of extorting money and lands from the church, and by 1066 the only estates richer than Stigands were the royal estates, in 1043 Edward appointed Stigand to the see of Elmham. Four years later he was appointed to the see of Winchester, and then in 1052 to the archdiocese of Canterbury, five successive popes, including Nicholas II and Alexander II, excommunicated Stigand for holding both Winchester and Canterbury. Stigand was present at the deathbed of King Edward and at the coronation of Harold Godwinson as king of England in 1066, after Harolds death, Stigand submitted to William the Conqueror. On Christmas Day 1066 Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, crowned William King of England, Stigands excommunication meant that he could only assist at the coronation. Despite growing pressure for his deposition, Stigand continued to attend the court and to consecrate bishops, until in 1070 he was deposed by papal legates. His intransigence towards the papacy was used as propaganda by Norman advocates of the view that the English church was backward, neither the year nor the date of Stigands birth is known. His brother Æthelmær, also a cleric, later succeeded Stigand as bishop of Elmham and his sister held land in Norwich, but her given name is unrecorded. Stigand first appears in the record in 1020 as a royal chaplain to King Cnut of England. In that year he was appointed to Cnuts church at Ashingdon, or Assandun, little is known of Stigands life during Cnuts reign, but he must have had a place at the royal court, as he witnessed occasional charters. Following Cnuts death Stigand successively served Cnuts sons, Harold Harefoot, after Harthacnut died Stigand became an advisor to Emma of Normandy, Cnuts widow and the mother of Harthacnut and his successor Edward the Confessor. He may have been Emmas chaplain, and it is possible that Stigand was already one of her advisors while Cnut was alive, because little is known of Stigands activities before his appointment as a bishop, it is difficult to determine to whom he owed his position. Stigand was appointed to the see of Elmham shortly after Edward the Confessors coronation on 3 April 1043 and this was the first episcopal appointment of Edwards reign. The diocese of Elmham covered East Anglia in eastern England, and was one of the episcopal sees at that time
30.
Ealdred (archbishop of York)
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Ealdred was Abbot of Tavistock, Bishop of Worcester, and Archbishop of York in Anglo-Saxon England. He was related to a number of other ecclesiastics of the period, after becoming a monk at the monastery at Winchester, he was appointed Abbot of Tavistock Abbey in around 1027. In 1046 he was named to the Bishopric of Worcester, Ealdred, besides his episcopal duties, served Edward the Confessor, the King of England, as a diplomat and as a military leader. He worked to bring one of the relatives, Edward the Exile. In 1058 he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the first bishop from England to do so and he helped secure the election of Wulfstan as his successor at Worcester. During his archiepiscopate, he built and embellished churches in his diocese, some sources state that following King Edward the Confessors death in 1066, it was Ealdred who crowned Harold Godwinson as King of England. Ealdred crowned King William on Christmas Day in 1066, William never quite trusted Ealdred or the other English leaders, and Ealdred had to accompany William back to Normandy in 1067, but he had returned to York by the time of his death in 1069. Ealdred supported the churches and monasteries in his diocese with gifts, Ealdred was probably born in the west of England, and could be related to Lyfing, his predecessor as bishop of Worcester. His family, from Devonshire, may have been well-to-do, another relative was Wilstan or Wulfstan, who under Ealdreds influence became Abbot of Gloucester. Ealdred was a monk in the chapter at Winchester Cathedral before becoming abbot of Tavistock Abbey about 1027. Even after leaving the abbacy of Tavistock, he continued to two properties from the abbey until his death. No contemporary documents relating to Ealdreds time as abbot have been discovered, Ealdred was made bishop of Worcester in 1046, a position he held until his resignation in 1062. Lyfing died on 26 March 1046, and Ealdred became bishop of Worcester shortly after. However, Ealdred did not receive the two dioceses that Lyfing had held, Crediton and Cornwall, King Edward the Confessor granted these to Leofric. Ealdred was an advisor to King Edward the Confessor, and was involved in the royal government. He was also a leader, and in 1046 he led an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh. This was in retaliation for a raid led by the Welsh rulers Gruffydd ap Rhydderch, Rhys ap Rhydderch, Ealdreds expedition was betrayed by some Welsh soldiers who were serving with the English, and Ealdred was defeated. In 1050, Ealdred went to Rome on the errand, apparently to secure papal approval to move the seat, or centre
31.
River Thames
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The River Thames is a river that flows through southern England, most notably through London. At 215 miles, it is the longest river entirely in England and it also flows through Oxford, Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Windsor. The lower reaches of the river are called the Tideway, derived from its tidal reach up to Teddington Lock. It rises at Thames Head in Gloucestershire, and flows into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, the Thames drains the whole of Greater London. Its tidal section, reaching up to Teddington Lock, includes most of its London stretch and has a rise, in Scotland, the Tay achieves more than double the average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller. Along its course are 45 navigation locks with accompanying weirs and its catchment area covers a large part of South Eastern and a small part of Western England and the river is fed by 38 named tributaries. The river contains over 80 islands, in 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world – the $350,000 International Riverprize. The Thames, from Middle English Temese, is derived from the Brittonic Celtic name for the river, Tamesas, recorded in Latin as Tamesis and yielding modern Welsh Tafwys Thames. It has also suggested that it is not of Celtic origin. A place by the river, rather than the river itself, indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name Thames is provided by a Roman potsherd found at Oxford, bearing the inscription Tamesubugus fecit. It is believed that Tamesubugus name was derived from that of the river, tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the Ravenna Cosmography. The rivers name has always pronounced with a simple t /t/, the Middle English spelling was typically Temese. A similar spelling from 1210, Tamisiam, is found in the Magna Carta, the Thames through Oxford is sometimes called the Isis. Ordnance Survey maps still label the Thames as River Thames or Isis down to Dorchester, richard Coates suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *lowonida. An alternative, and simpler proposal, is that London may also be a Germanic word, for merchant seamen, the Thames has long been just the London River. Londoners often refer to it simply as the river in such as south of the river. Thames Valley Police is a body that takes its name from the river. The marks of human activity, in cases dating back to Pre-Roman Britain, are visible at various points along the river
32.
Wallingford, Oxfordshire
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Wallingford is an ancient market town and civil parish in the upper Thames Valley in England. Historically in Berkshire, it was transferred to Oxfordshire in 1974, Wallingford is situated 12 miles north of Reading,13 miles south of Oxford and 11 miles north west of Henley-on-Thames. The towns royal but mostly ruined Wallingford Castle held high status in the medieval period as a regular royal residence until the Black Death hit the town badly in 1349. Empress Matilda retreated here for the time from Oxford Castle in 1141. The castle declined subsequently, much stone being removed to renovate Windsor Castle, nonetheless the towns Priory produced two of the greatest minds of the age, the mathematician Richard of Wallingford and the chronicler John of Wallingford. Wallingford is on the west bank of the River Thames downstream of Oxford, at southern end of the town is the settlement of Winterbrook. The town bypass crosses the river to the southwest over Winterbrook Bridge, the centre of Wallingford has the feel of a typical old market town, with a large open town square around the war memorial, the 17th century arcaded town hall, and numerous shops. There are some alleyways and a number of historic inns, amenities include Wallingford Museum, the Corn Exchange theatre, Cholsey and Wallingford steam railway, public parks - one with the castle ruins. A blues festival, the annual BunkFest folk festival and a carnival are popular annual events, in recent years, the town has been used as a location for filming, notably Midsomer Murders which has also featured the Parish Church Choir. Wallingford is run by a council consisting of 16 councillors. It is part of the South Oxfordshire district and the county of Oxfordshire having formerly been represented by the Municipal Borough of Wallingford, the Member of Parliament is Ed Vaizey and the County Councillor is Lynda Atkins, one of four Independent members of Oxfordshire County Council. As with the rest of the British Isles and Oxfordshire, Wallingford experiences a climate with cool summers. There has been a station at the nearby Centre for Ecology & Hydrology collecting data on the local climate since 1961. Temperature extremes at Wallingford vary from −21.0 °C in January 1982, recent low temperatures include −17.6 °C during January 2010 and −17.5 °C during December 2010. Wallingford grew up around an important crossing point of the River Thames, the place has been fortified since at least Anglo-Saxon times, when it was an important fortified borough of Wessex with the right to mint Royal coinage. It was enclosed with substantial earthworks by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century as part of a network of fortified towns known as burhs or burghs to protect Wessex against the Vikings. These defences can still be discerned as a group of four roughly square areas around the centre of the town and are probably the best preserved such fortifications in England. Wallingford became the town of Berkshire and the seat of the countys Ealdorman
33.
Berkhamsted
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Berkhamsted /ˈbɜːrkəmstɛd/ is a medium-sized historic market town on the western edge of Hertfordshire, England. The affluent commuter town is located in the small Bulbourne valley in the Chiltern Hills,26 miles northwest of London, Berkhamsted is a civil parish, with a town council within the larger borough of Dacorum. People have been living in the Berkhamsted area for over 5,000 years, there is evidence of flint working in the Neolithic period and metal working in the late Iron Age and Roman periods. The high street is on a route known by its Saxon name Akeman Street. The earliest written reference to Berkhamsted is in 970AD, Berkhamsted was recorded as a burbium in the Domesday Book in 1086. The oldest known extant jettied timber-framed building in Great Britain, built 1277 -1297, in the 13th and 14th century the town was a wool trading town, with thriving local market. The most important event in the history was in December 1066. After William the Conqueror defeated King Harolds Anglo-Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings, the event was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. After the castle was abandoned in 1495 the town went into decline, modern Berkhamsted began to expand following the construction of the canal and the railway in the 19th century. Among those born in Berkhamsted was Colonel Daniel Axtell, who was the captain of the Parliamentary Guard at the trial, the towns literary connections include the 17th century hymnist and poet, William Cowper, the 18th century writer Maria Edgeworth, and the 20th century novelist Graham Greene. The earliest recorded spelling of the name is the 10th century Anglo-Saxon Beorhðanstædæ. The first part originates from the Old Celtic word Bearroc, meaning place, alternatively it may originate from the Old English words beorg, meaning hill, or berc or beorc. The latter part, hamsted, derives from the Old English word for homestead, Local historian Percy Birtchnell identified over 50 different spellings and epithets for the towns name since the writing of the Domesday Book, the present spelling was adopted in 1937. Other spellings included, Berkstead, Berkampsted, Berkhampstead, Muche Barkhamstede, Berkhamsted Magna, Great Berkhamsteed, the towns local nickname is Berko. Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts show that the Berkhamsted area of the Bulbourne Valley has been settled for over 5,000 years, the discovery of a large number of worked flint chips provides Neolithic evidence of on-site flint knapping in the centre of Berkhamsted. Several settlements dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age have been discovered south of Berkhamsted. Three sections of a late Bronze Age to Iron Age bank and ditch, sixteen feet wide by seven to thirteen feet high, another Iron Age dyke with the same name is on Berkhamsted Common, on the north side of the valley. In the late Iron Age, prior to the Roman occupation, the Bulbourne Valley was rich in timber and iron ore
34.
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
35.
Malcolm III of Scotland
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Malcolm was King of Scots from 1058 to 1093. Malcolms long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age and he is the historical equivalent of the character of the same name in William Shakespeares Macbeth. Malcolm III fought a series of wars against the Kingdom of England and these wars did not result in any significant advances southward. Malcolms second wife, St. Margaret of Scotland, is Scotlands only royal saint, Malcolm himself had no reputation for piety, with the notable exception of Dunfermline Abbey in Fife he is not definitely associated with major religious establishments or ecclesiastical reforms. Malcolms father Duncan I became king in late 1034, on the death of Malcolm II, Duncans maternal grandfather, Duncans reign was not successful and he was killed by Macbeth on 15 August 1040. Although Shakespeares Macbeth presents Malcolm as a man and his father as an old one, it appears that Duncan was still young in 1040. Malcolms family did attempt to overthrow Macbeth in 1045, but Malcolms grandfather Crínán of Dunkeld was killed in the attempt, soon after the death of Duncan his two young sons were sent away for greater safety—exactly where is the subject of debate. According to one version, Malcolm was sent to England, based on Forduns account, it was assumed that Malcolm passed most of Macbeths seventeen-year reign in the Kingdom of England at the court of Edward the Confessor. An English invasion in 1054, with Siward, Earl of Northumbria in command, had as its goal the installation of one Máel Coluim and this Máel Coluim has traditionally been identified with the later Malcolm III. This interpretation derives from the Chronicle attributed to the 14th-century chronicler of Scotland, John of Fordun, the latter reported that Macbeth was killed in the battle by Siward, but it is known that Macbeth outlived Siward by two years. A. A. M. Duncan argued in 2002 that, using the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry as their source, Duncans argument has been supported by several subsequent historians specialising in the era, such as Richard Oram, Dauvit Broun and Alex Woolf. It has also suggested that Máel Coluim may have been a son of Owain Foel, British king of Strathclyde perhaps by a daughter of Malcolm II. In 1057 various chroniclers report the death of Macbeth at Malcolms hand, Macbeth was succeeded by his stepson Lulach, who was crowned at Scone, probably on 8 September 1057. Lulach was killed by Malcolm, by treachery, near Huntly on 23 April 1058, after this, Malcolm became king, perhaps being inaugurated on 25 April 1058, although only John of Fordun reports this. If he did visit the English court, he was the first reigning king of Scots to do so in more than eighty years. If a marriage agreement was made in 1059, it was not kept, equally, Malcolms raids in Northumbria may have been related to the disputed Kingdom of the Cumbrians, reestablished by Earl Siward in 1054, which was under Malcolms control by 1070. The Orkneyinga saga reports that Malcolm married the widow of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Ingibiorg, although Ingibiorg is generally assumed to have died shortly before 1070, it is possible that she died much earlier, around 1058. The Orkneyinga Saga records that Malcolm and Ingibiorg had a son, Duncan II, Malcolms son Domnall, whose death is reported in 1085, is not mentioned by the author of the Orkneyinga Saga
36.
Kingdom of Northumbria
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The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the southern limit to the kingdoms territory. Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times, at the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey, the later earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria was lost to the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south, much of this land was debated between England and Scotland, but the Earldom of Northumbria was eventually recognised as part of England by the Anglo-Scottish Treaty of York in 1237. On the northern border, Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is north of the Tweed but had changed many times, was defined as subject to the laws of England by the Wales. The local Environment Agency office, located in Newcastle Business Park, otherwise, the term is not the official name for the UK and EU region of North East England. See also, List of monarchs of Northumbria and Timeline of Northumbria Northumbria was originally formed from the union of two independent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira, Bernicia covered lands north of the Tees, while Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united by Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. He was defeated and killed around the year 616 in battle at the River Idle by Raedwald of East Anglia, who installed Edwin, the son of Ælla, a former king of Deira, as king. Edwin, who accepted Christianity in 627, soon grew to become the most powerful king in England, he was recognised as Bretwalda and conquered the Isle of Man and Gwynedd in northern Wales. He was, however, himself defeated by an alliance of the king of Gwynedd, Cadwallon ap Cadfan. After Edwins death, Northumbria was split between Bernicia, where Eanfrith, a son of Aethelfrith, took power, and Deira, cumbria tended to remain a country frontier with the Britons. Both of these rulers were killed during the year that followed, after the murder of Eanfrith, his brother, Oswald, backed by warriors sent by Domnall Brecc of Dál Riata, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield in 634. He incorporated Gododdin lands northwards up to the Firth of Forth and also extended his reach westward, encroaching on the remaining Cumbric speaking kingdoms of Rheged. Thus, Northumbria became not only part of modern Englands far north, King Oswald re-introduced Christianity to the Kingdom by appointing St. Aidan, an Irish monk from the Scottish island of Iona to convert his people. This led to the introduction of the practices of Celtic Christianity, a monastery was established on Lindisfarne. In 642, Oswald was killed by the Mercians under Penda at the Battle of Maserfield and this battle marked a major turning point in Northumbrian fortunes, Penda died in the battle, and Oswiu gained supremacy over Mercia, making himself the most powerful king in England
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York
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York is a historic walled city at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The municipality is the county town of Yorkshire to which it gives its name. The city has a heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events in England throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city offers a wealth of attractions, of which York Minster is the most prominent. The city was founded by the Romans as Eboracum in 71 AD and it became the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and later of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jórvík. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England. In the 19th century, York became a hub of the railway network, in recent decades, the economy of York has moved from being dominated by its confectionery and railway-related industries to one that provides services. The University of York and health services have become major employers, from 1996, the term City of York describes a unitary authority area which includes rural areas beyond the old city boundaries. In 2011 the urban area had a population of 153,717, the word York derives from the Latinised name for the city, variously rendered as Eboracum, Eburacum or Eburaci. The first mention of York by this name is dated to circa 95–104 AD as an address on a wooden stylus tablet from the Roman fortress of Vindolanda in Northumberland, the toponymy of Eboracum is uncertain because the language of the pre-Roman indigenous population was never recorded. They are thought to have spoken a Celtic language related to modern Welsh, in his Historia Regum Britanniae the 12th century chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, suggests the name derives from that of a pre-Roman city founded by the legendary king Ebraucus. Alternatively, the word already existed as an Old English word for wild swine. The Anglo-Saxon newcomers probably interpreted the part as eofor, and -rac as ric, while -um was a common abbreviation of the Saxon -heem. To them, it sounded as a home rich in boar, as is common in Saxon place names, the -um part gradually faded, eoforic. When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, its name became Jórvík, the Old French and Norman name of the city following the Norman Conquest was recorded as Everwic in works such as Waces Roman de Rou. The form York was first recorded in the 13th century, many company and place names, such as the Ebor race meeting, refer to the Roman name. The Archbishop of York uses Ebor as his surname in his signature, archaeological evidence suggests that Mesolithic people settled in the region of York between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known whether their settlements were permanent or temporary. By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, the area was occupied by a known to the Romans as the Brigantes
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Humber
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The Humber /ˈhʌmbər/ is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse, from here to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire on the north bank and Lincolnshire on the south bank. Although the Humber is an estuary from the point at which it is formed, Ports on the Humber include the Port of Hull, Port of Grimsby, Port of Immingham, as well as lesser ports at New Holland and North Killingholme Haven. The estuary is navigable here for the largest of deep-sea vessels, inland connections for smaller craft are extensive but handle only one quarter of the goods traffic handled in the Thames. The Humber is now an estuary, when the world sea level was lower during the Ice Ages, the Humber had a long freshwater course across what was then the dry bed of the North Sea. In the Anglo-Saxon period, the Humber was a major boundary, the name Northumbria came from Anglo-Saxon Norðhymbre = the people north of the Humber. The Humber currently forms the boundary between the East Riding of Yorkshire, to the north and North and North East Lincolnshire, from 1974 to 1996, the areas now known as the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire constituted the county of Humberside. On 23 August 1921, the British airship R38 crashed into the estuary near Hull, the estuarys only modern crossing is the Humber Bridge, which was once the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. Now it is the eighth longest, before the bridge was built in 1981, a series of paddle steamers operated from the Corporation Pier railway station at the Victoria Pier in Hull to the railway pier in New Holland. Steam ferries started in 1841, and in 1848 were purchased by the Manchester, Sheffield and they, and their successors, ran the ferry until the bridge opened in 1981. Although the railway to New Holland closed in 1977, passenger, the line of the bridge is similar to an ancient ferry route from Hessle to Barton upon Humber, which is noted in the Domesday Book and in a charter of 1281. The ferry was recorded as operating in 1856, into the railway era. The Humber was then one mile across, the Humber Forts were built in the mouth of the river for the First World War. Planned in 1914, their construction started in 1915 and they were not completed until 1919, a coastal battery at Easington, Fort Goodwin or Kilnsea Battery, faced the Bull Sands Fort. They were also garrisoned during the Second World War, and were abandoned for military use in 1956. Fort Paull is further downstream, a Napoleonic-era emplacement replaced in the early 20th century by Stallinborough Battery opposite Sunk Island, graham Boanas, a Hull man, is believed to be the first man to succeed in wading across the Humber since ancient Roman times. The feat, in August 2005, was attempted to cash and awareness for the medical research charity. He started his trek on the bank at Brough, four hours later
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Kingdom of Lindsey
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The Kingdom of Lindsey or Linnuis was a lesser Anglo-Saxon kingdom, which was absorbed into Northumbria in the 7th century. Lindsey lay between the Humber estuary and the Wash, forming its boundaries from the courses of the Witham and Trent rivers. A marshy region south of the Humber known as the Isle of Axholme was also included, place-name evidence indicates that the Anglian settlement known as Lindisfaras spread from the Humber coast. Lindsey means the island of Lincoln, it was surrounded by water, Lincoln was in the south-west part of the kingdom. During the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, from about 450, Lindsey was one of the lesser kingdoms, although it has its own list of kings, at an early date it came under external influence. It was from time to time effectively part of Deira, of the Northumbrian kingdom, Lindsey lost its independence long before the arrival of the Danish settlers. The kingdoms prominence was before the historical period, by the time of the first historical records of Lindsey, it had become a subjugated polity, under the alternating control of Northumbria and Mercia. Its subjugation may have occurred around AD500, during the period when the British leader known as Arthur fought his second, third and his twelfth victory held back Anglo-Saxon expansion for fifty years. All trace of Lindseys separate status had vanished before the Viking assault in the ninth century. Its territories were absorbed into the historical English county of Lincolnshire, the Anglian collection of genealogies, which was created in the last years of the reign of Offa of Mercia, gives a pedigree for Aldfrið, presumed to have been ruler of Lindsey. It traces him to the Anglo-Saxon god, Woden, likewise made ancestor of the other Anglo-Saxon dynasties, geot – Compare the Geats who are frequently mentioned in Beowulfs story. Godulf Finn Frioðulf Frealaf Woden, the god, winta – Compare Winteringham and Winterton, Lincolnshire. Cretta Cuelgils Caedbaed Bubba Beda Biscop Eanferð Eatta Aldfrið None of the individuals can be dated, though the name Biscop, Old English for bishop. Finally, it is uncertain at what point between Aldfrið and Woden the pedigree ceases to be historical, since this pedigree is the source for all of the individuals named. With regard to Aldfrið, Frank Stenton referred to the witness list for an Anglo-Saxon charter which includes an Ealfrid rex, scholars now believe that the name on the witness list should read Ecgfrið Rex, and refers to Offas son. He was anointed King of the Mercians in 787, nine years before his succession in 796, Stenton suggested that the name Biscop came from the title bishop and must post-date Paulinuss mission to Lindsey of 628 CE. But, as Sarah Foot has pointed out, Biscop does not need to have derived from an external origin. Lindisfaras Lindsey, Lincolnshire Bishop of Lindsey Leahy, Kevin, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Lindsey, The Archaeology of an Anglo-Saxon Kingdom
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Holderness
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Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the east coast of England. An area of agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common with the Netherlands than other parts of Yorkshire, to the north and west are the Yorkshire Wolds. The Prime Meridian passes through Holderness just to the east of Patrington, from 1974 to 1996 Holderness lay within the Borough of Holderness in Humberside. The city of Kingston upon Hull lies in the south-west corner of Holderness and Bridlington borders the north-east, the main towns include Beverley, Withernsea, Hornsea and Hedon. The Holderness Coast stretches from Flamborough Head to Spurn Head, the area has boundaries which are clearly defined by the rising land of the Yorkshire Wolds to the north and west, the North Sea to the east and the Humber Estuary to the south. There are no motorways in the area, however there is access to the motorway network via the A63 from Hull. Links to the continent are also via Hull, from where ferry services to Rotterdam. A-class roads centre upon Hull and the resort of Bridlington. Otherwise the A1033 road which connects Withernsea on the south-east coast to inland areas is the main route in the area. The only remaining rail link is the Yorkshire Coast Line that runs between Hull in the south and Bridlington and it tends to skirt the area towards the west. Until the 1960s there were lines from Hull to both Hornsea and Withernsea, but these were closed as a result of the Beeching Report. Furthermore, in 1901 there was a proposal to construct the North Holderness Light Railway from Beverley to North Frodingham railway station, but this came to nothing. As part of the United Kingdom, the Holderness area generally has cool summers, the wind sometimes causes depositions to happen. Between depressions there are often small mobile anticyclones that bring periods of fair weather, in winter anticyclones bring cold dry weather. In summer the anticyclones tend to bring dry settled conditions which can lead to drought, for its latitude this area is mild in winter and cooler in summer due to the influence of the Gulf Stream in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Air temperature varies on a daily and seasonal basis, the temperature is usually lower at night and January is the coldest time of the year. The landscape is dominated by deposits of till, boulder clays and these were deposited during the Devensian glaciation
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County of Flanders
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The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards the Counts of Flanders were one of the twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres formed one of the most affluent regions in Europe, up to 1477, the area under French suzerainty was located west of the Scheldt River and was called Royal Flanders. Aside from this the Counts of Flanders from the 11th century on also held land east of the river as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, an area called Imperial Flanders. Part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1384, the county was removed from French to Imperial control after the Peace of Madrid in 1526. In 1795 the remaining territory within the Austrian Netherlands was incorporated by the French First Republic, the former County of Flanders, except for French Flanders, is the only part of the medieval French kingdom that is not part of modern-day France. Flanders and Flemish are likely derived from the Frisian *flāndra and *flāmisk, the Flemish people are first mentioned in the biography of Saint Eligius, the Vita sancti Eligii. This work was written before 684, but only known since 725 and this work mentions the Flanderenses, who lived in Flandris. The geography of the historic County of Flanders only partially overlaps with present-day region of Flanders in Belgium, though there it extends beyond West Flanders. Some of the county is now part of France and the Netherlands. The arms of the County of Flanders were allegedly created by Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191, as a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of the Flemish Community. It is said that Philip of Alsace brought the flag with him from the Holy Land, where in 1177 he supposedly conquered it from a Saracen knight. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, in reality Philip was following a West-European trend. In the same period also appeared in the arms of Brabant, Luxembourg, Holland, Limburg. It is curious that the lion as a symbol was mostly used in border territories. It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, in Europe the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as the fables of Aesop. The future county of Flanders had been inhabited since prehistory, during the Iron Age the Kemmelberg formed an important Celtic settlement. During the times of Julius Caesar, the inhabitants were part of the Belgae, for Flanders in specific these were the Menapii, the Morini, the Nervii and the Atrebates
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Robert I, Count of Flanders
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Robert I of Flanders, known as Robert the Frisian, was count of Flanders from 1071 to his death in 1093. He was the son of Baldwin V of Flanders and Adèle of France. His elder brother, Baldwin, succeeded their father as Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders and his sister Matilda of Flanders had married William, then duke of Normandy and later King of England. His marriage to Gertrude of Saxony, dowager Countess of Holland in 1063 was not arranged by his father and she was the widow of Floris I, Count of Holland, who already had three children including a daughter Bertha. His nickname the Frisian was obtained, apparently, when he acted as regent for his stepson Dirk V, Richilde, Arnulfs mother and de jure Countess of Hainaut was to be regent until Arnulf came of age. After Baldwin VIs death, however, Robert disputed the succession of Arnulf, Richilde appealed to King Philip I of France who summoned Robert to appear before him. Robert refused and continued his war with Richilde at which point Philip I amassed an army which he brought to Flanders and his army was accompanied by Norman troops, probably sent by Queen Matilda and led by William FitzOsborn. William had an interest in marrying Richilde but he was killed in battle at Cassel, in that engagement Roberts forces were ultimately victorious but Robert himself was captured and his forces in turn captured the Countess Richilde. Both were freed in exchange and the continued to its conclusion. Among the dead was Arnulf III, killed by Gerbod the Fleming, as a result of the battle Robert claimed the countship of Flanders. The Countess Richilde and her son Baldwin returned to Hainaut but continued to instigate hostilities against Robert, Count Robert eventually gained the friendship of King Philip I of France by offering him the hand in marriage of his stepdaughter, Bertha of Holland. As a part of their negotiations Corbie, an important trade center on the border between Flanders and lesser France, was returned to royal control. Unlike his fathers reign, under Count Robert, Flanders no longer had ties to Normandy and became a refuge for the Conquerors enemies, including his rebellious son. In 1085 Robert the Frisian, along with his son-in-law Canute IV of Denmark, planned an attack on England. Taking a considerable armed escort Robert the Frisian made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086, in one battle Robert and three of his companions rode ahead of the main army charging the forces under the command of Kerbogha, whose forces the Christians scattered completely. Robert married Gertrude of Saxony, widow of Floris I, Count of Holland and they had the following children, Robert II, Count of Flanders, married Clementia of Burgundy. Adela of Flanders, married firstly King Canute IV of Denmark, and was the mother of Charles the Good, later Count of Flanders, married secondly Roger Borsa dHauteville, Duke of Apulia. Gertrude, married firstly Henry III, Count of Leuven and had four children, Philip of Loo, whose illegitimate son William of Ypres was also a claimant to the county of Flanders
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Philip I of France
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Philip I, called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to his death. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin, Philip was born 23 May 1052 at Champagne-et-Fontaine, the son of Henry I and his wife Anne of Kiev. Unusual at the time for Western Europe, his name was of Greek origin, although he was crowned king at the age of seven, until age fourteen his mother acted as regent, the first queen of France ever to do so. Baldwin V of Flanders also acted as co-regent, following the death of Baldwin VI of Flanders, Robert the Frisian seized Flanders. Baldwins wife, Richilda requested aid from Philip, who defeated Robert at the battle of Cassel in 1071, Philip first married Bertha in 1072. Although the marriage produced the heir, Philip fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort. He repudiated Bertha and married Bertrade on 15 May 1092, in 1094, he was excommunicated by Hugh of Die, for the first time, after a long silence, Pope Urban II repeated the excommunication at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. In France, the king was opposed by Bishop Ivo of Chartres, Philip appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his fathers, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals, in 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany. In 1082, Philip I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin, then in 1100, he took control of Bourges. It was at the aforementioned Council of Clermont that the First Crusade was launched, Philip at first did not personally support it because of his conflict with Urban II. Philips brother Hugh of Vermandois, however, was a major participant, Philip died in the castle of Melun and was buried per request at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire – and not in St Denis among his forefathers. He was succeeded by his son, Louis VI, whose succession was, however, according to Abbot Suger, Philip‘s children with Bertha were, Constance, married Hugh I of Champagne before 1097 and then, after her divorce, to Bohemund I of Antioch in 1106
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Domesday Book
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Domesday Book is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states, Then, at the midwinter, was the king in Glocester with his council. After this had the king a large meeting, and very deep consultation with his council, about this land, how it was occupied and it was written in Medieval Latin, was highly abbreviated, and included some vernacular native terms without Latin equivalents. The assessors reckoning of a mans holdings and their values, as recorded in Domesday Book, was dispositive, the name Domesday Book came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNeal wrote in the Dialogus de Scaccario, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge and its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book the Book of Judgement, because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives at Kew, London, in 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript available online. The book is a primary source for modern historians and historical economists. Domesday Book encompasses two independent works, Little Domesday and Great Domesday, no surveys were made of the City of London, Winchester, or some other towns, probably due to their tax-exempt status. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing, the omission of the other counties and towns is not fully explained, although in particular Cumberland and Westmorland had yet to be fully conquered. Little Domesday – so named because its format is smaller than its companions – is the more detailed survey. It may have represented the first attempt, resulting in a decision to avoid such level of detail in Great Domesday, some of the largest such magnates held several hundred fees, in a few cases in more than one county. For example, the chapter of the Domesday Book Devonshire section concerning Baldwin the Sheriff lists 176 holdings held in-chief by him, as a review of taxes owed, it was highly unpopular. Each countys list opened with the demesne lands. It should be borne in mind that under the system the king was the only true owner of land in England. He was thus the ultimate overlord and even the greatest magnate could do no more than hold land from him as a tenant under one of the contracts of feudal land tenure. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section and this principle applies more specially to the larger volume, in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places and these include fragments of custumals, records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth
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Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region, in 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 living in an area of 634 square miles. Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the market town for the medieval agricultural county derives its name from a hart. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west and these reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The countys borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, hertfordshires undeveloped land is mainly agricultural and much is protected by green belt. The countys landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, Leavesden filmed much of the UK-based $7.7 Bn box office Harry Potter film series and has the countrys studio tour. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill and his martyrs cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with motorways and railways, providing access to London. The largest sector of the economy of the county is in services, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing, the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems, there is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age and this was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is believed to have taken place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyrs cross of a saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire, with the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the county was part of the East Saxon kingdom
