Affinity (medieval)
In post-classical history, an affinity was a collective name for the group of men whom a lord gathered around himself in his service. It is considered a fundamental aspect of bastard feudalism, acted as a means of tying magnates to the lower nobility, just as feudalism had done in a different way. One form of the relationship was known as maintenance; the lord provided livery badges to be worn by the retainer and "maintenance" or his support in their disputes, which might constitute obstruction of judicial processes. One of the earliest identifiable feudal affinities was that of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who by 1190 had gathered a force around him consisting of men without any strong tenurial connection to him. Rather than receiving land, these men received grants of office and the security of Pembroke's proximity to the king. Historian Michael Hicks has described it as a "personal, not feudal" connection, which David Crouch called an early example of a bastard feudal relationship.
On the other hand, a hundred years the earl of Lincoln gathered bodies of men—often from among his tenants—from his estates in Lincoln, who were still linked to the earl feudally through their tenure of his land. Central to a noble affinity was the lord's indentured retainers, beyond them was a more amorphous group of general supporters and contacts; the difference, K. B. McFarlane wrote, was that the former did the lord "exclusive service" but the latter received his good lordship "in ways both more and less permanent" than the retainers. Christine Carpenter has described the structure of the earl of Warwick's affinity as "a series of concentric circles" with him at the centre, it has been noted that a lord only had to gather a small number of people around in areas where he was strong, as members of his affinity supported not only him but each other. These were men the lord trusted: for example, in 1459, on the verge of the Wars of the Roses, the earl of Salisbury gathered the closest members of his affinity to him in Middleham Castle and took their advice before publicly coming out in support of the rebellious duke of York.
The lord would include men in positions of local authority, for example Justices of the peace, within his affinity. On the other hand, he might, as John of Gaunt did in the fourteenth century, recruit people into his affinity regardless of their social weight, as an expression of his "courtly and chivalric ambitions", as Anthony Goodman said. A contemporary described these as "kin, friendis and parttakaris" to the lord. Members of the affinity could be identified by the livery the lord would distribute for their identification with him; the members of the affinity closest to the lord were those of most use: the estate officials, treasurer and more than one lawyer. By the late Middle Ages, kings such as Richard II and Henry IV had created their own affinities within the regional gentry, for political as well as martial motives, they were therefore at a greater distance from the royal court, but they were more numerous than the household knights of earlier kings. By the fifteenth century, most regional agents of the crown were considered to be in the king's affinity, as they had a closer connection to the crown than ordinary subjects.
By the reign of Henry VI, E. F. Jacob estimated that the number of squires employed by the king in the localities increased from 150 to over 300. In Richard's case, it has been suggested it was for the purpose of building up royal power to counteract the pre-existing affinities of the nobility and strengthen his own power. Indeed, they were at the heart of the army Richard took to Ireland on his 1399 campaign, prior to his deposition; this esquires, retained with hard cash. In fact, the amounts the crown spent on its regional affinity were the cause of much of the discontent over royal expenditure that Richard II, for example, faced in 1397. John of Gaunt's affinity increased by half between 1381 and the early 1390s and cost him far greater sums than the 10% of income that magnates expended on their retinues. Gaunt used it to defend his position against the crown as Richard II's reign became erratic, his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, inherited it in 1399, found it a ready-made army that allowed him to overthrow Richard.
In similar circumstances, in 1471, Edward IV, returning from exile to reclaim his throne, gathered his affinity with him as he marched south, it has been said that "it was as master of such an affinity that at Barnet and Tewkesbury King Edward won a wider mastery". The earl of Salisbury using his affinity as a show of strength in 1458, attended a royal council meeting with an affinity of about 400 horsemen and eighty knights and squires. Affinities were not confined to magnates, they were not confined to men: Edward II's consort, had an affinity whose "collective influence was as powerful as the most powerful lords" if with less of a military
Normandy
Normandy is one of the 18 regions of France referring to the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy is divided into five administrative departments: Calvados, Manche and Seine-Maritime, it covers 30,627 square kilometres, comprising 5% of the territory of metropolitan France. Its population of 3.37 million accounts for around 5% of the population of France. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans, the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language; the historical region of Normandy comprised the present-day region of Normandy, as well as small areas now part of the departments of Mayenne and Sarthe. The Channel Islands are historically part of Normandy. Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Danish and Norwegian Vikings from the 9th century, confirmed by treaty in the 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo. For a century and a half following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by Norman and Frankish rulers.
Archaeological finds, such as cave 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 usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. 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 began to enter the area during this period. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east; as early as 487, the area between the River Somme and the River Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis. 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, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges, they took advantage of the power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne's empire to take northern France.
The fiefdom of Normandy was created for Rollo. 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 gained the territory which he and his Viking allies had conquered; the name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking origins. To this day, in Norwegian language the word nordmann denotes a Norwegian person; the descendants of Rollo and his followers adopted the local Gallo-Romance language and intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Roman inhabitants. They became the Normans – a Norman-speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Franks and Romans. Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, at the Battle of Hastings, while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. Besides the conquest of England and the subsequent subjugation of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas.
Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville, Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades. The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm and Humphrey, Robert Guiscard and Roger the Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130, they carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land. The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404, he received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him aid during the conquest. In 1204, during the reign of John Lackland, mainland Normandy was taken from England by France under King Philip II. Insular Normandy remained however under English control. In 1259, Henry III of England recognized the legality of French possession of mainland Normandy under the Treaty of Paris.
His successors, however fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom. The Charte aux Normands granted by Louis X of France in 1315 – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy. French Normandy was occupied by English forces during the Hundred Years' War in 1345–1360 and again in 1415–1450. Normandy lost three-quarters of its population during the war. Afterward prosperity returned to Normandy until the Wars of Religion; when many Norman towns joined the Protestant Reformation, battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the English Civil War. Samuel de Champlain founded Acadia. Four years
Denmark
Denmark the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country and the southernmost of the Scandinavian nations. Denmark lies southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, is bordered to the south by Germany; the Kingdom of Denmark comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark proper consists of a peninsula, an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand and the North Jutlandic Island; the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. Denmark has a total area of 42,924 km2, land area of 42,394 km2, the total area including Greenland and the Faroe Islands is 2,210,579 km2, a population of 5.8 million. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea. Denmark and Norway were ruled together under one sovereign ruler in the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523.
The areas of Denmark and Norway remained under the same monarch until Denmark -- Norway. Beginning in the 17th century, there were several devastating wars with the Swedish Empire, ending with large cessions of territory to Sweden. After the Napoleonic Wars, Norway was ceded to Sweden, while Denmark kept the Faroe Islands and Iceland. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, which were defeated in the 1864 Second Schleswig War. Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945. An industrialised exporter of agricultural produce in the second half of the 19th century, Denmark introduced social and labour-market reforms in the early 20th century that created the basis for the present welfare state model with a developed mixed economy; the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy, which had begun in 1660.
It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy. The government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nation's capital, largest city, main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs. Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948. Denmark negotiated certain opt-outs, it is among the founding members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE, the United Nations. Denmark is considered to be one of the most economically and developed countries in the world. Danes enjoy a high standard of living and the country ranks in some metrics of national performance, including education, health care, protection of civil liberties, democratic governance and human development; the country ranks as having the world's highest social mobility, a high level of income equality, is among the countries with the lowest perceived levels of corruption in the world, the eleventh-most developed in the world, has one of the world's highest per capita incomes, one of the world's highest personal income tax rates.
The etymology of the word Denmark, the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as one kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centered on the prefix "Dan" and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -"mark" ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, the name of the people, from a word meaning "flat land", related to German Tenne "threshing floor", English den "cave"; the -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with probable references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are runestones believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth; the larger stone of the two is popularly cited as Denmark's "baptismal certificate", though both use the word "Denmark", in the form of accusative ᛏᛅᚾᛘᛅᚢᚱᚴ tanmaurk on the large stone, genitive ᛏᛅᚾᛘᛅᚱᚴᛅᚱ "tanmarkar" on the small stone.
The inhabitants of Denmark are there called "Danes", in the accusative. The earliest archaeological findings in Denmark date back to the Eem interglacial period from 130,000–110,000 BC. Denmark has been inhabited since around 12,500 BC and agriculture has been evident since 3900 BC; the Nordic Bronze Age in Denmark was marked by burial mounds, which left an abundance of findings including lurs and the Sun Chariot. During the Pre-Roman Iron Age, native groups began migrating south, the first tribal Danes came to the country between the Pre-Roman and the Germanic Iron Age, in the Roman Iron Age; the Roman provinces maintained trade routes and relations with native tribes in Denmark, Roman coins have been found in Denmark. Evidence of strong Celtic cultural influence dates from this period in Denmark and much of North-West Europe and is among other things reflected in the finding of the Gundestrup cauldron; the tribal Danes came from the east Danish islands and Scania and spoke an early form of North Germanic.
Historians believe that before their arrival, most of Jutland and the nearest islands were settled by tribal J
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor known as Saint Edward the Confessor, was among the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Emma of Normandy, he succeeded Cnut the Great's son – and his own half brother – Harthacnut. He restored the rule of the House of Wessex after the period of Danish rule since Cnut conquered England in 1016; when Edward died in 1066, he was succeeded by Harold Godwinson, defeated and killed in the same year by the Normans under William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Edgar the Ætheling, 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. Historians disagree about Edward's long reign, his nickname reflects the traditional image of him as pious. Confessor reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom, as opposed to King Edward the Martyr; some portray Edward the Confessor's reign as leading to the disintegration of royal power in England and the advance in power of the House of Godwin, due to the infighting that began after his heirless death.
Biographers Frank Barlow and Peter Rex, on the other hand, portray Edward as a successful king, one, energetic and sometimes ruthless. However, Richard Mortimer argues that the return of the Godwins from exile in 1052 "meant the effective end of his exercise of power", citing Edward's reduced activity as implying "a withdrawal from affairs". About a century in 1161, Pope Alexander III canonised the late king. Saint Edward was one of England's national saints until King Edward III adopted Saint George as the national patron saint in about 1350. Saint Edward's 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, the first by his second wife, Emma of Normandy. Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, is first recorded as a'witness' to two charters in 1005, he had one full brother, a sister, Godgifu. In charters he was always listed behind his older half-brothers. During his childhood, England was the target of Viking raids and invasions under Sweyn Forkbeard and his son, Cnut.
Following Sweyn's seizure of the throne in 1013, Emma fled to Normandy, followed by Edward and Alfred, by Æthelred. Sweyn died in February 1014, leading Englishmen invited Æthelred back on condition that he promised to rule'more justly' than before. Æthelred agreed. Æthelred died in April 1016, he was succeeded by Edward's older half-brother Edmund Ironside, who carried on the fight against Sweyn's son, Cnut. According to Scandinavian tradition, Edward fought alongside Edmund. Edmund died in November 1016, Cnut became undisputed king. Edward again went into exile with his brother and sister. In the same year Cnut had Edward's last surviving elder half-brother, executed, leaving Edward as the leading Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne. Edward spent a quarter of a century in exile mainly in Normandy, although there is no evidence of his location until the early 1030s, he 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.
According to the Norman chronicler, William of Jumièges, Robert I, Duke of Normandy attempted an invasion of England to place Edward on the throne in about 1034, but it was blown off course to Jersey. He received support for his claim to the throne from a number of continental abbots Robert, abbot of the Norman abbey of Jumièges, to become Edward's Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward was said to have developed an intense personal piety during this period, but modern historians regard this as a product of the medieval campaign for his canonisation. In Frank Barlow's view "in his lifestyle would seem to have been that of a typical member of the rustic nobility", he appeared to have a slim prospect of acceding to the English throne during this period, his ambitious mother was more interested in supporting Harthacnut, her son by Cnut. Cnut died in 1035, Harthacnut succeeded him as king of Denmark, it is unclear whether he intended to keep England as well, but he was too busy defending his position in Denmark to come to England to assert his claim to the throne.
It was therefore decided that his elder half-brother Harold Harefoot should act as regent, while Emma held Wessex on Harthacnut's behalf. In 1036 Edward and his brother Alfred separately came to England. Emma claimed that they came in response to a letter forged by Harold inviting them to visit her, but historians believe that she did invite them in an effort to counter Harold's growing popularity. Alfred was captured by Earl of Wessex who turned him over to Harold Harefoot, he had Alfred blinded by forcing red-hot pokers into his eyes to make him unsuitable for kingship, Alfred died soon after as a result of his wounds. The murder is thought to be the source of much of Edward's hatred for the Earl and one of the primary reasons for Godwin's banishment in autumn 1051. Edward is said to have fought a successful skirmish near Southampton, and
Aelred of Rievaulx
Aelred of Rievaulx. He is regarded by Anglicans and other Christians as a saint. Aelred was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110, one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham, himself a son of another Eilaf, treasurer of Durham. In 1095, the Council of Claremont had forbidden the ordination of the sons of priests; this was done in part to end the inheritance of benefices. He may have been educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid. Aelred's early education was at the cathedral school at Durham, it was here that Aelred was influenced early on by Cicero's Laelius de Amicitia, but modified his interpretation upon reading Augustine of Hippo's Confessions. Aelred spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland in Roxburgh from the age of 14, rising to the rank of echonomus before leaving the court at age twenty-four to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. In 1138, when Rievaulx's patron, Walter Espec, was to surrender his castle at Wark to King David of Scotland, Aelred accompanied Abbot William of Rievaulx to the Scottish border to negotiate the transfer.
He saw that his reluctance to part from his friends at court, delayed his adopting his monastic calling. For Aelred, the source and object of true friendship is Christ. In 1142 Aelred traveled to Rome, alongside Walter of London, Archdeacon of York, to represent before Pope Innocent II the northern prelates who opposed the election of Henry de Sully, nephew of King Stephen as archbishop of York; the result of the journey was that Aelred brought back a letter from Pope Innocent summoning the superiors whom Aelred represented to appear in Rome the following March to make their deposition in the required canonical form. The resulting negotiations dragged on for many years. Upon his return from Rome, Aelred became novice master at Rievaulx. In 1143, he was appointed abbot of the new Revesby Abbey, a daughter house of Rievaulx in Lincolnshire. In 1147, he was elected abbot of Rievaulx itself, a position he was to hold until his death. Under his administration, the abbey is said to have grown to some 140 monks and 500 conversi and laymen.
His role as abbot required him to travel. Cistercian abbots were expected to make annual visitations to daughter-houses, Rievaulx had five in England and Scotland by the time Aelred held office. Moreover, Aelred had to make the long sea journey to the annual general chapter of the Order at Cîteaux in France. Alongside his role as a monk and abbot, Aelred was involved throughout his life in political affairs; the fourteenth-century version of the Peterborough Chronicle states that Aelred's efforts during the twelfth-century papal schism brought about Henry II's decisive support for the Cistercian candidate, resulting in 1161 in the formal recognition of Pope Alexander III. Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis and De spiritali amicitia. In De spirituali amicitiâ, Aelred adopted Cicero's dialogue format; the Prologue begins with the speaker describing his time at school, where "the charm of my companions gave me the greatest pleasure. Among the usual faults that endanger youth, my mind surrendered wholly to affection and became devoted to love.
Nothing seemed sweeter to me, nothing more pleasant, nothing more valuable than to be loved and to love." In this, Aelred mirrors Augustine's description of his own early adolescence. "For I burnt in my youth heretofore, to be satiated in things below. And what was it that I delighted in, but to love, be loved?"He wrote seven works of history, addressing three of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendant of Anglo-Saxon kings. In his years, he is thought to have suffered from the kidney stones and arthritis. Walter reports that in 1157 the Cistercian General Council allowed him to sleep and eat in Rievaulx's infirmary. Aelred died in the winter of 1166–7 on 12 January 1167 at Rievaulx. Aelred was never formally canonised in the manner, established, but he became the center of a cult in the north of England, recognized by Cistercians in 1476; as such, he was venerated with his body kept at Rievaulx. In the sixteenth century, before the dissolution of the monastery, John Leland, claims he saw Aelred's shrine at Rievaulx containing Aelred's body glittering with gold and silver.
Today, Aelred of Rievaulx is listed as a saint on 12 January, the traditional date of his death, in the latest official edition of the Roman Martyrology, which expresses the official position of the Roman Catholic Church. He appears in the calendars of various other Christian denominations. Much of Aelred's history is known because of the Life written about him by Walter Daniel shortly after his death; until the twentieth century, Aelred was known as a historian rather than as a spiritual writer. Most historians now accept that Aelred was homosexual, drawing upon his work, private letters, Vita by Walter Daniel. Boswell says there is no doubt he was gay and in pa
Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London. Æthelthryth founded an abbey at Ely in 673. Construction of the cathedral was started in 1083 by Simeon. Alan of Walsingham's octagon, built over Ely's nave crossing between 1322 and 1328, is the "greatest individual achievement of architectural genius at Ely Cathedral", according to architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner. Building continued until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539 during the Reformation; the cathedral was sympathetically restored between 1845 and 1870 by the architect George Gilbert Scott. As the seat of a diocese, Ely has long been considered a city. Ely is built on a 23-square-mile Kimmeridge Clay island which, at 85 feet, is the highest land in the Fens. Major rivers including the Witham, Welland and Great Ouse feed into the Fens and, until draining commenced in the 17th century, formed freshwater marshes and meres within which peat was laid down.
There are two Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the city: a former Kimmeridge Clay quarry, one of the United Kingdom's best remaining examples of medieval ridge and furrow agriculture. The economy of the region is agricultural. Before the Fens were drained, the harvesting of osier and sedge and the extraction of peat were important activities, as were eel fishing—from which the settlement's name may have been derived—and wildfowling; the city had been the centre of local pottery production for more than 700 years, including pottery known as Babylon ware. A Roman road, Akeman Street, passes through the city. Little direct evidence of Roman occupation in Ely exists, although there are nearby Roman settlements such as those at Little Thetford and Stretham. A coach route, known to have existed in 1753 between Ely and Cambridge, was improved in 1769 as a turnpike; the present-day A10 follows this route. Ely railway station, built in 1845, is on the Fen Line and is now a railway hub, with lines north to King's Lynn, northwest to Peterborough, east to Norwich, southeast to Ipswich and south to Cambridge and London.
The King's School is a coeducational boarding school, granted a royal charter in 1541 by Henry VIII. Henry I granted the first annual Fair, Saint Audrey's seven-day event, to the abbot and convent on 10 October 1189. Present-day annual events include the Eel Festival in May, established in 2004, a fireworks display in Ely Park, first staged in 1974; the city of Ely has been twinned with Denmark's oldest town, since 1956. Ely City Football Club was formed in 1885. Roswell Pits are a palaeontologically significant Site of Special Scientific Interest one mile northeast of the city; the Jurassic Kimmeridge Clays were quarried in the 19th and 20th centuries for the production of pottery and for maintenance of river embankments. Many specimens of ammonites and bivalves were found during quarrying, in addition to an complete specimen of a pliosaur. There is some scattered evidence of Late Mesolithic to Bronze Age activity in Ely such as Neolithic flint tools, a Bronze Age axe and spearhead. There is denser Iron Age and Roman activity with some evidence of at least seasonal occupation.
For example, a possible farmstead, of the late Iron Age to early Roman period, was discovered at West Fen Road and some Roman pottery was found close to the east end of the cathedral on The Paddock. There was a Roman settlement, including a tile kiln built over an earlier Iron Age settlement, in Little Thetford, three miles to the south; the origin and meaning of Ely's name have always been regarded as obscure by place-name scholars, are still disputed. The earliest record of the name is in the Latin text of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, where Bede wrote Elge; this is not a Latin name, subsequent Latin texts nearly all used the forms Elia, Eli, or Heli with inorganic H-. In Old English charters, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the spelling is Elig. Skeat derived the name Ely from what he called "O Northumbrian" ēlġē, meaning "district of eels"; this uses a hypothetical word *ġē, not recorded in isolation but thought by some to be related to the modern German word Gau, meaning "district".
The theory is that the name developed a vowel to become ēliġē, was afterwards re-interpreted to mean "eel island". This is the explanation accepted by Reaney Ekwall and Watts, but difficulties remain. Bailey, in his discussion of ġē names, has pointed out that Ely would be anomalous if from ēlġē "eel district", being remote from the areas where possible examples of ġē names occur, moreover, there is no parallel for the use of a fish-name in compounds with ġē. More the usual English spelling remains Elig in the dative case used after many prepositions, where Elige would be expected if the second element were īġ "island"; this is in conflict with all the other island names. The city's origins lay in the foundation of an abbey in 673, one mile to the north of the village of Cratendune on the Isle of Ely, under the protection of Saint Etheldreda, daughter of King Anna; this first abbey was destroyed in 870 by Danish invaders and rededicated to Etheldr
Magnus the Good
Magnus Olafsson, better known as Magnus the Good, was the King of Norway from 1035 and King of Denmark from 1042, ruling over both countries until his death in 1047. He was an illegitimate son of Olaf II of Norway, but fled with his mother when his father was dethroned in 1028, he returned to Norway in 1035 and was crowned king at the age of 11. In 1042, he was crowned king of Denmark. Magnus ruled the two countries until 1047. After his death, his kingdom was split between Harald Hardrada in Norway and Sweyn Estridsson in Denmark. Magnus was an illegitimate son of King Olaf Haraldsson, by his English concubine Alfhild a slave of Olaf's queen Astrid Olofsdotter. Born prematurely, the child was weak and unable to breathe for the first few minutes, he was not expected to survive. Olaf was not present at the child's birth, his Icelandic skald Sigvatr Þórðarson became his godfather. In a hasty baptism, Sigvatr named Magnus after the greatest king he knew of Olaf's greatest role model, Karla Magnus, or Charlemagne.
Against the odds, Magnus went on to grow strong and healthy, he became of vital importance to Olaf as his only son. Olaf was dethroned by the Danish king Cnut the Great in 1028, he went into exile with his family and court, including the young Magnus, they travelled over the mountains and through Eidskog during the winter, entered Värmland, were given shelter by a chieftain called Sigtrygg in Närke. After a few months, they departed Närke, by March went eastwards towards Sigtuna, where the Swedish king Anund Jacob had left them a ship; the party thereafter sailed through the Baltic Sea and into the Gulf of Finland landing in Kievan Rus'. They made their first stop at Staraya Ladoga to organise the further journey. From there they travelled southwards to Novgorod, where Olaf sought assistance from Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Yaroslav, did not want to become directly involved in the Scandinavian power-struggles, declined to help. After some time, in early 1030, Olaf learned that the Earl of Lade Håkon Eiriksson, Cnut's regent in Norway, had disappeared at sea, gathered his men to make a swift return to Norway.
Magnus was left to be fostered by his wife Ingegerd. In early 1031, a party including Magnus's uncle Harald Sigurdsson arrived to report the news of his father's death at the Battle of Stiklestad. For the next few years, Magnus was educated in Old Russian and some Greek and was trained as a warrior. After Cnut's death in 1035, the Norwegian noblemen did not want to be under the oppressive rule of his son Svein and his mother Ælfgifu any longer. Einar Thambarskelfir and Kalf Arnesson, who had both sought to be appointed regents under Cnut after Olaf's death in 1030, went together to Kievan Rus' to bring the boy back to rule as the King of Norway. After receiving the approval of Ingegerd, they returned with Magnus to Sigtuna in early 1035, received backing from the Swedish king, brother of Magnus's stepmother Astrid. Astrid became an important supporter of Magnus, an army was gathered in Sweden, headed by Einar and Kalf, to place Magnus on the Norwegian throne. Magnus was proclaimed king in 1035, at 11 years of age, the pretender to the Norwegian throne King Svein son of Canute the Great of Denmark and his mother, Queen Elfgifu of Mercia fled.
At first Magnus sought revenge against his father's enemies, but on Sigvatr's advice he stopped doing so, why he became known as "good" or "noble". Another son of Cnut, was on the throne of Denmark and wanted his country to reunite with Norway, while Magnus initiated a campaign against Denmark around 1040. However, the noblemen of both countries brought the two kings together at the Göta älv, the border between their kingdoms, they agreed that the first of them to die would be succeeded by the other. In 1042 Harthacnut died while in England, Magnus became King of Denmark, in spite of a claim by Cnut's nephew Sweyn Estridsen, whom Harthacnut had left in control of Denmark when he went to England, who had some support; as part of consolidating his control, Magnus destroyed the Jomsborg, headquarters of the Jomsvikings. Sweyn fled east and returned as one of the leaders of an invasion by the Wends in 1043, which Magnus decisively defeated at the Battle of Lyrskov Heath, near Hedeby. In the battle, Magnus wielded Saint Olaf's battle-axe, named Hel after the goddess of death.
He had dreamt of his father the night before, the Norwegians swore that before the battle they could hear the bell that Saint Olaf had given to the Church of St. Clement in Kaupang, in Nidaros – a sign that the saint was watching over his son and the army, it was the greatest victory over the Wends, with up to 15,000 killed. Sweyn continued to oppose Magnus in Denmark, although according to Heimskringla, they reached a settlement by which Sweyn became Earl of Denmark under Magnus. Magnus wanted to reunite Cnut the Great's entire North Sea Empire by becoming king of England; when Harthacnut died, the English nobles had chosen as their king Æthelred the Unready's son Edward. The English were hostile to Magnus.
