Medieval History
Within 20 years of the Norman conquest, England was dominated by "a new class of super rich Frenchmen gorging on their success". So said an academic who has used the Domesday Book to trace the rise and rise of William the Conqueror's barons.
Stephen Baxter, a historian at King's College London, is one of the authors of a database, which goes live tomorrow, making it possible to trawl through figures from the Domesday Book and map the landholdings of those for whom 1066 became a licence to coin money. To take one example, Earl Hugh's estates, more than 300 scattered across 19 shires, generated an income of about £800 a year, over 1% of the nation's entire wealth. "Hugh was an Abramovich-scale billionaire," said Baxter, who presents a programme on Domesday tomorrow on BBC2 in the Normans series.
The new database is part of PASE, the snappily titled Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England, a decade-long academic compilation of all the Anglo-Saxons for whom any records survive, which already includes almost 20,000 individuals, just under 1,000 of them women. The Domesday database can be used to show vividly what happened to many of those listed after the conquest: a map which Baxter worked on for three months demonstrates how Earl Harold's estates were carved up after he died at the Battle of Hastings, with a diagonal red stripe across England, from the Essex coast to the Severn, showing the estates which William the Conqueror kept for himself.
Click here to read this article from The Guardian
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Medieval History
Domesday Book reveals the rise of a Norman Abramovich after 1066
Within 20 years of the Norman conquest, England was dominated by "a new class of super rich Frenchmen gorging on their success". So said an academic who has used the Domesday Book to trace the rise and rise of William the Conqueror's barons.
Stephen Baxter, a historian at King's College London, is one of the authors of a database, which goes live tomorrow, making it possible to trawl through figures from the Domesday Book and map the landholdings of those for whom 1066 became a licence to coin money. To take one example, Earl Hugh's estates, more than 300 scattered across 19 shires, generated an income of about £800 a year, over 1% of the nation's entire wealth. "Hugh was an Abramovich-scale billionaire," said Baxter, who presents a programme on Domesday tomorrow on BBC2 in the Normans series.
The new database is part of PASE, the snappily titled Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England, a decade-long academic compilation of all the Anglo-Saxons for whom any records survive, which already includes almost 20,000 individuals, just under 1,000 of them women. The Domesday database can be used to show vividly what happened to many of those listed after the conquest: a map which Baxter worked on for three months demonstrates how Earl Harold's estates were carved up after he died at the Battle of Hastings, with a diagonal red stripe across England, from the Essex coast to the Severn, showing the estates which William the Conqueror kept for himself.
Click here to read this article from The Guardian
- The Long Twelfth-century View Of The Anglo-saxon Past
Dr David Woodman and Dr Martin Brett are hosting a two-day conference on 29th - 30th March on 'The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past' at Robinson College, Cambridge, in association with the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse &...
- Pase Project To Be Featured In Bbc Documentary
ELB writes: The Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England project, which was undertaken jointly by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge, and King's College, London, is to feature in a BBC2 documentary on 'Domesday'...
- One In The Eye For History: Experts Still Fighting Over The Site Of The Battle Of Hastings
It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the town of Hastings. But while the date of the Battle of Hastings might still be universally accepted, the location...
- In Everything We Say, There Is An Echo Of 1066
It?s Sunday, and let us hope that you are about to have lunch. As you prepare to enjoy the roast beef, it may, possibly, occur to you that but for an event on this date, October 14, centuries ago, you might be about to eat the same joint but you wouldn?t...
- How Did King Harold Die At The Battle Of Hastings
A recent article is challenging the notion that the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson was killed by an arrow to the eye during the famous Battle of Hastings. The battle, fought in 1066, was a pivotal moment in England's history, ushering in an era...