Kings and Queens of England

Kings and Queens of England (11th – 12th century)

Monarchy is the oldest secular institution in England. It is an institution with a long tradition dating back to the times when about 430 AD three German tribes – the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, arrived at the English shore invading the lands inhabited by the Celts. The Anglo-Saxon culture brought many changes to the English – as they started to be called – lands but perhaps the one that is still present today was the influence on the Anglo-Saxon language. Among other things the days of the week were named after Germanic gods: Tig (Tuesday), Wodin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei (Friday).

The most famous Anglo-Saxon king was Alfred later named the Great. He ruled from 871 to 899 AD. He is most known from two things – resisting the Viking invasion by winning the decisive battle at Chippenham and making a treaty with the Vikings where he accepted their rule in the north and east of England (the Danelaw) and from initiating the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – one of the most important sources of information about Anglo-Saxon England.

The last king of Anglo-Saxon England was Edward the Confessor (1042 – 1066), who was very well known from his religious piety. Although he was considered as a week king, religious life in England had flourished under his rule. He encouraged church building all over the country and when he died 1066, there was a church in almost every village. He also ordered to build Westminster Abbey where almost every English king or queen has been crowned. However, when Edward died having no heir to the throne, there was a question of who should follow him as a king. Because he had a lot of time in Normandy (the northern part of today’s France), he had promised the throne to Duke William of Normandy. But before William was crowned as the king of England, he had to fight for his right with Harold whom Witan – the national council in the Anglo-Saxon England – chose to be Edward’s successor. With his army being much stronger than Harold’s, William defeated Harold in a battle near Hastings. After this victory, William marched into London and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1066. At that moment the era of Anglo-Saxons ended, and a new Norman period in English history began.

William the Conqueror did not have an easy life after he had become a king. Until 1070 Anglo-Saxons rebelled against the king year by year and his army marched from village to village spreading destruction and building military forts. However, during his reign William proved to be a wise king in that he kept many Anglo-Saxon laws, courts and customs with only minor changes. The English are indebted to William for many new words – after he became the king, the official language of the court was French. Many words of contemporary English are of French origin. All in all about 10 000 words were borrowed from French, many of which were connected with law and administration.

Another thing William is remembered by was the so-called Doomsday Book. Towards the end of his reign, William the Conqueror wanted to know exactly how much land he owned and who possessed that land. In order to find that out he sent teams of his people to every village in England to ask people questions and record their answers in a special book. People quickly came to nickname the book – Doomsday Book because the census seemed for the inevitable like the day of the Last Judgement.

All in all William the Conqueror is remembered now for three things – winning the battle at Hastings, introducing French as the official court language and taking the first census in the history of England. He died in 1087 from terrible wounds he had from battles with Philip I of France, leaving the throne to his second son William II Rufus.

William II was named Rufus (Red) because of the colour of his hair. In contrast to his father, who finally came to be accepted by most of the people, he was hated by the majority of English people and – as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says – he was “abhorred by God”. However, when he got sick one time, he prayed to God to spare him and promised that if he lived he would be a good man from that moment. He survived. We do not know whether or not he improved his behaviour. He was later killed by an arrow while hunting in 1100. It is not known who shot the arrow, but it seems it was an accident. Nevertheless, his younger brother abandoned his corpse in the forest and hurried to the Westminster Abbey to be crowned as the king Henry I.

There is a legend connected with how Henry divided the land by owned at his death. He left his lands in France to his nephew Stephen and the English throne to his daughter Matilda. Stephen, however did not feel satisfied with what he got and invaded England. The war that followed pushed many ordinary people to the verge of poverty and thus Matilda was hated in some parts of England. In 1141 she was trapped in the Town of Devizes surrounded by Stephen’s army. After a few days of close encirclement, her attendants announced that the queen was dead. Her body was put on a stretcher, all dressed up like a corpse before being buried. The attendants carried it past the guards saying they take the corpse to the funeral in Gloucester. Once they had been a safe distance from Devizes, the corpse sat up and laughed: “You will never get out of here alive they said”.