Year 7 - Year 8 - Year 9 - GCSE - Parents newsletter
England in 1066 was a very different place to the world in which we now live. Communications that we take for granted didn't exist; even travelling by road was a long and arduous process. Most people at the time lived a life that was tied to the land; they were peasant farmers whose lives depended on their hard work; their ability to keep on the right side of their lord; and, perhaps most importantly, their good luck.
The government of England was also very different in 1066. King Edward the Confessor ruled the country with the aid of his preferred nobles. These earls formed a group called the Witan, which was as close to an organisation resembling parliament as there was. The duties of the earls were wide reaching. They acted as law enforces, determining who was right and wrong in disputes, as well as enforcing the will of the King, or themselves, through use of brute force.
Few people had what we would consider to be 'nice' jobs. There were some men who worked for the King, in roles relating to taxes, lawmaking and maintaining his household. Likewise scribes would keep records for local lords. Other than this, 'nice' jobs were restricted to those fortunate enough to rise above the lower levels of society, either in the church, or through service to the king and his closest supporters.
The country was based largely on agriculture. Men worked hard, and were expected
to fight hard if asked to do so. They pledged their allegiance to their lords,
and they in turn to the King. Law came from above, through the church and the
Kings will. Other than the threat of incursions from Wales and Scotland, live
was as peaceful as it had been since the Romans left. That, however, was about
to change.
Opening excerpt from the Midwife's Apprentice: When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw are piled up in a great heap, the rotting and moiling give forth heat. Usually no one gets close enough to notice because of the stench. But the girl noticed and, on that frosty night, burrowed deep into the warm, rotting muck, heedless of the smell. In any event, the dung heap probably smelled little worse than anything else in her life – the food scraps scavenged from kitchen yards, the stables and sties she slept in when she could, and her own unwashed, unnourished, unloved and unlovely body.
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