Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Under the relatively settled rule of the Norman Kings the county prospered.
Then in 1348 the population of Kent was decimated by the plague, an infectious disease that was often fatal. There was a labour shortage. Attempts were made to keep the cost of labour down by law. This lead to unrest. The war with France was also proving to be expensive and frequent taxation was very unpopular.

The most famous uprising was the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. The unrest followed the third Poll Tax which Richard II imposed to raise funds for his war in France. The poll tax was a tax on every person regardless of their wealth. It was levied three times in three years and finally resulted in the revolt of peasants in Kent and Essex in 1381.

In Kent, Wat Tyler led a mob to Maidstone, where they freed prisoners, then on to Canterbury where they captured the High Sheriff and burnt all his records so that he could not collect the tax.

After a series of conflicts in London, in which the hated Chancellor and the Treasurer were killed, Wat Tyler met King Richard. As tempers flared, Tyler was stabbed by the Mayor of London. Young King Richard bravely rode out in front of the rebels and offered to be their leader and they accepted. The rioters returned home. Prosecutions and mass executions followed.

The Lollard followers of John Wycliffe, rose in 1414 because of dissatisfaction with the corruption of the Church. (Nothing has changed much) The Lollard movement was started by the cleric, John Wycliffe, who had translated the Bible into English. The Lollard knights were led by Sir John Oldcastle, who lived at Cooling Castle. He was hanged and burnt as a heretic in 1417 and the movement was forced underground.

The Cade rebellion of 1450 was more serious and many of Kent's leading families were involved. Jack Cade began his protest at Ashford in May, 1450. He and his followers delivered a petition to the King asking for the removal of his incompetent ministers and the abolition of the Statute of Labourers, which kept wages down.

There were riots in London. Cades followers were granted a pardon if they would return to their homes quietly. They included a knight, many squires and gentlemen and numerous yeomen. Due to their standing, a Commission was set up to investigate their complaints. Cade did not go home and was killed shortly after.

In 1086, King William 1st called for an assessment of all the lands in his new Kingdom. The Domesday survey recorded what land people held and what it was worth for taxation purposes.

The Domesday Book is a rich source of information about eleventh century Kent. Many places are mentioned, with details of who held the land and whether there was a church. The numbers of landholders are noted, as are the numbers of slaves kept by the estate.

Canterbury was the most important town. The King and all of the tenants in chief had property there. The Domesday Book recorded that houses had been pulled down to make room for the castle. The population of the town has been estimated at 3,000 propertied residents, with monks and the poorer residents making up about 3,000 more.

Lathes and hundreds

Kent has different areas of land from other parts of the country. The county was divided into seven large administrative areas, called 'Lathes', which were subdivided into 'hundreds'. The 'sulung' is used to calculate the rateable value of land based on the arable land four pairs of oxen can plough. It can be used to assess the total value of a manor, taking other types of land use into account.

My wonderful Kent,

The King grants land to his followers, who became his tenants in chief, in return for loyalty. Their fighting men are known as the Knights of the Shire and they, in turn, held land from their lords in return for their services.

Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who was William I's half brother, was granted large areas in Kent.
Odo then granted the Manor of Chilham to Fulbert, who supplied fifteen knights for 'Castle Guard' at Dover for 20 weeks a year.

King William I ordered the Domesday survey, completed in 1086, to establish who owned what and how much tax they might pay. (Deep Joy) Elected knights and burgesses were sporadically called to attend Parliament, by the King, to negotiate taxes. Knights of the Shire were also granted responsibility for administering local justice.

The good people of Kent have risen in protest on several occasions when they have felt: oppressed by new laws or taxes; wages were kept low; when the government failed to defend the coast; when restrictive labour laws were passed and when the harvests were poor.
The egalitarian teaching of the Church also contributed to disturbances as it just confused the masses.

For almost two millennia now, the Christian Church has oppressed and brutalised millions of individuals in an attempt to control and contain spirituality.

Tragedies, sorrows, and injustices inflicted upon humanity by the Church. At a time when the so called 'religious right' asserts that Christian values will save society from its rampant sins, the ordinary citizen should know exactly how the Christian Church has attempted to 'save' societies in the past.

It is a grim lesson, but one that it is imperative to absorb. Doing so could save lives!

Religion is all about control isn't it?

The Royally Strange Case
of Prince Harry and the Harriers.
It has been confi rmed that no charges will be
pressed following the disappearance of a pair of hen
harriers, one of England’s most endangered species,

on the border of the royal estate at Sandringham.
Local nature wardens witnessed the birds
dropping from the sky accompanied by the
sound of a gunshot.

A police investigation into
the incident later involved questioning Prince
Harry, who, er, happened to be there with two
pals shooting at the time.

More curiously, the bodies of the birds have since
vanished making it impossible to prove evidence of
any crime. (The penalty for killing protected birds
can carry a six-month prison sentence.)

It is surely impossible that members of the
royal family and estate could be fallacious in their
interpretation of events. It is also impossible that
armed intruders should be roaming in the vicinity
of the Sandringham Estate unchallenged.

The only possible if improbable solution is that the birds
committed suicide in a death pact which just happened
to be just after a nearby car back-fired and
were immediately swallowed whole by a passing
predator... Quick Watson, the game is afoot!

Did you know that medieval attitudes towards sex and the sexes were steeped in religious hypocrisy? Prostitutes are refused burial on consecrated ground, yet the bishop of Winchester receives rent from brothels in the red-light district of Southwark, just outside the City of London's walls.

Battle of the sexes

It is a particularly confusing time to be a woman. On the one hand, motherhood is regarded as a woman's most wonderful gift. On the other, young women are encouraged by the Church to become nuns because virginity is the ideal state, with marriage a poor second. A priest in the 1200s points out the advantages of a religious life and gives a description of pregnancy: 'Your pink, healthy face will become thin, and turn sickly green like grass.'

Men are confused, too. The Church teaches that women's sexuality is morally inferior and downright dangerous – they are 'the gateway to hell', according to one scholar – yet reams of chivalrous poetry point out that women are to be respected and admired for their beauty and gentleness.

Marriage and family

Among the general population, marriages usually take place when the couples are in their late 20s, after the man has secured an income. Parental consent is usually sought but isn't essential. Most marriages take place in church but it isn't stipulated in law: often stating your marriage vows in front of witnesses is sufficient. The minimum age for marriage under Church and common law is 12 for girls and 14 for boys. But nobles operate under a different set of rules.

Betrothals, arranged by the parents, regularly occur during infancy. Edward II's daughter Joan is married to Prince David of Scotland in 1328 when she is seven and he is four. Princess Isabella of France marries Richard II in 1396 when she is seven, although she has the opportunity to change her mind later.

Lady Margaret Beaufort is 13 when she gives birth to the future Henry VII in 1457. But in 1414, a Welsh couple are sent to Henry V as a 'marvel' because they have had a baby: allegedly, she is seven and he is nine.

Sex outside marriage is deemed very sinful by the Church, but it goes on all the same. Lords of the manor even make a profit from it. They impose fines on village women for fornication and for bearing illegitimate children. At Wakefield manor in 1316, seven female villeins are fined for 'lechery'.

The average family size for nobles is four surviving children. For ordinary people, it just is two.

Hare, Rabbit, Veal or Chicken Stew with Herbs & Barley
Serves 6
In 7th century England, herbs were one of the few flavourings available
to cooks and were used heavily...

50g (2oz) butter
1 -1.5kg (2-3 lb) (depending on the amount of bone) of hare or rabbit
joints, stewing veal or chicken joints
450g (1lb) washed and trimmed leeks, thickly sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
175 g (6 oz) pot barley
900 mL (30 fl oz, 3 3/4 cups) water
3 generous tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves, salt, pepper
15 fresh, roughly chopped sage leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried sage

Melt the butter in a heavy pan and fry the meat with the leeks and
garlic till the vegetables are slightly softened and the meat lightly
browned. Add the barley, water, vinegar, bay leaves and seasoning. bring
the pot to the boil, cover it and simmer gently for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or
till the meat is really tender and ready to fall from the bone.

Add the
sage and continue to cook for several minutes. Adjust the seasoning to
taste and serve in bowls-- the barley will serve as a vegetable.

Do try it co's it is seriously NICE.

It does seem that one Irishman and his family certainly contributed a word to the English language which has now been adopted in many languages throughout the world. There is no need for me to explain what the word “hooligan” means.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary it came into the language in 1898, being, “the name of an Irish family in south-east London conspicuous for its ruffianism”.

The Daily News of July 26, 1898, reporting on social conditions in the areas, stated: “It is no wonder that Hooligan gangs are bred in these vile byways.”

A few weeks later, on August 22, the Daily Graphic decried “the avalanche of brutality which, under the name of ‘Hooliganism’ - has cast such a dire slur on the social records of South London”.
During the summer of 1898 most London newspapers such as the Daily Telegraph, Pall Mall Gazette and Westminster Gazette were referring to ‘Hooligan gangs’.

The Oxford English Dictionary also puts forward other claims such as a mishearing of the term “Hooley’s gang” although there is no evidence for this. It also says there was an Irish character called Hooligan of this period who appeared in the London comic magazine Funny Folk (1874-1894). Also it is claimed there was a popular music song about a rowdy Irish family called the Hooligans at this time.

The only music hall song I can find is Mrs Hooligan’s Christmas Cake which was sung in music halls in 1883.

However, Ernest Weekly, in Romance of Words (1912) emphasises: “The original Hooligans were a spirited Irish family of that name whose proceedings enlivened the drab monotony of life in Southwark about 14 years ago.”

But is there any trace of the Hooligan family? Can we “put flesh on the bones” of a family that might fit this description?

A writer named Clarence Rook (1862-1915) provides the main clues. He wrote about the slums and criminals in the City of London and environs. In 1899 he wrote a book entitled The Hooligan Nights which was about a young criminal’s story told in his own words. The book was actually reprinted by Oxford University Press in 1979, when the jazzman and critic Benny Green wrote an introduction to it.
In this account, Rook wrote: “There was but a few years ago, a man called Patrick Hooligan, who walked to and fro among his fellow men, robbing and occasionally bashing them.”

Rook, incidentally, created one of the first female fictional detectives, in the person of Miss Nora Van Snoop of the New York Detective Force. She appeared in The Stir Outside the Café Royal in which tale she has to fight “the aristocrat of crime” - one Colonel Mathurin.

That classic crime tale was reprinted as recently as 1990 in the Oxford Collection of English Detective Stories, edited by Patricia Craig, Oxford University Press.

So who was the Patrick Hooligan to whom the book refers?

He and his family came to London from the Limerick area and their name was probably Houlihan. Rook says they lived in Borough (Southwark), in south-east London. Patrick hired himself out as a bouncer.

He was a professional tough. He soon gathered a gang around him and operated as a small time crook, mugging people in the street rather than as a burglar. He was often in street fights, committed vandalism and criminal damage.

He and his fellow gang members used to gather and drink at a public house in Southwark called the Lamb and Flag. There is, of course, a more famous public house of that name north of the river at 33 Rose Street, Convent Garden. But that was not named Lamb and Flag until 1883. It had first emerged into recorded history in 1772 when it was called the Coopers Arms but popularly known as The Bucket of Blood because of the bare fisted fights that used to be staged there.

The Southwark’s the Lamb and Flag is thought to have been located in Borough High Street and has not existed for many years. The date of when Patrick Hooligan and his gang flourished is confused. It was certainly well before 1898 and efforts to find the date have not turned up anything. It could have been as early in the 1850s but certainly no later than the 1870s.

Patrick’s end came when, during one of the street fights, he killed a policeman and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

He eventually died while serving his sentence/ Some have suggested that he began to serve his sentence in the large prison at one end of Borough High Street, which no longer exists. But that was Marchalsea Prison and basically a debtor’s prison, well known to readers of Charles Dicken’s works.
By the turn of the 20th Century, the name Hooligan had crossed into literature.

Conan Doyle, in his Sherlock Holmes tale The adventure of the Six Napoleons (1904), writes: “It seemed to be one of those senseless acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such.”

In 1909 in Tonobungay H.G. Wells wrote: “Three energetic young men of the hooligan type, in neck wraps and caps, were packing wooden cases with papered-up bottles, amidst much straw and confusion.”

By then the name was losing the capital H.

Oddly, in Edward MacLysaght’s The Surnames of Ireland (1957) the name is not listed even as a derivation of Houlihan. The derivation of the word is still “unattested”, as an etymologist would say. That is, we have not yet proved its origin.

But there are enough clues about Patrick Hooligan for a good local Borough historian to get their teeth into and come up with more evidence on the man, who is said, gave his name not only to the English language but, through generations of English football “supporters”, to many languages of the world.

The wonderful game of football has been associated with violence since its beginnings in 13th century England.

Medieval football matches involved hundreds of players, and were essentially pitched battles between the young men of rival villages and towns – often used as opportunities to settle old feuds, personal arguments and land disputes.

Forms of 'folk-football' existed in other European countries (such as the German Knappen and Florentine calcio in costume), but the roots of modern football are in these violent English rituals.

The much more disciplined game introduced to continental Europe in 1900s was the reformed pastime of the British aristocracy. Other European countries adopted this form of the game, associated with Victorian values of fair-play and retrained enthusiasm. Only two periods in British history have been relatively free of football-related violence: the inter-war years and the decade following the Second World War.

The behaviour now known as 'football hooliganism' originated in England in the early 1960s, and has been linked with the televising of matches (and of pitch-invasions, riots etc.) and with the 'reclaiming' of the game by the working classes.

In other European countries, similar patterns of behaviour emerged about 10 years later, in the early 1970s. Some researchers argue that a similar 'proletarianisation' of the game was involved, but there is little consensus on this issue, and much disagreement on the extent to which continental youth were influenced by British hooligans.

*proletarian - a member of the working class (not necessarily employed); "workers of the world--unite!"

Summer Fruit, Honey, and Hazelnut Crumble:
Serves 6
A baked dessert like this used to be sunk in the embers of the
log fire with a cauldron or pot upturned over it to form a lid.

1 kg (2 1/2 lb) mixed soft summer fruits-- raspberries, loganberries,
strawberries, currants, bilberries or whatever is available
honey or brown sugar to taste
75 g (3 oz) tasted hazelnuts75 g (3 oz) wholemeal or wholewheat brown breadcrumbs

Put the fruits in a pan or microwave dish with about 20 cm (1 inch)
water in the bottom and cook gently for 10-15 minutes (4-6 minutes in
microwave), or till the fruits are soft without being totally mushy.

Sweeten to taste with honey or brown sugar (Saxons would have used
honey); how much you need will depend on what fruits you have used.

drain the excess juice and save to serve with the pudding. chop the
hazelnuts in a processor or liquidiser until they are almost as fine as
the breadcrumbs, but not quite, then mix the two together.
Spoon the fruit into an ovenproof dish and cover with a thick layer of hazelnuts
and crumbs.
Bake in a moderate oven (180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4) for 20 - 30
minutes or till the top is slightly cruncy and browned. Serve with lots
of cream or plain yogurt and the warmed fruit juices.

The thought of a Medieval England brings forth images of castles and knights. This land was the site of numerous invasions from Vikings, Saxons, Angles and Jutes during the early Middle Ages, and England incorporated words and grammar from these invaders and others, to form one of the most complex languages on the planet.

This was a land of kings, led by a general named Arthur, whose exploits defeating invaders at Mons Badonicus would evolve into one of the country's greatest legends. Some of the famous medieval English ruling "Houses" include:

House of Plantagenet (1138-1399), which included Henry II, who battled with Thomas Beckett over the powers of Church vs. State. Beckett excommunicated the king's supporters, and was later murdered by four of the king's knights in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. Richard the Lionhearted was also part of this House.

House of Lancaster (1399-1461), which boasted three famous Henrys. Shakespeare would later pen the exploits of these kings, including Henry V, who renewed the English claim to the French throne and conquered part of northern France. This House would battle the House of York (1461-1485) in what would become known as the War of the Roses.

The Magna Carta was created in 1215 and English barons compelled King John to sign this document to become one of the foundations of the English constitution. This century saw other political developments when Parliament was established in 1295.

Architecture is ancient in this country. Norman castles began to take root after William the Conqueror defeated English forces in 1066. Edward the Confessor increased the size of Westminster Abbey during this year as well. Education history was made in England in 1209 with the founding of Cambridge University.

One of the basic principles of medieval medicine was that of the four humors of which a human body was composed. The balance between these four (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) was essential for the well-being of a person.

Medieval Europe holds many of its foundations in the classical world of Ancient Greece and Rome. Just the same, “the theory of the four humours (bodily fluids) arose out of Hellenic philosophy in an attempt to relate all things to universal laws” (Cameron 159).
And so we have parallels drawn between particular aspects of the surrounding world.

The humors were oftentimes attributed to appropriate seasons, properties such as hot, cold, dry, and wet, signs of Zodiac in groups of three, four ages of mankind - infancy, adolescence, adulthood, and old age, and even sometimes to the four Evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the compass directions. (Even now, we still use words “choleric”, “sanguine”, “phlegmatic” and “melancholy” to describe personalities.)

Such balance and classification of the world was of utmost importance, hence the balance of humors within a human body was necessary for health. Balance of humors in humans was achieved by diet, medicines, and phlebotomy (blood-letting).

The eating habits of a medieval person depended mostly on the geographical location and financial status. Obviously, persons of low income (about 90% of the population in the feudal social system of medieval Europe) could not afford extravagant additions to their diets such as spices or sugar. In addition, transport of food was either outrageously expensive or just impossible due to the lack of a good method of preservation of food - obviously refrigeration has not yet been invented.

As a result, a common medieval person’s diet consisted of either wheat, meat, or fish, depending on location. Only two groups were combined together at most in many cases. This diet would be supplemented with the available vegetables, fruit, or herbs available during the season in the area.

This is not to say though that a medieval person did not realise the importance of a proper diet. Many sources cite the physicians’ opinions on the significance of a well-balanced diet. In addition, many guiding writings recorded as conversations with medieval students exist to show that the medievals cared for appropriate nutrition. Most of the cases provide examples of diets somewhat parallel to the food pyramid created by modern science.

An example eating habit to pursue by a medieval person would be as follows: first meat, for it is most easily available, then vegetables, eggs, fish, cheese, butter, and beans, and eventually either water or ale, and in cases of exceptional wealth - wine.

The medicines in the Middle Ages more often than not would take the form of herbal remedies. In accordance with the humor theory, most plants, food substances, and commonly found house items were specified as either cold, hot, dry, or wet so that they could be used to modify the amounts of humors within a person.

For example, pasta (warm) would be used for hot stomach, cold and dry linen could be applied to dry up ulcerations, and sugar (humid) produced “blood that [was] not that bad”.

Small Bird and Bacon Stew with Walnuts or Hazelnuts
Serves 6

6 fatty rashers of bacon, chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic
4 pigeons or other small game birds (6 if very small)
225 g (8 oz) mushrooms, whatever variety, chopped roughly
75 g (3 oz) roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts or walnuts
300 ml (10 fl oz, 1 1/4 cups) real ale
150 ml (5 fl oz, 3/4 cup) water
2 or 3 bay leaves
a little salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 coarse slices brown bread

Fry the bacon, with the garlic, till it is lightly browned in a heavy
bottomed casserole. Add birds and brown on all sides. Add the mushrooms
and nuts, continue to cook for a couple of minutes, then add the ale and
water with the bay leaves.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for 2 - 2 1/2 hours--
the birds should be falling off the bone. Remove the birds from the
juices, cool juices completely and remove any excess fat.
 
The birds can be served whole on or off the bone. If the latter, carve them while they
are cold  then return to the skimmed juices and reheat gently.

Adjust
 the seasoning to taste and serve either the whole birds of the slices on
the pieces of bread, with plenty of the juices and "bits". A good green
salad to follow is the best accompaniment. Scrummy!

The Water Torture

The effect is this: the victim is forced to drink much water until his confession or death.

Medieval ladies found glorification when a knight would select her to be his chosen one. For a knight, this could mean any lady, except his wife. According to the "rules" of courtly love, a knight had to promise to be ardent, secretive, and above all, courteous. No matter how long the love was unrequited, a knight had to be true. 

Rules evolved-such as chosen women given a ring should wear it "on the little finger of their left hand, and always keep the stone hidden inside her hand." When writing letters, they refrained from using their proper names so their identities could never be revealed.

Church leaders were distraught with this new movement, fearing that knights would lose sight of their religious obligations. This stance was softened somewhat, when they learned that some of the best songs of courtly love were being written by monks and nuns.

A double standard existed within these rituals as well, for where knights might boast of their chosen lady, women, especially those who were married had to be quite cautious who learned of this relationship. If a man found out he was being cuckolded, he might repudiate his wife, and have the man castrated or executed. Fathers of the women might be exiled and their lands seized.

 Word History: The allusion to the cuckoo on which the word cuckold is based may not be appreciated by those unfamiliar with the nesting habits of certain varieties of this bird. The female of some Old World cuckoos lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving them to be cared for by the resident nesters.

An earlier assumed form of the Old French word was borrowed into Middle English by way of Anglo-Norman. Middle English cokewold, the ancestor of Modern English cuckold, is first recorded in a work written around 1250.

To a medieval mind, the distinction between natural and supernatural was not always very clear.

This shows in the perception of the causes of ailments, and the obscure treatments thought to help sick patients.

The Catholic Church played a large role in development as well as management of medieval medicine. It contained it within bounds of one religion, disallowing most pagans healing practices.

The underlying principle of medieval medicine were four humors - black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. The balance of these four allowed for the well being of a person.

Medicine in itself developed. Based on some Greek and Near Eastern principles and embellished with the discoveries of the Middle Ages, it set the foundation for contemporary medicine.
 

Medieval medicine, for most part, was very forgiving about who practised and who healed. Clergy and laymen, men and women, were allowed to practice medicine.

The extent of this practice was not limited all throughout the Middle Ages. The final unification came with the Black Death, when the need for doctors to heal the sick was stronger than any prejudice against their origin.

The education system has developed in order to teach law and medicine to the willing. Guilds were created to allow crafts to prosper. The middle class of the society was in the making.
 
"Thank God" well thanks anyone!

Serves 6

225-350g (8-12oz) wholemeal or whole-wheat pastry
 (depending on whether

you want a lid on your crustade)

1 pigeon

2 chicken joints (2 breasts or 2 whole legs)

150mL (f fl oz, 2/3 cup) dry white wine

several grinds of black pepper

4 cloves

15 g (1/2 oz) butter

50g (2oz) mushrooms, roughly chopped

25g (1oz) raisins

3 large eggs

salt, pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Roll out 225g (8 oz) of the pastry and line a 20cm (8 inch) flan dish;

back the crust blind.

Put the pigeon in a pot with the stock, wine, pepper and cloves and cook

Very slowly for an hour. Add the chicken and continue to cook for a

further 45 minutes or till the meat of both birds is really tender.

Meanwhile cook the mushrooms lightly in the butter. Remove the birds

from the stock and bone them.

Cut the flesh into quite small pieces, mix

it with the mushrooms and the raisins and spread them over the base of

the flan case. Beat the eggs with a fork and season with the salt,

pepper, and ginger. Add 240mL (8floz, 1 cup) of the cooking juices and

pour over the meat in the flan case.

If you want to have a lid, roll out

the rest of the pastry and cover the flan. Bake it in moderate oven

(180C, 350F, Gas Mark4) for 25 minutes if uncovered, 35 minutes if

covered. Serve warm with a good green salad.

For a more 20th century flavour-- double the chicken, leave out the

pigeon, and substitute 25g (1 oz) chopped fried bacon for the raisins.

<>In 1180, a lawyer states that 'every married woman is a sort of infant'. Married women have few rights. Church law permits men to beat their wives for laziness or disobedience, although not harshly. When a woman marries, her goods automatically become her husband's property for as long as he lives.

As I said, not all things are bad in our times!

Stephen and Maud.

Its all happening at the moment, never a dull moment, let me tell you about Henry I st's son and heir, also named Henry, he died in the wreck of the "White Ship" while returning from France.
 
Henry then settled his inheritance on Matilda (Maud), his daughter. Many barons, disliking the idea of being ruled by a woman, or perhaps trying to expand their own power, threw their support behind Henry's nephew Stephen.

Stephen and Maude have been playing cat and mouse with the throne causing 19 years of pain and civil war.

At one point Stephen was captured but had to be exchanged for Maud's military commander. Maud actually gained the seat of power in London, but she so enraged the inhabitants by her arrogance that the city rose in arms against her and she had to flee.

Maud's Escapes.

Maud had a couple of thrilling escapes from Stephen's men during the fighting. In 1141 she escaped from Devizes tied to a funeral bier as a corpse. The next year she escaped from besieged Oxford Castle, being let over the walls on a rope. Her white cloak blended with the snow and she was able to slip through Stephen's troops to safety.

End of the Civil War.

Eventually a sensible compromise was reached between the two parties. Stephen was to have the throne for the rest of his life after which it would revert to Maud's son, Henry. This time of anarchy was, curiously, also one of tremendous ecclesiastical building, and many surviving parish churches in the UK date from the period of Stephen's reign.

Let me take you a stage further in your Medieval Education:

Bailey : The area inside the walls of a motte-and-bailey castle. See ward

Balista : A siege weapon, like an enormous crossbow, for firing arrows or stones.

Barbican : A small fort outside the gate, used as a first defence of the gate itself.

Battering ram : A large beam used to try to knock down a wall.

Battlement : An indented parapet at the top of a wall.

Belfry : A wooden tower, built by the besiegers of a castle and intended to be moved up against the walls of a castle.

Bore : Like a battering ram, but smaller and lighter. Used to make a hole in the bottom of a wall as a starting point for further undermining.

Castle : In the Middle Ages, a fortified dwelling place of a noble or a king.

Catapult : A giant slingshot that could throw stones or other missiles against a castle.

Corbel : A projection from a wall to support the weight of battlement construction.

Courtyard : Same as ward or bailey.

Crenel : Same as embrasure.

Crenellated : Having battlements.

Curtain : Same as wall.

Donjon :