Northampton is the county town of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies on the River Nene, about 67 miles north-west of London and 54 miles south-east of Birmingham, it is one of the largest towns in the UK. Northampton had a population of 212,100 in the 2011 census. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon periods. During the Middle Ages, the town rose to national significance with the establishment of Northampton Castle, an occasional royal residence and hosted the Parliament of England. Medieval Northampton had many churches and the University of Northampton, which were all enclosed by the town walls, it was granted its first town charter by King Richard I in 1189 and its first mayor was appointed by King John in 1215. The town is the site of two medieval battles. Northampton's royal connection languished in the modern period; the town suffered the Great Fire of Northampton which destroyed most of the town. It was soon rebuilt and grew with the industrial development of the 18th century.
Northampton continued to grow following the creation of the Grand Union Canal and the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, becoming an industrial centre for footwear and leather manufacture. After the World Wars, Northampton's growth was limited until it was designated as a New Town in 1968, accelerating development in the town. Northampton unsuccessfully applied for unitary status in 1996 and city status in 2000. According to Centre for Cities data in 2015, Northampton had a population growth of 11% between the years 2004 and 2013, one of the ten highest in the UK; the earliest reference to Northampton in writing occurred in 914 under the name Ham tune meaning "home town". The prefix "North" was added to distinguish it from other towns called Hampton, most prominently Southampton; the Domesday Book records the town as Northantone, which evolved into Norhamptone by the 13th century and Northampton by the 17th century. Present-day Northampton is the latest in a series of settlements. Remains found in the Briar Hill district show evidence of a Neolithic encampment within a large circular earthwork where local farmers assembled for tribal ceremonies and seasonal events from 3500 BC to 2000 BC.
During the British Iron Age, people lived in protected hill forts. Present-day Hunsbury Hill is an example of this settlement. In the Roman period, a small rural settlement is thought to have existed in the present-day district of Duston. Following Danish invasion, the central area of the town was turned into a stronghold called a burh and became the base for one of the Danish armies in 850. A ditch was dug around the settlement and it was fortified with earth ramparts. Having conquered Mercia, the Danes turned the settlement into a centre for military and administrative purposes, part of the Danelaw. In the 9th century Regenhere of Northampton an East Anglian Saint with localised veneration was buried in Northampton. By 918, Northampton had an earl and an army dependent upon it, whose territory extended to the River Welland; the settlement was recovered by Edward the Elder the same year, turning it into the centre of one of the new shires, which prospered as a river port and trading centre. In 940, it resisted the invading forces of Danish opposition in Northumbria, but was burnt in 1010 by a Danish army, again in 1065 by the rebellious northern earls Edwin and Morcar.
Despite this, the Domesday Book records Northantone as possessing 316 houses with a population of 2000 people, ranking between Warwick and Leicester in size. With the Norman conquest of England, the town rose to national significance: its geographical location in the centre of England made Northampton a valuable strategical point for government and as a convenient meeting place for political, social and military events. Northampton Castle is thought to have been built by Simon de Senlis, who became the first Earl of Northampton, circa 1084, it was an earth and timber stockaded construction, rebuilt in stone. The castle became an occasional royal residence from the reign of King Henry I in 1130 until that of King Richard II. King John stayed at the castle and moved The Treasury there in 1205; some 32 Parliaments, were held there. The last Parliament at Northampton was held in 1380. Significant events in the castle's history include the trial of Thomas Becket in 1164, the publication of the Assize of Northampton in 1176, the declaration of peace with Scotland in the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton, the passage of the Statute of Northampton in 1328 and the imposition of poll tax in 1380.
Royal tournaments and feasts were held at the castle. Simon de Senlis is thought to have built the medieval town walls, which enclosed about 245 acres and had four main gates. Though demolished now, the circular pattern of the main roads surrounding the town centre marks the original position of the walls. De Senlis founded the Cluniac Priory of St Andrew's—where St Andrew's Hospital now stands—and built The Church of the Holy Sepulchre—one of four remaining round churches in England—and All Hallows Church on the current site of All Saint's Church, his son
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between London, just south of Thetford Forest. After World War II Thetford became an ‘overspill town’ taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially; the civil parish, covering an area of 29.55 km2, has a population of 24,340. The Iceni were parts of Cambridgeshire. Archaeological evidence suggests that Thetford was an important tribal centre during the late Iron Age and early Roman period. A ceremonial'grove' was uncovered there during excavations. In 1979, a hoard of Romano-British metalwork, known as the Thetford treasure was located just outside Thetford. Dating from the mid-4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of thirty three inscribed spoons, twenty gold finger rings, four pendants, several necklaces and a 2" gold buckle depicting a dancing satyr; the origin of the name Thetford is unclear. The site was an important crossing of the River Little Ouse, so one possibility is that the settlement drew its name from the Anglo-Saxon Theodford or peoples ford.
It is unclear if the nearby River Thet is named after the crossing or the settlement. The Domesday Book lists William of Bello Fargo as the Bishop of Thetford in 1085. Castle Hill, to the south-east of the town centre, is a Norman motte though no trace remains of the castle which once surmounted it; the mound is open to the public, provides views of the town from its summit and extensive earthworks. It is in a public park, near the Three Nuns Bridges and close to the town centre overlooking the rivers. Thetford contains the ruins of a 12th-century Cluniac priory. Thetford Priory was closed during the Reformation. Both the Priory and the Bell Inn in Thetford, were featured for their alleged hauntings on the television series Ghosthunters; the Black Horse public house dates from the mid 18th century, is grade II listed. The Norfolk Lent Assizes were held at Thetford from 1264 because there was only one Assize for both Norfolk and Suffolk. Thetford, being close to the border between the two, was convenient for both.
However, after much pressure, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1832 to transfer them to Norwich. There had been pressure to do so for many years. In 1825 an MP, Mr John Buxton, told the House of Commons that prisoners had to be carried the 30 miles from Norwich Gaol in an open waggon and, on arrival at Thetford, were placed in a prison, which, "if he were to describe it, would shock and offend the House". Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and other early Tudor dynasty officials were once buried in Thetford before removal to Framlingham; the Duke of Norfolk died on 21 May 1524. His funeral and burial on 22 June at Thetford Priory were said to have been'spectacular and enormously expensive, costing over £1300 and including a procession of 400 hooded men bearing torches and an elaborate bier surmounted with 100 wax effigies and 700 candles', befitting the richest and most powerful peer in England. After the dissolution of Thetford Priory, the Howard tombs were moved to the Church of St Michael the Archangel, Framlingham.
Thetford was the birthplace of Thomas Paine and his statue stands on King Street, holding a quill and his book Rights of Man, upside down. Paine attended Thetford Grammar School. Born in Thetford on 9 February 1737, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 where he was to participate in the American Revolution, his principal contributions were the pamphlet Common Sense, advocating colonial America's independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, The American Crisis, a pro-revolutionary pamphlet series. Dr Allan Glaisyer Minns, born in Inagua, the Bahamas, Mayor of Thetford in 1904, was the first black man to become a mayor in Britain, his son Allan Noel Minns a doctor, was awarded the DSO and MC in the First World War. From the 1950s Thetford became a London overspill town. In 1953 the Thetford Borough Council approached the London County Council to become part of the town's expansion scheme. An agreement was signed in 1957 and work began on new housing estates to accommodate 5,000 Londoners.
In 1960 another 5,000 Londoners moved to Thetford increasing the population to about 17,000 people. An additional 1,500 houses were built by 1965. Development shifted to the Abbey Farm estate to the north of the river, construction of which started in 1967, with 1,000 houses, public open spaces and footpaths. By the late 1980s the population of Thetford had reached around 21,000 people; this meant that Thetford grew faster than any other town in Norfolk, indeed in the whole country. The British Trust for Ornithology moved its headquarters into the former Nunnery, south of the town centre, in 1991; the Ancient House Museum, situated on White Hart Street, is an oak-framed Tudor merchant's house. The museum holds replicas of the Thetford Treasure and has displays about flint knapping, rabbit warreners and wildlife in the brecks; the Ancient House was gifted to the town by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh. The surrounding Breckland has been replaced by the Thetford Forest, though Thetford Chase remains.
East Harling near Thetford hosts an annual Autumn Equinox Festival for astronomy. The town is the site for the UK's Star Party, as it is centrally located in a rural area with dark night skies. An annual concert, STORM open air festival used to take place at the Castle Green; the local football club, Thetford Town F. C. plays in the Eastern Counties Football League. The Breckland & District Sunday Football League, encompasses teams from within a 20-mile radius of Thetford. Thetford Cricket Club play their home games next to the football club on Mundford Road, they have 3 men's teams
Oxford is a university city in south central England and the county town of Oxfordshire. With a population of 155,000, it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom, with one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, it remains the most ethnically diverse area in Oxfordshire county; the city is 51 miles from London, 61 miles from Bristol, 59 miles from Southampton, 57 miles from Birmingham and 24 miles from Reading. The city is known worldwide as the home of the University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Buildings in Oxford demonstrate notable examples of every English architectural period since the late Saxon period. Oxford is known as a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold. Oxford has a broad economic base, its industries include motor manufacturing, publishing and a large number of information technology and science-based businesses, some being academic offshoots. Oxford was first settled in Anglo-Saxon times and was known as "Oxenaforda", meaning "ford of the oxen".
It began with the establishment of a river crossing for oxen around AD 900. In the 10th century, Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes. In 1002, many Danes were killed in Oxford during the England-wide St. Brice's Day massacre, a killing of Danes ordered by King Æthelred the Unready; the skeletons of more than 30 suspected victims were unearthed in 2008 during the course of building work at St John's College. The ‘massacre’ was a contributing factor to King Sweyn I of Denmark’s invasion of England in 1003 and the sacking of Oxford by the Danes in 1004. Oxford was damaged during the Norman Invasion of 1066. Following the conquest, the town was assigned to a governor, Robert D'Oyly, who ordered the construction of Oxford Castle to confirm Norman authority over the area; the castle has never been used for military purposes and its remains survive to this day. D'Oyly set up a monastic community in the castle consisting of a chapel and living quarters for monks.
The community never grew large but it earned its place in history as one of Britain's oldest places of formal education. It was there that in 1139 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his History of the Kings of Britain, a compilation of Arthurian legends. Additionally, there is evidence of Jews living in the city as early as 1141, during the 12th century the Jewish community is estimated to have numbered about 80–100; the city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142. In 1191, a city charter stated in Latin, "Be it known to all those present and future that we, the citizens of Oxford of the Commune of the City and of the Merchant Guild have given, by this, our present charter, confirm the donation of the island of Midney with all those things pertaining to it, to the Church of St. Mary at Oseney and to the canons serving God in that place. Since, every year, at Michaelmas the said canons render half a mark of silver for their tenure at the time when we have ordered it as witnesses the legal deed of our ancestors which they made concerning the gift of this same island.
We have made this concession and confirmation in the Common council of the City and we have confirmed it with our common seal. These are those who have made this confirmation. Oxford's prestige was enhanced by its charter granted by King Henry II, granting its citizens the same privileges and exemptions as those enjoyed by the capital of the kingdom. Oxford's status as a liberty obtained from this period until the 19th century. A grandson of King John established Rewley Abbey for the Cistercian Order. Parliaments were held in the city during the 13th century; the Provisions of Oxford were instigated by a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort. Richard I of England and John, King of England the sons of Henry II of England, were both born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, on 8 September 1157 and 24 December 1166 respectively. A plaque in Beaumont Street commemorates these events; the University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th-century records. Of the hundreds of Aularian houses that sprang up across the city, only St Edmund Hall remains.
What put an end to the halls was the emergence of colleges. Oxford's earliest colleges were University College and Merton; these colleges were established at a time when Europeans were starting to translate the writings of Greek philosophers. These writings challenged European ideology, inspiring scientific discoveries and advancements in the arts, as society began to see itself in a new way; these colleges at Oxf
History of the English penny (c. 600 – 1066)
The history of the English penny can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 7th century: to the small, thick silver coins known to contemporaries as pæningas or denarii, though now referred to as sceattas by numismatists. Broader, thinner pennies inscribed with the name of the king were introduced to southern England in the middle of the 8th century. Coins of this format remained the foundation of the English currency until the 14th century; the history of Anglo-Saxon coinage spans more than five centuries, from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, down to the death of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. It can be divided into four basic phases: c. 450 – c. 550: a low level of coin-use in Britain, characterised by re-use of Roman coinage, though in a non-monetary context. A small number of coins continued to be brought in from Gaul and elsewhere on the Continent. C. 550 – c. 680: the'gold' phase of currency, which began with an increase in the rate of importation of continental gold, principally in the form of tremisses.
From around 620 English gold coins of similar format were produced known to numismatists as thrymsas. By the middle of the 7th century the quantity of gold in these coins was falling such that by the 670s they were more or less silver. C. 680 – c. 750: the age of the sceattas – small, thick silver coins which evolved out of the latest, debased gold coins. These should more be referred to as pennies or denarii as in weight and fineness they approximated the form the English penny was to retain for centuries, contemporary references suggest this is how they were known. Most sceattas are thus difficult to attribute, it should be noted that in Northumbria, coins of this format continued to be struck under closer royal control until the 860s, though by the early 9th century they contained only a negligible quantity of precious metal. C. 750 – 14 October 1066: the silver coinage of sceattas petered out in Southumbrian England in the middle of the 8th century, to be replaced by a broader, thinner model of silver coinage modelled on that of contemporary Carolingian coinage.
These new coins carried legends naming the king and the mint of origin. With various modifications in weight and fineness this format of coinage remained standard for the rest of the period, indeed silver pennies of similar design remained the basis for the English currency until the 14th century. Pennies of this form were made by English kings from Offa onwards, by Viking rulers from the 9th century. In the gold phase of the coinage, the currency consisted overwhelmingly of gold tremisses or thrymsas of c. 1.10 – 1.30g, though a few solidi exist, modelled on Roman coins. Thereafter the currency was less based on a single denomination: the silver penny. In the early 870s the first round halfpennies were produced under Alfred the Great and Ceolwulf II of Mercia; the only known examples of larger silver denominations are two'offering pieces' produced in the reign of Alfred the Great weighing the equivalent of six regular pennies, which were made as alms-pieces to be sent abroad. Although gold ceased to be the predominant form of currency in the 7th century, from the late 8th century onwards there was some use of fine gold coinage for special, high-value transactions.
These gold pieces were known as mancuses. The form of gold coinage varied in the 8th and 9th centuries, drawing inspiration from Roman, Byzantine and Carolingian gold coinages, but by the 10th century gold coins were made by striking a gold piece with the same dies as were used for regular minting of silver. Only eight English gold coins with intelligible legends survive from between the 8th century and 1066, it is difficult to ascertain the extent of coin-use in Anglo-Saxon England. Written references to minting and money are scarce, it is that a single silver penny had considerable buying power – something in the region of £10–£30 in modern currency, their use may have been concentrated in certain classes of society, was most associated with particular transactions such as the payment of rents and legal fees. However, analysis of surviving single-finds shows that coins were used extensively in the eastern half of England, both within and outside towns. Substantial numbers of English coins have been found elsewhere in Europe in Italy and Scandinavia, while English designs were influential on the emergent coinages of Ireland, Sweden and Bohemia.
At the end of the 4th century, the Roman provinces of Britain were still part of a vibrant and quite efficient economic and monetary system that stretched over the whole Roman world. Precious metal coins of gold and silver were used for the payment of taxes reminted for payment to the military and civil service. Bronze coinage was issued on a more occasional basis and was produced to serve the needs of commerce in the provinces. Minting – and control over precious metals in general – across the western empire was under the control of the Comes sacrarum largitionum, with a number of major mints situated at Trier, Milan, Raven
Chester is a walled city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales. With a population of 118,200 in 2011, it is the most populous settlement of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 332,200 in 2014. Chester was granted city status in 1541. Chester was founded as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian in 79 AD. One of the main army camps in Roman Britain, Deva became a major civilian settlement. In 689, King Æthelred of Mercia founded the Minster Church of West Mercia, which became Chester's first cathedral, the Saxons extended and strengthened the walls to protect the city against the Danes. Chester was one of the last cities in England to fall to the Normans. William the Conqueror ordered the construction of a castle, to dominate the town and the nearby Welsh border. Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in Britain, it has a number of medieval buildings, but some of the black-and-white buildings within the city centre are Victorian restorations.
Apart from a 100-metre section, the listed Grade I walls are complete. The Industrial Revolution brought railways and new roads to the city, which saw substantial expansion and development – Chester Town Hall and the Grosvenor Museum are examples of Victorian architecture from this period; the Roman Legio II Adiutrix during the reign of the Emperor Vespasian founded Chester in AD 79, as a "castrum" or Roman fort with the name Deva Victrix. It was established in the land of the Celtic Cornovii, according to ancient cartographer Ptolemy, as a fortress during the Roman expansion northward, was named Deva either after the goddess of the Dee, or directly from the British name for the river. The'victrix' part of the name was taken from the title of the Legio XX Valeria Victrix, based at Deva. Central Chester's four main roads, Northgate and Bridgegate, follow routes laid out at this time. A civilian settlement grew around the military base originating from trade with the fortress; the fortress was 20% larger than other fortresses in the Roman province of Britannia built around the same time at York and Caerleon.
The civilian amphitheatre, built in the 1st century, could seat between 8,000 and 10,000 people. It is the largest known military amphitheatre in Britain, is a Scheduled Monument; the Minerva Shrine in the Roman quarry is the only rock cut. The fortress was garrisoned by the legion until at least the late 4th century. Although the army had abandoned the fortress by 410 when the Romans retreated from Britannia, the Romano-British civilian settlement continued and its occupants continued to use the fortress and its defences as protection from raiders from the Irish Sea. After the Roman troops withdrew, the Romano-British established a number of petty kingdoms. Chester is thought to have become part of Powys. Deverdoeu was a Welsh name for Chester as late as the 12th century. Another, attested in the 9th-century History of the Britons traditionally attributed to Nennius, is Cair Legion. King Arthur is said to have fought his ninth battle at the "city of the legions" and St Augustine came to the city to try to unite the church, held his synod with the Welsh Bishops.
In 616, Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated a Welsh army at the brutal and decisive Battle of Chester, established the Anglo-Saxon position in the area from on. The Northumbrian Anglo-Saxons used an Old English equivalent of the British name, Legacæstir, current until the 11th century, when, in a further parallel with Welsh usage, the first element fell out of use and the simple name Chester emerged. In 689, King Æthelred of Mercia founded the Minster Church of West Mercia on what is considered to be an early Christian site: it is known as the Minster of St John the Baptist, Chester which became the first cathedral. Much the body of Æthelred's niece, St Werburgh, was removed from Hanbury in Staffordshire in the 9th century and, to save it from desecration by Danish marauders, was reburied in the Church of SS Peter & Paul - to become the Abbey Church, her name is still remembered in St Werburgh's Street which passes alongside the cathedral, near the city walls. The Saxons extended and strengthened the walls of Chester to protect the city against the Danes, who occupied it for a short time until Alfred seized all the cattle and laid waste the surrounding land to drive them out.
It was Lady of the Mercians, that built the new Saxon burh. A new Church dedicated to St Peter alone was founded in AD 907 by the Lady Æthelfleda at what was to become the Cross. In 973, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that, two years after his coronation at Bath, King Edgar of England came to Chester where he held his court in a palace in a place now known as Edgar's Field near the old Dee bridge in Handbridge. Taking the helm of a barge, he was rowed the short distance up the River Dee from Edgar's Field to the great Minster Church of St John the Baptist by six (the monk Henry Bradshaw records he
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury, a local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour; the Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion owing to the importance of St Augustine, who served as the apostle to the pagan Kingdom of Kent around the turn of the 7th century. The city's cathedral became a major focus of pilgrimage following the 1170 martyrdom of Thomas Becket, although it had been a well-trodden pilgrim destination since the murder of St Alphege by the men of King Canute in 1012. A journey of pilgrims to Becket's shrine served as the frame for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century classic The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury is a popular tourist destination: one of the most-visited cities in the United Kingdom, the city's economy is reliant upon tourism; the city has been occupied since Paleolithic times and served as the capital of the Celtic Cantiaci and Jute Kingdom of Kent.
Many historical structures fill the area, including a city wall founded in Roman times and rebuilt in the 14th century, the ruins of St Augustine's Abbey and a Norman castle, the oldest extant school in the world, the King's School. Modern additions include the Marlowe Theatre and the St Lawrence Ground, home of the Kent County Cricket Club. There is a substantial student population, brought about by the presence of the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, the University for the Creative Arts, the Girne American University Canterbury campus. Canterbury remains, however, a small city in terms of geographical size and population, when compared with other British cities; the Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum occupied the location of an earlier British town whose ancient British name has been reconstructed as *Durou̯ernon, although the name is sometimes supposed to have derived from various British names for the Stour. In Sub-Roman Britain, it was known in Old Welsh as Cair Ceint.
Occupied by the Jutes, it became known in Old English as Cantwareburh, which developed into the present name. The Canterbury area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Lower Paleolithic axes, Neolithic and Bronze Age pots have been found in the area. Canterbury was first recorded as the main settlement of the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci, which inhabited most of modern-day Kent. In the 1st century AD, the Romans named it Durovernum Cantiacorum; the Romans rebuilt the city, with new streets in a grid pattern, a theatre, a temple, a forum, public baths. Although they did not maintain a major military garrison, its position on Watling Street relative to the major Kentish ports of Rutupiae and Lemanae gave it considerable strategic importance. In the late 3rd century, to defend against attack from barbarians, the Romans built an earth bank around the city and a wall with seven gates, which enclosed an area of 130 acres. Despite being counted as one of the 28 cities of Sub-Roman Britain, it seems that after the Romans left Britain in 410 Durovernum Cantiacorum was abandoned for around 100 years, except by a few farmers and decayed.
Over the next 100 years, an Anglo-Saxon community formed within the city walls, as Jutish refugees arrived intermarrying with the locals. In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine to convert its King Æthelberht to Christianity. After the conversion, being a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the centre for his episcopal see in Kent, an abbey and cathedral were built. Augustine thus became the first Archbishop of Canterbury; the town's new importance led to its revival, trades developed in pottery and leather. By 630, gold coins were being struck at the Canterbury mint. In 672, the Synod of Hertford gave. In 842 and 851, Canterbury suffered great loss of life during Danish raids. In 978, Archbishop Dunstan refounded the abbey built by Augustine, named it St Augustine's Abbey; the Siege of Canterbury saw a large Viking army besiege Canterbury in 1011, culminating in the city being pillaged and the eventual murder of Archbishop Alphege in 19 April 1012. Remembering the destruction caused by the Danes, the inhabitants of Canterbury did not resist William the Conqueror's invasion in 1066.
William ordered a wooden motte-and-bailey castle to be built by the Roman city wall. In the early 12th century, the castle was rebuilt with stone. After the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket at the cathedral in 1170, Canterbury became one of the most notable towns in Europe, as pilgrims from all parts of Christendom came to visit his shrine; this pilgrimage provided the framework for Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th-century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales. Canterbury Castle was captured by the French Prince Louis during his 1215 invasion of England, before the death of John caused his English supporters to desert his cause and support the young Henry III. Canterbury is associated with several saints from this period who lived in Canterbury: Saint Augustine of Canterbury Saint Anselm of Canterbury Saint Thomas Becket Saint Mellitus Saint Theodore of Tarsus Saint Dunstan Saint Adrian of Canterbury Saint Alphege Saint Æthelberht of Kent The Black Death hit Canterbury in 1348. At 10,000, Canterbury had the 10th largest population in England.
In 1363, during the Hundred Years' War, a Commission of Inquiry found that disrepai
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands of England. It lies 16 miles north of Wolverhampton, 18 miles south of Stoke-on-Trent and 24 miles north-west of Birmingham; the population in 2001 was 63,681 and that of the wider borough of Stafford 122,000, the fourth largest in the county after Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. Stafford means'ford' by a'staithe'; the original settlement was on dry sand and gravel peninsula that provided a strategic crossing point in the marshy valley of the River Sow, a tributary of the River Trent. There is still a large area of marshland northwest of the town, which has always been subject to flooding, such as in 1947, 2000 and 2007, it is thought Stafford was founded about 700 AD by a Mercian prince called Bertelin who, according to the legend, established a hermitage on the peninsula named Betheney. Until it was thought that the remains of a wooden preaching cross from this time had been found under the remains of St Bertelin's chapel, next to the collegiate Church of St Mary in the centre of the town.
Recent re-examination of the evidence shows this was a misinterpretation – it was a tree-trunk coffin placed centrally in the first, chapel at around the time Æthelflæd founded the burh, in 913 AD. The tree-trunk coffin may have been placed there as an object of commemoration or veneration of St Bertelin. A centre for the delivery of grain tribute during the Early Middle Ages, Stafford was commandeered in July 913 AD by Æthelflæd, Lady of Mercia, in order to construct a burh there; this new burh was fortified and provided with an industrial area for the centralised production of Roman-style pottery, supplied to the chain of West Midlands burhs. Æthelflæd and her younger brother, King Edward the Elder of Wessex, were attempting to complete their father King Alfred the Great's programme of unifying England into a single kingdom. Æthelflæd was a formidable military leader and tactician, she sought to protect and extend the northern and western frontiers of her overlordship of Mercia against the Danish Vikings, by fortifying burhs, including Tamworth and Stafford in 913, Runcorn on the River Mersey in 915 among others, while King Edward the Elder concentrated on the east, wresting East Anglia and Essex from the Danes.
Anglo-Saxon women could play powerful roles in society. Edward the Elder of Wessex took over her fortress at Tamworth and accepted the submission of all who were living in Mercia, both Danish and English. In late 918 Aelfwynn, Æthelflæd's daughter, was deprived of her authority over Mercia and taken to Wessex; the project for the unification of England took another step forward. Stafford was one of Æthelflæd's military campaign bases and extensive archaeological investigations, recent re-examination and interpretation of that evidence now shows her new burh was producing, in addition to the Stafford Ware pottery, food for her army and weaponry, but no other crafts and there were few imports; the Lady of Mercia, Æthelflæd, ruled Mercia for five years after the death of her father and husband, dying in Tamworth in 918. At around this time the county of Staffordshire was formed. Stafford lay within the Pirehill hundred. In 1069, a rebellion by Eadric the Wild against the Norman conquest culminated in the Battle of Stafford.
Two years another rebellion, this time led by Edwin, Earl of Mercia, culminated in Edwin's assassination. This meant. Robert de Tonei was granted one third of the king's rents in Stafford; the Norman conquest in Stafford was therefore brutal, resulted not only in the imposition of a castle, but in the destruction and suppression of every other activity except the intermittent minting of coins for about a hundred years. Stafford Castle was built by the Normans on the nearby hilltop to the west about 1090, it was first made of wood, rebuilt of stone. It has been rebuilt twice since, the ruins of the 19th century gothic revival castle on the earthworks incorporate much of the original stonework. Redevelopment began in the late 12th century, while the church, the main north-to-south street and routes through the late Saxon industrial quarter to the east remained, in other ways the town plan changed. A motte was constructed on the western side of the peninsula, overlooking a ford, facing the site of the main castle of Stafford, on the hill at Castle Church, west of the town.
Tenements were laid out over the whole peninsula and trade and crafts flourished until the early 14th century, when there was another upset associated with the plague of Black Death, followed in the mid 16th century by another revival. In 1206 King John granted a Royal Charter. In the Middle Ages Stafford was a market town dealing in cloth and wool. In spite of being the shire town, Stafford required successive surges of external investment from the time of Æthelflæd to that of Queen Elizabeth I. King Richard II was paraded through the town's streets as a prisoner in 1399, by troops loyal to Henry Bolingbroke; when James I visited Stafford, he was said to be so impressed by the town's Shire Hall and other buildings that he called it'Little London'. Charles I visited Stafford shortly after the out-break of the English Civil War, he stayed for three days at the Ancient High House. The town was captured by the Parliamentarians, while a small-scale battle was fought at nearby Hopton. Stafford fell to the Parliamentarians, as did