The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: “In 1086 William the Conqueror sent his men all over England, into every shire to find out what property every inhabitant of all England possessed in land, or in cattle and how much money this was worth … and then all these writings were brought to him.” That was the first […]
A monk wrote in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: “The King William was severe beyond all measure to those people who resisted his will. The earls who resisted him were kept in chains. He deprived bishops of their power and lands, and abbots of their abbacies, and cast earls into prison …. There is no doubt that […]
The rule of Danish kings over England came to an end soon after Canute’s death in 1035, for neither of his two sons reigned long, and both died childless. In these circumstances the Witan, or council of chief nobles and clergy, invited Edward, the son of Ethelred the Unready, to be king. During the period […]
In the words of every language, there is much of the history of the people that speak it: the very fact that English is much less pure than (say) Greek or Italian explains why it is, at the same time, much more revelatory of the influences that have affected it, hence of the influences to […]
