ELEVENTH-CENTURY KINGDOMS, CASTLES AND KNIGHTS

HEAVY PLOW c. 1100

Eleventh-century Europe

The “Roman Empire” of Otto I (the Great), ca. 963

Sclavinia, Germany, Gaul and Rome bringing gifts to Emperor Otto III Gospels of Otto III (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 4453), produced at

Reichenau Abbey, ca. 960

Cnut the Great, King of England and Denmark, reigned 1016-1035 (from New Minster’s Liber Vitae, Winchester: Cnut and his Queen

Ælfgifu/Emma present the Winchester Cross)

Cnut’s Northern Empire, c. 1020

Seal of Louis VI “the Fat,” King of France 1108-37Louis’s greatest accomplishment was gaining control over the royal

domain lands

King Harold II (Godwineson), 1066 Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1070

William the Conqueror feasting

Seal of William I the Conqueror, duke of Normandy 1035-1087, and king of England 1066-87

• Motte and Bailey castles were the earliest and least elaborate castles

• The term refers to a hill (motte) and an enclosure at its base surrounded by a ditch and palisade. The hill was often man-made

• Drawing by Jeffrey Thomas

Building a Motte and Bailey castle (Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1075)

Wiston Castle (Welsh marches, c. 1140)

Count Fulk Nerra of Anjou’s castles (987-1040)from N. Hooper and M. Bennett, Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768-1487

Loches (southeast Anjou, 980s)

Fulk Nerra’s Castle of Montrichard on Cher River, about 40 km east of Tours, 1005-1006

Beaugency built by Fulk Nerra on the Loire between Blois and Orleans, 1020s (left) / White Tower, London, built by William the Conqueror in 1078, 90 feet (27.4m) high and 118 feet (35.9m)

by 107 feet (32.6m) across, the walls 15 feet thickness at base to almost 11 feet in the upper parts )

William the Conqueror takes the Castle of Dinan (Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1075)

Charging Knights from the Bayeux Tapestry (c.1075)

Norman knights charge an English shield wall during the Battle of Hastings (1066)

from the Bayeux Tapestry c.1075

Knights from Codex of 1028 (Encyclopedia of Mauro Rabano)

Foot soldiers from the “Life of St. Aubin of Angers”(Bibliothèque Nationale, 11th century ms)