The "Anarchy"

There was civil war in England between 1135 and 1153. Henry I sought to secure the throne for his daughter, Matilda (also known as 'the Empress Maud' - her first marriage was to the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V), after his only son was killed when the "White Ship" was accidentally sunk shortly after leaving Barfleur in Normandy. Despite Henry's efforts, the throne was seized by his nephew Stephen of Blois who argued that the need to preserve order in England took priority over his earlier oaths to respect Henry I's wishes. (He also asserted that Henry changed his mind on his deathbed.)

There were few 'battles', but civil order broke down - and many of the leading nobles took steps to protect themselves. Croft and Mynard state, "fighting between the two sides was a rare event, commonly taking the form of sieges of major castles around the country." In the Milton Keynes area, at least three motte and bailey castles were quickly erected or enhanced for this purpose. There is an interesting article on motte and bailey castles here.

Wolverton Castle may have been erected by Manno [the Breton] or his son (? or possibly grandson) Meinfelin (who was to found Bradwell Priory after the Anarchy). It was held for King Stephen, and may have been destroyed as a result. The remains of a later castle may still may seen close to the church in Old Wolverton (which makes for a pleasant walk if heading towards the Iron Trunk where the canal crosses the Ouse.)

Shenley Toot is a hidden gem within Shenley Church End. It lies close to the V3 (Fulmer Street) - near a bridge by Shenley Wood Retirement Village. The remains of this motte and bailey castle lie between Oakhill Road and Holy Thorn Lane. It is under the guardianship of the Parks Trust - and there are excellent interpretation boards.

The castle belonged to (and was probably erected by) Hugh, the tenant of Earl Hugh of Chester. (also known as 'Hugh of Avranches';  Hugh the Wolf, or the less complementary 'Hugh the Fat').

Bradwell was held by William Bayeux. Croft and Mynard report that "its origins are thought to be directly related to the Anarchy". William Bayeux was the tenant of Brian Fitz Count, a personal friend of Empress Matilda. The remains lie to the north-east of the Church and south of the village hall.

A. C. Chibnall, in his 1965 book "Sherington Fiefs and Fields of a Buckinghamshire Village" suggests that there may have been similar castles at Newport Pagnell - "A mound known as 'the battery' near the confluence of [the Great Ouse and the Ouzel] marks the site of the castle and the meadow on the opposite bank of the [Ouzel] has been known since the twelfth century as 'castle mead' ... During the anarchy it belonged to Ralph Peynel as part of his barony of Dudley. Ralph held Dudley Castle for the Empress in 1137"; Lavendon and Hanslope. He proposed the following map of the castles in the north of the Milton Keynes area.

The Doomsday Book

At a meeting of his Court in Gloucester at Christmas 1085, William the Conqueror ordered that a survey be undertaken of the country. He wanted to find out ''How many hundreds of hides were in the shire, what land the king himself had, and what stock upon the land; or, what dues he ought to have by the year from the shire.'' He wanted to know the potential for taxing the inhabitants of the land that he had conquered.

Places in today's Milton Keynes are recorded in the survey - which was completed within a year. Sir Frank Markham's "History of Milton Keynes and District" Volume 1 lists them in his chapter on The Normans. 



There is also book available which contains the results of the survey for Buckinghamshire. It is the "Doomsday Book: Buckinghamshire" volume in a series "History from the Sources", edited by John Morris, published by Phillimore. I bought both books in Central Milton Keynes.

The survey lists the owners of land. They may have derived an income from their land, but possibly never visited. All land was the King's, but he gave an interest in the land to his "tenants", they in turn gave lesser interests to other people. The Doomsday Book records entries - as for Hugh of Bolbec

"[In Seckloe Hundred] - In (Great) Linford - Hugh holds 2 hides and 1.5 virgates as one manor. Land for 2 ploughs; in Lordship 1. 5 villagers with 2 smallholders have 1 plough. Meadow there for 1 plough. The value is and was 20s; before 1066, 40s. Three thanes held the manor; they could grant and sell."

or for the Bishop of Bayeux 
"[in Moulsoe Hundred] - In (Little) Brickhill Thurstan holds 1 hide from the Bishop. Land for 1 plough, but there is no plough there, only 3 villagers with 2 smallholders. The value is and was 14s; before 1066, 20s. Alwin, Estan's man, held this manor; he could not grant or sell outside Brickhill, Estan's manor."

(translations from  "History from the Sources: Doomsday Book: Buckinghamshire - ed. John Morris)

A "Hide" was a unit of measurement designed originally to represent the amount of land sufficient to support a household. Although sometimes described as being 120 acres (49 hectares), it varied according to the nature of the land. One source says that "there was a tendency for land producing £1 of income per year to be assessed at 1 hide." A virgate was usually, but not always considered as a quarter of a hide.

The survey, undertaken 20 years after William led the invasion from Normandy, shows evidence that "to the victor go the spoils". The following list show where particular people had holdings, it is not signify that they held the whole of the property in that village. {Note - this is NOT an exhaustive list]

William's half brothers head our list -

Odo of Bayeux (Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux)
- Little Brickhill

Robert, Count of Mortain
- Caldecote
- Lavendon
- Loughton
- Great Linford
- Wavendon
- Weston Underwood
- Woughton

Other Landholders included

Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances
- Clifton Reyes
- Emberton
- Lathbury
- Lavendon
- Little Linford
- Olney
- Sherington
- Simpson
- Stoke Goldington
- Tyringham
- Water Eaton
- Weston Underwood

Earl Hugh of Chester
- Shenley Church End
- Great Brickhill

Richard Ingania (the Artificer)
- Shenley Brook End

Urso of Bercheres
- Shenley Brook End

Gilbert Maminot, Bishop of Lisieux
- Brickhill

William, son of Ansculf
- Bradwell 
- Caldecote
- Chicheley
- Great Linford
- Hardmead
- Little Woolstone
- Milton Keynes
- Newport Pagnell
- Tickford
- Tyringham

Hugh of Bolbec
- Calverton
- Great Linford
- Hardmead
- Wavendon

Mainou (Manno) the Breton
- Loughton
- Stoke Hammond
- Wolverton (can I recommend Bryan Dunleavy's excellent book - Manno's Manor: A History of Wolverton)

Magna Carta Day

802 years ago, King John was forced to do a deal with rebel barons on the meadows of Runnymede. They had become exasperated with his abuse of executive power - and demanded a halt.

I|n doing so they forced him to concede a principle which is central to the modern British Constitution - that the Executive must operate within the bounds of its legal authority.

It was a start - and although John sought to renege on it (and provoked a civil war which ended with his death)"., the principle remains. It has been developed further.But today we can rightly celebrate what happened on those Surrey meadows over eight centuries ago.

https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta

William the Marshal

BBC Four showed an excellent documentary called "The Greatest Knight: William the Marshal". Some of its topics are close to some topics highlighted on this blog.

It discusses "the anarchy" - the civil war period (1135-53) during the reign of King Stephen. In the series on Milton Keynes history, we will shortly be looking at the remains of that conflict in Shenley, Bradwell and Wolverton.

It also focuses on William's role in the granting of the Magna Carta - a subject that this blog will focus on during June.

In addition it references Eleanor of Aquitaine's court in Poitiers - the remains of which are incorporated in the Palais de Justice, a place I have visited (and hope to do so again). William was also present at the burial of Henry II in Fontevraud Abbey (another of my favorite places). He later lived in Chepstow Castle - a castle I frequently visited as a child.

If you are able to access the BBC iPlayer (only available to TV licence holders in the UK) - I can happily recommend this programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03z2l6l

Was our area ravaged in 1066?

I've recently been reading the Osprey Guide to the Campaigns of the Norman Conquest by Matthew Bennett. In a map entitled "William's march to London, October - December 1066" it shows the routes, both of William the Conqueror himself - as he skirted around London; crossing the Thames to Wallingford - and along the Chilterns to Berkhamsted. (see my earlier posts on Berkhamsted - here and here)




and the route taken by a "detachment for ravaging" - This group, according to that map left from Wallingford and headed for Buckingham and Stony Stratford, and then on to Bedford. it identifies the area south of the Great Ouse as "lands severely ravaged". The Milton Keynes area east of Watling street is included in this area.

There are no diaries or other accounts which discuss this, so where is the evidence? The theory is based on a study of the Domesday Book - which looks at the change in the value of land between the start of 1066 and in 1070 and 1086. Milton Keynes, the village was worth £8 in 1066, but dropped to £5 by 1070 - Great Linford fell in value from £4 in 1066 to £2 in 1070, then increased to £3 by 1086. Newport Pagnell fell from £24 to £20. It is suggested that these drops in value reflected a ravaging of the area. Whaddon and Newton Longville kept their value.

An interesting theory? But is it correct - did much of our area suffer a long term decline as a result of the aggressive tactics of Norman soldiers?

Border Country

Milton Keynes is now a peaceable part of a United Kingdom. But it has not always been that way (in a future post I will look at the motte and bailey castles put up in Shenley, Bradwell and Wolverton at the time of "the anarchy" during King Stephen's reign)

At school, I was taught that the Anglo-Saxon kingdom was divided from a Viking kingdom (known as the 'Danelaw') by Watling Street.

In fact this border ran across the country using the old Roman road - until it came to the crossing of the Great Ouse - where Watling Street ran through Old Stratford into Stony Stratford. At that point the boundary follows the Great Ouse to Bedford. It then went directly south to the source of the River Lea and followed that to the Thames.

A Treaty between King Alfred of Wessex (see http://jdmhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/alfred-great.html) and Guthrum, the leader of a Viking force that had invaded in 874 and brought Wessex to the point of extinction in 878, and then became the ruler of East Anglia - was agreed at some point between 878 and 890.

History of the House of Lords

I have a keen interest in the history of Parliament. I hope in the future to write a number of short posts about the history of that institution - and some of the extraordinary events associated with it.

In the meantime - there is an excellent brief summary of the history of the House of Lords available to download - for free! from -

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/LLN-2017-0020