A New Ideology

At the core of our Blog's Objectives are a set of standards which will reduce crime and lead the members of our Society to a better and more rewarding way of life.  The "Big Society" has to be crystallised for our younger generation in the form of a movement and set of values to which they can commit in order to gain prestige, social standing and respect. In my opinion it has to be glamorised, romanticised, organised and made chivalrous to empower the members of the movement to do something good for their country to gain praise, honour, public recognition and a respected position in our society.

This New Ideology is a National Social Responsibility Movement aimed primarily at Young Offenders and City Gang Members

The following is a social responsibility project/program I have been working on. At its core is a set of standards which will reduce crime and lead the members of the Society to a better and more rewarding way of life. I feel that "The Big Society" has to be crystallised for our younger generation in the form of a movement and set of values to which they can commit in order to gain prestige, social standing and respect. In my opinion it has to be glamorised, romanticised, organised and made chivalrous to empower the members of the movement to do something good for their country to gain praise, honour, public recognition and a respected position in our society. My plan is to put the Movement at this juncture called "Knights of the Beatitudes" on the Internet to make it go "viral" with the help of a highly experienced technical expert to exploit platforms used by the young internationally such as Facebook and TikTok etc. Whilst I have never set out to make this a money making venture but simply a means of free benign social reform I believe that it could gain significant financial support for the various campaigns/causes/projects chosen by the Movement. (Possibly even the majority of Political Parties in Westminster !) Carefully selected Founder members would have special influence on the development of the Movement's structure and policies and the messages we wish to propagate. We will need to estimate the cost of the launch of the movement on the Internet and formulate a budget forecast.

As stated in the Home Page of this Blog few of us rich or poor who live in these Islands truly valuing the British way of life caring about our Country doubt the urgent need for fundamental change to the very fabric of some parts of our Society in a temporarily "Broken Britain"! I reiterate that we yearn for a renewal of those qualities that helped us stand alone and vanquish the Nazis aggressors which are still deployed today against those intolerant regimes who continue to oppress freedom and democracy by waging brutal war to suppress innocent people throughout the world. We and our Allies are determined to eradicate the evil indoctrination and radicalisation of our young towards religious and political extremism both in the midst of our homeland and abroad. We will seek out and punish those terrorists and their followers who attempt to lead the world into such miseries and strife for their own self satisfying ends and glorification. We wish to see the reversal of frightening social decline and economic decay in our own Country. The complete regeneration of strong moral working values amongst all of our community. We want a return to the time when all decent people with rare exception throughout this land cared for their families and their neighbours standing together in a free and just society safe and proud in the knowledge that they could walk the streets of all our towns and cities without fear or hindrance and live together in peace. 

 

In all of these respects we must look to the Young for Our Blessed and Happy Future. We must inspire them.

 

They are to become" Members of the Order of the Beatitudes"!

 

Draft text follows as outlined in this attachment:

 

A Nation no longer in decline

 

A Proud People

 

For a Brave New World

 

In a New Way

 

With an Elite Order:

 

We are Members of the Order of the Beatitudes

 

The years of our Empire have strengthened our Bloodstock. All of our Good People must now come together. We must embrace and protect each other as one Nation, One Country, One People, One Power, One force for Good. We must find a New Way out of the old way. A brave new World. A better Life, a Better Future. We must work together without fear of unemployment or deprivation and sustain each other through both natural and man made disasters. We must Cleanse Our Nation and Our World Society. God appears to each and all of us in many different ways in his supreme goodness and purity of purpose. When you name and call upon him in good and righteousness he is also mine as mine to you. Thanks to God we have no doubt that together we will vanquish evil and be delivered from it in true right and triumph on this Earth as we do in Heaven.

 

Our Order is one of sacred chivalry where one table justly rules one people in homage of those of our Elite who have paid and continue to pay the highest price for our blessings.

 

The Hallowed and most Sacred Ceremony

 

The Noble Men and Women gathered around the round table each with a raised sword to heaven to whom in unison they devoutly swore this sacred oath to God:

 

“Blessed are the good that defend one another and love their neighbors”

 

“Blessed are those who destroy evil”

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

 

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

 

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

 

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.”

 

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

 

“Blessed are those who make and love music for they hear the angels sing”

 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great on earth and in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

 

“Blessed are those who bring to justice those who harm and abuse innocent children and the vulnerable members of our society who are unable to protect themselves. Those who perpetrate these evils will undergo the greatest punishment so that it would have been better that they had not been born”

 

And so with these divine words our Sacred Order was formed in God’s image and likeness to prevail forever to fulfil our Holy Commandments.

 

And this Table was replicated throughout our land in each community and became one. The Head of each Table sought Holy Orders and guidance and instruction from the Ruling Table which was omni present.

 

The Structure of Our Ruling Tables and their Levels of Authority

 

The World Table reported to by:

 

The National Table reported to by:

 

The City/County/State Table reported to by:

 

The Town/Borough/Ward Table reported to by:

 

The District/Street/Road Table

 

The Campaigns/Causes/Projects/Just Wars

 

With the approval of Our Ruling Tables this list may be added to further by the Honorable Members of Our Order: 

 

Poverty

 

Crime

 

Injustice

 

Tyranny

 

Violence

 

Intimidation

 

Exploitation

 

Employment

 

Business & Manufacturing Projects

 

The Strengthening of Our Bloodstock 

Over a millennium our British Race has been strengthened from the original Celtic Inhabitants of these Islands by Roman, Anglo Saxon, Viking, Norman, Dutch, Jewish, African Caribbean, Asian, Arabian and a host of other good and law abiding people. Many of these people have come to us through our Old Empire and have come together as one New Empire in Our Homeland. This history of our English Speaking People is notarized and recorded in our “Addendum” and may be added to further by the Honourable Members of Our Order.

British Colonies in the Old Empire

(Some of which are now in the British Commonwealth headed by our King)

Former British colonies:

The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more).

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

H cont.

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

P cont.

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Z

The Strengthening

The Blessing

The Protection

The Cleansing

The Sharing

The Peace 

[The Addendum "In the Beginning in this Green and Pleasant Land Our England!”

http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews/worldinfo/europe/empire.html

In the beginning the British Isles, Scotland and Ireland were inhabited by many different Celtic Tribes or Clans often cruelly at war with one another. They were a fiery tempered, physically strong people with red or blond hair, brilliant horsemen and fearsome in battle who knew no other country.

The History of the Strengthening of Our Race

Thence came the invaders! :

First the Roman armies arrived from the sea in their naval war ships called “galleons”. They considered these inhabitants daubed in blue woad who lived in round communal mud huts a most primitive people. Their Land was rich in agriculture, minerals and livestock and was coveted. England soon became a Province of the Roman Empire after the defeat of Queen Boudicca following the split of the Celtic Tribes into warring factions because of deal making with the Roman Generals. A “Divide and Rule Policy!” Julius Caesar had “come by warship, he had seen, he had conquered “Veni, vidi, vici!”

However the Romans ruled this country peacefully for a period of almost 500 years built many of our roads and left many splendid temples spas, irrigations and villas. They built the famous Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland which stretches the whole breadth of our Country to keep out the savage Picts and Scots. They bestowed on us the beginning of our Law System and the rights of justice and ownership. Upon the fall of their Empire the armies were recalled to Rome but many had integrated with the Celts and those that could decided to stay in this green and pleasant land to love and nurture their children of a stronger mixed race.

After many years came the second major invasion of a foreign people in long ships. They were called “Angles and Saxons” Germanic Tribes who in battle wielded large and very sharp axes and coveted the rich land of the Celts. These Huns from Northern Germany arrived in great numbers and eventually overwhelmed the Celts driving them to the West of England to the proud country that is now called Wales. Here the Welsh strengthened and settled as a Nation became entrenched and could no longer be extradited from their own country, supplanted, pushed back and have their lands and fealty usurped. 

The Saxons had their own nobility. King and queens, lords and ladies. The country was rules by this “elite”. Saxons, along with Angles, Jutes, Frisians, and possibly Franks, invaded or migrated to the island of Great Britain (Britannia) around the time of the collapse of Roman authority in the west. Saxon raiders had been harassing the eastern and southern shores of Britannia for centuries before, prompting the construction of a string of coastal forts called the litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore, and many Saxons and other folk had been permitted to settle in these areas as farmers long before the end of Roman rule in Britannia. According to tradition, however, the Saxons (and other tribes) first entered Britain en masse as part of a deal to protect the Britons from the incursions of the Picts, Irish, and others. The story as reported in such sources as the Historia Brittonum indicates that the British king Vortigern allowed the Germanic warlords Hengist and Horsa to settle their people on the Isle of Thanet in exchange for their service as mercenaries. Hengist manipulated Vortigern into granting more land and allowing for more settlers to come in, paving the way for the Germanic settlement of Britain.

Four separate Saxon realms emerged:

  1. East Saxons: created the Kingdom of Essex.
  2. Middle Saxons: created the province of Middlesex
  3. South Saxons: led by Aelle, created the Kingdom of Sussex
  4. West Saxons: led by Cerdic, created the Kingdom of Wessex

During the period of the reigns from Egbert to Alfred the Great, the kings of Wessex emerged as Bretwalda, unifying the country and eventually forging it into the kingdom of England in the face of Viking invasions.

Historians are divided about what followed: some argue that the takeover of southern Great Britain by the Anglo-Saxons was peaceful. There is, however, only one known account from a native Briton who lived at this time (Gildas), and his description is of a forced takeover:

Social structure

Bede, a Northumbrian, writing around the year 730, remarks that "the old (that is, the continental) Saxons have no king, but they are governed by several ealdormen (or satrapa) who, during war, cast lots for leadership but who, in time of peace, are equal in power." The regnum Saxonum was divided into three provinces — Westphalia, Eastphalia and Angria — which comprised about one hundred pagi or Gaue. Each Gau had its own satrap with enough military power to level whole villages which opposed him.[21]

In the mid 9th century, Nithard first described the social structure of the Saxons beneath their leaders. The caste structure was rigid; in the Saxon language the three castes, excluding slaves, were called the edhilingui (related to the term aetheling), frilingi, and lazzi. These terms were subsequently Latinised as nobiles or nobiliores; ingenui, ingenuiles, or liberi; and liberti, liti, or serviles.[22] According to very early traditions which probably contain a good deal of historical truth, the edhilingui were the descendants of the Saxons who led the tribe out of Holstein and during the migrations of the sixth century.[22] They were a conquering, warrior elite. The frilingi represented the descendants of the amicii, auxiliarii, and manumissi of that caste, while the lazzi represented the descendants of the original inhabitants of the conquered territories, who were forced to make oaths of submission and pay tribute to the edhilingui.

The Lex Saxonum regulated the Saxons' unusual society. Intermarriage between the castes was forbidden by the Lex and wergilds were set based upon caste membership. The edhilingui were worth 1,440 solidi, or about 700 head of cattle, the highest wergild on the continent; the price of a bride was also very high. This was six times as much as that of the frilingi and eight times as much as the lazzi. The gulf between noble and ignoble was very large, but the difference between a freeman and an indentured labourer was small.[23]

According to the Vita Lebuini antiqua, an important source for early Saxon history, the Saxons held an annual council at Marklo where they "confirmed their laws, gave judgment on outstanding cases, and determined by common counsel whether they would go to war or be in peace that year."[21] All three castes participated in the general council; twelve representatives from each caste were sent from each Gau. In 782, Charlemagne abolished the system of Gaue and replaced it with the Grafschaftsverfassung, the system of counties typical of Francia.[24] Charlemagne outlawed the Marklo councils and thus pushed the frilingi and lazzi out of political power. The old Saxon system of Abgabengrundherrschaft, lordship based on dues and taxes, was replaced by a form of feudalism based on service and labour, personal relationships, and oaths.[25]

Religion

Saxon Paganism and politics

Saxon pagan practices were closely related to Saxon political practices. The annual councils of the entire tribe began with invocations of the gods, and the procedure by which dukes were elected in wartime, by drawing lots, probably had pagan significance, that is, giving trust to divine providence to guide the seemingly random decision making.[26] There were also sacred rituals and objects, such as the pillars called Irminsul, which were believed to connect heaven and earth. Charlemagne had one such pillar chopped down in 772.

Something of pagan Saxon practice in Britain can be gleaned from place names. The Germanic gods Woden, Frigg, Tiw, and Thunor, who are attested to in every Germanic pagan tradition, were worshipped in Wessex, Sussex, and Essex, and they are the only ones directly attested to, though the names of the third and fourth months (March and April) of the Old English calendar bear the names Hrethmonath and Eosturmonath, meaning "month of Hretha" and "month of Ēostre", apparently from the names of two goddesses who were worshipped around that season.[27] The pagan Saxons offered cakes to their gods in February (Solmonath) and there was a religious festival associated with the harvest, Halegmonath ("holy month" or month of offerings", September).[28] The pagan calendar began on 25 December, and the months of December and January were called Yule (or Giuli) and contained a Modra niht or "night of the mothers", another religious festival of unknown content.

The Saxon freemen and servile class remained practising pagans long after their nominal conversion to Christianity. Nursing a hatred of the upper class which, with Frankish assistance, had marginalised them from political power, the lower classes (the plebeium vulgus or cives) were still a problem for Christian authorities as late as 836, when the Translatio S. Liborii remarks on their obstinacy in pagan ritus et superstitio (usage and superstition).[29]

The Blessing

Conversion and resistance

The conversion of the Saxons in England from their original Germanic paganism to Christianity was accomplished in the early to late seventh century under the influence of the already converted Jutes of Kent. In the 630s, Birinus became the "apostle to the West Saxons" and converted Wessex, whose first Christian king was Cynegils. The West Saxons begin to emerge from obscurity only with their conversion to Christianity and the keeping of written records. The Gewisse, a West Saxon people, were especially resistant to Christianity; but Birinus merely exercised more efforts against them.[27] In Wessex, a bishopric was founded at Dorchester. The South Saxons were first evangelised extensively under Anglian influence; Aethelwalh of Sussex was converted by Wulfhere, King of Mercia, and allowed Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, to evangelise his people beginning in 681. The chief South Saxon bishopric was that of Selsey. The East Saxons were more pagan than the southern or western Saxons; their territory had a superabundance of pagan sites.[30] Their king, Saeberht, was converted early and a diocese was established at London, but its first bishop, Mellitus, was expelled by Saeberth's heirs. The conversion of the East Saxons was only completed under Cedd in the 650s and 660s.

The continental Saxons were evangelised largely by English missionaries in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Around 695, two early English missionaries, Hewald the White and Hewald the Black were martyred by the vicani, that is, villagers.[26] Throughout the century that followed, it was the villagers and other peasants who were to prove the greatest opponents of Christianisation, while missionaries often received the support of the edhilingui and other noblemen. Saint Lebuin, an Englishman who preached to the Saxons between 745 and 770, built a church and made many friends among the nobility, some of whom were compelled to save him from an angry mob at the annual council at Marklo. Social tensions arose between the Christianity-sympathetic noblemen and the staunchly pagan lower castes.[31]

Under Charlemagne, the Saxon Wars had as their chief object the conversion and integration of the Saxons into the Frankish empire. Though much of the highest caste converted readily, forced baptisms and forced tithing made enemies of the lower orders. Even some contemporaries found the methods employed to win over the Saxons wanting, as this excerpt from a letter of Alcuin of York to his friend Meginfrid, written in 796, shows:

If the light yoke and sweet burden of Christ were to be preached to the most obstinate people of the Saxons with as much determination as the payment of tithes has been exacted, or as the force of the legal decree has been applied for fault of the most trifling sort imaginable, perhaps they would not be averse to their baptismal vows.[32]

Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's successor, reportedly treated the Saxons more as Alcuin would have wished, and consequently they were faithful subjects.[33] The lower classes, however, revolted against Frankish overlordship in favour of their old paganism as late as the 840s, when the Stellinga rose up against the Saxon leadership, who were allied with the Frankish emperor Lothair I. After the suppression of the Stellinga, in 851 Louis the German brought relics from Rome to Saxony to foster a devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.[34] When the Poeta Saxo composed his verse Annales of Charlemagne's reign with an emphasis on his conquest of Saxony, the great emperor was viewed on par with the Roman emperors as the bringer of Christian salvation to a pagan people.

Vernacular Christianity

In the ninth century, the Saxon nobility became vigorous supporters of monasticism and formed a bulwark of Christianity against the existing Slavic paganism to the east and the Nordic paganism of the Vikings to the north. Indeed, Saxony, once so pagan, became the source of a bold and unique Christianity, as evidenced by the Christian literature in the vernacular Old Saxon; the literary output and wide influence of Saxon monasteries such as Fulda, Corvey, and Verden; and the theological controversy between the Augustinian Gottschalk and the semipelagian Rabanus Maurus.[35]

From an early date, Charlemagne and Louis the Pious supported Christian vernacular works in order to evangelise the Saxons more efficiently. The Heiland, a verse epic of the life of Christ in a Germanic setting, and Genesis, another epic retelling of the events of the first book of the Bible, were commissioned in the early ninth century by Louis to disseminate scriptural knowledge to the masses. A council of Tours in 813 and then a synod of Mainz in 848 both declared that homilies ought to be preached in the vernacular. The earliest preserved text in the Saxon language is a baptismal vow from the late eighth or early ninth century; the vernacular was used extensively in an effort to Christianise the lowest castes of Saxon society.[36]

The Protection 

The Vikings, 800 to 1066

By Professor Edward James

Artist's conception of the Viking ship of Norse explorer Leif Erikson ©

The story of the Vikings in Britain is one of conquest, expulsion, extortion and reconquest. Their lasting legacy was the formation of the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Viking raids

Raids by seaborne Scandinavian pirates on sites in Britain, especially largely undefended monastic sites, began at the end of the eighth century AD.

By the end of the ninth century there were large-scale settlements of Scandinavians in various parts of Britain, and they had achieved political domination over a significant territory.

Early in the 11th century the king of Denmark became king of England as well. And in 1066 there were separate invasions by the king of Norway, Harald Hardrada, and duke of Normandy, William, the latter the descendant of Scandinavian settlers in northern France.

'Many monasteries in the north were destroyed, and with them any records of the raids.'

Yet the most significant development of the period was an indirect result of Scandinavian involvement in the affairs of Britain - the emergence of two kingdoms of newly unified territories, England and Scotland.

In 793 AD, an anguished Alcuin of York wrote to the Higbald, the bishop of Lindisfarne and to Ethelred, King of Northumbria, bemoaning the unexpected attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne by Viking raiders, probably Norwegians sailing directly across the North Sea to Northumbria.

It is clear from the letter that Lindisfarne was not destroyed. Alcuin suggested that further attack might be averted by moral reform in the monastery.

Over the next few decades, many monasteries in the north were destroyed, and with them any records they might have kept of the raids. We know no historical details of the raids in Scotland, although they must have been extensive.

Iona was burnt in 802 AD, and 68 monks were killed in another raid in 806 AD. The remaining monks fled to Kells (County Meath, Ireland) with a gospel-book probably produced in Iona, but now known as the 'Book of Kells'.

Other monasteries in Scotland and northern England simply disappear from the record. Lindisfarne was abandoned, and the monks trailed around northern England with their greatest possession, the relics of St Cuthbert, until they found a home in Durham in 995 AD.

England and Scotland

We cannot be sure of the impact the Vikings had on Scotland due to a real scarcity of written material from the area. But the surviving place names show us that the Orkneys and Shetlands, and the mainland of Caithness and Sutherland, were heavily settled by Norwegians.

Those Norwegians were probably involved in the greatest political upset in the north - the disappearance of the kingdom of the Picts.

'The Vikings began to assemble larger armies with the clear intent of conquest.'

In the eighth century, the Picts had one of the most important kingdoms in Britain. By the end of the ninth century they had vanished. In their place was a kingdom of Scotland, controlled by the Scots, who were the descendents of immigrants from Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries.

The Scots took advantage of the presence of the Vikings, and, above all under King Cináed mac Alpín (Kenneth MacAlpine), they did so with considerable aggression and intelligence. They promoted themselves as the kings of all those in northern Britain, or 'Alba'.

They wove a new national history, which emphasised (or invented) many links between the Scottish and Pictish dynasties. They also promoted the idea that St Columba, the founder of the monastery of Iona, was the apostle of all those in the north.

The Viking raids in England were sporadic until the 840s AD, but in the 850s Viking armies began to winter in England, and in the 860s they began to assemble larger armies with the clear intent of conquest.

In 865 AD they forced the East Angles to help supply an army, which in 866 AD captured York and in 867 AD took over the southern part of the kingdom of Northumbria.

Later traditions saw Ragnar Hairy-Breeks and his son Ívarr the Boneless as the two main Viking leaders, responsible not only for killing Ælla, King of Northumbria in 867 AD but also Edmund, King of the East Angles in 869 AD, and for destroying Dumbarton, the fortress of the British kings of Strathclyde.

The normally reliable 'Annals of Ulster' recorded Ívarr's death in Ireland in 873 AD and described him as 'king of the Northmen in the whole of Ireland and Britain'.

The man we then see more clearly in the sources as the Viking leader, Hálfdan, was later believed to be Ívarr's brother. He led the Viking army to a conquest of Mercia in 874 AD, organised a parcelling out of land among the Vikings in Northumbria in 876 AD, and in 878 AD moved south and forced most of the population of Wessex to submit.

The Vikings had conquered almost the whole of England.

Alfred's dynasty

An excerpt from the 'Parker Chronicle', the oldest surviving manuscript from the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' (890 AD) ©

The idea that the Vikings had forced Wessex to submit may have been invented to magnify the achievement of its king, Alfred, the only English king to be called 'the Great'.

Famously, he hid in the marshes near Athelney (Somerset) in 878 AD, but then emerged, re-formed his army, and defeated the Vikings later that year at Edington (Wiltshire).

After the peace that Alfred forced on the Vikings, the Viking army seems to have moved across the Channel (it established winter quarters in Paris in 886 AD), giving the king some time to organise for war.

'Æthelstan's victory did not end the Viking threat or the slow expansion by the Scots.'

He built fortresses, established a defensive strategy, and built up a navy. By the time the Vikings returned in the 890s, the West Saxons were able to resist, leaving Alfred, at his death in 899 AD, king of the only independent English kingdom.

Thanks to Alfred's own propaganda machine, we know more about him than about most early medieval kings in Britain. He ordered the compilation of the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle', a major source of information that was continued as contemporary chronicles in various centres until the 12th century.

Under Alfred's auspices, the Welshman Asser prepared a 'Life of Alfred', after the model of Einhard's 'Life of Charlemagne'. Like Charlemagne, Alfred was deeply interested in promoting literacy and learning, and he sponsored (and perhaps even took part in) the translation of various Latin works into English.

Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder (899-924 AD) and grandson Æthelstan (924-939 AD). Both these rulers were in many ways even more important in the history of England than Alfred himself.

In a few expeditions Edward (with the direct military help of his sister Æthelflæd, widow of the Mercian king) conquered the south of England from the Danes, and incorporated Mercia itself into his kingdom.

The 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' tells us that Edward built a fortress at Bakewell (Derbyshire), and there he was chosen 'father and lord' by the king of the Scots, the king of the Strathclyde Welsh, and the people of Northumbria.

All of them were perhaps in need of protection from aggression by the Vikings of Dublin.

There was a similar submission to Æthelstan in 927 AD, at Eamont (Cumbria), when Welsh kings as well as the Scottish king submitted to him. The great Welsh king Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) was apparently a close ally. In fact, he was so Anglophile that he named one of his sons Edwin, and sponsored a written law code after the English model.

Æthelstan's greatest success was the victory at Brunanburh, somewhere in the north. A Viking army led by Olaf Guthfrithson, allied with the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, invaded Northumbria in 937 AD. Our source tells us that five kings and seven of Olaf's earls died on the battlefield, as well as the son of Constantine II of Scotland.

Æthelstan's reputation was immense on the continent, and an Irish monk called him 'the pillar of the dignity of the western world'. But his victory did not put an end to the Viking threat in the north, nor to the slow expansion of the power of the Scots.

The last Viking king of York, Eric Bloodaxe, was only expelled from Northumbria in 954 AD, after Æthelstan's rule. In that same year the Scots took Edinburgh from the English.

Danegeld

After 955 AD there was a generation of peace on the island of Britain. As the 'Anglo-Saxon Chronicle' says of Edgar, King of England (959 - 975 AD) 'without battle he brought under his sway all that he wished'.

He issued laws for 'all the nations, whether Englishmen, Danes, or Britons', an interesting recognition of the multi-ethnic character of England at the time.

Edgar took advantage of his strong position to foster the reorganisation of the church that is generally known as the '10th-century Reformation'. New bishoprics were established in the areas conquered from the Vikings.

'Raids were on a large scale and their object was extortion.'

But above all this reformation was about the re-establishment and strict reform of monasticism.

Edgar relied on three men in particular - Dunstan (archbishop of Canterbury, 960 - 988 AD), Oswald (bishop of Worcester, 961 - 992 AD, and archbishop of York, 971 - 992 AD) and Æthelwold (bishop of Winchester, 963 - 984 AD).

The process was sealed by the 'Regularis Concordia' of 973 AD, a document of monastic reform that relied heavily on continental models. It was cemented by the building of some magnificent churches (mostly replaced by the Normans) and some lavish illuminated manuscripts, such as the 'Benedictional of St Æthelwold'.

After Edgar's death, his successor Edward I reigned briefly. He was murdered in 978 AD at Corfe (Dorset), possibly by the followers of his young half-brother Æthelred, and possibly by his stepmother.

Edgar's half-brother, Æthelred II, who later would acquire the nickname 'the Unready', started his long reign (978-1016 AD) at the same time as the emergence of Denmark.

The country was newly converted to Christianity and newly unified under Harald Bluetooth. It was becoming a major power.

This was the dawning of the 'second Viking age', and it was very different from the first. Raids were on a large scale, frequently organised by royal leaders, and their object was extortion. In 991 AD the Danes acquired 4,500 kg of silver in return for going home.

By 1012, payments to the Danes, known as 'Danegeld', had increased to 22,000 kg. England was wealthy, and it developed a taxation system that was probably more sophisticated than any other in Europe, which was both a cause and a consequence of the raiding.

Conquest and fall

Silver penny of Cnut (Canute) ©

The extortion came to an end in 1013, when Harald's son, Swein Forkbeard, decided to conquer England. He forced Æthelred into exile, although the definitive conquest of England was only achieved under his son Cnut (or Canute).

In 1016, Cnut became king of England, and after further campaigns in Scandinavia he could claim in 1027 to be 'king of the whole of England and Denmark and Norway and of parts of Sweden'.

'William won and the last English royal dynasty perished.'

Cnut was a strong and effective king. He introduced some Danish customs to England, but England also influenced Denmark. For instance, Cnut appointed several Englishmen as bishops in Denmark, and even today most of the ordinary Danish words of church organisation are English in origin.

In an attempt at reconciliation with the English he had conquered, Cnut married Emma, the widow of Æthelred. She was the daughter of the duke of Normandy, himself the descendant of Vikings or Northmen (Normans).

She bore Cnut a son, Harthacnut, but she had also had a son by Æthelred, who succeeded Harthacnut as Edward II, the Confessor (1042 - 1066).

When Edward died without children, it was natural that Emma's great-nephew, Duke William, should lay claim to the throne. It was just as natural that this claim should be resisted by Harold, the son of Godwin, Edward's most powerful noble.

Harold II successfully beat off the invasion by Harald Hardrada of Norway, defeating him at Stamford Bridge near York in September 1066. Even when he and his troops arrived, exhausted, at Hastings three weeks later to face William's Norman invaders, he nearly prevailed.

But William won, and the last English royal dynasty perished.

The social and economic system which characterized most European societies in the Middle Ages goes by the name of feudalism. The system, in its most basic essence, is the granting of land in return for military service.

Feudalism, by its very nature, gave rise to a hierarchy of rank, to a predominantly static social structure in which every man knew his place, according to whom it was that he owed service and from whom it was that he received his land. To preserve existing relationships in perpetuity, rights of succession to land were strictly controlled by various laws, or customs, of entail. The most rigid control was provided by the custom of primogeniture, by which all property of a deceased landholder must pass intact to his eldest son.

Every man was the vassal, or servant, of his lord. The man swore fealty to his lord, and in return the lord promised to protect him and to see that he received justice. Feudalism was the expression of a society in which every man was bound to every other by mutual ties of loyalty and service. Feudal society was characterized by military landholders and working peasants. The nobility included bishops, for the church was one of the greatest of medieval landowners. Near the bottom of the social pyramid were the agricultural laborers, or villeins, and beneath them, the serfs.

Until the rise of powerful monarchies with central bureaucracies, it was the lord of the manor who was the real ruler of society. The peasant worked the land for him and owed him a number of feudal dues (increasingly commuted to money payments over time); justice was dispensed in the manorial courts. Customs varied, but it was common for a peasant to have a small plot, or to share a communal plot, on which to grow food for himself and his family and to be entitled to gather firewood from forest land for the hearth fire. More common than single plots, however, was the system of dividing the land into strips, with each household's strips scattered about the manor.

Western feudalism, evolving in turbulent eighth-century France, offered aristocratic landowners potential security in the absence of law and order. By concession or usurpation, major landowners assumed substantial legal and governmental power from the central government and proceeded through private arrangements with lesser landowners to create local militias for defensive purposes. Inherently particularistic and initially undisciplined, feudalism enveloped the monarchy itself.

Feudalism evolved its own system of law and code of ethics for its members as it spread throughout Europe to assume a dominant role in the political and cultural history of the Middle Ages. Introduced to England in 1066 by William the Conqueror, who substantially curbed the powers of all feudal vassals while retaining considerable central authority, feudalism incorporated three elements: personal, property, and governmental. All members, including the monarchs who headed the feudal system, enjoyed specific rights but were also bound by feudal law to perform fixed obligations.

The Social Structure that Evolved

See also: Examples of feudalism

[edit] Lords, vassals and fiefs

Three primary elements characterized feudalism: lords, vassals and fiefs; the structure of feudalism can be seen in how these three elements fit together. A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted possession of the land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord. The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism.

Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command.

Fealty comes from the Latin fidelitas and denotes the fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. "Fealty" also refers to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the vassal made during homage. Such an oath follows homage. Once the commendation was complete, the lord and vassal were now in a feudal relationship with agreed-upon mutual obligations to one another.

The lord's principal obligation was to grant a fief, or its revenues, to the vassal; the fief is the primary reason the vassal chose to enter into the relationship. In addition, the lord sometimes had to fulfill other obligations to the vassal and fief. One of those obligations was its maintenance. Since the lord had not given the land away, only loaned it, it was still the lord's responsibility to maintain the land, while the vassal had the right to collect revenues generated from it. Another obligation that the lord had to fulfill was to protect the land and the vassal from harm.

The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to provide "aid," or military service. Using whatever equipment the vassal could obtain by virtue of the revenues from the fief, the vassal was responsible to answer to calls to military service on behalf of the lord. This security of military help was the primary reason the lord entered into the feudal relationship. In addition, the vassal sometimes had to fulfill other obligations to the lord. One of those obligations was to provide the lord with "counsel," so that if the lord faced a major decision, such as whether or not to go to war, he would summon all his vassals and hold a council. The vassal may have been required to yield a certain amount of his farm's output to his lord. The vassal was also sometimes required to grind his own wheat and bake his own bread in the mills and ovens owned and taxed by his lord.

The land-holding relationships of feudalism revolved around the fief. Depending on the power of the granting lord, grants could range in size from a small farm to a much larger area of land. The size of fiefs was described in irregular terms quite different from modern area terms (see medieval land terms). The lord-vassal relationship was not restricted to members of the laity; bishops and abbots, for example, were also capable of acting as lords.

There were thus different 'levels' of lordship and vassalage. The King was a lord who loaned fiefs to aristocrats, who were his vassals. The aristocrats, through subinfeudation, were lords to their own vassals, Knights who were in turn lords of the manor to the peasants who worked on the land. Ultimately, the Emperor was a lord who loaned fiefs to Kings, who were his vassals. This traditionally formed the basis of a 'universal monarchy' as an imperial alliance and a world order.

Judaism

Hindu

Islam

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Writer’s Notes:

The Empire:

India, Burma (now renamed Myanmar)

America

Australia

New Zealand

Jamaica

South Africa

Kenya

Rhodesia (now renamed Zimbabwe)

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The Strengthening

The Blessing

The Protection

The Cleansing

The Sharing

The Peace