13
with their blood up, massacred the
people living in the city and rushed
to worship at the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre.
This victory led to the creation of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem.
—Professor John France
THE CRUSADERS BREACH THE WALLS
15
Death of William Rufus
M
edieval kings loved to hunt,
but it could be a dangerous
adventure.
Under Forest Law, the Norman kings
created large areas of forest for their own
private hunting grounds. Commoners
were not allowed in these green woods.
The punishment for trespassing or
poaching the king’s deer was steep—
losing a hand, being blinded, or even
being put to death.
1100
16
The largest of these forests was the
New Forest, created by William the
Conqueror. To make it, many villages
and farmsteads were destroyed, and
the people who lived there left
without homes.
In 1100, William’s son William Rufus,
the second Norman king, was hunting
in the New Forest when an arrow shot
by one of his friends, Walter Tyrell,
missed the deer he was aiming at
and hit the king. William Rufus died
at once. Tyrell fled, and William’s
corpse was carried to the nearby city
of Winchester for burial.
William Rufus’s younger brother,
Henry, quickly seized the royal
treasure and crowned himself king.
Was this a plot with Tyrell as the
assassin? We will never know.
Strangely enough, this was the second
of William the Conqueror’s sons to die
in the New Forest. His son Richard of
Normandy had died in an accident in
the New Forest in 1081. Some people
thought these royal deaths were a
just punishment for creating the New
Forest and driving out its residents.
—Professor Robert Bartlett
WILLIAM RUFUS SHOT BY AN ARROW
19
Eleanor of Aquitaine
O
ne of the most powerful women in
all of medieval history, Eleanor of
Aquitaine held the balance between
English and French royal power.
As a child, Eleanor inherited Aquitaine,
a large region in the southwestern corner
of modern-day France. When she married
the French king, Louis VII, Aquitaine
became one of his territories, making the
area he ruled much larger. (Before their
marriage, he ruled only a small part of
what is now France.)
Q
1122-1204
R
20
But Louis was more in love with her
than she was with him, and their
marriage became troubled.
Eventually, their marriage ended,
and the reason given was that
they were too closely related to
be legally married. But this was
probably just an excuse, as Eleanor
soon married the future King Henry II
of England, to whom she was also
closely related.
This marriage had huge effects on
England and France because it united
Aquitaine with Henry’s lands, which
would soon include England as well
as large areas in France. Eleanor’s
marriage to Henry became troubled
as well, and she and her sons led a
rebellion against her husband. After
an 18-month struggle, they lost and
she was put in prison for 16 years,
until her husband’s death. Then,
at age 67, she was released. Two of
her sons, Richard the Lionheart and
John, succeeded her husband to
the throne.
The year of Eleanor’s death, the
English crown lost many of its
French lands, but not Aquitaine.
It remained united with England
until the mid-15th century.
—Professor David D’Avray
21
Battle of the Standard
I
n 1135, Stephen became king of
England after his uncle King Henry I
died. By doing so, he kept Henry’s
daughter and heir, Matilda, from taking
the throne.
People immediately began to argue
about whether he was the rightful king.
The suspicious circumstances under
which he became king meant that by
1138, anyone unhappy with Stephen
could look to Matilda as a replacement.
And so, revolts and invasions broke
out across Normandy and England.
W
1138
X
Matilda’s uncle, King David of
Scotland, invaded England from
the north. King Stephen was busy
fighting rebel barons in the south,
so the local people tried to defend
the area against the Scottish.
In the king’s absence, Archbishop
Thurstan of York had enough clout
to pull together the northern barons
and local priests and their followers to
help protect the land. The impromptu
army created a colorful standard—a
mast with three saints’ flags and
a container of Communion host.
Mounted on a cart and used as the
army’s command post, the one-
of-a-kind standard gave the battle
its name.
THE STANDARD
23
Near Northallerton, the forces of
the archbishop and King David met.
The English army won by standing
its ground against repeated Scottish
attacks. The first attack came from
supposedly naked berserkers from
Glasgow, the next from the Scottish
cavalry, and the final one from the
Scottish infantry. All failed. The
outnumbered English were able
to turn the tables and chase the
retreating enemy.
Although David’s forces lost the
battle, Stephen later granted many of
his demands so the English people
could have peace on the Scottish
border.
—Dr. Steven Isaac
THE LAST SCOTTISH ATTACK
24
RICHARD THE LIONHEART ARRIVING
AT THE HOLY LAND WITH HIS ARMY
25
Siege of Acre
A
cre, now a port town in modern-
day Israel, was once under the
control of the Crusaders, but it
was lost to the Muslim leader Saladin
in 1187, after the Battle of Hattin.
Saladin’s forces then pushed through
other Crusader-held towns and cities,
reversing the Crusaders’ success. Only
the cities of Antioch, Tripoli, and Tyre
held out against Saladin’s attacks.
1189-1191
26
On August 28, 1189, King Guy of
Jerusalem tried to invade Acre to
restore his reputation and recapture
the town fr
om Saladin.
This siege was a draw; neither
side won or lost. Saladin’s army
surrounded the Crusaders’ camp,
and conditions in the camp quickly
became miserable. The Crusaders’
only hope was Frederick of Germany,
the Holy Roman Emperor, who they
heard would soon arrive to help them.
But he died on June 10, 1190, and
his army was destroyed by plague.
Enough fresh Crusaders arrived from
Europe to keep the siege going, but all
hope of success now depended on the
kings of England and France.
King Philip of France arrived in
April 1191, and Richard the Lionheart
of England came in June. Although
these two did not trust each other,
their giant catapults and fresh troops
forced Saladin to surrender the city
27
by July 12. The lives of Saladin’s
soldiers in the city would have been
spared in return for a ransom. But
Saladin failed to pay. As a result,
2,700 of his men were executed in
revenge for the disaster at Hattin and
the hardships of the siege.
—Professor John France
THE THREE KINGS: PHILIP OF FRANCE, GUY OF JERUSALEM, AND RICHARD THE LIONHEART
BLONDEL SEARCHES FOR RICHARD THE LIONHEART
29
The Captivity of
Richard the Lionheart
R
ichard I of England, nicknamed “the
Lionheart,” was a famous warrior
king and a leader of the Christian
crusade in the Holy Land.
His greatest enemy on the battlefield
was the Muslim leader Saladin. But
Richard quarreled with other Christian
leaders as well, including Duke
Leopold V of Austria, who felt Richard
had insulted him.
1192
30
Unfortunately for Richard, as he was
returning by sea from his wars in the
Holy Land, his ship was wrecked and
he had to pass through the duke of
Austria’s lands. He tried to travel in
disguise, but because of his lavish
spending, people became suspicious
about who he was.
While in Vienna, Richard fell into the
hands of his enemy, the duke, and
was put in prison in a mountain castle
far from the city. Legend tells of how
Richard’s loyal minstrel Blondel went
from castle to castle searching for his
master. He would sing the first line
of a song they both knew and wait for
a reply. One day, from a window in
one of the castles, he heard the king’s
voice singing the next line.
Richard spent more than a year as a
prisoner until a huge ransom—34 tons
of silver—was paid for his release
in 1194. His mother, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, helped to raise the funds.
After his release, he continued his
life as a warrior and king until, five
years later, he died from a crossbow
wound.
—Professor Robert Bartlett
31
Excommunication of
King John
I
n 1205, the important job of
archbishop of Canterbury became
available. For many years, this
caused a serious conflict between the
king of England and the pope.
King John disagreed with the monks
of Canterbury about whom to choose.
Pope Innocent III didn’t like the choices
of either the king or the monks, so he
made his own choice for the job, a man
named Stephen Langton.
1209
32
John was very angry at the pope for
meddling in English affairs. He refused
to let Langton come to England and
wouldn’t recognize him as archbishop.
The pope responded by placing all of
England under an interdict, a special
kind of punishment.
During the interdict, no Christian
church services could take place, and
the dead could not be buried in holy
ground. Some say that coffins were
hung from trees to protect them from
animals while people waited for the
interdict to be lifted. Even the church
bells were silent.
After five years under the interdict,
John still refused to change
his mind, so the pope decided
to excommunicate the king.
Excommunication meant John
KING JOHN UPON HEARING THE NEWS OF HIS EXCOMMUNICATION
33
couldn’t take part in Christian worship.
Other Christians weren’t supposed to
support him or even talk to him. The
dramatic excommunication ceremony
probably involved blowing out candles
and ringing a special bell to show that
the king was a spiritual outcast.
Even some of John’s people decided
to rise up against him. According
to the pope, lesser lords had no
obligation to follow their oath to obey
John. The barons even invited the
French king to invade England. When
he realized how bad the situation was,
John gave in. He allowed Langton to
return to England and recognized him
as archbishop. But unfortunately for
King John, his troubles would not end
there.
—Dr. Kathleen Neal
LANGTON RETURNS TO ENGLAND
A LECTURE AT OXFORD
35
The Founding of the
University of Oxford
O
ne of the most important
inventions of the Middle Ages
was the university—a place of
higher education for young men who
would go on to work for the church and
state. (No women were admitted in those
times.) The idea of a university was not
created in one single moment but grew
gradually.
1214
36
In England, the town of Oxford had
a reputation as a center of study
by the 1180s and 1190s. Even then,
the town was full of teachers and
students who studied the arts, law,
and theology.
The University of Oxford, as an
official organization, developed
because of a dramatic clash between
students and townsfolk in 1209.
A student had murdered a local
woman, and when the townsmen
could not find him, rioters hanged
his three roommates instead. In
outrage, the teachers and students
left Oxford, some of them to
establish a new place of study at
Cambridge.
The remaining teachers and students
did not return until 1214, when a
high-ranking church official drew
up an agreement: the townsmen of
Oxford had to agree to charge the
students a lower rent, provide funds
for poor students, and sell food
and drink at a fair price. This new
arrangement
was to be headed by an
official called a chancellor. The oldest
university in the English-speaking
world had now taken shape.
—Professor Robert Bartlett
37
Robin Hood
R
obin Hood’s story was first told in
late medieval ballads and plays. In
these early sources, recorded from
about 1400 onward, his name is spelled
Robyn Hode
. According to folklore, he and
his “merry band” of men enjoyed life in
the summers in Sherwood Forest, among
other real-life English locations.
c. 1200
39
They harried and took money from
the bullying sheriff of Nottingham
and corrupt monks. But they were
faithful to the social and religious
systems led by the king and St. Mary.
Depending on the source, Robin’s
king could have been Edward I,
Edward II, Edward III, or Richard
the Lionheart! This folk story has
had a remarkably long life.
Although Robin Hood’s men fought
well with swords and wooden staffs,
their favored weapon was the powerful
longbow. Robin was the best archer
among them.
His fame has lasted for centuries,
and his story has appeared in
countless films and novels. He is a
hero who stands for doing what’s
right, giving generously to the poor,
and fighting against oppression of
all kinds.
—Professor Stephen Knight
Part II: 1215–1345
43
Signing of Magna Carta
M
agna Carta means
Great Charter
.
In other words, it’s the Latin way
to say a big legal document. It’s
very famous now, but details about the
moment it came into being are uncertain.
Magna Carta records the result of
talks between King John and a group of
important barons and bishops who were
unhappy with how he ruled England.
They were so angry with his bad policies
and heavy taxes that they had sworn not
to obey him anymore.
1215
Medieval LEGO Page 2