Page 10 - Illustrated Reditch History

William The Conqueror

Then in 1066 all that changed. William, the Duke of Normandy in northern France,
decided to invade England. He assembled a huge army of 5,000 men on the French
coast. They waited in sailing ships for a wind to blow them across to England, then
under cover of darkness and in silence, they slipped away across the channel.

William met the English king and his army at Hastings on 15th October. It was a
terrible battle. The English king was killed. William the Conqueror was king. The
whole of England now belonged to him as well as Normandy.
His first task was to learn to speak English! We now had a king of England who
could hardly speak English! England was now ruled by the Normans. All the officials
had to speak French.
William wanted to know exactly what he owned in England to make sure that
everybody was paying their taxes and so he organised the ‘Domesday Book’. It
lists every building and every adult across the whole of England. It was finished
in 1086, the year before he died.
William had one great passion – hunting. He now owned all the forests. ‘Forests’
were not only trees but any ground left to grow wild, such as moors and heaths.
At that time the Redditch area was on the edge of the great forest of Feckenham,
a vast oak forest.
Emma is ten years old. She lives in a thatched cottage in a clearing in Feckenham
Forest. The walls are built from twigs, mud and manure, known as wattle and
daub. This may sound surprising but if you get some horse or cow manure stuck
on your car you will know that it is a strong, hard substance. Her cottage is better
than most with two rooms instead of one. At night, all their precious animals come
into the far room. They have chickens for eggs, a goat for milk, a pig for meat and
two sheep for their wool. Emma says.

“A marshal came and told us that the king wanted all the forests to be
cleared for hunting. We were to leave, and our cottage was to be pulled
down. My father and his friends complained so much that now we are
allowed to stay if we keep to strict forest laws. We would be fined for
breaking the laws or even hung! My poor dog will have to be put down as
no dogs are allowed, only mastiffs and they must have their claws cut. We
rent a tiny clearing for our animals but now the fences that we put round
to keep the wolves out will have to be pulled down. We cannot catch deer,
boars, hares, wolves, foxes, pheasants or partridges. We cannot cut any
wood or even collect fallen branches to sell. We are not even allowed to eat
any berries but I shall pick a few when no-one is looking. Life is going to
be very difficult. “

The male boar was an aggressive wild pig, you didn’t want to come across one of
those on a dark night! Boars were hunted until none were left in the 1200s. The
wolves had all been killed by the 1400s. Mastiffs were large dogs with black faces.
Although they were gentle by nature they made good guide dogs.)

When William the Conqueror died, his son became King Henry I.

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