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. 960Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Cnut the Great, King of England and Denmark, reigned (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 Louis’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 , and king of England
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 ( ) from N. Hooper and M. Bennett, Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages,
Loches (southeast Anjou, 980s)
Fulk Nerra’s Castle of Montrichard on Cher River, about 40 km east of Tours,
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, 11 th century ms)