|
Ardley Castle
Ardley Castle was a castle to the southwest of the village of Ardley, Oxfordshire, England. At present only some of its ruins, most notably an oval enclosure in diameter, with a shallow ditch with an average depth of , a derelict moat and the earthworks remain. According to sources, the castle was a motte and bailey fortification erected in the 12th century during the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda at the site of Offa of Mercia's old encampment. It was initially a manor site raised to a small castle by Hugh of Avranches, Earl of Chester to protect his lands from the chaos of war. It may have been constructed without the consent and permission of the monarch, making it an adulterine castle. During the war between Stephen and Matilda the castle was occasionally used by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester. In 1136 the castle was attacked, but the attackers were repulsed. After the death of Ranulf, it was decided in the Treaty of Wallingford in 1153 that all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ardley, Oxfordshire
Ardley is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, about northwest of Bicester. The parish includes the village of Fewcott, which is now contiguous with Ardley. The 2011 Census recorded the population of Ardley parish as 751. Geography and natural history The two villages of Ardley and Fewcott are on either side of a stream that rises at Fritwell, flows south to Ardley, then turns east through Stoke Lyne to Fringford. There it joins Crowell Brook, which continues east into Buckinghamshire and ultimately becomes part of the Great Ouse. The limestone quarry at Ardley has yielded a significant find of dinosaur tracks (ichnites), discovered in 1997 and thought to have been left by Megalosaurus and possibly Cetiosaurus. Some of these are on display in the dinosaur garden at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. There is a site of special scientific interest in the village with a colony of the great crested newts and an outcrop of Jurassic limestone. Cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily due to the work of the University of Oxford and several notable science parks. These include the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus and Milton Park, both situated around the towns of Didcot and Abingdon-on-Thames. It is a landlocked county, bordered by six counties: Berkshire to the south, Buckinghamshire to the east, Wiltshire to the south west, Gloucestershire to the west, Warwickshire to the north west, and Northamptonshire to the north east. Oxfordshire is locally governed by Oxfordshire County Council, together with local councils of its five non-metropolitan districts: City of Oxford, Cherwell, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse, and West Oxfordshire. Present-day Oxfordshire spanning the area south of the Thames was h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motte-and-bailey Castle
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to build with unskilled labour, but still militarily formidable, these castles were built across northern Europe from the 10th century onwards, spreading from Normandy and Anjou in France, into the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century. The Normans introduced the design into England and Wales. Motte-and-bailey castles were adopted in Scotland, Ireland, the Low Countries and Denmark in the 12th and 13th centuries. Windsor Castle, in England, is an example of a motte-and-bailey castle. By the end of the 13th century, the design was largely superseded by alternative forms of fortification, but the earthworks remain a prominent feature in many countries. Architecture Structures A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures: a motte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen, King Of England
Stephen (1092 or 1096 – 25 October 1154), often referred to as Stephen of Blois, was King of England from 22 December 1135 to his death in 1154. He was Count of Boulogne ''jure uxoris'' from 1125 until 1147 and Duke of Normandy from 1135 until 1144. His reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda, whose son, Henry II, succeeded Stephen as the first of the Angevin kings of England. Stephen was born in the County of Blois in central France as the fourth son of Stephen-Henry, Count of Blois, and Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror. His father died while Stephen was still young, and he was brought up by his mother. Placed into the court of his uncle Henry I of England, Stephen rose in prominence and was granted extensive lands. He married Matilda of Boulogne, inheriting additional estates in Kent and Boulogne that made the couple one of the wealthiest in England. Stephen narrowly escaped drowning with Henry I's son, William Ade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda ( 7 February 110210 September 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as a child when she married the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry V. She travelled with her husband to Italy in 1116, was controversially crowned in St Peter's Basilica, and acted as the imperial regent in Italy. Matilda and Henry V had no children, and when he died in 1125, the imperial crown was claimed by his rival Lothair of Supplinburg. Matilda's younger and only full brother, William Adelin, died in the ''White Ship'' disaster of 1120, leaving Matilda's father and realm facing a potential succession crisis. On Emperor Henry V's death, Matilda was recalled to Normandy by her father, who arranged for her to marry Geoffrey of Anjou to form an alliance to protect his southern borders. Henry I had no further legitimate children and nominated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Offa Of Mercia
Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was List of monarchs of Mercia, King of Mercia, a kingdom of History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa of Mercia, Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald of Mercia, Æthelbald. Offa defeated the other claimant, Beornred of Mercia, Beornred. In the early years of Offa's reign, it is likely that he consolidated his control of Midland peoples such as the Hwicce and the Magonsæte. Taking advantage of instability in the kingdom of Kent to establish himself as overlord, Offa also controlled Kingdom of Sussex, Sussex by 771, though his authority did not remain unchallenged in either territory. In the 780s he extended Mercian Supremacy over most of southern England, allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and regained complete control of the southeast. He also became the overlord of King ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh D'Avranches, Earl Of Chester
Hugh d'Avranches ( 1047 – 27 July 1101), nicknamed ''le Gros'' (the Large) or ''Lupus'' (the Wolf), was from 1071 the second Norman Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. Early life and career Hugh d'Avranches was born around 1047 as the son of Richard le Goz, Viscount of Avranches. His mother was traditionally said to have been Emma de Conteville, half-sister of William the Conqueror, but Lewis (2014) states that the identification was made "on the basis of unsatisfactory evidence" and that his mother is unknown. Keats-Rohan (1999), while accepting the poor quality of the evidence for the traditional account, has nonetheless argued in favour of some relationship existing between Hugh and William. Earl of Chester In 1071, Gerbod the Fleming, 1st Earl of Chester was taken prisoner at the Battle of Cassel in France and held in captivity. Taking advantage of the circumstances, the king declared his title vacant. Cheshire, with its strategic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adulterine Castle
Adulterine castles were fortifications built in England during the 12th century without royal approval, particularly during the civil war of the Anarchy between 1139 and 1154. Details During the civil war of the Anarchy, fought between the factions of Stephen of England and the Empress Matilda, both sides built a number of new castles to defend their territories and act as bases for expansion, typically motte and bailey designs such as those at Winchcombe, Upper Slaughter, or Bampton by the Empress's followers. Similarly, Stephen built a new chain of fen-edge castles at Burwell, Lidgate, Rampton, Caxton, and Swavesey – all about six to nine miles (ten to fifteen km) apart – in order to protect his lands around Cambridge. Many of these castles were termed "adulterine", meaning unauthorised, because no formal permission was given for their construction. Traditionally the King retained the right to approve new castle construction, but in the chaos of the war this was no long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ranulf De Gernon, 4th Earl Of Chester
Ranulf II (also known as Ranulf de Gernon), 4th Earl of Chester (1099–1153), was an Anglo-Norman baron who inherited the honour of the palatine county of Chester upon the death of his father Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester. He was descended from the Counts of Bessin in Normandy. In 1136 David I of Scotland invaded England as far as Durham, which led Stephen of England to negotiate treaties that involved granting Ranulf's lands to Scotland. Thereafter, Ranulf allied himself to Matilda to further his cause. He took Lincoln Castle in 1141, which was retaken by Stephen in a siege in which Ranulf was forced to flee for his life. Ranulf enlisted the help of Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester to retake the castle and succeeded when King Stephen surrendered to him at Lincoln. While Matilda ruled England, Stephen's queen Matilda of Boulogne managed to defeat Ranulf and his allies at Winchester, which eventually resulted in Stephen being able to resume the throne. Biography Early l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Treaty Of Wallingford
The Treaty of Wallingford, also known as the Treaty of Winchester or the Treaty of Westminster, was an agreement reached in England in the summer of 1153. It effectively ended a civil war known as ''the Anarchy'' (1135–54), caused by a dispute over the English crown between King Stephen and his cousin Matilda. The Treaty of Wallingford allowed Stephen to keep the throne until his death (which was to come in October 1154), but ensured that he would be succeeded by Matilda's son Henry II. Prelude to the treaty In 1153, the Anarchy had dragged on for nearly 15 years of armed combat, in which neither King Stephen nor Empress Matilda could achieve victory in the struggle for the English throne. This long period was characterised by a breakdown in law and order and allowed rebel barons to acquire ever greater power in northern England and in East Anglia, with widespread devastation in the regions of major fighting. By the early 1150s the barons and the Church mostly wanted a long-te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry II Of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king of England. King Louis VII of France made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. Henry became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Count Geoffrey V, in 1151. His marriage in 1152 to Eleanor of Aquitaine, former spouse of Louis VII, made him Duke of Aquitaine. He became Count of Nantes by treaty in 1158. Before he was 40, he controlled England; large parts of Wales; the eastern half of Ireland; and the western half of France, an area that was later called the Angevin Empire. At various times, Henry also partially controlled Scotland and the Duchy of Brittany. Henry became politically involved by the age of 14 in the efforts of his mother Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, to claim the English throne, then occupied b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
