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Ancient Borough
An ancient borough was a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th .... The ancient boroughs covered only important towns and were established by charters granted at different times by the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarchy. Their history is largely concerned with the origin of such towns and how they gained the right of Self-governance, self-government. Ancient boroughs were reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which introduced directly elected corporations and allowed the incorporation of new industrial towns. Municipal boroughs ceased to be used for the purposes of local government in 1974, with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status retained as an honorific title granted to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rochester, Kent
Rochester ( ) is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about east-southeast of London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Kent, Chatham, Rainham, Kent, Rainham, Strood and Gillingham, Kent, Gillingham. Rochester was a City status in the United Kingdom, city until losing its status as one in 1998 in the United Kingdom, 1998 following the forming of Medway and failing to protect its status as a city, the first city to do so in the history of the United Kingdom. There have been ongoing campaigns to reinstate the city status for Rochester. In 2011 in the United Kingdom, 2011 it had a population of 62,982. Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, Kent, Higham, basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second-oldest in England, is centred on Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for foundin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ; ; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern historians regard him as the first King of England and one of the "greatest Anglo-Saxon kings". He never married and had no children; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I. When Edward died in July 924, Æthelstan was accepted by the Mercians as king. His half-brother Ælfweard may have been recognised as king in Wessex, but died within three weeks of their father's death. Æthelstan encountered resistance in Wessex for several months, and was not crowned until September 925. In 927, he conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 934, he invaded Scotland and forced Constantine II to submit to him. Æthelstan's rule was resented by the Scots and Vikings, and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parliamentary Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ages, boroughs were settlements in England that were granted some self-government; burghs were the Scottish equivalent. In medieval England, boroughs were also entitled to elect members of Parliament of England, parliament. The use of the word ''borough'' probably derives from the burghal system of Alfred the Great. Alfred set up a system of defensive strong points (Burhs); in order to maintain these particular settlements, he granted them a degree of autonomy. After the Norman Conquest, when certain towns were granted self-governance, the concept of the burh/borough seems to have been reused to mean a self-governing settlement. The concept of the borough has been used repeatedly (and often differently) throughout the world. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burghal Hidage
The Burghal Hidage () is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.Hill/ Rumble. The Defence of Wessex. p. 5 The document, so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, survives in two versions of medieval and early modern date. Version A, Cotton Otho B.xi was badly damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in Westminster in 1731, but the body of the text survives in a transcript made by the antiquary Laurence Nowell in 1562. Version B survives as a composite part of seven further manuscripts, usually given the title ''De numero hydarum Anglie in Britannia''.Hill/ Rumble. The Defence of Wessex. p. 14 There are several discrepancies in the lists recorded in the two versions of the document: Version A includes references to Burpham, Wareham and Bridport but omits Shaftesbury and Barnstaple which are listed in Version ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred The Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfred was young. Three of Alfred's brothers, Æthelbald, King of Wessex, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, King of Wessex, Æthelberht and Æthelred I of Wessex, Æthelred, reigned in turn before him. Under Alfred's rule, considerable administrative and military reforms were introduced, prompting lasting change in England. After ascending the throne, Alfred spent several years fighting Viking invasions. He won a decisive victory in the Battle of Edington in 878 and made an agreement with the Vikings, dividing England between Anglo-Saxon territory and the Viking-ruled Danelaw, composed of Scandinavian York, the north-east Midlands and East Anglia. Alfred also oversaw the conversion of Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity. He defended his kingdom again ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defence In Depth
Defence in depth (also known as deep defence or elastic defence) is a military strategy that seeks to delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space. Rather than defeating an attacker with a single, strong defensive line, defence in depth relies on the tendency of an attack to lose momentum over time or as it covers a larger area. A defender can thus yield lightly defended territory in an effort to stress an attacker's logistics or spread out a numerically superior attacking force. Once an attacker has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify a large area, defensive counter-attacks can be mounted on the attacker's weak points, with the goal being to cause attrition or drive the attacker back to its original starting position. Strategy A conventional defence strategy would concentrate all military resources at a front line, which, if breached by an attacker, would leave the remaining defenders in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade'' derives from ''pale'', from the Latin word ', meaning stake, specifically when used side by side to create a wood defensive wall. In turn, ''pālus'' derives from the Old Italic word ''palūts'', which may possibly derive from the Proto-Indo-European word ''pelh'', meaning pale or gray. It may be related to the Proto-Uralic word ''pil'me'' (uncertain meaning) or the word ''pilwe'', meaning cloud. (see wikt:pale#Etymology_2, 'pale', English: Etymology 2 on Wiktionary). Typical construction Typical construction consisted of small or mid-sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with as little free space in between as possible. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were driven into the ground and sometimes rein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defensive Wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. From ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, and the Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as '' letzis'' were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions representing the status and independence of the communities they embraced. Existing ancient walls ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vill
Vill is a term used in English, Welsh and Irish history to describe a basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical subdivision of the hundred and county—in Anglo-Saxon England. It served both a policing function through the tithing, and the economic function of organising common projects through the village moot. The term is the Anglicized form of the word , used in Latin documents to translate the Anglo-Saxon . The vill remained the basic rural unit after the Norman Conquest—land units in the Domesday Book are frequently referred to as vills—and into the late medieval era. Whereas the manor was a unit of landholding, the vill was a territorial one—most vills did ''not'' tally physically with manor boundaries—and a public part of the royal administration. The vill had judicial and policing functions, including frankpledge, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Vill
A royal vill, royal ''tun'' or ''villa regalis'' () was the central settlement of a rural territory in Anglo-Saxon England, which would be visited by the King and members of the royal household on regular circuits of their kingdoms. The royal vill was the centre for the administration of a subdivision of a kingdom, and the location where the subdivision would support the royal household through the provision of food rent. Royal vills have been identified as the centres of the '' regiones'' of the early Anglo-Saxon period, and of the smaller multiple estates into which ''regiones'' were gradually divided by the 8th century. The British Isles during the early Middle Ages lacked the sophisticated long-distance trade in essential foodstuffs required to support agriculturally unproductive households in a single location. Kings and their entourages could therefore only support themselves by constantly moving between territories with an obligation to support them, and they maintained net ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
