History Homework Booklet

1. History Homework Booklet Year 10 Autumn Term 1 Migration to Britain: 1000-1688

2. Homework advice • You will receive a new homework booklet each half term • Each week, you will be asked to complete one or two of the following homework tasks • You should spend about an hour on your homework every week (this will vary slightly depending on the tasks!) • If you are stuck on anything, your teacher will be happy to help. Make sure you get going with the tasks as soon as you can, leaving plenty of time to ask for help at school before the deadline • You should write answers in the booklet, so that you have a completed booklet to revise from for assessments

3. Task 1- Introduction lesson Groups to include: • Jews in the middle ages, 1656, and 1930s • Africans in 16th century • East India Company & immigration from countries in Britain’s empire • Irish & Scottish immigrants- industrial revolution • ‘Commonwealth’ migration after WWII • Immigrants from the EU 1. Create a simple timeline of key groups’ immigration to Britain over the last 1000 years. Use the information available here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2002/race/short_history_of_immigration.stm And this interactive timeline for extra detail: http://www.makinghistories.org.uk/migration-timeline.html (you need a computer to use this rather than an iPad- try the library after school/ at lunch!) FOCUS ON: Who migrated to Britain, and when? Reasons for migration. We will cover this in lots of detail this year, so keep it simple and just do your best- this is a starting point, not a finished product!

4. Timeline of Immigration to Britain since 1000

5. Task 2- England before 1066 • Re-read the following descriptions of social sectors in 11th century England. • Find a definition for each of the words in bold on the following page, and fill in the boxes. • Read the article explaining the events of the Battle of Hastings, and answer the questions on the following page.

6. Define these key words • Ancestry • Wessex • Witan • Eoldermen • Viceroy • Fyrd • Eorl • Degn • Fortress • Wereguild • Ceorls • ‘Bear arms’ • ‘Fyrd worthy’ and ‘moot worthy’ • Geneatas • Aristocracy • Kotsetla • Gebur • Deow • Bondsmen • Sester • manumission

7. Kings & Princes (æðelings) At the top of the social system was the royal house. This consisted of the king and princes (æðelings), who claimed a common ancestry with the king; they had special privileges and responsibilities which included military service and command in the field. By the middle of the ninth century the royal family of Wessex was universally recognised as the English royal family and held a hereditary right to rule. Succession to the throne was not guaranteed as the witan, or council of leaders, had the right to choose the best successor from the members of the royal house.

8. The Ruling Nobility (eoldermen) Below the king were the eoldermen, the ruling nobility. The eolderman was the king's 'viceroy' in a shire, responsible for administration and justice, for calling out the fyrd and leading its forces in the field. The office was not hereditary, but it became usual in the tenth century to choose eoldermen from a few outstanding families. The same eoldormanry frequently remained in one family for more than one generation. By the early 11th century the term eoldermanbegan to be replaced with eorl, possibly influenced by the Danish 'Jarl'. In the second half of the 10th century the title became more important, an eorl now governing several shires. æðelings, eorls, bishops and archbishops formed the High Witan.

9. Thanes (ðegns) The next class down the social ladder was the ðegn (thane). Good service by a ðegn could result not only in rich gifts but sometimes in the granting of lands and, on rare occasions, elevation to eorl or eolderman. The eoldermen were all high ranking ðegns. Ðegns formed the backbone of the Anglo-Saxon army. Most ðegnswere the 'king's ðegns'. These were the ðegns whose lord was the king himself, as opposed to one of the richer ðegns or eoldermen. They held their lands from the king and could lose them (and sometimes their lives) if they did not answer the king's summons. Their service to the king was performed on a rota and they would accompany him everywhere, both as bodyguards and lesser officials. Ðegns were usually warriors whose duty was to carry out the 'common burdens' of service in the fyrd, such as overseeing fortress work and bridge building. A ðegn'swereguild (blood-price) was set nominally at 1200 shillings. The ðegns were a numerous class, there were approximately two thousand landowners of the thegnly class in Wessex and Mercia. Ðegns were not restricted to the king's service for the great eorls had their own ðegns; even some of the more powerful and landed ðegnshad their own lesser ðegns. In return for land a ðegn performed certain duties for the king.

10. Freemen & Farmers (ceorls) • Below the ðegns were the ceorls: freemen, farmers and independent landed householders who formed the mainstay of the Saxon kingdom, based as it was on a rural economy. The term free in an Anglo-Saxon context can be misleading, since there were many degrees of freedom. Ceorls were 'folcfry' (folk-free), that is, free in the eyes of the community. They enjoyed weregilds and had the right to seek compensations for other free kinsmen and kinswomen. They were allowed to bear arms and be considered 'fyrd worthy' and 'moot worthy'. This meant they were considered worthy to serve in the fyrdand take part in folk meetings. They did not have the same degree of freedom as ðegns or eoldermen. A ceorl'swereguild was set at 200 shillings, one sixth that of a ðegn. •  There were three main classes of ceorl, although the dividing line between the classes was indistinct: • First were the geneatas, the peasant aristocracy who paid rent to their overlord.  • Second were the kotsetla, who paid no rent but had to perform numerous duties for their overlords. • Third were thegebur, who were totally dependent on their lord. The gebur's life was dominated by the labour services owed to his lord. It is probable that the gebur class started out by giving their land to a ðegn in return for protection from raiding parties.

11. Slaves & Bondmen (ðeow) Below the gebur were theðeow - slaves or bondsmen. Although ðeow were slaves they did have many rights and there were rules set down for what they should be provided with: 'One slave ought to have as provisions: twelve pounds of good corn and the carcasses of two sheep and one good cow for eating and the right of cutting wood according to the custom of the estate. For a female slave: eight pounds of corn for food, one sheep or threepence for winter supplies, one sester of beans for Lent supplies, whey in summer or one penny. All slaves ought to have Christmas supplies and Easter supplies, an acre for the plough and a 'handful of the harvest', in addition to their necessary rights.‘ Ðeow were allowed to own property and could earn money in their spare time. If they earned enough they could even buy their freedom, although slaves were sometimes freed by their owners 'for the good of their souls,' often on their owners deathbed as a manumission. Sometimes, when times were particularly hard, people sold themselves into slavery to ensure they were provisioned, and thus survived.

12. Reading Compared to other European regions in the 10th century, England was quite advanced in the degree of central control maintained, and the lack of feudal generalization. After making peace with the Danes in England (885), Alfred the Great (r. 871-899) of Wessex reorganized Anglo-Saxon military levies and built a navy. His son Edward the Elder (r. 899-925) and grandson Aethelstan (r. 925-939) conquered the Danelaw, ruling as far north as Edinburgh. Danish residents kept most of their own traditions and small-holder farming arrangements. In Wessex and conquered areas, shires were the administrative districts. Because of a lack of feudal fragmentation, monarch-election was kept to the Alfredian line. The king had estates in every region of the kingdom, and all Anglo-Saxon freemen owed him military service. Every shire had a centrally appointed agent to assure proper collection of revenue, provision of royal justice, and services. These were called shire-reeves, or sheriffs. As well, the king appointed bishops and abbots himself, using their administrative skills for state functions. The sheriff, bishop, and an ealdorman--head local military leader--would preside over a periodic court of a shire's freemen to establish and administer justice. It was a relatively centralized administration, with a relatively efficient bureaucracy, including a chancery, or writing office, which issued writs sent to local sheriffs and other notables. An Anglo-Saxon holdover called a Witan elected the kings, appointing the most logical candidate from Alfred's line. From the early eleventh century problems emerged. King Ethelred the Unready was unable to prevent King Swein of Denmark and his son Canute from invading and occupying the great majority of England by 1016. Ethelred's desperate successor, Edmund Ironside, finally came to an agreement with Canute whereby the land would be divided between them, with one of them obtaining complete rule upon the other's death. When Edmund died a few months later, Canute (r. 1016- 1035) became sole ruler of England up through Northumberland. He converted to Christianity, patronized the Church, and though members of his Danish retinue were provided with lands, there was no general confiscation. The large army was demobilized, and a small, effective force was supported by periodic taxes called Danegeld. After Canute's death, his sons quarreled over matters in Denmark, so that the Witan elected Edmund's son, Edward the Confessor, king in 1042. His rule lasted until 1066, when matters became very complicated, linking English and French history for quite a while.

13. Edward's uncle was Richard II, duke of French Normandy. During Canute's reign, Edward had lived in the Norman court, and when he returned to England as king he brought several Norman relatives and friends with them. They received lands, as well as central offices, annoying the local Anglosaxon elites. Key among these was Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who had actually facilitated Edward's election, and whose family was the most powerful in the realm. He hoped to be king one day, and Norman infiltration was galling to him. At this point, the story turns to Normandy itself. In the mid-eleventh century its Duke was William the Bastard. When he came to the position he was young, so the Norman nobles used his minority to divide up his lands, and his neighbors invaded. Until the 1060s, he spent his time putting Normandy back together as a unified duchy. By this time he had succeeded, and was ready to increase his authority. He was also Edward's cousin, and was overjoyed when in 1051 a break emerged between Godwin and the King regarding punishment of Wessex raiders who had attacked some Normans living in England. In the argument, Godwin and his sons were exiled for a while, during which time William visited his cousin in England, claiming shortly afterward that Edward had promised him succession to the throne.

14. Edward and Godwin were soon reconciled, and upon the latter's death, his able son Harold became Earl of Wessex. In 1064, though, he was shipwrecked on the Norman coast and captured by one of William's vassals. According to Norman sources, he then promised William the English succession as a price for freedom. When Edward died in 1066, the Witan elected Harold, who remembered no such promise. Thus, in 1066, there were three claimants to the English crown aside from Harold Godwinson: 1) William claimed that Edward the Confessor had appointed him successor in his will, and that Harold had broken a similar oath to him. He sent messengers to the Pope with such accusations, receiving a banner and support. The Pope had long wanted to unify the Church and William had cooperated in Normandy. Extension of cooperation to England could only help the Papacy, as the king firmly controlled the church there. 2) Harold Hardrada had been invited as a claimant by one of Godwinson's jealous brothers. 3) SwenEstrithson of Denmark felt he deserved the throne based on Canute's rule. William was the first to act against Harold Godwinson. He acquired a large army of infantry and mounted knights by issuing a general call for Norman and other French adventurers. Harold in turn called up the well-disciplined Anglosaxon army and waited on the Isle of White. The high-pressure system worked against William's crossing, yet aided Harold Hardrada, who landed in Scotland, defeating the Northumbrians. Godwinson then turned north, heading for York, taking his best forces. On September 25 at Stamford Bridge, he crushed the Danish Vikings, giving England its greatest victory ever. Meanwhile, the weather had turned, permitting William to land on the south coast of Sussex on September 27. Godwinson heard of this, and returned south, not waiting for other earls to join him, and not yet able to make good the depletion of his own forces. On 14 October 1066 William and Harold's forces met at Hastings. The Norman cavalry and Archers needed to break through the Anglosaxon heavy infantry's shield wall. This took the entire day and Harold's men almost held, yet fatigue set in, and the wall eventually broke. A route ensued, Harold and his brothers dying with the remnants of the infantry. By Christmas 1066, William was crowned king in London.

15. Resistance persisted, however, from 1067 to 1069, in the form of small rebellions among the Anglosaxons. In 1069 SwenEstrithson sent a fleet to York that allied with the rebels and began a more serious revolt, occupying the region. William's response was merciless. Taking on the unusual winter campaign, he marched north, with Norman forces burning all peasant villages and crops, creating an artificial famine. Thousands died, and the peasants fled. As Norman forces moved through each region, William built castles near the urban centers to monitor and reign in the population. By the spring the Danes as well left Britain. In the aftermath of the late 1060s revolts, most Anglosaxon noble lands were expropriated, with Norman elites receiving much of it in the form of fiefs held in vassalage from King William. Anglosaxons who had not resisted kept their lands in the same fashion. He of course, assumed title to the crown lands, and in feudal fashion, assigned quotas of knights that each fief holder had to provide for the royal army. As well, he lived up to the Pope Gregory VII's hopes, reforming the Church by expelling most English prelates and replacing them with French bishops and abbots.

16. Now answer these questions… • What problems presented themselves to the king in the early 11th century? What happened as a result? • Why were some Normans already living in England before 1066? Why did this annoy some Englishmen? • Who were the four claimants to the English throne after Edward’s death in 1066? • Explain two ways in which William consolidated his power immediately after he took control:

17. Task 3- How did William control England? • Read the article attached. • Highlight any key events where the English tried to resist Norman control • Underline all the different areas of England William has to protect from rebellions • Highlight in a different colour the names of all the people/groups who attempt to resist Norman control. • Now turn over and answer the question.

18. Explain how William overcame English resistance to his rule on three separate occasions. (Mention: who attempted to rebel, where the rebellion was centred, and how William succeeded in defeating them)

19. English Resistance to Norman Rule After Hastings William advanced on London by a circular route that started via Kent, burning a ring of fire around the country's main city. The advance was resisted and met much armed resistance. Meanwhile the Witan had proclaimed as king the young Edgar Aethling, last heir of the old Wessex royal line. William moved towards London to enforce his will before the remaining English nobility were able to regroup around Edgar and start an organised resistance. Indeed an attempt to secure the southern approach to London Bridge by part of his army had failed at Southwark. As a result of this and William's problems with the local populace resistance to his foraging parties, that he was forced to take a considerable detour to Wallingford, well west of London, before he could find a safe and defensible place to cross the Thames. Even then it was uncertain what the reaction of the Londoners would be to his army. London, upon the advice of Aldred, Archbishop of York, and Earl Morcar of Northumberland together with his brother Edwin, Earl of Mercia, submitted. Even so there was an armed skirmish, which resulted in the massacre of many Londoners. William's coronation was on midwinter's day, and shortly after he returned to Normandy taking the surviving English nobles with him. The English resistance first showed itself, not in armed defiance, but in stubbornness, when the monks at Peterborough not only elected one of their own to replace the recently deceased abbot, but sought out Edgar Æþeling, whom they declared was the true king, to approve the appointment. William was not amused and sent armed men to display his wroth. Fortunately William was always gold hungry and allowed himself to be bought off with a hefty fine. But the real trouble in 1067, was brewing in the hilly Marcher land of the Welsh border. Here two Norman Earls who belonged to families settled in the area during the reign of King Edward the Confessor, used the confusion caused by William's seizing of the throne, to extend their land holdings at the expense of the local English thanes. They attacked those lands held by Edric, soon to become known as 'the Wild'. This Edric is thought by many to be the Edric the Steersman who commanded the Channel fleet in 1066. There was already bad blood between Edric and his Norman neighbours and now it exploded into open warfare. In revenge for raids on his land Edric, in alliance with two Welsh princes, Bleððyn and Rhiwallon, devastated Herefordshire and eventually sacked Hereford itself, before retreating back into the hills ahead of the new king's revengeful army. Meantime, King Harold's mother, Gytha encouraged the people of Devon to rise up and William had major problems subduing them, especially in retaking the city of Exeter. At the same time, the other main claimant to the English throne, Edgar Æþeling, had escaped the Norman king's clutches and gone to Scotland with his family and a large number of important men. The south was also restive and later in the year, the men of Dover invited Eustace of Boulogne to help

20. them in their insurrection. This uprising was soon put down without the presence of King William himself. The people of the north were also chafing under Norman rule. William advanced upon them with his army, burning and laying waste as he went, the men of Northumberland lacked the confidence to take part in a battle and either submitted or fled into Scotland to join the other refugees there. In the autumn two of King Harold's sons, who had gone to the Norse east coast of Ireland, came and raided the West Country, where the Celtic Cornishmen joined them in arms. They plundered and ravished the countryside to such an extent that eventually even the English lost patience and joined with local Norman garrisons to expel them. In the following year of 1068, King William appointed a certain Robert de Comines, Earl of Northumberland, without asking the locals if they would accept him instead of the English Earl Morcar. The result was that the men of Northumberland massacred Robert and 900 of his men whilst they were staying in the city of Durham. Edgar Æþeling took advantage of this and came from Scotland and received the men of Northumberland at York. William moved up fast from the south and surprised the Northumbrians. Hundreds were slain and the city torched. 1069 and Harold's sons were back, raiding the West Country again. Unfortunately for them they met defeat at the hands of Earl Brian of Penthievre, and fled back to Ireland. At the same time Edric the Wild and his Welsh allies had broken out from their Marcher hills and took Shrewsbury before moving on to Chester. William had to leave them to their own devices as he had his hand's full dealing with an uprising in Northumberland lead by Morcar and his brother Edwin supported by the Danish king, SweinEsthrithson, who also had a claim to the English throne. Fighting alongside them were the Earls Waltheof and Gospatrick, together with Edgar Æþeling. The Normans in York were slaughtered, with Earl Waltheof's exploit of slaying a hundred Frenchmen with his long-axe as they tried to escape through a gate, ending up in heroic verse. William left part of his army to watch them whilst he crossed the Pennine hills to face the threat posed by Edric and the Welsh princes, who now had a formidable army bolstered by the men of Cheshire and Staffordshire. William rode with his men and joined Earl Brian, who had marched up from the West Country after beating Harold's sons. Edric became wary and withdrew to the hills with his Herefordshire and Shropshire men. The Welsh, with the remaining English, marched on and were defeated at the battle of Stafford. William then devastated the land about and laid it waste. A further revolt in the West Country, that seemed to be aimed at individual Normans, fizzled out in the face of forces drawn from London and the south east and through internal dissent amongst the insurgents. William now dealt with the Northumberland problem, a problem that had grown with the stepping up of revolt in the Fens lead by a local landholder,

21. Hereward the Wake. After a hard march north along a route determined by violent resistance, broken bridges and swollen rivers, William took and re-entered York without a fight. The Danes had fled and the men of Northumberland, dispirited by William's ability to advance despite the hazards set before him by both nature and English, fled into the hills, pursued by King William's men. With grim determination, William's army set about destroying homes and crops, and extinguishing all human and animal life from the Humber to the Wash. Those that avoided violent death died from exposure or starvation. In January 1070, a Norman army set off across the Pennines in bad weather through land that offered them no sustenance as they themselves had laid it waste. William's army suffered badly in the hills to both weather and English attacks. The men, who were mainly mercenaries from the northern provinces of France, mutinied, so he abandoned them to their fate. With a reduced force consisting of only Normans, he arrived at Chester, and it submitted without a fight. He then busied himself building castles to hold the north down. He also spent money on buying the Danes, under their leader, Jarl Osbjorn, off with a large Danegeld. The revolt in the Fens, led by Hereward, had been strengthened by refugees from the harrowing of Northumberland, including Earl Morcar. What happened during the years 1070 and 1071 is as much legend as recorded fact. We know that William made at least two unsuccessful attempts, either in person, or through a lieutenant, to take the Isle of Ely where Hereward and his forces were based. We also know that Hereward kept his Danish allies paid by allowing them to sack Peterborough and its Cathedral, now controlled by a Norman Abbot. The Normans took later Ely after local monks betrayed secret causeways through the Fens that would allow an army access to the Isle. By 1073, William felt that at last he had conquered England. Just as well, as his French subjects in Maine were revolting. The army that William took with him to bring his French subjects to heel was largely English. These Englishmen showed that they had watched their Norman masters well, for they devastated Maine in the same manner as the Normans had Cheshire and Northumberland. But, apart from some banditry, England was quietly brooding both that year and the following. The storm broke in 1075 with the "Revolt of the Earls. The two Earls were both half English and half French, and both had supported William in his claim for the throne in 1066. Ralf, Earl of East Anglia, was English on his father's side and had been born in Norfolk, but grew up in Brittany. Roger, Earl of Hereford, English on his mother's side and born in Hereford, was Ralf's brother-in-law. They plotted to bring in Danish support, they also tried to bring in both Edric the Wild and Earl Waltheof. Waltheof declined to be involved in the plot, but also declined to betray them. If successful, the simultaneous rising of the Earls would have cut England in two. Somehow the timing got out of alignment and William was able to crush Roger, before dealing to Ralf.

22. Even during those later years, when it seemed that the English were getting used to having Norman masters, things were not that peaceful. Evidence of this is the Murdrum fine. Because of the high rate of homicide being suffered by the Normans and their French allies, King William legislated that all Frenchmen who settled in England after the invasion were to be in the king's peace and therefore he was their protector in an alien land. Its introduction was recognised at the time as being necessary due to the hatred of the Normans by the English and their attacks on them. The fine was a high one of 46 Marks. The sum was to be paid by the lord of the dead man to the Crown if the perpetrator was not hastily caught. If the killer could not reimburse the victim's lord, then the Hundred where the crime had been committed had to. In view of the strength and longevity of the English resistance to the Norman Conquest, why did it fail? A vital element was King William's determination and immense energy that saw him going from one end of the country to the other, fighting the flames of resistance and stamping on the smoldering embers of resentment. Another important element was that, once an area had been secured, castles were raised to keep the locals in check. But the key element was that the viable leadership of any English resistance was effectively neutralised when King Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings. There was no king, and therefore no leadership or heart in the remaining English. Without real leadership, no English army could take the field. That gave William time to recover, take London and Winchester and force the Witan to accept his rule. But it did take until 1075 until William felt confident in his control of England. Slowly the English and Normans came together through the necessity of living side by side and also through marriage. With many of the rank and file Normans, and their French colleagues, being men of small worth, they had little option, but to mix in with their English neighbours.

23. Task 4: What has been the experience of Jewish migrants up to 2010? • Look back over the overview timelines You have filled in today. Take two colours/highlighters and highlight when the Jewish experience was positive and when the experience was negative. • Use your timelines to answer the following questions: • At which points did the Jewish Community appear to face the most persecution? • What examples are there of Jewish migrants having a positive experience? • What do you think are the main reasons why the Jewish community have had such a varied experience?

24. Task 5: What brought Jewish migrants to England in 1066 and why were they expelled in 1290? • Use you iPad to research and explain in detail the following acts against the Jewish migrants: 1190 York massacre – 1285 Statute of Jewry – 1287 property seizure – 1290 Edict of Expulsion -

25. PEEL paragraph challenge In your exam, you will be expected to answer 24 mark questions which cover a large timespan. You will need to use PEEL paragraphs. To practice, write a PEEL paragraph on the following page which could form part of an answer to the following 24-mark style question: ‘How accepted were the Jewish population in England from 1066-1290?’ You can focus on the early part of the period or their expulsion in your paragraph.

26. PEEL Paragraph Point – (how accepted were the Jews) Evidence – (detail to back up your answer) Explanation – (what does this evidence show) Link – (How does this support your overall point?)

27. Task 6- Who were the ‘aliens’ of the Middle Ages? • Read the following article. It is from the BBC History magazine. • Underline any words you are not sure of the meaning of, and create a short glossary of new terms by checking their definition on your iPad (or in a dictionary!) • Make a list of evidence you find that will help you answer the question How welcome were the resident ‘aliens’ in medieval England? (this is our topic for next lesson).

28. How welcome were the resident ‘aliens’ in medieval England? List any evidence from the article here:

29. Medieval immigrants: moving to England in the Middle Ages Reading the name ‘Reginald Newport’ in the English records of the 14th century does not immediately lead one to suppose that its holder was a foreigner. To all intents and purposes, the man in question was a full and active subject of the English crown, a minor functionary in the royal household of Edward III, a property-holder in the city of London and rural Berkshire, and an influential public official as regulator of fisheries along the Thames basin. And yet, when the city of London challenged Reginald’s powers in 1377, it quite deliberately chose to undermine his authority by naming him as “Reginald Newport, Fleming”. Suddenly, we open up a whole new aspect of the life and career of ReynauldNieuport, as we might now call him. In the middle years of the 14th century, immigrants from Flanders had a particularly high profile in England. They came over, in quite significant numbers, as agricultural labourers, as skilled cloth weavers, and as merchants involved in international trade. By the 1370s, however, they were increasingly seen as abusing their special privileges and enjoying unfair economic advantages over their English-born neighbours and co-workers. Reginald survived the backlash, but the Flemish communities in London and other English towns were to be the butt of particularly violent popular hatred during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The English state had no real way of regulating immigration in the Middle Ages, and although it often used the labels ‘denizen’ and ‘alien’, it had no standard means of defining these categories. In the 14th century, the crown began to develop a formal process known as denization, by which an immigrant of good standing in his or her community could renounce allegiance to their former ruler and be given all the rights of an English-born subject.

30. National security In1440, the English parliament shone a light into the gloom by imposing a new tax on resident foreigners. Immigrants had paid taxes before this time – the difference was simply that aliens were now to be a special category. The motivation was about finding new funds to help fight the Hundred Years’ War. The new tax was also introduced to help the government control immigration more tightly. Taking a census of resident foreigners could be a first step to greater controls at a time when Englishmen were concerned that aliens were getting a better economic deal, and were worried about national security. For modern historians, however, it provides an amazingly detailed survey of the geographical distribution, numbers, social status and occupations of foreigners living and working in England in 1440. It also gives us a tantalising glimpse of the human interactions between the native-born and the alien residents of the realm. Parliament had taken the view that all those born outside the realm of England should be included, even if, as in the case of Ireland and Gascony, their homeland was under the dominion of the English crown. In Langley Marsh, Buckinghamshire, one of the jurors, Thomas Fisher, was reported as having both an alien servant, named Gelam, and an Irish neighbour – though he could not name the latter. The jurors were not required to give a place of origin for each person named. Sometimes the identity is obvious: “John [the] Frenchman” and “John [the] Scot” are common names in the surviving assessments. At other times, the categories carried rather different connotations from now. At Elmswell in Suffolk, “James [of] Denmark” was firmly labelled “Dutch”, a term that often simply means the speaking of some form of northern European language. While the largest number of those identified by place of origin in 1440 came from Scotland, Ireland and the areas directly linked to England by sea routes across the Channel and the North Sea, there were also significant numbers of people from Iberia and Italy and a small number from the eastern Mediterranean. We know from other evidence that there were north Africans and Middle Easterners in England in the Middle Ages. A husband and wife in London were labelled as coming from “Inde”, which could mean anywhere east of Jerusalem. The fact that their names, Benedict and Antonia, were Christian suggests that, in most cases, original ethnicity was hidden as they were given new names on arrival to England.

31. Meet the ‘aliens’ • From the Scandinavian academic to the prominent merchant, five foreigners who called England home in the 15th century • The Irish spinner • Alice Spynner, an Irish woman living and working in England, was assessed for the tax on resident aliens at Narborough in Leicestershire in 1440. Alice’s occupation is evident from her surname. She was a spinner of wool, a job that was vital to the prosperity of the emergent English cloth industry. Many of Alice’s compatriots made their way into south-western and north-western England, though fewer Irish people are found in the east Midlands. She provides a reminder of the importance of women in England’s late medieval economy; indeed, her own trade made the word ‘spinster’ a synonym for the single, independent woman. • The Scottish chaplain • William Pulayn was a chaplain working in the rural parish of Sledmere in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1440, where the local jurors identified him as a Scot. Since Scotland was a separate kingdom, and often at war with England, those born there were consistently treated as aliens by the English state. Chaplains were jobbing priests who made a living by saying masses; other foreign chaplains in the tax records of 1440 included confessors and schoolmasters employed in gentry households. William was among his own kind: Scots were the largest minority group in the north of England. • The Swedish student • Benedict Nicoll is one of the few people specifically identified in the tax records of 1440 as coming from Sweden. He and five others, including a Magnus and an Olaf, are described as staying with the University of Cambridge. Medieval seats of higher learning were always international in their membership and influence, but those who were full members of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge generally enjoyed exemption from taxation. Whatever Benedict’s status and purpose in Cambridge, he was evidently only a temporary resident, for he had disappeared from the record by the time the second instalment of the 1440 tax was collected. • The Dutch artist • John Danyell was from Holland, in the modern Netherlands, and appeared in England in 1440 as a painter living in the city of Lincoln. The occupation of painter had the same ambiguity in the 15th century as it does today: it could mean a house-painter, or a maker of fine art. John’s presence in one of the most important cathedral cities of England is a vital clue to the patronage of artists from the Low Countries and of their influence on the northern Renaissance. • The Italian trader • Alexander Plaustrell, or Palestrelli, was a prominent Italian merchant living in London in the mid-15th century. Originally from Piacenza, he had trading connections across northern Italy, including in Lucca and Genoa. His house was in the Board Street area of London. In 1456, at a moment of high tension, he was physically assaulted in an affray at Cheapside, and the episode set off a series of attacks on Italians across the city. It provides us with one of many examples of the tensions between native Londoners and their international business rivals, as well as showing the readiness with which London mobs could target the foreigners in their midst.

32. The 1440 records also provide a fascinating glimpse of foreigners’ family and household structures. If the dependants of alien householders – wives, adult children, apprentices and servants – had been born abroad, they too were assessed for the tax. Herman Blakke, who came originally from Munster in Westphalia, appears in Huntingdon in 1440 with his wife and a servant, Adrian. And even when the head of the household was English, foreign dependants could still be liable. Sir John Cressy, one of the MPs at the very parliament that granted the new tax on aliens, kept several foreign servants at his residence in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, who had presumably been recruited during Cressy’s career as a soldierin the French wars. There is also much that can be gleaned about the occupations of England’s foreign residents in 1440. In major cities and towns such as London, York, Bristol, Southampton and Norwich, we find high concentrations of foreigners, including prominent merchants from the great trading towns of Flanders and northern Italy. But the foreign influence was not only to be found in metropolitan contexts. At Bildeston in Suffolk there were two Aragonese doctors, perhaps drawn to this corner of East Anglia by the large immigrant workforce in the nearby towns of Lavenham, Sudbury and Hadleigh. Across the country we find unskilled labourers from Scotland, Ireland, France and the Low Countries eking out a living in the agricultural economy. Many in this latter category were casual or seasonal workers. In Northumberland, they were actually described as ‘vagabonds’. Here lies one of the reasons why so many people assessed for the tax actually managed to avoid paying it. One of the hallmarks of the resident alien population was its mobility. All in all, the survey of 1440 produced around 20,000 named persons of foreign birth. This number may look tiny in comparison with the record of immigration in later centuries, but we have to remember that the estimated population of England at this time was not greatly in excess of 2 million people. As late as the 1901 census, immigrants counted for about 1 per cent of the total population of the United Kingdom. That there was a comparable level in 1440 allows us to consider later medieval England not as an insular culture but as a genuinely multicultural society. To see things thus is also necessarily to admit the resulting stresses and strains. There is every sign that the taxpayers of 1440 were identified mostly in terms of the languages they spoke and the accents with which they attempted to communicate in English. A story circulated in late medieval England that the rebels of 1381, in seeking out the hated Flemings, had attacked anyone who could not say ‘bread and cheese’ in English. Here is a powerful reminder of the complicated and sometimes perilous existence that foreign-born residents could experience in England. From the 1440s to the 1480s, parliament continued to impose taxes on aliens, and the Tudor regime included the category in the new, comprehensive subsidies developed from the 1520s. In none of these cases, however, did the numbers of persons assessed reach anything approaching the levels of 1440. These taxes can be taken by historians as a sign of the real tension between the native and foreign-born populations.

33. Task 7: How welcome were the ‘aliens’ of the Middle Ages? • Using the notes you took in class/photos on your iPad, write an answer to: • To what extent were ‘aliens’ accepted into English society in the Middle Ages? • Make sure your answer is balanced (tells two sides of the story) and that each paragraph links your writing back to the essay question.

34. To what extent were ‘aliens’ accepted into English society in the Middle Ages? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

35. Task 8: What was life like for British Africans in the 16th & 17th centuries? Using notes/photos/Edmodo content from class, write an answer to the question above. Ensure you use details from specific cities, and provide balance (positive and negative experiences). _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

36. Task 8: Compare the experiences of African and Indian people in Britain between 16th& 18th centuries. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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38. Task 9: Why did Cromwell push for the readmission of the Jews in 1656? • Read the following article and highlight key information. • Write two paragraphs summarising what the article has taught you in your own words.

39. Tasks 10 & 11: • How did religious unrest in Europe affect migration to Britain in the 17th century? • Answer this question and include: • Introduction • Background information about the Protestant reformation in Europe • The impact of both Edicts on the Huguenots community in France • Louis XIV’s actions and effects of the dragonnades. • Migration of the Huguenots to countries across Europe • Evaluation of the extent to which the Huguenots were accepted in London • Conclusion which answers the original question • Upload to Edmodo by the deadline. • Produce either: • An extended piece of writing (minimum 2 sides A4) • A video/Adobe Voice with detailed commentary • Use the following resources: • ‘Story of the Huguenots’ activities • ‘A warm welcome to London?’ A3 sheet • Lesson PowerPoint on Edmodo page • Website links provided by your teacher