Notes

The Harrying Of The North: this was when King William went up North, killed everyone, burnt all of their houses and salted the land. He did this because the people in the North were not loyal to him. As a result of this, no crops could be grown in the North, therefore meaning it was a useless place to live. This helped him take control over England because it means people would fear that he would do the same thing to their village and would be loyal and do as King William says.

The Domesday Book: this was designed to be a place where everyone in England's amount of money and land was kept. It was made so that William knew how much money everyone had. The information was collected by knights going to peoples houses and asking them. If they refused to say, they would've been threatened with death. To make sure that nobody lied, a different set of soldiers would be sent to ask them again. If the villagers said the same thing, they were not lying. It gave William control because he knew how much money each person had, and could threaten to take it away.

The Feudal System: this was basically like a food pyramid, but with 4 categories. These where: The King, the most important; The Barons, The Kings closest friends; The Knights who would fight for The Barons and The King if they needed to; and the peasants, who would farm. This showed William how much land to give to The Barons. Then, The Barons would give some of their land to The Knights who would give land to the peasants, who would farm instead of paying.

Castles: there were normally 2 types of castles in the Norman times. The Stone castles and Motte and Bailey castles. Features of a Motte and Bailey castles were: a keep; where the Barons would sleep, and also the king if he needed to; a mound that the keep was on top of; the Bailey which is a village, a ditch/moat, a drawbridge and finally a palisade, which was a wall that surrounded the Bailey. Features of a Stone Castle were: a Bailey, a keep, a ditch/moat, arrowslits, that archers could shoot out of without getting shot back at; a tower, battlements, these were like arrowslits but on a wall and wider; a portcullis, this was a gate with spikes at the bottom; a drawbridge and a barbican, which was the outer defence of a castle, usually around the portcullis. Similarities are that they both have a bailey and keep, but differences are that the stone castle has arrowslits and battlements to shoot from and protect the castle more.