Magna Carta Blog, Part 3: The Anarchy Edition

Today's topic is The Anarchy, a war in English history following the reign of King Henry I, the king who succeeded William the Conqueror. The trouble began when in 1120, when the only legitimate son of King Henry I died in a shipwreck, leaving the aging King Henry with no heir to succeed him. Despite his best efforts, Henry I was unable to produce another heir before he died in 1135 and the resulting civil war wreaked havoc across England. The two sides in the war were those loyal to King Stephen, a nephew of Henry I who proclaimed himself King of England when his uncle died, and those who were loyal to Empress Matilda, a daughter of Henry I and widow of Holy Roman Emperor Henry V, Empress Matilda was Henry I's choice as his heir when he was on his deathbed, though she was at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to obtaining the loyalty of the English barons due to being a woman in a time when woman almost never had any real power. In the early years of his reign King Stephen spent much of his time fighting rebels and invading scotsmen and in 1139 Empress Matilda gathered an army and invaded England. The war dragged on with neither side gaining much of an advantage over the other for over 10 years. Since both sides had easily defensible castles, legions of mercenaries as well as the facts that English barons kept switching between supporting Stephen and Matilda (Of particular note is John Marshal, who started out supporting Stephen and ended up supporting Matilda and who was the father of William Marshal, a famous knight who I have written about previously on this blog) and that there was rampant lawlessness, which gave the war it's name, the war didn't end until 1953, when both sides finally ran out of steam and agreed to a truce. The truce provided peace on the terms that Stephen's heir would be Matilda's son Henry. When Stephen died of unrelated causes the next year Matilda's son became King Henry II, whose children would go on to be key figures in the time of the Magna Carta.

Clothes and Dyes

Several forms of material and dyes were used by different classes. Different furs, fibers, and weaving techniques would be used by craftsman to raise the price of clothes they would sell. The most expense form of clothing would be cotton velvet because  of the complex, time consuming weaving technique it used. This technique made the material longer lasting and have a finer texture. Royalty would also use expensive dyes like sea shells which could produce a vibrant purple color. Red dye would also be used by royalty. Ermine fur and silk would also be traded and was popular amongst nobility. On the lower end peasants would wear cotton or wool clothes, sometimes dyed and sometimes not. Clothing let peasants recognize there nobles, and helped display their wealth to other nobles.

The Privy

Few people on our tours are not disgusted by the idea of the Medieval privy. The privy is where the peasants of Medieval Europe did their toilet related business. The disgusting part is how the waste is disposed of. Whether dumped down the river or in a lake, the human waste purposefully ended up in the local water supplies. Some of the waste, however, was used for practical purposes. Urine of a young boy was often useful for cleaning a peasant's hair or curing certain illnesses. There is some science to the cleaning part, as urine contains ammonia which is very good at killing bacteria, but who would want their hair smelling like urine.

Magna Carta Blog, Part 2: Norman Conquest of England Edition

Roughly 150 years before the the Magna Carta was created, 1066 to be exact, was the year that the country of  England came under control of duke William of Normandy. The events that led to the conquest being successful can be traced back to Harthacnut, the last Danish king of England, who began an interesting reign of England in 1040, where he more or less co ruled with Edward the Confessor. However, several years before he became king of England and was still just king of Denmark, Harthacnut made a deal with king Magnus of Norway that if either of them died childless then they would count as each other's heir. This meant that when Harthacnut died in 1042, King Magnus now figured himself to be king of England, though Edward the Confessor had already claimed the title so Magnus ultimately ended up remaining just the king of Norway. However, Edward being king of England only led to more problems later on since he had spent much of his life in the court of the duke of Normandy. This meant that when Edward the Confessor died childless in 1066 there were now three people who figured themselves king of England, duke William of Normandy, Harold Godwinson (who was the most powerful baron in England) and the son king Magnus, Harald Hardrade. In the fall of 1066 Harald landed his invasion in the northeast of England and proceeded to utterly destroy the armies of the English Earl brothers Edwin and Morcar at the battle of Fulford. Just five days later Harold arrived and utterly destroyed the Norweigan army in a suprise attack at Stamford Bridge, where Harald Hardrade and just about all of his army were killed. Now with a much weakened army Harold began marching south to combat the newly landed Norman troops, led by duke William of Normandy. In the battle of Hastings Harold's forces were defeated by the superior tactics of the Norman troops and Harold himself died in the battle. Though there were still many small rebellions from the Anglo-Saxon nobles, mostly Edwin and Morcar, William had now firmly established himself as the king of England. It was the great and great-great grandchildren of William, now known as the Conqueror, who would end up being key figures in the time of the Magna Carta. Had Harold or Harald won the title of King of England, it is possible that the Magna Carta would have never come into being.

Magna Carta Blog, Part 1: William Marshal Edition

Since I dont have any particularly interesting stories about my time docenting for the Magna Carta exhibit, I will instead write the story of William Marshal, an important person in the history of the Magna Carta. William Marshal was born in 1147 and was the second son of John Marshal (In those days the position of marshal was hereditary). Since he was the second son of his father William would inherit nothing from him and most people likely did not think he would go very far in life. However, William Marshal just so happened to be the protagonist of a real life underdog story. Shortly after being knighted sometime in 1166 William found his calling in life, tournaments, which he was incredibly skilled at. In 1168 William's uncle and teacher was killed in an ambush by Guy de Lusignan and William himself was captured, however, Eleanor of Aquitane, the Queen of England, was impressed with the young knight and his skill in tournaments and ransomed him. After this William joined the court of king Henry II, where his martial skills and loyalty soon resulted in him being given a minor castle in Cumbria. In 1189, when Richard, the third child and heir of Henry II rebelled against his father in 1189, it was William Marshal who kept the king safe on his retreat to Chinon, where Henry would later die. Deespite the fact that William Marshall had remained loyal to Henry II during the rebellion, King Richard still welcomed him into his court when the rebellion ended. When Richard went off on a crusade less than a year later William Marshal and his elder brother John Marshal, who was the marshal at that time, were left in England as part of the regency that would rule while Richard was away. In 1193 King Richard's younger brother John rebelled against the absent ruler and William Marshal joined the loyalists and John Marshal joined the rebellion. Sometime in 1194, as the rebellion was coming to end, John Marshal was killed at the castle of Marlborough and the victorious king Richard granted the position of marshal to William. In 1199, after the death of king Richard, William was welcomed into the court of King John, though he later had a falling out with John in 1204, which culminated in John removing William from his court and ordering most of his lands burned in 1207. Despite this, William still fought for king John in the rebellion that would end with the creation of the first Magna Carta. After John annulled the first Magna Carta and later died of dysentery, it was William Marshal who made sure that John's son Henry would become the next king of England and also served as the young kings regent, marking the pinnacle of William Marshal's rise, as he was now the most powerful man in England. During his regency William made sure that the second Magna Carta was successfully created. In 1219, William Marshal finally died of natural causes at the age of 72, on his deathbed he was fully inducted into the Knights Templar and was buried at the Temple Church in London.

Hygiene

One of the main sections of the interactive room at the Magna Carta Exhibit is about Hygiene. It is often one of the most popular parts of the entire exhibit because people were not aware of the practices exercised in the 13th century. The medieval plumbing system consisted mainly of rivers and moats. In fact, lined along the river Thames in London, there were the public restrooms, which would empty there reservoirs of filth into the river when the tide rose. The toilets in castles would simply let the excrement slide down the wall into the moat. Urine, however, was collected feverishly, since urine is high in ammonia, a very practical chemical. It could be used to clean hides, cure diseases, and often wash mouths.
The bathing rituals would often involve stick toothbrushes and rancid smelling soap made from animal trimmings. Nobility would partake in the exact same practices, but their soap would sometimes be infused with lavender or other fragrances. Essentially all those who lived in England were covered in animal fat, but the nobility would be slathered in both animal fat and herbs.

Training to be a Docent

Four students at POHS were approached directly by Dr. Quillin to become docents for the Magna Carta exhibit. We were wary at first, but when we knew we would be touring people through the exhibit in pairs, we agreed. When we went to the HMNS the first time to train, we were unsure of what was required of us to become a docent because none of us had ever done anything like it. The training sessions quickly cleared it up for us.

We as docents had a lot of responsibility, no adult supervision for us. Two students would be put together to take a group of students or otherwise that they would have to talk to themselves to organize the tour. To teenagers, this is a rather daunting task. But so far we have managed to do it pretty well.

Learning about the Magna Carta and the time of it was very interesting and fun. We loved to give people we toured the information that wasn't on the panels in the exhibit that they never would have known without us. It gives us a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that we don't really get from much else.