1 William the Conqueror (1066–87)
Domesday This exhaustive survey of more than 13,000 places, recorded in two massive volumes on the skins of some 1,000 sheep, was commissioned at Gloucester in December 1085 by William I. According to the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, he ‘sent his men over all England into every shire and had them discover… what land and cattle the King himself had… or what dues he ought to have… and how much each man who was a landholder in England had in land or livestock’. The survey, preserved at the National Archives, Kew, presents the most detailed account of an 11th-century society anywhere in the world—it was widely resented at the time— and charts the impact of the Norman Conquest on England. Legacy William’s victory over Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 ultimately brought about the single largest transfer of land in British history. He and his followers founded castles, monasteries and towns that physically transformed England and became the focus of its future political, religious and economic life. His Anglo-Norman interests inextricably linked the affairs of England with those of the Continent. English monarchs are conventionally numbered from his reign.
2 William II (1087–1100)
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
