William was a distant cousin of the English King Edward the Confessor and claimed that Edward, who had no children, had promised him the throne of England. He also claimed that when Harold Godwineson had been shipwrecked off Normandy, he had sworn to support his claim.
When Harold Godwineson was crowned King of England, William, with the approval of the Pope, began planning an invasion to take what was rightfully his.
By the time that he was twenty-seven, he had earned himself a good reputation as a strong leader. He defended Normandy well from repeated attacks by the French and was feared as a military leader.
This dearth of biographical information is due primarily to his station in life; he was not a noble, but the son of John Shakespeare, a leather trader and the town bailiff. The events of William Shakespeare’s early life can only be gleaned from official records, such as baptism and marriage records.
He probably attended the grammar school in Stratford, where he would have studied Latin and read classical literature.
18 married Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his senior and pregnant at the time of the marriage.
but unfounded stories have him stealing deer, joining a group of traveling players, becoming a schoolteacher, or serving as a soldier in the Low Countries.
wrote derogatorily of him on his deathbed.
In 1594, having probably composed, among other plays, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Taming of the Shrew, he became an actor and playwright for the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, which became the King’s Men after James I’s ascension in 1603. The company grew into England’s finest, in no small part because of Shakespeare, who was its principal dramatist.
and the best theater, the Globe, which was located on the Thames’ south bank.
By 1596, the company had performed the classic Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That year, John Shakespeare was granted a coat of arms, a testament to his son’s growing wealth and fame.
he became a partner in the ownership of the Globe Theatre.
In a million words written over 20 years, he captured the full range of human emotions and conflicts with a precision that remains sharp today. As his great contemporary the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson said, “He was not of an age, but for all time.”
"The top players in feudal Europe come from a small group of people - an aristocracy, based on skill in battle, with a shared commitment to a form of Christianity (at once power-hungry and idealistic) in which the pope in Rome has special powers as God's representative on earth. As a great feudal lord with moral pretensions, holding the ring between secular sovereigns, the pope can be seen as Europe's headmaster.
Bishops and abbots are part of the small feudal aristocracy, for they are mostly recruited from the noble families holding the great fiefs. Indeed bishops can often be found on the battlefield, fighting it out with with the best.
As in any other context, the strongest argument in feudalism - transcending the niceties of loyalty - is naked force. The Normans in England or in Sicily rule by right of conquest, and feudal disputes are regularly resolved in battle.
But feudalism also provides many varieties of justification for force. And the possession of a good justification is almost as reassuring to a knight as a good suit of armour.
One excellent excuse for warfare is the approval of the church. In 1059 the pope virtually commands the Normans to attack Sicily, by giving them feudal rights over territory not as yet theirs. Similarly Rome lets it be known that the Holy See is on the side of William when he invades England in 1066.
Another important form of justification is a dynastic claim to a territory. Generations of marriages, carefully arranged for material gain, result in an immensely complex web of relationships - reflected often in kingdoms of very surprising shape on the map of Europe.
No-one was surprised by Henry’s choice as both he and
Thomas were very good friends. They enjoyed hunting, playing jokes and
socialising together. Becket was known to be a lover of wine and a good horse
rider. Henry II loved to ride as well but his personality was troubled by his
fearsome temper. He tried to keep his temper under control by working very hard
as it distracted him from things that might sparked off his temper.
For people in England , there was always the real problem
- do you obey the king or the pope
excommunicating him
Henry II also controlled a lot of France at this time.
William the Conqueror had been his great-grandfather and he had inherited his
French territories as a result of this. When Henry was in France sorting out
problems there, he left Becket in charge of England - such was his trust in him.
Becket became Henry’s chancellor - the most important position in England
after the king.
Henry saw
the chance to give his close friend even more power by appointing him Archbishop
of Canterbury - the most important church position in England.
Henry hoped that by appointing his good friend Becket, he
might have more of a say in how the Church punished offenders. He hoped that
Becket would do as he wished and toughen up the sentences passed out by Church
courts.
The post of Archbishop changed Becket. He dropped his
luxurious lifestyle; he ate bread and drank water, he had a luxury bed but
preferred to sleep on the floor; he wore the rich clothes of an archbishop, but
underneath the fine tunics he wore a horse hair shirt - very itchy and
unpleasant to wear. He gave his expensive food to the poor.
Becket asked the pope to
excommunicate the Archbishop of York who had taken sides with the king.
He is said to have shouted out "will no-one rid me
of this troublesome priest ?" Four knights heard what Henry had shouted
and took it to mean that the king wanted Becket dead. They rode to Canterbury to
carry out the deed. The knights were Reginald FitzUrse, William de Tracey, Hugh
de Morville and Richard le Breton. On December 29th 1170 they killed
Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. After killing him, one of the knights said
"Let us away. He will rise no more."
Becket’s body was still on the cathedral floor when
people from Canterbury came in and tore off pieces of his clothes and then
dipped these pieces in his blood. They believed that they would bring them luck
and keep evil away.
Where Becket died quickly became a place of pilgrimage.
Henry II asked the pope for forgiveness and
he walked bare foot to Canterbury to pray at the spot where Becket was killed.
Monks whipped him while he prayed.
It took 21 carts to remove the valuables from Becket’s shrine at
Canterbury Cathedral.
there was an explosion of castle construction as feudal lords
sought to consolidate their power and provide fortresses for
the inhabitants of their kingdoms.
Research shows that castles served
a very utilitarian role in feudal society. It was protector,
visible landmark, and source of pride among many communities.
William the Conqueror,
from Normandy, France, invaded England in 1066 and changed
the medieval landscape forever. Medieval societies soon witnessed
the erection of stone towers and walls in every country. Simple
Norman donjons evolved into more elaborate strongholds with
towering walls, defensive systems and could house sometimes
thousands of people.
Military tactics centered on
the taking of castles, and weapon technology improved over
the centuries to exploit any weakness that could be found
in castle architecture. It wasn't until the late 1600s, when
gunpowder and artillery became more effective, that the castle
became obsolete.
painting, sculpture, and architecture. Paintings became more realistic and focused less often on religious topics.
began in northern Italy
Arab scholars preserved the writings of the ancient Greeks in their libraries. When the Italian cities traded with the Arabs, ideas were exchanged along with goods. These ideas, preserved from the ancient past, served as the basis of the Renaissance.
William Shakespeare.
Crusaders returned to Europe with a newfound understanding of the world.
The invention of the printing press encouraged literacy and helped to spread new ideas.
Wealthy families and the church had amassed enough wealth to become patrons.
The development of financial techniques such as bookkeeping and credit allowed merchants to
The reason why Europeans all the sudden are now curious and are now investigating the world around them is that after the black death and the crusades, people became more humanist and farther away from religion, so this causes two things: First, religion was keeping others from wondering what everything is, (since religion would make an answer for the questions people had,) keeping everyone together in one place. Second, Christianity at that time had a pretty bad relationship with Muslims, so now that people aren't letting their Religion tell them what to do, people will go past those religious laws for the sack of curiosity.
Rich families became patrons and commissioned great art. Artists advanced the Renaissance style of showing nature and depicting the feelings of people.
Crusaders returned to Europe with a newfound understanding of the world.
The invention of the printing press encouraged literacy and helped to spread new ideas.
Wealthy families and the church had amassed enough wealth to become patrons.
The development of financial techniques such as bookkeeping and credit allowed merchants to prosper
Since the dark ages are now over, and now it's the "DAWN" of a new age, this could imply that, the "DARK AGES," was the night/hibernation of technology and/or knowledge and information, and now that it is now the "DAWN," we could infer that this could mean that technology and knowledge, are awakening.