JUNIOR SCHOOL
NEWSLETTER Friday 18th January 2019 Dear Parents On Thursday I had the pleasure of taking Year 5 for a history lesson (my favourite subject, for those who don’t know). The instruction from Hazel Sykes was to cover the gap of the Middle Ages between the Normans and the Tudors, a topic I am particularly keen on. So we embarked on a whistle-stop tour unmasking the civil war in the wake of Henry I’s death, storming through the expanding of England’s lands under Henry II, unpicking the impact of King John signing the Magna Carta and the subsequent birth of parliament and the rule of law, cantering across the Scottish border disputes of the early Edwards and delving into the murky politics of the War of the Roses… all in an hour! In our discussions we explored the challenge of managing power struggles, the importance of stable leadership, the impact on the common man and the patriarchy of Salic law. The girls were particularly unimpressed to find out that they would have been a long way down the pecking order when it came to inheritance, especially Evie when I explained that Monty would have been King before her! And yet to paint such a chauvinistic picture simplifies the intricacies and subtleties of royal and political life and inaccurately portrays many of the famous characters of the age. Two that have always stood out to me are Queen Matilda and Eleanor of Aquitaine. The only child of Henry I, the former was married at 12 to the then Holy Roman Emperor and was crowned as an imperial regent at just 14. Upon her first husband’s death she returned to Normandy and was pronounced heir to the English throne. However, her cousin Stephen (was also, incidentally, married to another cousin of both of theirs’, also called Matilda!) seized the throne on Henry I’s death and what followed was a bitter civil war with all the plotting and intrigue we’d expect. What marks Matilda out, is her ability to successfully carry out the necessary roles of a Middle Ages leader: a martial strategist, a forward-thinking centrist who managed estates and revenues and a law-maker and religious supporter. Her guile and cunning (and she was capable of just the same level of calculated unpleasantness as some of her male peers!) as well as her vision for the future meant that, though she was never formally crowned, she paved the way for, and acted as an advisor during, the reign of her son Henry II. Which brings us on to Eleanor. Henry had the fortune (although on occasion I’m sure it must have felt like misfortune!) of being born to an incredible mother who then married him to an incredible wife! History paints the picture of Eleanor bringing with her the Southern French territories of Aquitaine and, thereby, expanding the English empire, but this again, undermines Eleanor’s impact. She was wife to both French and English kings, at the time two of the most powerful men in the world, and gave birth to ten children, three of whom would become kings. Throughout her life she ruled with her husbands and, in the case of Richard the Lionheart, as regent in place of her son. There is probably not space here to fully expand upon her remarkable talents, but I would direct you towards the excellent film The Lion in Winter which portrays her difficult relationship with Henry II (who was so worried about the threat she posed