“Carolingian” England

800-1000

9th century England, 802-886

Canute

• Edmund Ironside and Canute

Questions• What are shires and hundreds? • How did Cnut's taking over the

English kingship change English institutions?

• In what ways did England (which never came under Carolingian control) reflect Carolingian practice, even long after the Carolingian Empire had broken up on the Continent?

• What was the "Great Army“ of the Vikings?

• What innovations did Alfred institute in order to fight off the Vikings?

• At what point, according to Wickham, did England become a kingdom?

• What was the basis for the "structural coherence" of England, which survived changes in the ruling elites?

• What was the role of Alfred's intellectual revival in his kingship?

• Domesday Book• What was unique about

English landholding? How did this affect the peasantry as time went on?

Homework Questions• What does the

Battle of Maldon illustrate about the military classes in English society? (Note: you need both Rosenwein's Sources and Wickham to answer this question.)

• What features of King Aethelred's Law Code illustrate what you have learned about the extent of English kingship?