The reasons why people migrated

• 789 - The first Viking raid - attacked the kingdom of Wessex on the south coast
• Vikings were in search for treasure: gold, silver and jewels.
• Lindisfarne gets raided in 793 by Vikings of treasure
• 850 - A Viking raiding party spent the winter camped on the Isle of Thanet, Kent.
• 854 - A Viking raiding party spent the winter camped on the Isle of Sheppey, in the Thames estuary.
• 865 - Viking army land in East Anglia. The raiding stopped and Vikings started trying to invade England
• 866 - Vikings captured the heavily fortified city of York, using the city as a base to conquer most of Eastern England. They spent 14 years campaigning against the four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
• 871 - Vikings invaded Wessex; King Alfred the Great paid them to leave with a tax, the Danegeld.
• Danegeld - A tax raised by Anglo-Saxon rulers and used to pay the Vikings to stop them from devastating Saxon lands.
• 878 - Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia gone and invaded by Vikings.
• 878 - The Vikings attempt to get Wessex again, but the Treaty of Wedmore was signed which agreed which areas of land the Vikings could control - Danelaw
• Danelaw - The area of England where the Vikings were able to settle and live uncontested, applying their own Scandinavian laws
• Reasons the Vikings migrated to England

  Agriculture: The land in eastern England was rich and fertile. Vikings and their families could settle, farm the land and live well
• Reasons Vikings migrated to England

  Trade: Many English Towns were important trading centres with Europe. Taking over these towns and their trade could make Vikings rich
• Reasons Vikings migrated to England

  Religion: Odin, the god of war and military victory, was the Vikings' most important god. To fight and to win meant that Odin would reward Viking Warriors after death
• Norman, Danish and Saxon rulers all claimed the right to rule England
• The Normans invaded in 1066 and took military, political and economic control
• The Normans experienced continual resistance to their rule and dealt with it harshly
• Normans caused considerable change in the language, culture, economics and politics of England
• On January 5 1066 King Edward the Confessor died. He had promised the throne to Harold Godwinson. The Witan agreed and on 6 January 1066 Harold was crowned King of England
• Promises that made William, Duke of Normandy, believe that he was the rightful King of England

  -In 1064 Godwinson made a promise that he would be King when Edward died

  -The Pope supported him because Harold broke his word

  -In 1051 the Archbishop of Canterbury told him that Edward made him his heir

  -Edward's mother was his great-aunt so they have a blood connection
• William, Duke of Normandy, decided to invade England, bringing Normans that were attracted to opportunities for new land and wealth that England provided.
• On 14 October 1066 the Battle of Hastings took place:

  • Harold, King of England, defending against foreign invaders
  • William, Duke of Normandy, fighting for the throne of England

  The normans won
• William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.
• European Jews migrated to England after 1066, invited by King William to organise his finances and lend him money
• A few Jews became wealthy moneylenders and helped William to build castles and cathedrals
• England was a short sea journey away from the low countries
• Wars and rebellions frequently broke out in the low countries, eg the 100 years' war from 1337-1453
• England was relatively stable and offered better wages for labourers in low countries
• After the Black Death - 1348-1351, England needed workers of all sorts, encouraging people from the Low Countries to migrate to Britain
• Henry III invited Flemish weavers to come to England in 1270
• Lombardy Bankers began arriving in England in the 1220s, settling with their families. They planned to lend money to Kings and businesses. Towns and cities were growing in size and many businesses needed money to help them grow too.
• Flemish weavers migrated to England in the 1330s as Edward III had temporarily banned the export of English wool; weavers had to come to England if they wanted to carry on making money from weaving cloth.
• KIngs realised that bringing over weavers that could weave England's most profitable export, wool, would help the economy and make it more profitable.
• Henry III preferred Lombard (Italian) bankers to Jewish moneylenders as they were Christian, allowing them to arrive in 1265. He sent letters to important banking families in Lombardy promising royal protection if they came to England
• Lombardy Bankers got the right to trade in wool and other goods on better terms than the english