Hello and welcome to the History of England episode 24, Revolta the Elves. I need to start

with a few thank yous, firstly to Peter, who got in touch very worried to tell me that

I've messed up last week's podcast by forgetting the start and end music, thanks Peter for

your concern and sorry everyone else for my rubbish quality control.

And then to respond to some comments, Martin asked me to plug my website which is great

because I'd really like you all to go there, so it's at historyofingland.typerd.com.

And then there was Catherine who asked what all the birds are, sadly Catherine then nothing

very exotic, black birds, robins, blue tits, the odd wood pigeon and maybe a red kite if

you're lucky. The thing is, I'm in a small shed in the garden, how sad is that? This

also means by the way that it's really difficult to stop this booming quality to the podcast,

and thanks to my brother and Pete for suggesting lining the shed with egg boxes, even I'm not

that sad. But fellow podcast is out there, any tips and hints about the booming thing

would be really gratefully received. But anyway, onto the history for this week.

Well, after our William last week in 1070, probably feeling that he'd seen the last of

any pesky rebellions disturbing his peace and that he could get back to the land he loved

i.e. Normandy. Because one thing to bear in mind is that Normandy was home, not just

the William, but also for all his Norman barons. England was where they'd made their riches,

but Normandy was what they really cared about, and that'll remain the case for a good

while yet. And William did have a bit of time to indulge himself in one of his favourite

pastimes, i.e. making money. He grumpily realised that the old English lords had stashed

all their spare cash in the churches, so he ordered that the churches and monasteries

be taxed and searched for the Thames treasure. There was just nowhere to hide for the English.

...