[Sca-cooks] Re:William's Post

[The Sheltons]

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:27:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: Oven temperature question
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

As an aside, and possible topic for further discussion, does anyone have any
extant evidence of
fuel shortage after the Norman Conquest in 1066?  I was looking over a few
pages yesterday which
clearly indicate that England experienced a rather severe famine after the
Conquest (20,000 +
dead), due to the inability to adequately farm the fields for roughly 9
years.  I would assume
that the same would hold true for the foresters, or other persons who were
responsible for the
gathering of wood fuel for community ovens.  Anyone?

 William de Grandfort

-------

An interesting question. William began his Harrying of the North in 1069
after putting down a series
of rebellions in Kent, Herefordshire, Staffordshire, etc. He used the
Sherman method of burning
everything between York and Durham: houses, fields, crops, tools, etc. {York
also got burned down
by the friendly visiting King Sweyn of Norway}. I've seen guestimates as
high as 100,000 people
dying. The area was described as a desert, and at the time of the Domesday
Book, several hundred
estates were listed as "waste."  Presumeably, they burned down the forests
as well; it may be mentioned
specifically somewhere in the Anglo/Saxon Chronicles. By the time they
visited to do the Domesday
Book (~20 years later), the forests would have regrown and reclaimed many of
the unused fields. I
would assume a lack of firewood (for both cooking and winter heat) were
amongst the causes of the
high death toll.

John le Burguillun


I learnt to cook so well in Sicily that I will cause the banqueters to bite
the dishes
and the plates for joy -- Alexis of Tarentum (4th c. BC)