Norman London Tour - Art Scenes

LONDON

Norman

The Normans made London the capital of the feudal French speaking kingdom of Engleterre, and it quickly became one of the biggest cities in Europe with monasteries and castles; but sadly due to fires and wars the old thriving medieval city is gone but the streets, some churches and a tower have remained — and with some imagination you can travel to the times of the Angevin Kings.

Time period: 1060s-1220s

Movie/book: Guillaume le Conquérant (2014)/De Gestis Britonum by Geoffrey of Monmouth

Soundtrack: Galdr Chants/Viking Drums

Fashion: cold colors, linen tunic plus a wool cape

Budget:

Edward Wallis: The City of London, in the Time of the Saxons (about Year 1000.); London, 1817

This tour would take you through the outskirts of Londinium, where the Normans built monasteries for religious orders and 3 castles to keep the city safe from other invasions (only The White Tower survives till this day). The area is characterized by: Romanesque architecture, hidden streets and little dragons with an English flag. The Anglo-Saxon (pegan Germanic tribes) turned the ruins of Londinium into Lunderburh in 871; and because of the river Thames it became an important trading port — just like in the Roman times. Sadly the city was under constant Viking invasion until it fell in 1066 under the Normans (some Christian Vikings that lived in the north of France). After his coronation William the Conqueror claimed that all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Kent) were unified as one Christian kingdom with the renamed Londres as its capital: the kingdom of Engleterre. He retained about a fifth of this land for himself, 25% went to the Church and the rest were given to 170 tenants-in-chief (or barons) who had helped him defeat Harold at the Battle of Hastings (1066) — creating the bloodlines of the English aristocracy. Londres got rebuilt in a new style that imitated ancient Roman basilicas, the Romanesque style characterized by: semicircular arches, thick walls, and battlements (the “fence” on top of towers with a zig zag square pattern). These buildings were highly decorated with geometric patterns, low relieves and innovative colorful figurative frescoes (cartoonish art out of proportions nor perspective, with vivid colors but still recognizable — the result of: Roman compositions, Celtic/Viking knot-patterns, and Germanic stylized animals but now depicting Christian mythology). Wealthy merchants and visitors came from all over Europe like Hugues de Payens who brought The Order of the Knights Templar in 1128 to advocate for the crusades and 32 years latter the round Temple Church got built. London and Paris gained a lot of wealth, knowledge and power from the Third Crusade in the years 1189-1192; whose knights brought ancient wisdom, the gothic style of architecture plus relics. These knights also created the Carta Magna: a legal document signed by King John of England 1215 who limited the power of the king and gave rights to the barons, basically the beginning of constitutional monarchy — which eventually linked the area to the enforcement of the law. Philip II of France conquered Normandy and Anjou during the Anglo-French War (1213–1214) putting an end to the Norman-Angevin empire but not to the dynasty — it will continue but under a new nickname: Plantagenet. The tour suggests visiting 3 historical churches where knights and monks used to lived during the morning; lunch at the vaults plus the Tower of London in the afternoon; and to end the day a walk through “the city” plus dinner at a historical theme restaurant.