Battle of Hastings, The by Harriet Harvey Harriet; Wood Harvey Wood

the remaining archival evidence indicates only a fragment of what must once have existed. But there is enough information in the surviving
letters, wills and deeds to give some idea of what people producedand had to dispose of. The evidence of the sheer amount of bullion in the country is impressive, without
considering its artistry which, by all accounts, was equally so. As far as imports are concerned, especially those made of precious metals, even William of Poitiers, no friend to the English, and a
man who believed that the sooner English treasures were sanitized by passing into Norman hands the better, noted the country’s wealth:
    To this most fertile land merchants used to bring added wealth in imported riches. Treasures remarkable for their number and kind and workmanship had been amassed there,
     either to be kept for the empty enjoyment of avarice, or to be squandered shamefully in English luxury. xxvi
    If we consider merely the Sutton Hoo treasure of c.650, the greatest find yet discovered, we are looking at imports from Byzantium, the Mediterranean, Egypt and Sweden at the
very least, and at jewellery that may well have been made in Kent, a known centre for this particular kind of fine workmanship. Frequent references in the various codes of laws drawn up by
successive kings make it clear how important trade was to the country and how vital they considered it to be that foreign merchants should be protected and their trade properly regulated.
    Commerce was not the only channel through which foreign goods entered the kingdom. The diplomatic and marriage alliances that the English kings had built up throughout Europe meant that there
were many ways in which trade could be promoted, and goods and gifts of great value passed backwards and forwards. Dorothy Whitelock xxvii quotes an
impressive list of the valuable gifts sent by Hugh, Duke of the Franks, to KingAthelstan when he asked for the hand of Athelstan’s half-sister Eadhild in
marriage. xxviii The eldest son of King Æthelred who predeceased his father, another Athelstan, left to his brother, Edmund Ironside,
‘the sword which King Offa owned’. One can only conjecture whether this is the Hungarian sword known to have been sent by Charlemagne as a gift to the great Offa of Mercia; it may well
have been. Swords were among the most treasured items a man could have, and were passed down as precious heirlooms, as was armour of all kinds, but swords had a particular value and were often
decorated with quantities of gold and silver. Offa’s sword was clearly priceless and Edmund Ironside put it to good use; but items of greater monetary though possibly less historical and
symbolic value passed regularly between England and Europe.
    It was not only through royal marriages and diplomatic dealings that there was contact with the outside world. One of the most striking things in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is the frequency with
which pilgrimages to Rome (sometimes even to Jerusalem) are mentioned. Many of these were, naturally, journeys made by clerics; all archbishops had to go to Rome to collect the pallium or stole of
office from the Pope. But many of them were made by lay people of all ranks, from kings downwards. The Chronicle also refers on several occasions to a special school or hostel in Rome built to
accommodate the English pilgrims who went there (and, on some occasions, to accommodate their graves); and one of the achievements of Alfred and Cnut on their visits was to negotiate better terms
for the English who made what was then an extremely hazardous journey. The itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric who fetched his pallium in 990 has survived, and records the names of seventy-nine stages
on the journey from the Somme to Rome. On the assumption that each stage meant at leastone night’s lodging, the journey would have taken not less than three months in
each direction, when the cross-Channel voyage and any necessary travel within England to