The Trial of Penenden Heath: It conjures up images of King William honouring the native laws of his newly conquered land, wheeling out (quite literally) the frail Bishop Æthelric, learned in the laws and customs of the English, to espouse the old ways. The Anglo-Saxon Monk asks if we should go along with this drama ...

| Like me, I’m sure you like a bit of drama to liven things up. Anyone who saw me performing as Guy of Ponthieu last week at Gale Owen-Crocker’s retirement party knows I even stretch to a spot of high camp now and again. (No pics of this, I'm afraid.) Well, there’s a nod towards the melodramatic in one of the recorded versions of the 1072 trial at Penenden Heath, a royal enquiry over disputed land, involving Lanfranc, the archbishop of Canterbury, and William the Conqueror’s half-brother, Odo, the bishop of Bayeux. Well that sounds juicy, doesn't it! |