A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

During the reign of Athelstan the city appears to have been in a flourishing state. In the reign of Edward, 941, and his successor Edred, 945, it greatly increased in wealth and extent. The greater part of the city was then built on the north side of the river Wensum, with a small population. The city is certainly of Anglo-Saxon origin, but as an Anglo-Saxon city it was destroyed by the Danes, and no vestiges remain of its Anglo-Saxon buildings, excepting, perhaps, one or two round towers of churches.

CHAPTER V.
Norwich under the Danes.

The Danes became settled in the city, and fortified themselves against all enemies, about 1011; and the next year, Turkil or Turketel, a Danish earl, took possession of all Norfolk, having expelled the English Earl Ulfketel, and held it under Sweyn till his death, which happened in 1014. Then the Danish army chose Canute his son for their king: but upon Sweyn’s death the English took courage and sent for Ethelred out of Normandy, who returned and drove Canute out of the country. Turkel, however, continued governor of the East Angles, and he persuaded Canute to return; and he became king of England in 1017. That monarch assigned all Norfolk to Earl Turkel; and according to the old author of an Essay on the Antiquity of the Castle:—

“Committed to him the custody of Norwich, which his father Sweyn burnt and destroyed; and to keep the East Angles secure to him, he (Canute) was most like to be the builder of the present stone Castle of Norwich. For when by compact with the English nobles, the law called Engleshire was made by universal consent, for the safety of the Danes that were by agreement to remain in England, Canute sent home to Denmark his mercenary army of Danes, but in great caution built several strong forts and castles, garrisoning them with such Danes as had been settled in England before his time, intermixed with such English as he had confidence in.”

The author of this ingenious Essay produces sufficient arguments to show that there was a building in the fortifications in the reign of Canute, and that there had been one since the time of King Alfred, and that Canute might have repaired or even rebuilt it. Indeed, there must have been a castle before the Conquest, as in Domesday Book a number of tenements are stated to have belonged to the castle. The present building was probably reared after the Conquest, it being so like Rising Castle and others. Roger Bigot very likely built it, and Thomas Brotherton repaired it in the reign of Edward I., as proved by his arms still in the stone work. Certain it is, from the time of Sweyn’s settling in the city in 1010, and the Danes swarming hither in large numbers, it rose almost at once to great importance, as appears from the Survey in the reign of Edward the Confessor. This is highly probable if we believe the best authority on the subject, namely the Saxon Chronicle, which states that the city rose from desolation, in 50 years, to be a place of great magnitude, far exceeding its former size. The Danes came hither in such numbers that they became the parent stock of the people of Norwich and Norfolk; and this is proved by the names of many places in Norfolk.

Edward the Confessor began his reign in 1041, and the Earldom of Norfolk was given to Harold, son of Earl Godwin, who was afterwards king of England, and on his rebellion was seized by the king and given to Algar, son of Leofric, Earl of Chester, who resigned it again to Harold at his return; and in 1052, on the death of Earl Godwin, Harold, in recompense for his generosity, gave Algar his earldom again; but he being banished in 1055, it came to the king, who pardoned him at Harold’s request, so that he enjoyed it till his death, when it came again to the king.

CHAPTER VI.
Norwich in the Norman Period.

The Norman Conquest of England caused many changes in Norfolk and Norwich. One of the immediate results of the invasion, in 1066, was a vast influx of foreigners into the county and city; and the pressure of the Norman yoke was felt as much in Norwich as in any part of the kingdom. It was about the same period that Jews began to settle here for the first time, enriched by the extortions incident to a conquest, and, as Fuller says, “buying such oppressed Englishmen’s goods as Christians did not care to meddle with.”

William the Conqueror caused a survey to be made of all the lands in the country, the register of which is called the Domesday Book, and was finished in 1081. It is written in Roman with a mixture of Saxon, and is still preserved in the chapter-house at Westminster, amongst the national archives. It was printed in the 40th of George III. for the use of the members of both houses of parliament, and the public libraries of the kingdom. It specifies the extent of the land in each district; the state it was in, whether meadow, pasture, wood, or arable; the name of the proprietor; the value, &c. Domesday Book, p. 13, states:—

“In Norwic, in the time of King Edward, were 1320 burgesses, of whom one was so much the king’s vassal, that he might not depart or do homage (to any other) without his licence. His name was Edstan; he possessed 18 acres of land and 12 of meadow, and two churches in the burgh and a sixth part of a third, and to one of these churches there belonged one mansion in the burgh and six acres of meadow: these six acres Roger Bigod holds by the king’s gift. And of 1238 (of the said burgesses) the king and the earl had soc, sac, and custom; and of 50 Stigand had the soc, sac, and patronage; and of 32 Harold had the soc, sac, and patronage,” &c., &c.