27.4 Europe: a.d. 1201 to 1300  (Page 9/14)

There were a number of Englishmen of this century whose names live on. There was Stephen Langston, one of the great men of the early century, a builder of rights against royal, baronial and at times ecclesiastical pretensions. And there was Hubert de Burgh, a defender of the monarch but a solid champion of the rights of all Englishmen. It was a period of increased papal demands but these were resisted by Robert Grosseteste, scholar, scientist and saint, who anticipated Wycliff. It was the time of Simon de Montfort, who led the baronial revolt and of Roger Bacon, who described the magnetic needle and reading glasses and predicted such things as the steamship and airplane. He is usually given credit for the invention of gun-powder, although there is no concrete evidence of this and we have noted that the Chinese had it in the 11th century. (Ref. 260 )

Cambridge and Oxford universities were founded but all books were in Latin and there were few of these. By the end of the century London was a city of 40,000 people even though England was still 90% rural. There were 8,000,000 sheep in the country, more sheep than people and there was sheep cheese on every table. In spite of this, there were repeated famines throughout the century. Coal was mined at Newcastle for the first time in this period. By the end of the century all Jews had been expelled from England. (Ref. 49 , 57 , 211 , 8 , 170 , 222 )

Scotland

By this time the Scottish nobility had been largely Normanized. All through the first half of the century there was poverty, war with England and war with Norway over the Hebrides, but Alexander III (A.D. 1249) at last established friendly relations with England and gave Scotland a temporary golden age of prosperity and peace. He had become king at the age of eight, with the actual ruler for the first six years being Walter Camyn, Earl of Menteith. Becoming of age, Alexander tried to buy the Hebrides from King Haakon of Norway but was laughed at and then subjected to an attack on the Firth of Clyde by the Norwegian navy. A great storm destroyed most of that fleet and Haakon had to retreat. Three years later, by the Treaty of Perth, Man and the Western Isles were given to Scotland for a monetary arrangement. (Ref. 170 )

At Alexander's death, in the absence of direct male heirs, his granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of Norway