2027 is the European Year of the Normans, a major international cultural festival marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. It has been hard to miss the Bayeux Tapestry coming to London, and local towns are gearing up to commemorate 1066.
Here in Rye we have a different story to tell to the rest of 1066 country. We were Norman before the conquest: the Manor of Rameslie, where Rye now stands, was given to the Abbey of Fecamp in 1017.
During the course of 2027, we are aiming to tell the story of the people who were part of this complex period in English history. We will also be speculating on the monks’ involvement in the invasion; it is notable that Rameslie was untouched whereas other settlements nearby were raised to the ground.
Events and exhibitions will be centered around Rye Castle Museum and Rye Heritage Centre but we would love for the whole town to be involved. Get your thinking caps on – if you are a local business, restaurant, cafe, school or community group who would like to create something Norman, however large or small, please register your initial interest with Penny at info@ryemuseum.co.uk
Image Credits: Penny Bruce .
We were never French as you put it. The Abbé de Fécamp may well have been the feudal
land owner of a large local estate collecting feudal dues from the local inhabitants living on that estate. But it is a massive leap to suggest that therefore ‘we were once French’. Obviously the locality was incorporated into an English kingdom under the jurisdiction of an English King . Kings were feudal owners of all they owned and here tricking had granted feudal rights to receive feudal dues to a French abbey and that in itself did not as you put it convey sovereignty to that abbey, far from it in fact. Anglo-Saxon nobility had equivalent lands rights to those of this abbey over other estates across the whole land and they too were not granted sovereignty over the lands that were under seen as ultimately owned personally and absolutely by the King . The Norman Conquest challenged Anglo-Saxon sovereignty root and branch and denied its legitimacy under its then self-declared King Harold and even when soverignty over the entire Kingdom was taken by conquest by Duke William of Normandy the country then became Norman not French because “Normandie “ was at this time an independent Duchy from what was seen as France at this same time . So we were never and let’s hope never will be French !