The Scots and the English Coronations

Edward I is best known as "The Hammer of the Scots" for his numerous attacks and conquest of Scotland.  In many ways, he was the first king since the Norman conquest to instill a sense of nationalism amongst the English.  His use of nationalistic sentiments for his various conquests of Wales and Scotland created the same effect in those areas, most notably in Scotland via William Wallace, more popularly known as Braveheart.

It has been interesting for us to learn from the different perspectives of the conflict between Edward I and the Scots.

We learnt previously that the coronation chair used by English monarchs was commissioned by Edward I and has been on display in the Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey has been the place for coronations of the English monarchy since William the Conqueror.

We attended a workshop at the abbey where the children found out what went wrong at the coronations of William the Conqueror and Queen Victoria.  During the workshop, the children also learnt about the symbolism and significance of various items used during the coronation process: the sceptre, the Crown Jewels, the robe, and the sword.

Our tour of the abbey was focused on kings, queens and the coronation, so we were given a guided tour of specific places inside the abbey related to our theme: the tombs of medieval kings and queens, the Tudor Lady Chapel, the burial place of a family of siblings -- Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

While Henry III extended the abbey and had it built to the scale it is today, the coronation process is highly symbolised by two items: the coronation chair and the Stone of Scone which Edward I had snatched from the Scots during his campaigns.

We had a close look at the restored coronation chair as part of our guided tour of the abbey.  The Stone of Scone has been returned to Scotland for safekeeping, but it will be borrowed from the Scots for future coronations.  Photo taking is not allowed inside the abbey but you can get a very good idea of it from the documentary here:

This post is linked up to:

1. Look What We Did 
2. Hip Homeschool Hop - 10/22/13
3. History and Geography Meme #96
4. Collage Friday - A Productive Week
5. Entertaining and Educational - Learning with Music
6. Weekly Wrap-up: The One with the Battle Against Illness
7. The Homeschool Mother's Journal {October 26, 2013}

He's Not Very Exciting

We took some time to resume our study of English history, which we had left off with the last of the House of Angevin, King John.

We use Our Island Story for our chronological study of the monarchs.  Usually we listen to the relevant chapters before Tiger narrates them to me to be typed out and placed into our accordian timeline.

As start with our first Plantagenet king, Henry III, I found that there was not much going on with his political life, primarily because he was crowned as a nine-year-old and effectively had people around him (the barons, his wife, his relatives) controlling his life most of the time.

However, we did find the first nine minutes of the following documentary to be a very useful summary of the events surrounding the circumstances of his life:

Even though Henry III did not achieve much in terms of political life (hence not very exciting by medieval standard in Tiger's eyes), his crowning glory came in terms of building the most politically-important religious building in England, Wetsminster Abbey:

It is unusual for us to find the life of a monarch to be uninteresting, but we honestly did not find Henry III's to be memorable.  This is especially so since Tiger has a special interest in warfare, and Henry III is not known for his warrior skills.  His son, however, is much more of a warrior king and thus captures Tiger's imagination more readily.

Do knights go to school?

Apparently so, according to the people at Westminster Abbey.  The main participants in the crusades were knights, so it follows naturally from our recent study of the crusades to be learning more about this Western warrior class.

The workshop started off with a presentation of how the knights were introduced into England by the Normans after the 1066 conquest.  Anglo Saxon England had "thanes", who were both nobles as well as warriors.

Next was a mention of the characteristics or requirements to be a true knight, using an example of the inscriptions on an actual tomb of a knight buried within the abbey (that we later visited).

Then we moved on to the different types of armour across times and cultures, as we discussed the reasons for different materials used to make armous in different cultures.

The discussion of armour naturally led to a brief introduction to heraldry and symbolism.

The children really came for Knight School, where they learnt to how to become knights.

First, they had to learn the duties and manners required of a page, which included serving meals in a respectful manner, i.e. presenting the cups and bowls with both hands, learn to bow, and hold their bodies straight.

Once they were promoted to the status of a squire, they have to learn how to dress the knight.

The most important part of preparing to become a knight is to learn how to fight.  Therefore, the children spent the most part of the workshop learning the different sword fighting strokes.  I suspect that's the most enjoyable part for most of the children.

At home, it's back to learning from books and documentary.

The documentary led us to be out and about again, this time to the oldest Grand Lodge in the world -- the Freemason's Hall in London.  We went on a tour there where the tour guide told us what he was allowed to.  The interior architecture is fascinating, especially inside the temple.  As with visits to ancient sites and looking at old art work, one has to understand the meaning of symbolisms to fully appreciate what's in plain sight.

Along the way, we came across another important templar-related architecture -- the Temple Bar. Interesting bits of history and symbolism, as always.

This post is linked up to:

1) History and Geography Meme #44

2) Enchanted Thursdays Blog Hop #33

3) Homeschool Mother's Journal: October 5, 2012

4) Collage Friday
5) Favourite Resources: October 5, 2012
6) TGIF Linky Party #50

7) Weekly Wrap-Up

8) It's a Wrap